Posted on 08/12/2012 6:23:58 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The 2012 London Olympic Games have officially come to a close and, once again, the U.S. sits atop the medal count.
In Beijing they did the same thing, but the host nation China made it interesting. America topped the Chinese by 10 in the overall medal count, but China earned 15 more gold medals than America—China had 51 and the U.S. had 36.
However, in London, the U.S. reemerged as the dominant athletic country.
The United States earned 104 medals, 15 more than any other country—China was second with 87. Plus, the Americans took back their lead in golds, winning 46 of those, eight more than the second ranked Chinese.
Team USA did this by winning medals in a mix of its traditional strengths and by winning surprising medals in lesser-known events.
The U.S. got its medal total kick started with a predictably strong performance in the pool.
Swimmers like Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte and Missy Franklin all earned multiple medals. Plus, fresh faces emerged from the water such as 100-meter freestyle winner Nathan Adrian and 15-year-old Katie Ledecky, who earned gold in the 800-meter free.
America also continued its superiority on the track.
Allyson Felix won three gold medals, Sanya Richards-Ross finally captured her gold in the 400-meters and Ashton Eaton won the decathlon.
In total the Americans won 29 medals on the track, only one short of their lofty pre-London goal of 30. But as Scott Blackmon of the U.S. Olympic Committee told the AP, nobody’s going home disappointed.
America also took home gold in men’s and women’s basketball, took gold and silver in women’s beach volleyball and the U.S. women's soccer team grabbed the nation’s attention with its thrilling gold medal run.
However, it wasn't just about the big sports, plenty of Americans were successful in the smaller sports.
David Boudia upset the favored Chinese divers to take gold in the men's 10-meter platform. Kayla Harrison took home America's first ever gold in Judo. Jake Varner and Jordan Burroughs both took home the gold in wrestling for the U.S. over the last few days of competition.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Hundreds of athletes contributed to America's outstanding medal haul, whether they competed as a team or individually.
One thing is for sure, though. There is no question about America's standing as the foremost country at the Olympics.
China put that status into question in 2008, but this time around, the U.S. showed that it was up to the challenge.
Now, it's on to Rio. And once again, the U.S. will do its best to hold off a number of hard-charging nations that could outshine America's medal glory.
Only four more years, till we get to see.
Not only that but do they count that as one medal? or do they count each and every medal to each teammate?
I'm no expert but to me they look lean but not overly muscled like the Williams sisters.
All of this without the “benefit” of government funding.
Yea but none of them won their medals on their own. As dear leader would say, “You didn’t win that”...
Now if we could get math, science and technology gold medals, we might be able to improve the world in some way.
If you combined all of the former Soviet Republic (Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Estonia) medals, it would come out
47 Gold 44 Silver 73 Bronze 170 total
Another thing to keep in mind is that unlike nearly every other country, the U.S. Olympic Team is a private enterprise, funded almost entirely by corporate sponsors and private citizens (and lots of hard working parents).
Eric Heiden, for example, was one of the greatest Olympic athletes of all time (his performance at the 1980 Winter Olympics was THE greatest Olympic accomplishment of all time, in my humble opinion). He followed this by pursuing a short career in cycling, and is now a successful orthopedic surgeon in Utah. He'd probably be the first one to tell you that his speed skating was critical to his future medical career.
Those Olympians who skedaddled out of London and skipped the closing ceremony did the right thing. We briefly tuned in, and it was awful. What they lacked in creativity, they made up for with the worst caterwauling ever.
But in the really athletic sports, such as badminton, table tennis, checkers, log rolling, etc., how did we do? Inquiring minds at ESPN need to know to fill in their Fall schedule.
Americans are often snidely ridiculed by foreigners for being fat. And a lot of us are. But at least our athletes and our military are lean and mean.
Hey the Chinese have to get their medals from somewhere.
RE: I’m embarrassed for all of western ‘culture’
OK, would it have been better had the closing ceremonies been held in say, New York?
Who would we have that’s very different from what the Brits have?
Jay-Z, Beyonce, Rihanna, Madonna, Britney, Kanye West, Chris Brown, P. Diddy, and the whole bunch of crap we hear on the radio today....
“Who came up with the ugly medals ceremony uniforms. Gray?”
Tonight’s closing ceremony uniforms were worse....all white with the ugly white berets. The athletes looked like they worked in a Baskin Robbins.
Whoever designed our team uniforms flopped. They could have gone to Walmart and put together something with red, white, and blue for a lot less money.
:-P
RE: Whoever designed our team uniforms flopped.
That would be the famous Ralph Lauren (made in China of course ).
I say we break it out by Universities, the University of Florida sent 37 to the Games, USC sent 40.
There was some anti-American bias in the boxing judging.But the US team could have been stronger.
Why not add MMA to the Olympics. It’s more popular than boxing. Yes, it’s brutal, but so is water polo (under the water).
“How many of those medals won by non American athletes live and/or were trained in the USA?
I’d wager the total would increase significantly if you were to count those as American-won as well.”
Uh-oh. The “One-World-Gov’t” and “open-borders-people” are going to be visiting you!
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