The USA did very well in these games, especially over the past 5 days of the games. The USA won 46 gold, the most for the USA in a non boycotted Olympics since 1908.
Compared with 2008 where the USA won 23 medals, track and field athletes won 29 medals in these games. In my opinion it was highly successful. The USA women track athletes excelled in the 200, 400, long jump and both relays with gold. The USA men did well too winning 2 silvers in the relays, gold and silver in the decathlon, gold and silver in the 110 hurdles, silver in the men's 1500M, silver in the high jump, gold and silver in the men's triple jump and silver in the men's 10,000M.
Sanya Richards Ross with 2 gold, Allyson Felix with 3 gold, and Carmelita Jeter with 3 total medals were stars for the USA as were Ashton Eaton, Christian Taylor and Aries Merritt on the men's side.
A bit dissapointing was the men's 200 where the race was swept by Jamaica. Also dissapointing was the men's 400 where the USA was not represented in the final.
Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah of Great Britain win golds in their respected events in front of the home crowd was thrilling to watch.
I think the most defining moment in track and field was double leg amputee Oscar Pistorius of South Africa running in the men's 400 and making it the semifinals. After that race the winner of that semifinals Kirani James of Grenada swapped bibs with Oscar Pistorius. It was great to see the respect Pistorius got from the world. Kirani James won gold in the men's 400.
In swimming, the USA won 30 medals, 16 of them gold. Michael Phelps and Missy Frankin were the stars for the USA winning 4 golds each. Allison Schmitt won 3 golds. Rebecca Soni, Dana Vollmer and Ryan Lochte also were stars winning multiple golds. The USA dominated swimming again in 2012 as they did in 2008.
The women's gymnastics team led by Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney and Aly Raisman were exceptional when they had to be. It was tough seeing Jordyn Wieber cry because of a rule that each country can only put 2 gymnasts in the all around and Wieber was 3rd in qualifying for the USA. It was amazing to see them win the team gold for the first time since 1996.
Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings won gold for the 3rd Olympics in a row, which will never be duplicated. They are probably the best beach volleyball team ever and that includes men's teams. Misty May Treanor said it was her last games so look for Kerri Walsh Jennings to find a new partner to win gold in Rio in 2016.
On the men's side it was a bit dissapointing to see Todd Rogers/Phil Dalhausser and Jake Gibb/Sean Rosenthal lose their matches the way they did even as I projected Dalhausser/Rogers to win gold in these games.
The USA men's and women's indoor volleyball teams faired well with the women losing to Brazil and winning silver and the men's team finishing 5th. The USA men's team was 5th in the world coming into these games. The men's loss to Russia was heartbreaking because they had a 2 sets to none lead and then they lost the last 3 sets. Then the loss for the men in straight sets to the Italians did them in. I'm assuming because of the age of the USA men's team Don Suxho, 36 probably won't be back and Reid Priddy 34, Rich Lambourne 37, may not be back, either.
In the gold medal match, the USA women's volleyball team won the first set handily, then lost the next 3 sets in a row to win silver. The USA women breezed through pool play like the men so anything short of a gold at least for the women was a formality as they were ranked first in the world in the past year.
The USA women's soccer team was great from start to finish. The heroes were Abby Wambach, Hope Solo, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd. Each contributed in their own way. Hope Solo was great against Japan saving shots on goal. Alex Morgan heading the ball into the goal against Canada in the 123rd minute was the highlight as well as Abby Wambach scoring 5 goals this tournament and Carli Lloyd scoring both goals in the gold medal match against Japan.
The major controversy of these games besides the women's shot put doping scandal was the Chinese throwing badminton matches to get a better seed in a later round. The Chinese athletes were thrown out of the Olympics for that.
NBC's coverage of these games in my opinion, declined over 2008. I was able to see tweets of how many viewers were not happy with NBC's coverage. NBC cut short their coverage one night to show Matthew Perry's new show at 11pm instead of a usual midnight ending. On the final Saturday of these games NBC decided to show a World War II documentary in the first hour instead of showing the USA women's volleyball team's gold medal match against Brazil. I'm thinking NBC said the USA lost so lets only show parts of 2 sets. They should have shown it live on tv. Then there was the ultimate flawed concept of interrupting the closing ceremony at 11pm for another new show premiere. The Who was supposed to perform but NBC for the second time cut the closing ceremony. In 2010 NBC cut the closing ceremony for the premiere of The Marriage Ref. NBC also cut out some of Great Britain's greatest musicians like Kate Bush, Eric Idle and Muse. NBC did show the remaining closing party and a Bob Costas wrap up at midnight. I refuse to name NBC's new shows because I do not want to give those shows any mention for publicity.
I'm ok with tape delay during the evening if some short swimming and track events are shown live on tv, then again in primetime for viewers who can't see it during the day. NBC decided not to do that but did stream the events live on NBCOlympics.com. There were some streaming problems on NBCOlympics.com as well.
Overall these were great games and look forward to Sochi in 2014. Hopefully NBC's editing coverage improves by then.
As far as predictions go that I had made before the games I was off by one total medal for the USA - 104 to my prediction of 103. I predicted the USA would win 29 silver medals correctly. I also was 100% correct in predicting Great Britain's total medal count at 65. I was off on Great Britain by 2 less golds(29 actual vs. 27 that I predicted) and 2 more bronze(21 I predicted to the actual count of 19). I predicted with 100% accuracy Great Britain's total of silver medals at 17. I had predicted the first 4 slots for total medals to be the USA, China, Russia and Great Britain. The 5th country I predicted by total medal winnings was Australia and that was based on 2008 numbers. I had incorrectly predicted Australia instead of Germany. Germany came in 5th in the total medal count. Australia underpreformed as did China. I had predicted 34 gold for China and they finished with 38 but thats still way below the total of gold they won in Beijing at 51.
I also predicted correctly that Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings would win a 3rd straight gold medal in beach volleyball. I also was correct in predicting that USA women's soccer, women's gymnastics and both USA men's and women's basketball teams would win gold.
I had predicted that the USA women's volleyball team would win gold when they actually won silver.
In swimming, I correctly predicted that Missy Franklin would win 4 gold. I had predicted Michael Phelps with 6 gold. He won 4. I correctly predicted Ryan Lochte would beat Phelps once. Lochte won 2 gold, I predicted 3.
In track and field, I predicted correctly winning gold: Ashton Eaton in the decathlon, Sanya Richards Ross in the women's 400M,& Allyson Felix in the women's 200M, Usain Bolt of Jamaica in the men's 100M and Mo Farah of Great Britain in the men's 5000M.
I came within 1 one hundredth of a second of predicting the time Usain Bolt would run, 9.63 seconds to my prediction of 9.62 seconds.
I had predicted the USA men's 4 by 100M relay team finishing second to Jamaica and Galen Rupp winning a medal in the men's 10000M.
I also correctly predicted that USA diver David Boudia would medal, of course he won gold.
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