London 2012 Olympics Chat Thread

[key2win]

Posting this up for everyone to talk about the Olympics. I will try to update this every day with some results and other news stories.

Here is the Yahoo main page which shows which events/countries are up and overall medal count.

London 2012 Olympics - Yahoo! Sports

[key2win]

Ryan Lochte wins gold in 400 IM, Michael Phelps fails to medal in first race at London Games - Yahoo! Sports

LONDON – Michael Phelps’ reign as the world’s most dominant Olympic swimmer took a serious hit in his first race at the London Games.

Ryan Lochte captured the gold medal in the 400-meter individual medley on Saturday, while Phelps finished fourth – failing to medal for the first time since the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney when he was just 15 years old. Lochte showed why he has been considered the world’s best swimmer over the last year, holding strong throughout the race before making his move in the backstroke and then steadily pulling away in the breaststroke and freestyle.

And while Lochte’s performance was brilliant, Phelps' struggle was equally captivating as the race wore on. Phelps has typically been able to make his move in the butterfly leg of the medley and finish strong in the freestyle, but he struggled to make up ground or mount a charge in any of the four legs of the race.

[B.I.G.Poppa]

Ouch on Phelps, we'll see if he bounces back.

[bakemeister52]

Phelps should bounce back

[key2win]

Kevin Durant leads Team USA past France in Olympic opener - Yahoo! Sports

LONDON – Kevin Durant fell short trying to win his first NBA championship this summer. He looks determined to make up for it with his first Olympic gold medal.

Durant delivered 22 points and nine rebounds in his Olympic debut as Team USA crushed France 98-71 to open the London Games with a dominating performance that had First Lady Michelle Obama on her feet and cheering.

[key2win]

Missy Franklin finds her form atop the medal stand in a golden backstroke performance - Yahoo! Sports

LONDON – Coming into these Olympic Games, Missy Franklin admitted that she has never called Michael Phelps for advice. But now she can call him and compare gold medals.

The 17-year-old now has something Phelps doesn’t have thus far: a perch atop a podium in London, after winning gold in the 100-meter backstroke. The 6-foot-1 Franklin is the youngest U.S. swimmer in these Games, and put her considerable length to good use. Devouring the pool in big strokes down the final 50 meters, Franklin charged from second place after the turn, overtaking Australia’s Emily Seebohm in the final 50 and winning gold in 58.33 seconds.

[key2win]

Michael Phelps emerges alone atop podium as history's most decorated Olympian - Yahoo! Sports

LONDON – Michael Phelps was smiling underwater at one point Tuesday night, tearing up on the medals stand at another, staring in shock at the scoreboard at a third.

The riot of emotions along the way to making history was enough to leave even the greatest of Olympians limp. No wonder Phelps said this milestone evening would end with him taking an ice bath and "trying to pass out."

In the space of an hour at the Aquatics Centre, Phelps swam two races with dramatically different outcomes. He was stunned at the finish of his signature event, the 200-meter butterfly, out-touched by yet another 20-year-old upstart in a London Games full of them. Then he was handed a massive lead in the 4x200 freestyle relay and brought it home with the class of a champion for his first gold medal of these Olympics – something we didn't think would take until his fourth swim here to accomplish.

Nineteen times now, Michael Phelps has bowed his head on an Olympic medals podium and had precious hardware slipped around his neck. That eclipses the decades-old record of 18 set by Russian gymnast Larissa Latynina. Fifteen of the medals have been gold – another record – two have been silver and two have been bronze. With three events left, there should be more to come this week.

[key2win]

Eight badminton players booted from Olympic tournament for throwing matches - Yahoo! Sports

LONDON – Olympic badminton authorities booted eight players out of the games' tournament for attempting to throw matches, but the real culprits are the officials who organized the event.

Two South Korean pairs, a Chinese and an Indonesian team will be stripped of their place in the quarterfinals unless an appeal against the punishment is granted. All four teams were determined to have tried to lose their final matches in the women's doubles group stage in order to secure a more favorable draw in the knockout round.

While the matches led to ugly scenes of players deliberately serving into the net while the Wembley Arena crowd booed and jeered, it is the organizers of this event who are responsible for allowing the tanking to happen in the first place. By implementing a controversial group system instead of a single-elimination format as used previously, Games chiefs left themselves open to the kind of nightmare that transpired late Tuesday.

[key2win]

Team USA, and Carmelo Anthony, dominates Nigeria in a record-setting performance | Fourth-Place Medal - Yahoo! Sports

Wow that is a blowout!!!

At some point during Team USA's 156-73 win over Nigeria on Thursday, all the pretty jumpers and quick cuts to the hoop were somehow replaced by cold, hard, and ridiculous numbers. A 13-0 start. A 27-point lead in the first quarter. An 11-14 start from three point range, and 29-46 (63 percent, 87 points on 46 possessions) mark overall. A shocking 49 points in the first quarter after just 10 minutes of international play. A Team USA record 37 points for Carmelo Anthony, topping (of course!) fellow onetime New York Knick Stephon Marbury's 31 points during the 2004 Olympics. An 83-point win, destroying the 72-point record set by Team USA over Thailand in the 1956 Olympics. And, perhaps most impressively, 156 total points, destroying the record set by Brazil in the 1988 tourney.

