Olympics Flashback: 2004-2012

Ahead of the Rio Olympics, TOI Sports looks back at some of the greatest moments in the history of the quadrennial Games. In today's edition, a look at seven inspirational achievements from 2004-2012.
2004: Phelps wins 100m butterfly by a touch

Ahead of the 2004 Athens Olympics, American swimmer Michael Phelps stated he was aiming for a record eight gold medals. He did not reach his goal, but still came away with an astounding six gold and two bronze medals.
Phelps' most dramatic gold medal during the Athens Games came in the 100 meter butterfly against team-mate and world-record holder Ian Crocker.Phelps surged ahead in the last length and out-touched Crocker at the wall by .04 seconds. It was a razor-thin margin of victory for Phelps and one of the highlights of the 2004 Olympics.
2004: Hicham El Guerrouj’s double gold
Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj knew a thing or two about heartbreak when he entered the 2004 Games. Eight years earlier, in the 1500 meter Olympic final, El Guerrouj had collided with Noureddine Morceli with just 430 meters to go. Having fallen to the ground, he came last. Four years later in the Sydney final, El Guerrouj was tipped as the favorite but ended up being overtaken on the home stretch by Kenyan Noah Ngeny of Kenya.
In what would be his last Olympics, the 2004 Athens Olympics was where El Guerrouj finally experienced the Olympic success he so richly deserved as he defeated perennial rival Bernard Lagat by 0.12 seconds to achieve ever-lasting glory. In the 1500m, he beat the Kenyan to win one of the closest races in Olympic history.
Five days later El Guerrouj won the 5,000m by sprinting past his rivals in the final 100m, thus becoming first runner to achieve the 1500m/5000m double since Paavo Nurmi in 1924.
2004: Thorpe wins 200m freestyle
Favored to win in Sydney, Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe was upstaged by Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband. Four years later, Thorpe won gold in a final that featured the four fastest men in 200 meter history, taking revenge on van den Hoogenband. Phelps, who would later dominate the event, won bronze.
2008: Bolt breaks 100m, Johnson's 200m world records

It was widely believed that Michael Johnson’s 200 meter Olympic record of 19.32 seconds, set in 1996, would be unbeatable. But in 2008, along came the electrifying Usain Bolt to break it by two hundredths of a second. A day before his 22nd birthday, the lightening-quick Jamaican clocked a world-record time of 19.30 seconds – which wasn’t even his most impressive showing at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In the 100m dash, Bolt lowered his own world record to 9.69 seconds, a mark that would have been even lower had he not intentionally slowed down to celebrate his impending victory as he neared the finish line. Spreading his arms and thumping his chest in celebration, Bolt irritated fans and competitors but also cemented his place as the world’s most exhilarating sprinter.
Bolt capped his unforgettable Games with another world record and gold medal in the 4x100 relay.
2008: Phelps achieves his goal
Four years on from the Sydney Games, Phelps attained what he set out to do – win eight Olympic gold medals. In eight days.
In Beijing, Phelps entered in five individual events and three relays. But this time he did not prophesize. His aim was to make sure he won each event he participated in. And that he did, swimming outstandingly in all distances and styles on the way to a record eight gold medals. He also broke seven world records, annihilating everyone in the pool and eclipsing Mark Spitz’s previous record of seven golds in one Olympic Games.
The 100m butterfly was the most dramatic of Phelps’ races, because before the results were flashed no one could say who had won. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the electronic timing appeared on the giant screens and it was confirmed that Phelps had touched the wall first, only one hundredth of a second ahead of Serbia’s Milorad Cavic.
Of the eight gold medals Phelps won, the final proved to be the most significant. During the men’s 4x100m medley relay, the American swan the third leg, the butterfly, in a rapid 50.15 seconds. That allowed his team-mate Jason Lezak a half-second lead in the fourth and final leg, the freestyle, and he finished in 46.76 seconds giving the US team a record-setting medley victory of 3:29:34.
2012: Ruta Meilutyte creates a splash
Few could have seen this one coming. A 15-year-old schoolgirl from Lithuania, beat the American world champion and favorite to win gold in the 100m breaststroke. Swimming at the London Games had already seen a few extraordinary performances, starting with 16-year-old swimming sensation Shiwen Ye setting a world record and pocketing another gold medal for China on day one. And then along came Ruta Meilutyte - who moved to England at the aged of 12 - to swim 1:05.47 and beat Soni by 0.03 seconds. This, after she set a European record for the 100m breaststroke by swimming the fastest time in the world that years to make the final.
2012: David Rudisha’s world record

Arguably the highlight of the athletics championships at the London Games - with all respect to Usain Bolt and Mo Farah - came from Kenyan runner David Rudisha, who won the 800m with a world record timing of 1:40.91. A champion in all sense of the word, but without an Olympic title to show for, Rudisha sprinted his way to glory in what has been termed the greatest 800m race of all time (five men clocked under 1:43 and all four finalists broke 1:44). In winning gold, Rudisha became the first world record holder of the men’s 800m to have won gold at both the World Championships and the Olympics.