ATHENS — They came, the competed, and now they're on their long way home with a variety of tales to tell and accomplishments to brag about at the Birthplace of the Games.
More than two dozen athletes with Utah ties — some loose, some unbreakable — acquitted themselves well at the 2004 Olympic Games. Some are taking home medals, others personal bests and others the satisfaction of competing among the best in the world with not the best of results. None, as far as anyone knows, pitched a fit, filed a protest or was found positive for drugs.
Here's a brief rundown of the "Utahns" and how they fared:
Levi Leipheimer (Rowland Hall-St. Mark's High School, University of Utah): Competed in the men's cycling road race that lapped the Acropolis on the first day of the Games. Did not finish the 17-lap, 147-mile race in 104-degree heat, the hottest day of the Games, but he did pace teammates Tyler Hamilton and Bobby Julich, who won gold and bronze medals in the time trial two days later.
Guard Young (BYU): Won a silver medal as part of the six-member United States men's gymnastics team. Young scored a 9.7 on floor exercise in the first event of the competition to spur the U.S. men to their first team medal in 20 years.
Logan Tom (Highland High School): Regarded by many as "the world's best volleyball player," she was the seventh top scorer in the Olympics (with 101 points) despite not making it to the medal matches. The U.S. squad, although ranked No. 1 in the world entering the Olympics, only managed a 2-4 record, losing to Brazil in the quarterfinals to officially tie for fifth place.
Tiffany Lott Hogan (Pleasant Grove and Pine View highs, BYU): Finished 20th in the women's seven-event heptathlon. She was the second-fastest among all 33 entrants in the hurdles, but a 31st place finish in the high jump kept her out of the top 10.
Marsha Mark-Baird (BYU): Competing for her native Trinidad & Tobago, she finished 25th in the heptathlon by scoring a personal best 5,962 points.
James Parker (Ridgeview High School, Utah State): The U.S. Air Force lieutenant finished 12th in the men's hammer throw despite stomach troubles.
Rachelle Kunkel (Hunter High School, BYU): Overachieved all the way to a 9th place finish in women's springboard diving: after not starting diving until she was 16, she's an inspiration to "late-bloomers" everywhere.
Justin Wilcock (Sky View High School, BYU): Last place (32nd) in men's springboard diving, but (in this report at least) with an asterisk. Wilcock could have used a stress fracture in his back to beg out of the competition.
In a gut-check performance, he did not.
Leonard Myles-Mills (BYU): Running for Ghana, the 31-year-old assistant BYU track coach made it through the first round of the men's 100 meter competition but was eliminated in the semifinals that featured the world's 16 fastest men.
Frank Fredericks (BYU): Six weeks from turning 37, the legendary sprinter from Namibia defied age and logic to finish fourth in the men's 200 meter final.
Carlos Boozer (Utah Jazz): Averaged 10 points as a reserve forward on the U.S. men's basketball team that lost three times but still managed to win bronze medals with a 104-96 win over Lithuania.
Carlos Arroyo (Utah Jazz): Led Puerto Rico with 126 points and 35 assists in seven games, including 24 points and seven assists in a win over the United States, as the island nation of four million people finished sixth in the men's basketball tournament.
Jose Ortiz (former Utah Jazz): The long-ago Jazz draftee, about to turn 41, retired after his fourth Olympics with a memorable eight point, four rebound effort for Team Puerto Rico against the U.S. and 13 points and six rebounds in his last game against Greece.
Alexander Pavlovic (former Utah Jazz): Because of injuries, he was used sparingly as defending world champion Serbia & Montenegro faded to an 11th place finish in the men's basketball tournament. Pavlovic scored 10 points in the final game, an 85-62 rout of Angola.
Andrew Bogut (University of Utah): The 7-foot Australian center made his mark in international basketball despite the Aussie's 2-4 record, averaging 13.7 points. Among the world's best players, he finished fourth in rebounds (9.0 per game), fifth in field goal percentage (62.2 percent) and fifth in blocked shots (1.0 per game).
Mark Chay (BYU): Swam for Singapore in men's 100 and 200 meter freestyle but did not move out of the opening heats.
Gary Tan (BYU): Also swam for his native Singapore; did not make it out of the first round of the 200-meter individual medley.
Eric Cyr, Jeff Guiel and Ryan Radmanovich (former triple-A baseball players in Salt Lake): All logged considerable playing time for the Canadian baseball team that finished fourth after medal-round losses to Cuba and Japan.
Clay Bellinger (former Salt Lake Stinger): Was one of 22 Americans with Greek heritage on the Greek Olympic baseball team that failed to make the medal round.
Heather Moody (Green River, Wyo.): Won bronze in women's water polo with 6-5 final victory over Australia — but did not make up for a heartbreaking last-second 6-5 loss to Italy in the semifinals.
Rulon Gardner (Afton, Wyo.): Won bronze in the heavyweight division of Greco-Roman wrestling — the encore to his gold-medal winning effort four years ago in Sydney. He will move to Wellsville, Utah, with his new wife, the former Lisa Nichols, now that the Games are over. He left his wrestling shoes in Athens.
Cael Sanderson (Heber City): Won gold in the middleweight division of freestyle wrestling, defeating Eui Jae Moon of Korea in the final, 3-1.
Elena Baranova (former Utah Starzz) helped the Russian women's basketball team to the bronze medal. Other former Starzz Michaela Pavlickova and Elisa Aguilar helped the Czech Republic and Spain finish fifth and sixth, respectively.
Cousins Sarah and Stacey Farnworth (University of Utah) played for the Greece softball team that went 2-5 and failed to make it to the medal round.
(Note: men's volleyball player Ryan Millar (BYU) plays in the bronze-medal match with Team USA against Italy Sunday afternoon).
E-mail: lbenson@desnews.com