Men's	Gold	Silver	Bronze
	Argentina Ruben Wolkowyski, Carlos Delfino, Andres Nocioni, Leonardo Gutierrez, Luis Alberto Scola, Hugo Ariel Sconochini, Gabriel Fernandez, Walter Herrmann, Fabricio Oberto, Alejandro Montecchia, Emanuel Ginóbili, Juan Ignacio Sanchez	Italy Luca Garri, Roberto Chiacig, Michele Mian, Massimo Bulleri, Rodolfo Rombaldoni, Alex Righetti, Denis Marconato, Matteo Soragna, Giacomo Galanda, Gianluca Basile, Nikola Radulovic	United States Emeka Okafor, Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, Lamar Odom, Dwayne Wade, Tim Duncan, Amare Studemire, Shawn Marion, Richard Jefferson, Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury, LeBron James

Women's	Gold	Silver	Bronze
	United States	Australia	Russia

Shamayim - the heaven of high airs

Tartarus - the prison of fallen angels

Elysium - the field of joyful play

Limbo - the labyrinth of lost wandering

Gehenna - the valley of unquenchable flame

Xibalba - the underworld of shadow gods

[edit] The Greatest Nation That Never Was: An Informal Collection of Thoughts on the Former Yugoslavia (incomplete)

This section lays out my thoughts on the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

[edit] Origins

Jugoslavija meant literally "The Land of the South Slavs". A shame really, in the early 90s the people who inhabited Yugoslavia forgot the original reason of the joint kingdoms agreements in 1915. The origins of a unified western Balkan state was the formation of a group of advocates from Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, and an observer from Montenegro. The reasons for this was to combat the domination of South Slavic peoples by the western and central European superstates (ie. France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, etc.). The fact that this was in the era of Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian opression is no coincidence.

[edit] Genetics, Relationships and Identities

Note that much research in the genetic/ancient migrational relationships between Croatians and Serbs are inconclusive, or controversial.

While the nation of the South Slavs was a convergence of political entities and not a natural emergence of "peoples" in the usual sense, it was in no way an abomination. There is a certain sense of strength in knowing that small balkan states worked together, however short lived. The idea that Croatians are purely of Indo-Aryan descent, and that Serbs are purely of Slavic descent is ridiculous. They are each as pure as Italians are purely Roman or that Albanians are purely Illyrian. Regardless of this mutt-like status, further confusion is spread throughout history with the occupations of several empires; Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman empire, thanks to the Balkans being at the crossroads of Europe and Asia.

Bosniaks, being their own people, deserve an identity. However, what they should not be associated with are the Ottomans and/or Turkey. Many Bosnian youths nowadays associate themselves with the Ottoman Empire for reasons that I can't even comprehend, but also obviously because they don't have a "stronger" identity to associate with, now that Yugoslavia is nothing but a bunch of relatively poor states in the Balkans. What other reasons could there be for associating oneself with the conquering force that came, raped, and forced conversions of one's ancestors?

It is also my personal belief that any theory that describes the migrations/genetics of Croatians/ Serbs/ Bosnians as different people fails to describe their near identical languages and physical appearances. The differences in culture simply arise from religion and proximity to other nations, and even so in a millenium the differences aren't as stark as Romania and Bulgaria.

[edit] Yugoslavia and Sports

The SFRY was also one of the most powerful nations in sports, dominating especially in basketball. A virtual sleeping giant, the intensive development of sports in the 50s and 60s gave way for raw potential in the Yugoslav youths in the 70s and 80s. Examples can be seen in basketball, football, and waterpolo.

[edit] Last Goodbyes

The Wars of Yugoslav Succession. With Tito dead, a string of nationalistic leaders took the helm of Yugoslavia. Tudjman, and Milosevic both failed in their own respects as political leaders. Most notably for not preventing ethnic atrocities on both sides of the Croatian-Serbian border.

[edit] Conclusion

To reiterate my original question; the original reasons for the convergence of the kingdoms of south Slavs, what relevance does it have in today's modern world? National identities come, and national identities go. Throughout history innumerable cultures and peoples have simply been phased out, either by eradication or integration. As it is quite obvious that no one Yugoslavian identity exists, but rather many different identities; Serbian, Montenegrin, Croatian, Slovenian, Voivodinian, Bosnian, and Macedonian (historically, not anymore). Now that all the nations have been "Balkanized", it is much easier to individually erase their identities (as is the interest of several superpowers, namely Germany, America, and France).

In a strange twist, a world that offered more communication than the antique age in which it was created, Yugoslavia was essentially dissected and separated from itself in the interest of several proponents of a Europe dominated by western powers.

incomplete