Day 2

American Taylor Phinney finshed 4th in the men's cycling road race.

In men's swimming, in the 400IM, Americans Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte advance to tonights final. Phelps finished 8th on time.

In women's swimming, in the 100 fly, both Americans Dana Vollmer and Claire Donahue advance to the semifinals and finals.

American swimmers Peter Vanderkaay and Conor Dwyer advanced to the finals of the men's 400 free.

In the women's 400IM, Americans Caitlin Leverenz and Elizabeth Beisel advance to the finals.

Americans Brendan Hansen and Eric Shanteau advance to the semifinals of the men's 100 breastroke. Brendan Hansen advanced to the finals.

The USA women's 4 by 100 relay team advanced to the finals.

In women's basketball, the USA beat Croatia 81-56. The USA lead at halftime 31-28 and outscored Croatia 28-9 in the 4th quarter.

USA women's soccer beat Columbia 3-0. Goals were scored by Megan Rapinoe, Abby Wambach and Carli Lloyd.

The USA women's volleyball team beat S. Korea 3-1, 25-19, 25-17, 20-25, 25-21.

The USA men's beach volleyball team of Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal beat Chiya/Goldschmidt of South Africa 21-10 and 21-11.

In women's beach volleyball, the American team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings defeated Cook/Henchley of Australia 21-18 and 21-19.

In men's swimming, Ryan Lochte of the USA wins gold in the men's 400IM beating Michael Phelps who does not medal. Phelps finished 4th. Thiago Pereira of Brazil wins silver and Kosoke Hagino of Japan wins bronze.

American swimmer Elizabeth Beisel wins silver in the women's 400IM. Ye Shiwen of China wins gold. Li Xuanxu of China wins bronze.

In women's swimming, the USA(Missy Franklin, Jessica Hardy, Lia Neal and Allison Schmitt) win bronze in the 4 by 100 free relay. Australia wins gold and the Netherlands win silver.

In the men's 400 free, Peter Vanderkaay of the USA wins bronze. Sun Yang of China wins gold. Park Tae Hwan wins silver.

The USA men's gymnastics team qualified for the team finals on Monday evening.

Photos credit: Getty Images, UPI and other media sources. For blog use only.

Medal standings after Day 2

China 4 gold 0 silver 2 bronze - 6 total
Italy 2 gold 2 silver 1 bronze - 5 total
USA 1 gold 2 silver 2 bronze - 5 total
S.Korea 1 gold 1 silver 1 bronze - 3 total
Brazil 1 gold 1 silver 1 bronze - 3 total
Japan 0 gold 2 silver 1 bronze - 3 total

Day 1 - Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony was created by Danny Boyle director of the academy award winning movie Slumdog Millionaire.

The title is called Celebrating the Isles of Wonder.

2012 Tour 'D France winner Bradley Wiggins opens the ceremony by ringing the bell.

The ceremony starts out in the Egrarian age with green pastures.

Children's choirs from all parts of the UK sing. Jerusalem was sung in the Olympic stadium, Londonderry Air was sung in Northern Ireland, Flower of Scotland was sung in Scotland.

Kenneth Branaugh quotes from Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Drummers usher in the movement from the Egrarian erea to the Industrial Revolution. Smoke Stacks rise from the ground then rings were forged by factory workers. The pastures become a map of London.
5 rings enter the stadium from the top as the smokestacks fade. They are the Olympic rings as they sparkle from above.

Daniel Craig(James Bond) and Queen Elizabeth fly into the stadium and parachute down.
The Union flag was walked down by the British Royal Navy, Army and Air Force and raised to the national anthem God Save the Queen.

The next segment is called Second to the Right - Straight on Till Morning.
Mike Oldfield plays to nurses getting children ready for bed.
The Dancers spell out GOSH and NHS which stands for Great Ormand St. Hospital and National Health Service.
JK Rowling reads from opening paragraph of Peter Pan.
As Children try to sleep english literature villians Captain Hook, Childcatcher, Cruella de Vil and Lord Voldemort haunt their dreams and are chased away by Mary Poppins.

Next the London Symphony Orchestra performs Chariots of Fire with Rowan Atkinson(Mr. Bean).

