London 2012 Top 10

Tonight marked the end of the London 2012 Summer Olympics. Other than some strange colonial and Mary Poppins moments in the opening ceremonies, London ran an excellent show. As great as the host city was, the athletes themselves created the stories and made these games a guaranteed success. Our United States proudly finished atop the medal count with 104 total medals, 46 of which were gold. The Olympics are unlike any other sporting event. Because most of America, even sports fans, is out of touch with the not so mainstream Olympic sports, it is a learning experience for everyone. We get a look at sports that are less familiar to us and check in on athletes that most of us only see perform once every four years. There is always more of a personal touch added to Olympic athletes. We get a break from contract disputes and league lockouts to see a more pure form of sports. The excitement on the faces of not only winners, but people who are just happy to make it there is unlike anything else that sports have to offer and is a breath of fresh air.

Another interesting aspect of Olympians is how young they are; this is my first Olympic cycle in which I am older than a large percentage of the athletes. As a result, I have so much more of an appreciation for what they have all accomplished at such early ages. This has successfully made me feel like I have done absolutely nothing with my life, but I am sure I am not the first or last fan to feel dwarfed by the accomplishments of the world’s finest athletes. At first I was going to try haphazardly stumbling through all the high points of these 2012 Olympics but, much like my last article, this idea built for a countdown. The Olympics, like most sports, is continuous action defined by individual moments. Here are, in my opinion of course, the ten best moments from these 2012 games.

10. USA Basketball: After the Miami Heat’s latest championship, I raised the question of whether or not they impressed you. Not whether or not they were a good team, or the best for that matter, but whether or not we should be impressed by what they did considering how they positioned themselves in the 2010 off-season. It would be incredibly hypocritical to not raise this same question against team USA just because this time, it involves a team that I root for. Seeing both our men and women go undefeated this summer was amazing but expected. Leaving our stranglehold on the sports of basketball off this list would be a crime, due to the nature of that accomplishment, but I cannot give a spot better than ten to an outcome that was so obvious. I suppose that without Howard, Wade, and Rose because of injuries, Team USA had some adversity, but their talent was still miles ahead of the competition. Despite our women scoring more style points in their gold medal game, I still consider the teams even because the men faced tougher competition from around the world. For this same reason, the 2012 Team USA is not as far behind the 1992 Dream Team as most people believe. Both teams were dominant and maintained, but did not elevate, USA basketball supremacy.

9. Melissa Jeanette Franklin: Better known as Missy Franklin, our newest swimming phenomenon embodies what I mentioned earlier about youth and enthusiasm. In a sport with plenty of competition, living up to standards set by the American swimming program and its previous legends is no easy task. In the midst of what was, at that time, a fierce race for Olympic domination against the Chinese, Missy exploded onto the Olympic scene and was a driving force that helped lead our nation’s athletes throughout the first half of the 2012 games. Missy was one Call Me Maybe parody away from being my favorite female athlete of London’s 2012 Olympics and it will be great to have her representing the USA for years to come. She ended up with four gold medals, one bronze and a couple of world records. Franklin and Michael Phelps were the only Olympians to capture four gold medals in 2012. Not bad for an Olympic debut.

8. Gabby Douglas and the Fab 5: What were we doing at age 16? Our youngest top ten performer took the gymnastics world by storm on the two biggest stages. Douglas won gold in the team finals and became the coveted all-around champion. Some speculation suggests that she faded after the peak of her accomplishments. Her underwhelming 7^th and 8^th place finishes in her Olympic events were somewhat anticlimactic after what we grew to expect from her. However, I think her performance was less about her game decreasing over time than it was elevating her performance at the biggest moments. In the two most important events, Gabby Douglas stepped up and proved to be the world’s best gymnast when it mattered most. Douglas and her supporting cast of Jordyn Wieber, Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney and Kyla Ross made up quite possibly the best USA gymnastics team ever assembled, even more so than 1996’s Magnificent Seven.

7. Andy Murray: Speaking of stepping up on the biggest stage, Great Britain’s best tennis player has never won a Grand Slam event and has historically struggled when matched up against the world’s best. Facing Roger Federer, one of the greatest of all time, in the gold medal match seemed like a perfect setup for another heartbreak. However, given the support of his home crowd and the pressure of the Olympic stage, this was a very different experience. He defeated Federer, and it was not by any means close. The adrenaline rush was felt throughout a nation that, by that time, was surprisingly making a lot of noise at its own games. Great Britain finished among the elite at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and this was one of their crown jewels of a very successful season. The silver medal he received in the doubles competition can be easily forgotten but was also a big accomplishment for this summer’s British dominance of tennis.

