Tribute to the 2012 Olympic Games
The Women's Games
On the 40th Anniversary of Title IX, the women of the USA definitely came to play. For the first time in Olympic history, every nation that competed in the
Games had a female athlete on its roster, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar
and Brunei. And Team USA, which boasts a lineup of 529 athletes, had
more women than men for the first time in the Olympic Games: 268 are
women and 261 are men. A total of 4,688 women represented 204 nations in
London this summer. Consider this: The last time London was the Olympic
host city in 1948, there were 4,104 athletes and only 390 were women.If Team USA’s women competed as their own nation, they would rank an astounding third in the gold-medal count, tied with Great Britain. The U.S. women won 58 of a total 104 medals, plus contributed to the one tennis mixed doubles medal. Of the 46 gold medals earned by Team USA, 29 were secured by the women.
Some women were as young as 15 winning gold medals (Katie Ledecky, 800-meter freestyle) and then, there were others who are mothers winning gold medals (Kerri Walsh Jennings for example). There are women who won five medals in one Games (Missy Franklin claimed five medals overall, four gold and Allison Schmitt, three golds, one silver, one bronze) and women who won an individual medal in five consecutive trips to the Olympic Games (shooter Kim Rhode).
And there were women making history, as evidenced by Gabby Douglas becoming the first African-American woman to win the Olympic all-around gold medal (and the first to win both the all-around and the team gold medal in the Games) and 17-year-old Claressa Shields becoming the first U.S. woman to win a gold medal in Olympic women’s boxing. Kayla Harrison became the first U.S. athlete to win a gold medal in judo.
On the field, the women showed their might.
U.S. women won medals, but also broke world and Olympic records,
bringing new meaning to faster, higher, stronger. At the Royal Artillery Barracks, shooter
Jamie Gray, competing in the 50-meter rifle three-position event, broke
Olympic records and in the qualifying and final rounds to win the gold
medal. Impressive! At the Aquatic Centre, the U.S. women’s 4 x 100 medley relay,
with Missy Franklin, Rebecca Soni, Dana Vollmer and Allison Schmitt, set
the world record at 3:52.05, beating the silver medalists from
Australia by 1.97 seconds. Ridiculous! Later in the Games at the Olympic Stadium,
Team USA track stars Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight and
Carmelita Jeter broke the world record in the 4 x 100 relay, finishing
in 40.82 seconds and beating the previous record of 41.37 set by the
East Germans in 1985. That's crazy fast!
Overall, the women of Team USA were just downright impressive. And in honor of our amazing women, Katy and I decided to uphold the tradition we started during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Here is our tribute to Team USA and the 2012 London Olympics.
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| The torch has arrived. Let the Games begin! |
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| Another of Dad's amazing sandcastles in honor of Opening Ceremonies |
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| Katy enjoying crumpets and tea while watching the Queen parachute into the opening ceremonies. |
ARCHERY
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| Katy releasing her inner Katness |
ATHLETICS
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Bet you didn't think I'd ever be a marathon runner. I'm so far ahead you can't even see the next competitor.  |
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| Triple threat thrower |
BADMINTON
Sorry to say, we did not take a badminton picture. We were too shocked by the badminton scandal to recover and take a picture.
BASKETBALL
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| I've always wanted to do this. Thank you Lebron James for letting me steal your grand entrance for a day. |
BEACH VOLLEYBALL
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| If only Keri Walsh was flying in to kill this... |
BOXING
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| KO! |
CANOE SLALOM & SPRINT
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| Blazing Paddles |
CYCLING
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| Resistance training on my Exercycle |
DIVING
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| Synchronized Diving...It's a work in progress. |
EQUESTRIAN
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| Katy working on her jumps. That's actually her on the horse. Really. |
FENCING
(This is one of my favorites)
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| On guard. Are you ready? Fence! |
FOOTBALL
(OR SOCCER IF YOU'RE FROM THE GOOD OL' US OF A)
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| Inspired by Abby Wambach, Hope Solo and all the rest of our gold medalist women's soccer team. |
GYMNASTICS - ARTISTIC
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| Katy concentrating hard for her balance beam routine. The Fab Five would be proud. |
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| High flying uneven bar routine. |
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| A spectacular steel rings routine. Not even shaking in this hold. |
GYMNASTICS - RHYTHMIC
(Another one of my favorites)
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| Such grace and artistic expression |
HANDBALL
One of the few sports that didn't make it in.
Skip down to the water polo picture and imagine it on dry land.
HOCKEY
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| Lining up for a shot on goal. Watch out! |
JUDO
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| We didn't really know what Judo entailed, so we looked up a picture. This was basically the positions of the two judokas in the picture, and Katy assured me we could pull this off. I had to help her up, and she literally kicked me in the face. Guess I should have seen that coming. |
MODERN PENTATHLON
Another sad sport on the island of misfit toys.
ROWING
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| Katy coxing Team USA to another gold. First time I've been back in a uni and rowing starboard since college. |
SAILING
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| Adjusting our spinnaker to win the race. |
SHOOTING
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| Bullseye! |
SWIMMING
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| We are dominating the medley relay and setting another world record. We got this picture of the first try. Mighty impressive. |
SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING
(Another classic)
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| The judges gave us high marks as we perfectly captured the artistic theme of blooming spring flowers. |
TABLE TENNIS
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| Kiss my lucky egg...What do you do when you don't have a ping pong ball? Play with an egg of course. |
TAEKWONDO
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| Katy is ready for a black belt with moves like these. |
TENNIS
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| Better watch out for Katy's blazing backhand & my wicked ace serves. Not exactly Serena Williams status, but we'll keep practicing. |
TRAMPOLINE
If only we had a trampoline...we could have probably hurt ourselves and possibly won America's Funniest Home Videos.
TRIATHLON
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| My mom had to remind how to stop a bike without hand brakes. "Do you remember nothing I taught you on that Strawberry Shortcake bike?" Add this to my long list of unfortunate bike incidents. At least I didn't crash this time. |
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| On to the Ironman...Hahaha! If you know how much I hate running, I'm sure you're laughing too. |
VOLLEYBALL
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| Look at those ups! |
WATER POLO
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| Katy firing home another goal. |
WEIGHTLIFTING
(Greatness)
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| Pure strenth. Well, sort of... |
WRESTLING
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| Final seconds of the third period. Who will win the bout? I don't know, but Katy is looking fierce! |
And that brings us to the end of another Olympic games. 17 Days. 36 Sports. 10,960 athletes from 204 nations competing on a world stage. Doesn't get much better than that!
Big thanks for Katelyn and Aunt Kay for being our photographers and to the athletes that continue to inspire us.
Team USA all the way!