Argentines Celebrate First Olympic Gold in Half Century

 

By Brian Byrns

Argentina has won its first Olympic gold medal in more than 50 years in Athens, and in Buenos Aires, people are in the streets celebrating the Argentine men's football team's 1-0 victory over Paraguay.

Buenos Aires is bouncing Saturday. The men's football team brought home its first-ever Olympic gold medal in the sport and the first gold for Argentina during the Summer Games in Athens.

Argentina had twice been runner-up in men's Olympic football. The team vowed¹ to make up for Argentina's embarrassing first-round exit from the 2002 World Cup.

The gold medal match started at 4 a.m. Buenos Aires time, so many of the notoriously-nocturnal Argentines just stayed up all night to watch the match in bars, cafes and nightclubs.

Thousands of football fanatics² flocked to the city's landmark³ Obelisco Saturday morning to celebrate the victory.

"I think that after 52 years, [this] is a very happy thing for us, a very great thing," said one of the fans. "The best. We are very proud of our country. This country needed this because of the actual situation, it is not very good economically, socially."

"Yes, we need some, some happiness," said another.

Adding to the happiness is Argentina's men's basketball team. It defeated the U.S. "Dream Team" on Friday, and plays Italy for the Gold Medal on Saturday, giving Argentina a chance to grab two golds in one day. Argentina won its last Olympic gold medal in 1952 at the Helsinki Games in rowing. It won silver in football in 1928 and 1996.

Brian Byrns, VOA News, Buenos Aires.
注释:
Argentina 阿根廷
Buenos Aires 布宜诺斯艾利斯(阿根廷首都)
Paraguay 巴拉圭
bounce 欢庆
notoriously 出了名地
nocturnal 夜间活动的
fanatic 狂热者
landmark 地界标
grab 夺取
Helsinki 赫尔辛基（芬兰首都）

1 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

2 fanatics   

狂热者，入迷者( fanatic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The heathen temple was torn down by a crowd of religions fanatics. 异教徒的神殿被一群宗教狂热分子拆除了。
• Placing nukes in the hands of baby-faced fanatics? 把核弹交给一些宗教狂热者手里？

3 landmark   

n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标

参考例句：

• The Russian Revolution represents a landmark in world history.俄国革命是世界历史上的一个里程碑。
• The tower was once a landmark for ships.这座塔曾是船只的陆标。