This Bronze Medal Came Equipped With a Halo

Remember Vanderlei de Lima? He was the little-known runner from Brazil who was leading the Olympic marathon in Athens when a spectator jumped out of the crowd and attacked him.

Remember Polyvios Kossivas? Probably not, but Brazil’s Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper tracked down the bearded Greek stranger, and Kossivas, who went to De Lima’s aid, freed him from his attacker and pushed him back on the course, yelling, “Go, go!” is now a hero in Brazil.

Kossivas, 53, and his family visited Rio de Janeiro this month at the invitation of Brazil’s Olympic committee and was on hand when De Lima, the eventual marathon bronze medalist, was honored as Brazil’s sportsman of the year.

Reuters reported that Kossivas also was invited onto the field at the renowned Maracana stadium before a soccer match, visited an Ayrton Senna exhibition in Sao Paulo, and saw the famed statue of Christ in Rio.

“God put him there,” De Lima said of Kossivas’ being in the right spot on the marathon course. “I consider him more than a brother. He’s my angel.”

Trivia time: Why should the city of Nyagan, Russia, ring a bell with sports fans?

Food for thought: Among the gifts that Sugar Bowl officials are giving to participating players is a mini-barbecue grill that Virginia Tech defensive lineman Darryl Tapp can’t wait to try out.

“Man, that’s sweet,” Tapp, 20, told Bloomberg News. “I like to eat after curfew sometimes, so I might be cooking my own food in the hotel room.”

Rubbing it in: After Iowa had dismantled Bob Knight’s Texas Tech basketball team, 83-53, Mike Hlas of the Cedar Rapids Gazette pointed out that Knight no longer was the most sought-after fellow when coaching vacancies occurred.

“People who have been the center of the universe for so long must find it very disconcerting when they suddenly are of less interest to the world,” Hlas wrote. “Even for the great Knight, it takes a lot for the spotlight to reach all the way to Lubbock. He certainly doesn’t have a team worthy of any special attention.”

Second-class programs: It’s academic, of course, but for those wondering, 27 of the 56 teams playing in this season’s football bowl games, including five of eight in the bowl championship series, fail to graduate half their players, according to NCAA figures.

Washed up: Art Thiel of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer doesn’t think much of the NFC West, where no team has a winning record.

“This little corner of the NFL has become similar to an unlimited hydroplane race,” Thiel wrote. “If any old rusty tub shows up and starts, the organizers will find the driver a couple of heats and a little prize money.”

Trivia answer: It’s the birthplace of “the Siberian Siren,” otherwise known as 17-year-old Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova.

And finally: “Tennis pinup Anna Kournikova and pop heartthrob Enrique Iglesias have wed,” noted the Miami Herald’s Greg Cote. “They plan to move into an oceanfront villa with eight bedrooms, six baths and 245 mirrors.”