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.

Men's pole vault final

Defending gold medalist and Olympic record holder Steve Hooker (below, waving) of Australia had an unfortunate off night and failed to make a single successful vault, so he was out of the competition fairly early on.

It didn't take long before three leaders and eventual medalists emerged. Rules dictate that all athletes must stay on the field until your event is over, even if you are no longer competing. So, as France's Lavillenie had already secured the gold medal and was preparing to use his next jump to attempt to break the Olympic record, Hooker was busy getting the crowd to cheer and clap for Lavillenie. Let me be clear: Hooker, who had long been out of the running, was garnering support for an athlete who was trying to break Hooker's own record. What a guy! Lavillenie was successful and set a new Olympic record of 5.97 meters, one centimeter more than Hooker in Beijing.

Medal results

Gold: Renaud Lavillenie, France

Silver: Bjorn Otto, Germany

Bronze: Raphael Holzdeppe, Germany

Women's 4×400 meter relay, round 1

Not surprisingly, the American women dominated their heat and had the fastest overall time by more than one second.

Women's hammer throw final

World record holder Betty Heidler took bronze while Wlodarcyzk threw a season's best and Lesenko set a new Olympic record.

Medal results

Gold: Tatyana Lesenko, Russia

Silver: Anita Wlodarcyzk, Poland

Bronze: Betty Heidler, Germany

Men's 4×100 meter relay, round 1

All eyes were on Bolt and his Jamaican teammates for this one, with Bolt hamming it up for the crowd. The Americans and Jamaicans were the teams to beat and thirteen of the fifteen teams with recorded times set either season's bests or national records. Below, a clean handoff for Canada.

Women's 5,000 meter final

It's a testament to how strong the running programs are in Kenya and Ethiopia that the fastest six women were from Ethiopia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Kenya!

Medal results

Gold: Meseret Defar, Ethiopia

Silver. Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot, Kenya

Bronze: Tirunesh Dibaba, Ethiopia

 

Women's 4×100 meter relay final

It's not every day you see a sprinting world record fall, especially not by as much as a half a second, so the crowd at Olympic Stadium were up on their feet to celebrate with the Americans!

 

Medal results

Gold: USA

Silver: Jamaica

Bronze: Ukraine

 

Women's 1,500 meter final

For the second time in the past year, American Morgan Uceny tripped and fell in a major competition, thus ending her shot at a medal. My heart went out to her as she lay on the track, pounding it with her hands in frustration. But the race went on and the top two medals went to Turkey.

 

Medal results

Gold: Asli Cakir Alptekin, Turkey

Silver: Gamze Bulut, Turkey

Bronze: Maryam Yusuf Jamal, Bahrain

 

Men's 4×400 meter relay final

This was Oscar Pistorius's last time to run in the Olympics as the South African relay team set a new season's best. Angelo Taylor, who finished off of the podium in the men's 400 meter hurdles, won silver tonight. But the show belong to the Bahamas who won their country's only medal of the London 2012 games.

 

Medal results

Gold: Bahamas

Silver: USA

Bronze: Trinidad & Tobago

 

Upon leaving the stadium, my brother and I kept watch for athletes. In doing so, we got to congratulate a group of elated coaches from the Bahamas. I spotted the the stadium's announcer, Gary Hill, who was happy to have his picture taken with us. When I noticed his fellow announcer, Geoff Wightman, was holding what looked like a medalist's bouquet of flowers, Geoff handed them to me for the picture, explaining he happened to catch them after the medal ceremony for the women's 4×100. He wasn't sure if it was a bronze medalist from the Ukraine or a gold medalist from the USA who had thrown the bouquet, but I was happy to hold it for even a few moments.

 

Maral Feizbakhsh of Germany's 4×400 meter relay team.

 

We next spotted Steve Hooker, the good natured pole vaulter from Australia.

 

He was walking with two other athletes, including his girlfriend, Russia's Ekaterina Kostetskaya, who had finished ninth in the women's 1,500 meter final earlier in the evening. (Some serious googling revealed that the couple met at the Beijing 2008 Olympics when their respective Russian coaches introduced them.) When I sort of looked towards Kostetskaya, who was deep in conversation with her friend, Hooker interrupted and asked her to take a picture with me.

 

Without a doubt, Steve Hooker has to be the friendliest pole vaulter around!

How the sport works

Twenty five competitors swim six laps approximately one mile each, totaling 10,000 meters. The first one to slap the finish board after completing the distance wins.

The marathoner in me takes issue with a race shorter than 26.2 miles being labeled a marathon, but swimming for ten kilometers has got to be incredibly grueling, so I'll let it pass.

A few of us got to the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park early enough to grab a spot almost directly across from the start.

