Etc.

Post-Olympic look at scattered athletic monopolies

Hundreds of medals were awarded during the Beijing Olympics, but in only seven events did one country score a sweep by winning the gold, silver, and bronze. The formats in certain sports prevents this from happening. If this weren't the case, one could imagine the superpowers possibly monopolizing more than they do. As it is, the Chinese secured every medal in the men's and women's singles table tennis competitions. And in a first, Russia filled every spot on the medals podium for women's singles tennis play, with Elena Dementieva grabbing the gold, Dinara Safina the silver, and Vera Zvonareva the bronze. The sports that produced Olympic sweeps, the event in which they occurred, and the country that achieved them:

Fencing: Women's saber – US
Track and field: Women's 100 meters – Jamaica; Men's 400 meters – US; Men's 400-meter hurdles – US
Table tennis: Men's singles – China; Women's singles – China
Tennis: Women's singles – Russia