6. Felix Sanchez: The 400 meter hurdles champion won the Domican Republic’s first medal of the 2012 games, but that is hardly the story here. Sanchez is among the only athletes in history to wear a name more important than the one of his own country. On his cleats, “Abuela” had been written in memory of his grandmother. The 2004 Summer Olympics were held in Athens, which is where Sanchez won his first gold medal in this event. Four years later in Beijing, he found out on the day of 400 meter hurdles qualifying that his grandmother had passed away that morning. After making the tough decision to stay in the competition, he dedicated his performance to her. That day, he finished with the 22^nd place time out of 25 qualifying runners. Four painful years passed and Sanchez entered the 2012 London Olympics at 34 years old. Remember, Olympians age in dog years so this attempt would be a longshot. In the finals, Sanchez completed the most emotional Olympic performance I have ever seen. He blew away the competition for his second career gold medal. After he crossed the finish line, he pulled a picture of his abuela from his jersey and placed it on the track. What followed was the most moving moment of these 2012 Olympics, and I strongly suggest that you find video of it somewhere if you have not seen this already.

5. Jessica Ennis: It takes the peak of athletic greatness to top that last moment, which is all that lies ahead. If Andy Murray is what kept London’s excitement going, this is what started it. Ennis suffered a stress fracture in her right foot in 2008 that kept her out of the Beijing Olympics. This proved to be a career threatening injury as Ennis lost multiple world titles and her status for this year was questionable for some time. In preparation for 2012, she learned to long jump leading with her non-dominant foot. In London, the crowd went wild as she made the final turn of the 800 meter run and captured the gold medal in the heptathlon by a sizable margin. By most unbiased standards, this accomplishment makes Jessica Ennis the most athletic woman on Earth. Her versatility and excellence in each event support his claim. This is a woman who can high jump a foot taller than her own height. In more ways than one, Ennis is a great face for team Great Britain. Her success was a shot in the arm to GB’s athletics and started the British gold rush that solidified their spot near the top of the standings. Among many great moments for the home team, this was Britain’s greatest time to shine.

4. Oscar Pistorius and Kirani James: The “Blade Runner” from South Africa is as inspirational as it gets in sports. Pistorius became the first double amputee to run on an Olympic track, but not before controversy struck from inexperienced science. Pistorius was previously banned from Olympic competition because the people in charge actually believed that his prosthetic legs were a competitive advantage against able-bodied runners. I should not have to explain why this decision was eventually overturned, but they eventually realized that having no legs is actually not beneficial when it comes to running. The nature of his prosthetic legs is not bionic, they merely act as a support system that allows the rest of his body’s movements. His essential running muscles and upper legs are still there and are the force behind his speed and stamina. When Pistorius qualified for the 400 meter semi-finals, all eyes were on him to see if the impossible could become history. In this same heat was gold medal favorite (and eventual champion) Kirani James. James won convincingly and moved on to the finals, where he would win gold and capture Grenada’s first ever Olympic medal. Pistorius, on the other hand, finished in last place of this semi-final heat. After the race, however, James approached Pistorius and the two traded name tags, the equivalent of soccer’s jersey trading tradition between great players. This act of sportsmanship between a champion of sport and a champion of life is already an iconic moment in Olympic history and embodies what Olympic competition is all about. Pistorius will compete in future Paralympics as well, where I imagine his competition is in serious trouble.

3. Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings: These last three moments are pretty interchangeable because each carries a “greatest of all time” title. Misty May and Kerri have dominated beach volleyball for a long time now, but this last championship run would be the most challenging. The strong Brazilian team entered the competition as the number one ranked team in the world, and the Kessy-Ross American team was expected to be almost just as good as our legendary combination. Misty and Kerri actually lost a set for the first time in their Olympic career and faced tough competition on their way to the top, but the two eventually recaptured their rightful place on top of the world. In a delightful all-USA gold medal match, Treaner and Jennings won decisively and completed a three-peat and the perfect Olympic career. This gold and silver combination was the turning point for the USA overtaking and running away from China in the medal count. Misty and Kerri literally accomplished as much as they could have on the Olympic stage and will likely retire now among the greatest Olympians of all time. No one has dominated their respective sport for as long as these two women have, and going undefeated over a span of twelve years is an accomplishment that will be remembered forever.