The next segment is Say Thanks to Tim where the Industrial Age becomes the Digital Age.
This segment describes the love story for the digital age between Frankie and June that includes texting, social media and going out. Children dance to 4 decades of british music.
Tim Bernes Lee who invented the world wide web thanks the crowd.

East London rapper Dizzee Rascal performs.
David Beckham carries the Olympic flame to the stadium on a speedboat.

Next is the parade of nations. The USA has 529 athletes, 268 women and 261 men. USA woman fencer Mariel Zagunis is the flagbearer. China has 383 athletes, Germany 398, Italy 286, France 337 Japan 305 and Great Britain 558 athletes.

Doves riding bicycles to the band the Artic Monkeys followed the parade of nations. A dove on a bike rises through the air.

Soccer star David Beckham hands the torch to Rower Steven Redgrave who passes the torch to 7 young british athletes who each get torches from their Olympic sponsors who are 7 british Olympians. Each of the 7 young athletes lights a copper leaf and then all 200 copper leaves light and then all of them rise up to form the cauldron in the center floor of the stadium.

Lastly, Paul McCartney sings Hey Jude.

Photos credit: Getty Images, UPI and other media sources. For blog use only.

Women's USA soccer -

The USA women's soccer team beat France 4-2. The USA trailed 2-0 and then scored 4 unanswered goals. Goals were scored by Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan(2) and Carli Lloyd.

London games predictions

With just 6 days to go until the games I thought I would offer some games predictions.

The United States will win 41 gold, 29 silver and 33 bronze for a total of 103.
China will win 34 gold, 32 silver and 29 bronze for a total of 95.
Russia will win 25 gold, 27 silver and 25 bronze for a total of 77.
Great Britain will win 27 gold, 17 silver and 21 bronze for a total of 65.
Australia will win 18 gold, 15 silver and 16 bronze for a total of 49.

The USA won't win as many total medals in 2012 as they did in 2008 but they will win more gold than China.
China will not win anything close to the 51 gold they won in Beijing in 2008.
Great Britain as the host country will do really well compared to 2008. I'm predicting 18 more medals in 2012. 8 more gold than in 2008.

Michael Phelps will win 6 gold and 1 silver losing to Ryan Lochte once.
Missy Franklin will win 4 gold, 2 silver and one bronze.
Ryan Lochte will win 3 gold and 1 bronze.
Rebecca Soni will win gold in the 200 breaststroke.

The USA men's volleyball team will win silver.
The USA women's volleyball team will win gold.
Kerri Walsh and Misty May Treanor will win gold in beach volleyball for the 3rd straight Olympics.
Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers will win gold in beach volleyball for the second straight Olympics.

USA men's and women's basketball teams will both win gold.

The USA women's gymmastics team will win gold and Jordyn Wieber will win gold, Gabby Douglas will win silver in all around.
The USA men's gymnastics team will win bronze.

In Men's track and field Tyson Gay will win silver in the 100M finshing second to Usain Bolt. Bolt's time will be 9.62 and Gay's time will be 9.69.
In the men's 200m, Yohan Blake of Jamaica will beat Usain Bolt also of Jamaica. Blake's time will be 19.23, Bolt 19.28. Wallace Spearmon, Jr. will win bronze.

Carmelita Jeter will win gold in women's 100m with a time of 10.71.
In the women's 200m, Allyson Felix will beat Jamaica's Veronica Campbell Brown for gold, Sanya Richards Ross will win bronze.

Sanya Richards Ross will win gold in the women's 400m.
Lashawn Merritt will win gold in the men's 400m.
Dawn Harper will win gold, Lolo Jones bronze in the women's 100m hurdles.
Lashinda Demus will win gold in the women's 400m hurdles.
Angelo Taylor will win gold in the men's 400m hurdles.
In the men's 800m, Nick Symmonds will win silver.
Galen Rupp will win a medal in the men's 10,000m
Mo Farah of Great Britain will win gold in the men's 5000m beating out Bernard Lagat of the USA who wins silver.
In the women's 1500m, Jenny Simpson will win gold.
Ashton Eaton will win gold in the decathlon.
The USA will get to the finals and get the stick around the track in the men's 4 by 100m relay but will win silver. Jamaica wins gold.