[key2win]

Katie Ledecky, youngest United States Olympian, wins gold in 800 | Fourth-Place Medal - Yahoo! Sports

America's youngest Olympian is now America's youngest gold medalist in London.

Katie Ledecky, a 15-year-old from Bethesda, Md., was the wire-to-wire winner in the 800 freestyle Friday night at the Aquatics Centre, upsetting world-record holder and hometown favorite Becky Adlington. The rising high school sophomore was the youngest of the 529 athletes the United States sent to the Games. She becomes the second-youngest swimming medalist in Team USA history, 77 days older than Beth Botsford, who won gold in Atlanta in 1996.

[key2win]

Michael Phelps swims into retirement with 18th Olympic gold on U.S. 400 medley relay team - Yahoo! Sports

LONDON – The final swim of Michael Phelps' incomparable career was a victory lap, a coronation and a mere formality.

Phelps' butterfly leg in the 400-meter individual medley helped propel the United States to an emphatic victory and sent Phelps into retirement with his 22nd career Olympic medal – a staggering 18 of them gold. Both totals are records and it will take a long time before those totals are even challenged, much less broken.

[key2win]

Behind the Box Score, where LeBron James led Team USA in a nail-biter over Lithuania | Fourth-Place Medal - Yahoo! Sports

What happened?

Basketball fans see it every year in the NCAA tournament, or in the NBA's regular season. College teams, on their way toward playing in the first week of April, always tend to get that second-round scare. NBA teams, no matter how dominant overall, see it routinely in regular-season play. Matchups, in basketball, are key; and even teams that rank amongst the greatest ever can be challenged or even fall in a single contest if the matchups aren't in their favor. A day and a half after dominating Nigeria in a record-setting 156-73 blowout, Team USA could only eke out a survival win against a tough Lithuanian squad that matched up well at every conceivable angle.

[key2win]

Andy Murray beats Roger Federer for Olympic gold medal; thrills hometown with haunted past - Yahoo! Sports

WIMBLEDON, England – About 400 miles north of London, a pretty little town with a tragic past celebrated the finest hour of its favorite son on Sunday.

Andy Murray's magnificent victory over Roger Federer to clinch the Olympic men's tennis gold medal is the highlight of a career that is so far devoid of a Grand Slam title but is now adorned with something that might mean even more to him.

[key2win]

Alex Morgan scores late goal to give U.S. women dramatic 4-3 overtime win over Canada - Yahoo! Sports

MANCHESTER, England – Alex Morgan delivered a dramatic header in the 123rd minute – stoppage time of the second overtime period – to deliver the U.S. women's soccer team a 4-3 semifinal victory over Canada.

The Americans advance to Thursday’s gold-medal game with Japan, a rematch of a disappointing loss for the U.S. in the 2011 Women's World Cup final.

In a thrilling, back-and-forth battle at legendary Old Trafford stadium here, the U.S. needed three comebacks and extra time to defeat a tough, proud, and defiant Canadian team.

The winner came with the game just seconds from heading to penalty kicks. Veteran Heather O'Reilly got the ball on the right side and crossed it in front of the net, where Morgan leaped in a crowd and headed the ball over Canadian keeper Erin McLeod.

A pro-American crowd of about 15,000 at the home of Manchester United chanted "U-S-A, U-S-A" and waved American flags as Morgan was mobbed by her teammates.

The game officially ended about 20 seconds of play later, Morgan's goal proving to be about as much of a buzzer-beater as is possible in soccer.

It concluded an absolutely fabulous match between the two teams.

[key2win]

After Chinese scare, Walsh and May-Treanor ready for golden finale as teammates | Fourth-Place Medal - Yahoo! Sports

LONDON — The champs were staggering in the sand. China's Xue Chen and Zhang Xi had them reeling in the first set, down 13-7 in the Olympic women's volleyball semifinal. Kerri Walsh-Jennings and Misty May-Treanor looked as disjointed as China looked adept.

"Now, now, now!" Walsh called out repeatedly, trying to shake their funk.

Their defense tightened. The points started piling up: The six-point deficit became a 13-all tie. Walsh was blocking and spiking everything in sight. May-Treanor was digging balls next to the net and well out of bounds. A late China rally prolonged the inevitable, but the Americans took the set 22-20.

They claimed the next set by the same score. For the third straight Olympics, and the last time as teammates, Walsh and May-Treanor will play for gold.

"We never panicked. That's what champions do. To [come back] against that team, is insane. It doesn't happen. They're too good," said Walsh.

"We played far from perfect, but our hearts were perfect."

The gold-medal match is Wednesday night at Horse Guards Parade in London against either the American team of Jen Kressy and April Ross or Brazil. It will be May-Treanor's farewell for Team USA and competitive volleyball, as she and Walsh attempt to win their third consecutive gold in Olympic beach volleyball.