2. Usain Bolt and Jamaica’s dominance: Usain Bolt became the first man in history to win consecutive gold medals in both the 100 and 200 meter sprints. He holds the world record in both events, and has dominated sprinting in a way that is almost comical. From mid race celebrations to an outgoing off the track personality, Bolt has crossed the threshold between hometown hero and worldwide superstar. He is admired here in America and all over the world, and he deserves it. What I love about track is that unlike football, baseball or other sports, the greatest of all time can be determined by simply looking at the numbers. Quarterbacks naturally throw for more yards now and baseball seasons have more games. In track, you have to be the fastest to travel a given distance on foot. That’s it, and Bolt has become the fastest man to do so. He is without a doubt the fastest man of all time, and managed to do it in style. These Olympics were different because while he was probably still the odds on favorite, some expected him to lose his throne to teammate Yohan Blake, who beat Bolt in both races during Olympic qualifying in Jamaica. However, it was business as usual for Bolt who, by track standards, won both events by a large margin. The USA actually put up a great fight in the always exciting 4X100 meter relay, but the Jamaicans were just too good. With Bolt as the anchor for the first time, we finally saw him finish a race at full speed, and it was beautiful to watch.

1. Michael Phelps: The most decorated Olympian of all time now has 22 Olympic medals. There is no analysis that can describe his accomplishments better than simply stating the truth. He has 22 Olympic medals, 18 gold medals, 13 individual medals, 11 individual gold medals. After winning a record eight gold medals in Beijing, he quietly won four more in London. He is 6’4” with a 6’8” wingspan and his build is custom made for Olympic swimming. He decisively outperformed teammate Ryan Lochte, who was expected to dethrone Phelps and become the world’s greatest swimmer. Lochte has taken criticism from the Twitter nation for underperforming at these Olympics, but I think that his participation made history possible. His victory over Phelps and the rest of the world in the 400 meter medley to kick off the Olympics was the wakeup call Phelps needed to become the Michael Phelps we all wanted to see. His reaction to that loss came in the form of six medals over the next week. If Michael Phelps sticks to his retirement plan, he will most likely go down in history as the single greatest Olympian of all time. While I selfishly hope he comes back for one more, the way he ended things this summer was pretty perfect.

I do not want to ruin the magic of these stories by complaining too much, but it would be a disservice to anyone reading if I did not criticize NBC’s terrible coverage of these Summer Olympics. They claim that the reasoning behind the eight to twelve hour delay between the actual event and their coverage was to show the biggest events in primetime (8pm eastern standard time). However, anyone who followed these 2012 games closely knows what came on at 8pm. Diving. Every night was diving. Sometimes synchronized, sometimes individual, but there was always diving on at 8pm. The events that they advertised (swimming, gymnastics, etc.) would not actually come on until 11 or 11:30pm. They cannot expect 21^st century Americans to bury their heads in the sand and hide from the news so they can be surprised at midnight. I gave up on them pretty early on and started streaming live British coverage. The two things NBC could have done well was show events live in timely fashion or during American primetime. They did neither, and even once the events were on they were mediocre. Andrea Kramer has no idea how to interview someone who has just lost, which is an art. Luckily, America did a lot of winning, but watching her basically ask Ryan Lochte how it felt to lose was painful. Bob Kostas was giving highlights of a qualifying USA men’s basketball game that I missed. He showed us two highlights of Lebron dunking and then moved on to diving. He never gave a final score and I had to look it up on espn.com. There is a noticeable difference between ESPN coverage, an actual sports network, and NBC’s entertainment over sports approach. I heard ten times how Missy Franklin is going to a Justin Bieber concert, but the emotional video of her high school gathering to watch her win gold was only shown once.

Despite NBC’s many efforts, nothing can take away from London’s great 2012 Summer Olympics. I will forever remember the stories listed here and the memories that the world’s greatest athletes created for viewers everywhere. I can only imagine the pressure that comes from the Olympic stage and the glory that comes from their performances, their heart, and the pride of an entire nation.