Chile takes home tennis gold

You likely missed it, but something truly historic happened last week at the Olympics. I'm not talking about the American missteps in basketball, our dominance in gymnastics or Iraq's improbable medal run in soccer. I am referring to the successes of Chile, my current home.

For the first time, Chile won a gold medal in the Olympic Games (and not just one, but two: men's doubles and men's singles tennis). Having been raised in a place and time where Olympic dominance is expected, it has been a refreshing and exciting experience to witness an entire country being caught up in the fortunes and, ultimately, basking in the glory of their representatives to the world's games.

The first indication I had that things were going to be different was during the men's tennis quarterfinals involving Nicolás Massú, Chile's No. 1 tennis player. The match was broadcast here during a weekday morning, which undoubtedly had adverse effects on the nation's productivity.

Thanks to a grant from the government, many of the classrooms in my school have televisions, which allowed staff and students to follow Massú's fate at every opportunity.

The medal matches were, to everyone's relief, on the weekend. First was the men's singles bronze medal match involving Massú's doubles partner, Fernando Gonzalez, and American Taylor Dent. After more than three hours of play, Gonzalez eventually triumphed, putting at least everyone within shouting distance of me into a frenzy. Just a few hours later, Gonzalez took the court again, this time accompanied by Massú, for the doubles' gold medal match against a pair of Germans. Chile's team won the first set, but dropped the next two and was a mere point away from losing the match when they fought back to pull out the fourth set. They lost three of the next four games, though and things looked bleak. Gonzalez appeared spent -- understandably: he was already past his seventh hour of tennis for the day. Somehow, though, Gonzalez and Massú battled back to give Chile its first gold medal.

And did the country ever respond. As soon as the last ball of the Germans went wide, giving the match to the Chileans, fireworks traced the sky over Antofagasta. Shortly after the last firework popped, car horns started up a tone-deaf chorus that persisted deep into the night. Video footage of Santiago, the nation's capital, was shown on television, and the revelry there made the reaction in Antofagasta seem downright reserved.

Massú's gold-medal match against American Mardy Fish the subsequent morning played out in a nearly identical fashion: a fast start followed by near disaster and, finally, a dramatic victory for the Chilean and an ecstatic nation back home.

Even now, a week later, the country still hasn't come down off its high.

Justin Cox is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and is spending six months teaching English in Chile.