In men's diving David Boudia and Troy Dumais will medal.
In women's diving Brittany Viola will medal.

USA women's soccer will win gold.

US Olympic outfits made in China

It is my opinion as with many in congress that the USOC made a mistake and had Ralph Lauren manufacture the US uniforms in China instead of in the USA. The USOC has been critisized for keeping BP as a sponsor as well as adding German car manufacturer BMW as a sponsor. BMW does make cars in the USA and has many employees that work in America. We need American companies sponsoring the US Olympic team! I realize with the economy today it is hard for the USOC to replace outgoing sponsors like Home Depot but we've had several years to get sponsors now. Its time for the USOC to hire Americans to make our uniforms and American companies to sponsor the US Olympic team.

Also the USOC has resolved its revenue sharing agreement with the IOC and now we can to think about bidding for future Olympics on US soil. The USOC has ruled out bidding on the 2022 winter Olympics that had Denver, Reno and Salt Lake City as possible bid cities. The USOC is now looking at bidding on the 2024 and 2026 Olympic games. Chicago, Dallas and New York City are mentioned as possible cities for the 2024 summer Olympic games and Lake Tahoe was interested in hosting the 2026 winter Olympic games.

USA Men's and Women's Basketball teams named

Men's 2012 Olympic Basketball team:

Carmelo Anthony (New York Knicks); Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers); Tyson Chandler (New York Knicks); Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder); Blake Griffin (Los Angeles Clippers); James Harden (Oklahoma City Thunder); Andre Iguodala (Philadelphia 76ers); LeBron James (Miami Heat); Kevin Love (Minnesota Timberwolves); Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers); Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City Thunder); and Deron Williams (Brooklyn Nets).

The 2012 USA coaching staff is led by Duke University head coach Mike Krzyzewski, who has led the USA Basketball Men's National Team to gold medal finishes at the 2010 FIBA World Championship and 2008 Beijing Olympics. Assistant coaches include Syracuse University and Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim, and former NBA head coaches Mike D'Antoni and Nate McMillan.


Women's 2012 Olympic Basketball team:

Sue Bird (Seattle Storm), Tamika Catchings (Indiana Fever) and Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury), as well as 2008 Beijing Olympic gold medalists Seimone Augustus (Minneosta Lynx), Swin Cash (Chicago Sky), Sylvia Fowles (Chicago Sky) and Candace Parker (Los Angeles Sparks), Tina Charles (Connecticut Sun), Angeles McCoughtry (Atlanta Dream), Maya Moore (Minnesota Lynx) and Lindsay Whalen (Minnesota Lynx) and Asjha Jones(Connecticut Sun).

USA Men's and Women's Volleyball teams named

2012 USA Men's Olyimpic Volleyball Team:

Outside Hitters: Reid Priddy, Matt Anderson, Sean Rooney, Paul Lotman

Middle Hitters: David Lee, Russell Holmes, David Smith

Opposite Hitters: Clay Stanley, David Mckienzie

Setters: Donald Suxho, Brian Thornton

Libero: Richard Lambourne

2008 Olympians Ryan Millar, Evan Petak and Riley Salmon did not make this team.



2012 USA Women's Olympic Volleyball team:

U.S. Olympic Women’s Volleyball Head Coach Hugh McCutcheon (Christchurch, New Zealand) has selected setters Lindsey Berg (Honolulu) and Courtney Thompson (Kent, Wash.) for the Olympic Games Team. Middle blockers chosen for the squad are Foluke Akinradewo (Plantation, Fla.), Christa Harmotto (Hopewell Township, Pa.) and Danielle Scott-Arruda (Baton Rouge, La.). Outside hitters earning a spot on the Olympic Games nomination roster are Megan Hodge (Durham, N.C.), Jordan Larson (Hooper, Neb.) and Logan Tom (Salt Lake City, Utah).

Tayyiba Haneef-Park (Laguna Hills, Calif.) and Destinee Hooker (San Antonio, Texas) are opposites selected to the U.S. Olympic Games Team. Nicole Davis (Stockton, Calif.) and Tamari Miyashiro (Kaneohe, Hawaii) are liberos being nominated to compete in the 2012 Olympic Games.


2008 Olympians Stacy Sykora and Kim Glass did not make the team