RIO DE JANEIRO -- Majlinda Kelmendi stood on the podium with a wide smile on her face.A gold medal hung around her neck, and not just any gold medal -- the first one ever for Kosovo. Kelmendi went to Rio with Kosovos first Olympic team, and she knew she had to deliver in the womens 52-kg judo competition to make sure her nation didnt go home empty-handed.I was really ready for this competition, Kelmendi said. It was the first time that Kosovo was in the Olympics. I wanted so badly to win.While so much attention is paid to the top of the medals table at the Olympics, where the athletic powerhouses like the United States and China practically need to charter another plane to bring home all the gold, silver and bronze they accumulate, there is an equally spirited competition at the bottom, where dozens of smaller countries hold out hopes of just getting their hands on one.Newspapers back home praised Kelmendis historic achievement Sunday. Hidilyn Diaz, whose weightlifting silver ended a 20-year medal drought for the Philippines, received a personal message of congratulations from President Rodrigo Duterte, who told her she brought honor to the country.They are not global stars on par with Michael Phelps or Usain Bolt. But to the success-starved countries they represent, they may be even more important.Coming into the Rio Games, more than 70 nations with National Olympic Committees had never won a medal of any kind. Others, like India, very rarely reach the podium. So they come to these Olympics with very few chances for glory, their collective focus pinned on one team, or one athlete, to break through.Fiji plays in the rugby semifinals Thursday in a sport that has returned to the Olympics after a 92-year absence.We need pressure. Island life is a nice, chilled and laid-back one so if we take things too easy the boys just drop off, said Fiji rugby coach Ben Ryan, who represents a country that has never won a medal of any color. We are embracing that pressure at the moment. The more the better. This is the strongest 12 Ive ever had. There are absolutely no excuses not to perform.India has won just two medals since 1964, including one for mens field hockey in Moscow in 1980. This years team is looking to restore the countrys standing as one of the worlds elite.Thats my life. Its a dream, captain Sreejesh Parattu said. If you look at the Indian history, it is a very prestigious thing for our country.And when they finally do make it happen, the emotions can be overwhelming. Diaz openly wept after winning the silver medal in the 58kg class of weightlifting. It was the countrys first medal in any sport since the Atlanta Games in 1996 and helped her overcome failures in Beijing and London.I have tried so hard. I have stumbled many times, Diaz said. I wanted to quit, but now all of my sacrifices have paid off.The Associated Press issued predictions prior to the beginning of the games for the medal winners in each competition. The Philippines didnt have an athlete listed, but Diaz came through. In return, shell receive nearly $53,000, per a law enacted in 2001 that rewards successful Olympians.Others predicted to medal win from nations that rarely reach the podium include Ghirmay Ghebreslassie from Eritrea in the mens marathon and Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi in the womens 800 meters. Both nations have just one medal in their histories.Thats the feeling so many others are chasing. They dont have vast financial resources to help pave their ways to gold. They also dont have dozens of other teammates with prime chances for the podium to reduce the pressure.Its all on them to deliver.For me the Olympic Games is all about winning, nothing else, said India mens field hockey coach Roelant Wouter Oltmans. Many years ago someone else said something different, its about participation. But nowadays in the modern Olympic Games its all about winning and thats also why I went to India and accepted the challenge when they offered me to see if there is any possibility to come close to the history of Indian hockey. Cheap MLB Jerseys Free Shipping .S. hockey team after paying his dues as an NHL general manager for more than three decades and giving up a lot of his free time to help USA Hockey. Nike MLB Jerseys China . Goals from Jerome Boateng, Franck Ribery and Thomas Mueller extended Bayerns unbeaten run to a record 37 matches. 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LAHAINA, Hawaii -- Chaminades 77-72 victory over Ralph Sampson and top-ranked Virginia in 1982 is widely considered the biggest upset in college basketball history, among the greatest in any sport.Unlike todays world of 24-hour sports networks, social media and smartphones, the game was played in relative obscurity.Fewer than 4,000 fans, officials, media and team members were inside Blaisdell Center that day. For those who were there, the memory of what happened on Dec. 23, 1982, left the kind of indelible mark that comes with witnessing history.Three of those people -- Silverswords point guard Mark Rodrigues, Washington Post sports writer Michael Wilbon and public address announcer Chuck Williams -- recall the events surrounding that game.---Rodrigues: The year before when we played them, we didnt get beaten too badly, so we were pretty confident, had a bit of cockiness. Everyone is a little bit cocky and we had the mentality that we could beat anyone.Few outside the team gave them much of a shot.Williams: It was really only the die-hard fans there because we probably should have been 40-point underdogs to Virginia. It was going to be a smash.