It takes a long time to swim 10k but it went by surprisingly fast. We cheered for Canadian Richard Weinberger on each lap. He was easy to pick out because he had lost his swimming cap immediately upon diving in at the start of the race so he was the only bareheaded swimmer! He won the bronze medal so we were excited. (We Canadians seem to be pretty happy with winning bronze medals!)

The other swimmer we cheered the most for was Guam's Benjamin Schulte. When we first started cheering for him, we just knew he was from Guam and in dead last place. Another spectator told us his name was Benjamin, so we cheered even harder for dear Benjamin once we knew his name. He finished last, just under ten minutes slower than the penultimate swimmer.

One of the best features of the marathon swim is that, like cyclists or marathon runners, the swimmers feed during their race. The coaches all line up on a dock and use poles or cheap robot-style grabbers to pass their swimmer a beverage. Each pole/grabber has a national flag on it so swimmers know which drink to grab. (Some counties have invested more in their beverage devices than others, like the countries with a red plastic cup at the end of their pole, like the kind of cup you would use if you were playing beer pong at a frat house.) The swimmer then flips onto his back like an otter and basically throws the drink at his face, hoping some of it lands in his mouth.

Medal results

Gold: Oussama Mellouli, Tunisia

Silver: Thomas Lurz, Germany

Bronze: Richard Weinberger, Canada

As we made our way out of the park, we spotted two men in Kazakh team gear, one of whom had the drinking cup sticking out of his backpack. As we stalked–I mean, walked–behind the pair, we couldn't tell if one of them was the swimmer or if they were both coaches, so, feeling shy, I snapped a quick picture and didn't bother them. When we got home and looked at the picture, we realized the man on the right had a swimmer's number on his hand. He was the Kazakh swimmer and we didn't talk to him! Oops.

But back to the Olympics!

 

How the sport works

It was a pretty good game between USA and Japan. It was frustrating at times to see the Americans in particular bunch up, neglect the wings, and generally wait for the ball to be passed directly to a teammate instead of moving around to create space.

Both teams had some good scoring opportunities but both goalies were great. I can't begin to go on about what a fantastic game American keeper Hope Solo had. She was incredible and I think Japan should be proud to have gotten even one goal past her.

Final score: 2-1 for the USA.

Even though we didn't see Canada beat France, we did get to see them receive their medals!

Medal results

Gold: USA

Silver: Japan

Bronze: Canada(!)

As we turned down our street to walk home, I saw an Olympics VIP car round the corner and noticed it said, “Uzbekistan,” under the license plate so I took off like a shot to catch the car, yelling in Uzbek for them to wait for me. The car stopped at a red light and, once I had reached it, I had no idea what to do! I was on the driver's side so I tried to get his attention but that didn't work. I rounded the car and the rear passenger window was open, so I launched into a full Uzbek greeting (“Hello, how are you? Is everything well? Is your work well?”) with my hand on my heart. A stunned coach leaned out the window to thank me and to respond that he was indeed well, that everything was well, that his work was well, and how was I doing? The light then changed to green and they drove off. Had I been thinking clearly, I would have invited them in for tea. How rude of me to not have done so!

A bunch of us went to see an exhibit about the history of the Olympics at the Royal Opera House. Since seeing two British runners and meeting the men's Aussie volleyball team over the past two days, I've had my eyes pealed for athletes. So guess what–I spotted Juventina Napoleao, the penultimate finisher of the women's marathon from Timor Leste, in line for the exhibit! My brother and I couldn't wait to get inside so we could congratulate her on her finish and tell her how we'd cheered for her just a few days earlier! But it was not to be. The exhibit turned out to be guided and we missed speaking with Napoleao. Ho hum. And the exhibit itself was a bit of a let down: a poor layout of the torches and artifacts and not enough explanation of curious facts (apparently the chariot races in the ancient Olympics began with the lowering of a mechanical dolphin–what?!).

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.

Hmm, what's the best way to explain how good our seats were? Oh, I know. Did you watch the athletics on tv on August 7th? If so, you probably saw me. That's because I was in row two, right behind the starting blocks of the women's 100 meter hurdles. Wow!

 

We were right next to the tunnel the athletes used to enter the stadium for events like the high jump and 100 meter hurdles. Athletes! Plus one of the officials was really chatty and told us all sorts of anecdotes over the course of the night. Remember the moron who threw the beer bottle onto the field just before the start of the men's 100 meter finals? He had been sitting just a row or two behind where I was and, in releasing the bottle, he slapped the woman's head in front of him. As you may have heard, she was in fact the judo bronze medalist from the Netherlands and she gave him one good whack which pretty much knocked him out. Security didn't have to do much once they got there, the official joked to us.

 

Women's 100 meter hurdles semi finals

In case I hadn't been clear in my earlier posts, I love watching people jump over things so the 100 meter hurdles is right up my ally.

