As the Olympic flame was extinguished and the closing ceremony rang through London Sunday night, the United States could rest easy, knowing the country has the best athletes in the world. The final tally of 104 medals and 46 golds outdistanced second-place China (87 total; 38 gold) by a comfortable margin, though a breakdown shows an imbalanced overall team showing.
The London Games was the year of the women athletes. The United States topped the medal count with a golden showing from its team of hugely talented women athletes. For the first time ever the United States sent more women than men (269 to 261) to compete and in another first the women brought home more gold medals, with a grand total of 29.
In addition, world records were set by the American women in the 4x100-meter track relay, as well as the 4x100-meter medley swimming relay. Individually, the women set world records in the 200-meter backstroke by Missy Franklin, the 200-meter breaststroke by Rebecca Soni, and the 100-meter butterfly courtesy of Dana Vollmer.
To recap, Missy Franklin won four gold medals and a bronze in swimming while teammate Allison Schmitt scored a trio of golds as well as a silver and a bronze. Overall, swimming was easily the U.S.’s strongest sport with 16 golds and 31 medals while no one else had more than 11 total. The distribution was even as well, with 16 medals won by the men and 15 by the women.
The women more than held their own in gymnastics as well, with three golds, a silver, and a bronze, (Russian had 6 medals; 1 gold). In addition they swept the biggest golds, winning the team competition while Gabby Douglas won the individual all-around.
Volleyball was another big win for the American women. The duo of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings won their third straight gold, beating fellow Americans April Ross and Jen Kessy in the beach volleyball gold medal match. The indoor volleyball team was more of the same as Destinee Hooker led the women’s team to a silver medal finish.
In basketball, the United States as a whole flexed their muscles in rolling out both a men and women’s undefeated, gold medal-winning squad. Soccer saw the women’s team take home gold yet again, as Abby Wambach and crew avenged their World Cup loss to Japan in the title game.
If the men had any redemption in these games, it was in track and field. And despite the Jamaicans’ excellence in sprinting, the men outdistanced everyone else with 15 total medals (Jamaica and Kenya were second with 7) highlighted by Ashton Eaton’s decathlon gold. Allyson Felix was the star on the women’s side with three gold medals as the women had six in total (tied with Russia for most) and 14 medals in the sport overall (Russia had 16).
So while every American can celebrate another Olympic triumph, the women provided the margin of victory.
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