---But the Silverswords had an advantage.Virginia was coming from Tokyo, where it beat Utah and Houston despite Sampson missing both games. He was still sick when the Cavaliers arrived in Hawaii.Wilbon: I was staying in the same Hyatt Regency as Virginia. Ralph was on my floor and with those circle towers, theres not much space between rooms and I could hear Ralph coughing and wheezing. I didnt think Ralph was going to play and there was opportunity for some drama.Wilbon already had a bit of drama while covering Maryland at the Aloha Bowl.Terps defensive back Bobby Gunderman fell and broke his arm on the way to the airport, then somehow ended up flying to Caracas, where he was detained for being a suspected drug dealer. Maryland receiver Mike Lewis also nearly drowned while swimming off Waikiki Beach.Wilbon: My boss, George Solomon, said `Youve already written too many pieces, take the night off. I said, Im not taking the night off. How many chances to see the No. 1 team play in an exotic situation, a different situation, Ralph Sampson already three-time player of the year? There was no way I was going to miss that.Wise decision.---Inside the locker room at Blaisdell, Silverswords coach Merv Lopes turned off the lights so the players could meditate, then went down the line.Williams: He says to Mark Wells: Mark, is this guy faster than you? No. Can he shoot better than you? No, coach. He goes all the way down the line to Tony Randolph who was going against Ralph Sampson, looked at him and said, `What can I say? Everyone got a laugh out of that.Rodrigues: The point is theyre only as good as you allow them to be. One of the things he always said was, if they take 40 steps, you take 41. He didnt say anything else but lets go give the people something to see.They did.----The Silverswords were the aggressors from the start, scoring six of the games first eight points. They swarmed Sampson whenever he touched the ball and had a game plan for getting him away from the basket on defense -- one that started with Randolph shooting jumpers over a team manager holding a broomstick at practice.Williams: In locker room, Merv said to Tony Randolph, you need to go out there and hit 15-foot jump shots to get that monster of a player out away from the basket. Tony hit five or six shots in a row from medium range and brought Ralph out, which opened things up for the other guys. That was the real key. If he was throwing bricks up there, 1 for 7 of something like that, Ralph would just plant himself underneath.---Chaminade continued to go at the Cavaliers and the game was tied 43-all at halftime, prompting a call from Wilbon to his desk.ddddddddddddWilbon: I said are you guys listening to this on the radio? If this stays close, save me some space, dont put the paper to bed. They said OK.Rodrigues: At that point, it just gave us more confidence.When Virginia scored the first seven points of the second half, it appeared the game would turn quickly. But the Silverswords answered with a 7-0 run of their own.Then Rodrigues found 6-foot guard Tim Dunham, who soared over the 7-foot-4 Sampson for an alley-oop dunk.Rodrigues: People said from that point on, you could see it on Virginias face that they knew they were in for a serious challenge.Williams: Sampson is running down the floor shaking his head, like hes saying I dont believe that. Timmy just went up, up, up ... slam! As Im announcing, I see this thing unfolding and as the ball goes through, Im saying Ti-iiiim Dunham!---Chaminade led by two with a minute left and Virginia had three chances to tie, missing all three. Virginias Othell Wilson was then called for a carrying violation and the Silverswords closed out the improbable victory by hitting three free throws.Wilbon: People were in disbelief. It wasnt like today. I dont remember people rushing the floor. It might have been chaotic then, but not by todays standards. You had the biggest upset in the history of college basketball and no one quite knew what to do.Williams: Richard Haenisch, I dont know he did it, he ended up sitting on the rim with a basketball in his hand. The celebration was crazy.Rodrigues: We went into the locker room and the fans were calling for us to come back. We came back out on the court, sat there for a while, celebrated and talked.---After the game, Wilbon waited to get Virginia coach Terry Holland before calling his desk.Wilbon: It must have been the local AP reporter who said: `Coach, is this the greatest upset of all-time? I remember almost looking down because this question is going to get us one and done. Hes going to answer angrily and walk off. And I remember there was no sound coming out and Terry Holland was shaking his head affirmatively, saying something to the effect of I think it is. I was like `Oh my god, oh my god, called the paper and asked are you guys listening. They were like, `Yeah, but we put the paper to bed. Ive never been angrier in my life, professionally because they put it to bed and the next morning there was nothing in my paper.Rodrigues: We didnt really realize how big it was until the next day. Thats when AP was calling, everyones sports department was calling, it was getting on CNN news, the local news and then you realize what really happened.Williams: They couldnt even pronounce the name of the school. They kept calling it, Chami-NADE, like lemonade.---The shockwaves of the upset took a while to reach the mainland, but continue to resonate today.Williams: It put Chaminade on the map, a little school 2,500 miles from the nearest land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.Rodrigues: They wanted to change the name of the school to Saint Louis-Honolulu, to have a more recognizable name in the title. They changed their mind after that game.Wilbon: Every day I get further away from it, I realize its the greatest upset in history. Can you imagine Kentucky losing to an NAIA school? The whole thing was surreal. It wasnt the game that was surreal, it was the surroundings of it. It was just not possible for it to happen.---More AP college basketball: www.collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25 cheap falcons jerseys cheap ravens jerseys cheap bills jerseys cheap bears jerseys cheap bengals jerseys cheap cowboys jerseys cheap lions jerseys cheap texans jerseys cheap colts jerseys cheap jaguars jerseys cheap chiefs jerseys cheap rams jerseys cheap dolphins jerseys cheap vikings jerseys cheap saints jerseys cheap giants jerseys cheap jets jerseys cheap eagles jerseys cheap steelers jerseys cheap 49ers jerseys ' ' '