 

In the first of three heats, as the hurdlers had settled into the starting blocks and awaited the starter's pistol, the French hurdler took off too early. A terrible car alarm sound followed as the other runners in her heat wondered what had happened. It was an unmistakable false start and she knew it right away. The poor woman looked astonished at what she had done, knowing full well the inevitable consequence. She held her head high as she walked back to her starting block and the race officials came over to disqualify her. The second she was escorted off the track, she hung her head in her hands and walked into the lonely tunnel. Her Olympics were over. Lane seven went empty. Defending gold medalist Dawn Harper of the USA went on to win the heat.

 

American Lolo Jones is my favorite female hurdler. I've followed her career for awhile now and I even got to meet her last November at the expo for the New York City marathon (she was so nice!), but this was the first time I'd ever seen her compete. At Beijing 2008 she was favored to win but stumbled over the penultimate hurdle and finished in a disappointing seventh place. I was certainly going to do my best to cheer her on tonight. She finished third in her heat, which let her qualify as one of the two fastest losers.

 

Less than two hours until the final…!

 

Men's 800 meter semi finals

The athletes in each of the three heats had to wait in the tunnel just over my right shoulder as they waited for their heat to be introduced, which meant that any time there was a pause on the track, I'd see what the athletes were up to. Generally speaking, a lot of them tried to look confident and ready but they had such a long time to wait in the tunnel that it wasn't long before they all became bundles of nervous energy, pacing or bouncing around or talking to themselves. I can't even imagine the anxiety they must have been feeling. I did my best, however, to lighten things up by making eye contact with one of the runners and then giving a thumbs up or cheering, “Go Canada!” (or whichever country it happened to be).

 

Each of the heats eventually got underway and the eight fastest times all advanced to the final. Pictures, Kenya's Rudisha leads his heat. He would go on to set a new world record in the final two nights later.

 

Women's long jump qualification

Thirty women, including one Uzbek(!), showed up to compete for a dozen spots in the long jump final. Unfortunately, the Uzbek didn't have any successful jumps so she was out. Two Americans, three Russians, and a handful of athletes from other European countries progressed to the final.

 

Men's discus final

I think what most impressed me about Robert Harting, winner of the gold medal, isn't his discus throwing abilities, but that on his victory lap, he cleared all of the hurdles which were set up for the women's 100 meter hurdles event! He is clearly a well rounded athlete. The same talkative official from before came over and started telling me how Harting would have been disqualified for illegal hurdling since as a man, he'd be in illegible for the women's event!

 

Medal results

Gold: Robert Harting, Germany

Silver: Ehsan Kadadi, Iran

Bronze: Gerd Kanter, Estonia

 

Men's high jump final

Medal results

Gold: Ivan Ukhov, Russia

Silver: Erik Kynard, USA

Bronze: Moutaz Essa Barshim, Qatar; Derek Drouin, Canada; Robert Grabarz, Great Britain

 

Women's 200 meter semi finals

As expected, the Jamaicans and Americans dominated, with defending gold medalist Veronica Campbell-Brown and silver medalist Allyson Felix winning their semi finals smoothly. As I was so close to the track, it was hard to get a clear photo of them coming around the bend!

 

Women's 100 meter hurdles final

Ok, this was the big event I'd been anticipating all night. Lolo Jones was on the inside lane so I yelled for her as loud as I could when she emerged from the tunnel and walked right by me. I was nervous: the other runners were looking strong and Jones just barely squeaked by on time to qualify for the final and she looked tense herself.

 

I'm not one to shun the other athletes, though, so I waved my maple leaf mitt at Jessica Zelinka, the Canadian in lane six, and she gave me a big smile. I cried a gentle, “Go Canada!” to Phylicia George and got a grin and a small wave in response. When Aussie Sally Pearson turned towards me, I gave her two thumbs up which she acknowledged with a deep exhale.

 

Being this close to the athletes was new to me and I was a bit surprised to hear how loud it was when they slapped thighs. And they all seemed to slap their thighs! Ow. The other thing about my seat was that, because I was right behind their starting blocks, almost all of my pictures are of their backsides. Hence I have a lot of pictures their butts. But remember how I said you probably saw me on tv? My brother called to say he could clearly see me on tv and my other relatives even took a picture of the tv screen. That's me on the left in the raincoat, taking pictures.

 

I don't know about the athletes but I could hardly stand the tension. The rain had started up again and there was a slight but definite headwind.

 

Jones got off to a slow start from which she never recovered. She finished fourth, missing the podium by one tenth of a second. That she ran a season's best was probably of little comfort. Her two teammates both medaled, Harper taking silver and Wells taking bronze. No one could catch Australia's Sally Pearson who, despite the weather conditions, set a new Olympic record and claimed gold.

 

There was a strong Aussie contingency in my section, so Pearson lingered here on her victory lap. I was thrilled for her–she and Australia needed this–but gutted for Jones.

