How the sport works
Athletics, what North Americans call track & field, includes a variety of running, jumping, and throwing events. I won't explain every single event here, but you can generally assume the winner completed the event the fastest, highest, or furthest.
Women's high jump final
When the high jumpers came out on the field, my brother and I immediately realized something: we were sitting in a section with American track & field families! Brigetta Barrett (below) and Chaunte Lowe's families were just a few rows behind us. Each time one of had a successful jump, their families would go crazy cheering.
Plus, there was an Uzbek in the competition! Undoubtedly, this would be my last chance for a long time to yell in Uzbek so I took full advantage of the opportunity. Svetlana Radzivil finished a respectable seventh place with a season's best of 1.97 meters.
When Barrett ended up with the silver medal, her family went nuts! She was like a giddy little kid and kept smiling and giggling to herself as she packed up her gear. It was great to see her joy!
Medal results
Gold: Anna Chicherova, Russia
Silver: Brigetta Barrett, USA
Bronze: Svetlana Shkolina, Russia
Men's javelin final
I don't actually know how to say anything in Finnsh, but you may recall my excitement at Finnish cyclist's Pia Sundstedt's pleasantly surprised reaction to my enthusiastic support for her. Naturally, I now yell, “Pia Sundstedt!” as a cheer for any Finnish athlete. Shouting the name of a female cyclist at the men's javelin final is probably the equivalent of cheering, “Wayne Gretzky!” at a WNBA game, but I'm fine with that. I must have cheered the right thing because a Finnish javelin thrower won bronze!
The crowd loved gold medalist, nineteen year old Keshorn Walcott and so did his Prime Minister who, among other gifts, has named a lighthouse and a Caribbean Airlines plane after him.
Also fun to note is that the javelins, once thrown, were retrieved by remote controlled miniature Minis!
Medal results
Gold: Keshorn Walcott, Trinidad & Tobago
Silver: Oleksandr Pyatnytsya, Ukraine
Bronze: Antti Ruuskanen, Finland
Men's 5,000 meter final
All eyes were on Mo Farah. Could he pull off a victory in the 5,000 meter race to match his win in the 10,000 meter run one week earlier? The race pace was slow by Olympic standards and, with about a lap and a half to go, Farah moved to the front of the pack. In a repeat of the 10,000 meter final, everyone at Olympic Stadium was on their feet to cheer their favorite home. It was agonizing to watch, desperately hoping he could maintain his lead. When he surged, the crowd roared even louder and, in another repeat of the 10,000 meter final, Farah won! Relief and joy spread through the stadium as Farah did his famous Mo-bot to celebrate.
Medal results
Gold: Mo Farah, Great Britain
Silver: Dejen Gebremeskel, Ethiopia
Bronze: Thomas Pkemei Longosiwa, Kenya
Women's 800 meter final
I can't even imagine the hell that South Africa's Caster Semenya has been through with gender testing, so it was fantastic to see her carry South Africa's flag during the opening ceremony and even better to see her win a medal by out sprinting most of the field.
Medal results
Gold: Mariya Savinova, Russia
Silver: Caster Semenya, South Africa
Bronze: Ekaterina Poistogova, Russia
Women's 4×400 meter relay final
No surprise, but the American women were unstoppable! Just look at that lead!
Medal results
Gold: USA
Silver: Russia
Bronze: Jamaica
Men's 4×100 meter relay final
Bolt was his usual, relaxed self immediately before the race started. The question wasn't so much who would win, but by how much would Jamaica win?
Jamaica had won this race early on and the Americans had secured silver so the big surprise was to see Canada finish third! I couldn't believe it! I was jumping up and down and shouting as loud as I could! But this euphoria was short lived. The official results still hadn't been posted on the scoreboard after an unusually long interval so I was worried the Jamaicans or Americans had been disqualified for some reason. I was stunned to see that Canada had been disqualified because the anchor runner had stepped on the lane line. The Canadian relay team, with maple leaf flags draped proudly around their shoulders as they began their victory lap, sank to their knees with looks of horror on their faces when they saw the official results. It felt like the wind was knocked out of me. It was painful. The Olympics are amazing when you're on top, but it was sickening to see how upsetting it is to be on the bottom. The Canadians, devastated, made their way off the track as Trinidad and Tobago celebrated the bronze medal they had just been promoted to.
Having been so focused on Canada's result, it had hardly registered in my brain what else had happened on the track: Jamaica had set a new world record!
Medal results
Gold: Jamaica
Silver: USA
Bronze: Trinidad & Tobago
As I mentioned earlier, my brother and I were apparently sitting in the American friends and family section, but we were still stunned to see an athlete making his way up the stairs to sit with his supporters near the end of the night. It was no other than Lopez Lemong, the 5,000 meter runner! You may not be familiar with him, but we'd actually been talking about him over the whole Olympics! A friend staying with us for the Olympics had a six degrees of separation connection to Lemong: her father's cousin's husband's something-or-other had sponsored Lemong when he came to the United States after living in refuge camps. Lemong, born in what is now South Sudan, was one of the Lost Boys of Sudan and became an American citizen in 2007. The flag bearer for the US at the Beijing 2008 Olympics was now just a few rows behind us! Lemong was smiling while he signed autographs and had his photo taken with other fans. As my brother and I waited for Lemong, we chatted excitedly with a woman who turned out to be a former training partner of Bernard Lagat! Wow! Lagat had placed fourth in tonight's 5,000 meter final. Lemong was nice enough to sign our tickets and to take a photo with me!
Everyone was flying high after Mo Farah's medal and the Jamaican men's new relay world record. Even the police officers were doing the Mo-bot and Bolt's signature pose! I hope you've seen the photos of Bolt doing the Mo-bot and Mo Farah doing Bolt's pose (google it if not!). They're a pair of characters, that's for sure. I would love watch a reality TV show where they live together and work at the DMV!
We were ecstatic to have met Lemong and couldn't wait to get back and tell our friend. Leaving the stadium, my brother and I decided to just head straight home and not press our luck looking for more athletes. So, of course, we then realized we were walking behind a couple of Jamaican athletes! Since they were obviously trying to be incognito and we weren't exactly sure who they were, we left them in peace and carried on towards the train where we met Mujandjae Kasuto, a Namibian boxer!
