Ten days of the 2012 Olympic Games have passed since the extravagant opening ceremony in London, an event that drew hundreds of millions of viewers around the world. With 204 countries and over 10,000 athletes including six unaffiliated with any country, the London Olympics is the biggest stage for athletes around the world. The United States has traditionally been a powerhouse in the Olympics both in number of gold medals and total medals. In the 2012 games, the U.S. is currently six medals behind China who leads the Olympics with 73 medals. Although many events have already concluded, the U.S. has a strong chance of receiving gold medals in some of the remaining events, although Olympic gold is never a certainty.
Men’s Basketball
Ever since the U.S. was allowed to have professional athletes on their Olympic basketball teams back in 1992 with the original “Dream Team”, they have usually swept the competition, winning gold medals in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2008. This year’s basketball team, like their predecessors, were expected to dominate Olympic competition. In Pool A, the U.S. soundly defeated France, 98-71, Tunisia, 110-63, and Nigeria, 156-73, a game that led to accusations that the U.S. was running up the score. However, there were no accusations of that when the U.S. played Lithuania. Lithuania has posed a challenge to U.S. dominance in Olympic basketball, losing to the U.S. by only two points in the 2000 Olympics and actually defeating them in 2004. This year, Lithuania again proved an obstacle, but the United States managed to pull out a victory 99-94 thanks to LeBron James, who scored nine of his 20 points in the fourth quarter to help the U.S. stay undefeated. The U.S. rebounded with a 123-97 victory over Argentina in their last preliminary game and will play Australia, the fourth seed in Pool B in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. The real question is whether the close victory against Lithuania was an anomaly or a sign of impending disappointment for the U.S. Unquestionably, the U.S. has the best basketball team of any of the twelve teams in the tournament and should win the gold. The only thing that would prevent this is overconfidence.
Chance of winning gold: 5/5
Women’s Soccer
The U.S. men’s soccer team has always been outmatched internationally and did not even earn a spot at the 2012 Olympics. Not so with the women’s soccer team, which won all three games in pool play against France, Colombia, and North Korea and then beat New Zealand 2-0 to enter the semifinal game with Canada. The U.S. went on to defeat Canada in its semifinal round, a game where many said whoever won would easily win the championship over Japan. The U.S. was down the whole game because of an excellent game by Canada’s Christine Sinclair who scored all three Canadian goals. With Canada up 1-0, Megan Rapinoe scored to tie the game and when Sinclair scored her second goal, Rapinoe responded with her second goal of the game. Abby Wambach scored her fifth goal in as many games to tie the game at 3-3 and set the stage for Alex Morgan who scored the winning goal in the second period of overtime. Now the U.S. will play Japan for the gold medal on Aug. 9. Despite Japan’s impressive victories over Spain and France, it is difficult to imagine the U.S. losing the match. Japan is led by a very strong defense that shut out Spain and has held their opponents to two goals in five games, but the U.S. offense has proved itself a powerhouse with fourteen goals in five games. This is a classic battle of offense against defense but the U.S. should outpower Japan in the end.
Chance of winning gold: 4/5
Women’s Beach Volleyball
Both U.S. beach volleyball teams will play in the semi finals and at least one can win an Olympic medal. However, whether either team will win gold remains to be seen. The team of Jen Kessy and April Ross ranked fourth entering the Olympic tournament and defeated the Czech Republic in two sets in their quarterfinal match. The other U.S. team, nicknamed the “Golden Girls,” consists of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings, who crushed Italy in two sets in their quarterfinal match yesterday. May and Walsh won gold in both of their previous Olympics as a team. In fact, the two had not lost a single Olympic set or match until this summer, when they lost their first set to the Schwaiger sisters of Austria before winning the next two with a vengeance. However, May and Walsh have faced challenges since their previous Olympic victories. Walsh had two kids in one year and May had a serious Achilles injury. The combination of these events resulted in May and Walsh playing and winning far fewer tournaments than most other Olympic beach volleyball teams. This was a large part in their lower seed to begin the Olympics. At the onset of the London Olympics, the “Golden Girls” ranked third behind the Chinese team of Chen Xue and Xi Zhang and the top Brazilian team of Larissa França and Juliana Felisberta Da Silva who will face off against Kessy and Ross tomorrow. The Brazilian team, though formidable, suffers from a lack of team unity if they begin a match or set poorly. Kessy and Ross must get ahead quickly if they want to defeat the Brazilians. The Chinese team of Xue and Zhang defeated the Schwaiger sisters to reach the semifinals. Many consider Xue and Zhang to be better than May and Walsh, but they lack the “Golden Girls’” experience. That could prove key in their match tomorrow. If May and Walsh continue their dominant streak, they will most likely face the top ranked Brazilian team on Thursday. On paper, their chances appear slim and for the first time ever, the U.S. team of May and Walsh will not be favored to win the gold medal. Their only strength over Brazil and China is their aura of invincibility based on their past victories in Olympic competition. Yet, no one can seriously count out the undefeated “Golden Girls” despite their strong opponents.
Chance of winning gold: 3/5
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