 

Medal results

Gold: Sally Pearson, Australia

Silver: Dawn Harper, USA

Bronze: Kellie Wells, USA

 

Men's 1,500 meter final

The gold medal winner Almost wasn't the gold medal winner. Earlier in the week, he'd been disqualified when he'd jogged less half a lap on the men's 800 meter heats before dropping out. The referee decided Makhloufi wasn't trying and the Algerian was banned from all following events in London 2012. He later produced a doctor's note which must have said the right thing because Makhloufi was reinstated and given the green light for the 1,500 meter final, which he won easily. Go figure.

 

Medal results

Gold: Taoufik Makhloufi, Algeria

Silver: Leonel Manzano, USA

Bronze: Abdalaati Iguider, Morocco

 

Leaving the stadium was a madhouse as usual but I still managed to spot an athlete! Belgium's Eline Berings, who had run in the women's 100 meter hurdles semi finals in the lane next to Lolo Jones, was kind enough to let me take a picture with her.

 

 

I was never supposed to be at this athletics session. I was supposed to be watching it at home on tv with the rest of my family. But because my brother and I are both so sports obsessed, we had spent pretty much every spare minute online during the first week of the Olympics trying to get more tickets to the Olympics. And it worked!

 

Women’s pole vault final

Medal results

Gold: Jen Suhr, USA

Silver: Yarisely Silva, Cuba

Bronze: Elena Isinbaeva, Russia

Women’s shot put final

Since I’m actually writing this post a full week after watching the women’s shot put final, I know that the final results of the night have since changed. A Belarusian had the longest throw of the night, a massive 21.76 meters, which defending gold medalist Valerie Adams of New Zealand could not match. Gold went to the Belarusian, silver to Adams of New Zealand, and bronze to Evgeniia Kolodko of Russia. But around the time of the closing ceremony, the Belarusian was stripped of her medal once it was discovered her A and B urine samples from both before and immediately after her event tested positive for the steroid metenolone (both Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez tested positive for this same steroid on the early 2000s).

I’m glad that a cheater has been caught, but I’m sorry that Adams didn’t get to hear her national anthem played or see her flag raised or experience the joy and relief at defending her gold medal from Beijing. I’m guessing that Gong of China, who has since been promoted from fourth place to bronze, is disappointed she didn’t get the opportunity to stand on the medal winners’ podium and receive the acknowledgment she was due.

Congratulations to all of the athletes who competed–cleanly.

Medal results

Gold: Valerie Adams, New Zealand

Silver: Evgeniia Kolodko, Russia

Bronze: Lijiao Gong, China

Women’s 200 meter, round 1

After six heats, twenty four women earned the right to advance to the semi finals on the following night. Favorite Alison Felix (below, waving) of the USA looked relaxed and confident as she comfortably won her heat.

Women’s 400 meter hurdles semi final

By now you should know that I’m a big fan of jumping over things, so I loved watching the three heats produce eight women who would compete for the gold medal in two nights’ time.

Men’s 400 meter hurdles final

Remember how I started off this post by saying I wasn’t supposed to have been at this session? The men’s 400 meter hurdles final was the event I was most excited about. The sentimentalist in me wanted to see defending gold medalist Angelo Taylor of the USA become the first man to win three times while my inner Dominican (after working with so many immigrants from the Dominican Republic in New York City, having so many Dominican friends, and having traveled to the island, I can’t help but feel una poquita Dominicana) was rooting for Athens gold medalist and aging Felix Sanchez.

I was so anxious watching the athletes settle into their starting blocks that it was a relief to hear the bang of the starter’s pistol. I was up on my feet, yelling and cheering the whole way (including screaming a few choice words in Dominican Spanish…).

Forty seven seconds later, Sanchez had won and Taylor crossed the line in fifth place. Taylor was shattered, he lay on the track in misery for the longest time and it broke my heart.

Meanwhile, Sanchez was wiping his tears on the Dominican flag. I later learned he had won the race for his late grandma who had raised him and had died the morning of the preliminary heats for the 400 meter hurdles during the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Sanchez had been so devestated that he ran poorly and failed to advance but he promised himself he’d win a gold medal for her before he retired. Today he had a picture of his grandmother pinned to the inside of his race number to keep her close by.

As luck would have it, I was in the first row of the second level and in a relatively quiet section, so when Sanchez came my way, I took a deep breath and yelled as loud as I could, “FELICITACIONES, SANCHEZ!” I caught this picture just as he was looking up to acknowledge me.

Later in the evening when Sanchez stood on the podium with his medal around his neck and watching the Dominican flag being raised, he absolutely lost it. He sobbed and bawled through his entire national anthem: shaking shoulders, weak knees, wiping his nose, the whole nine yards. I still felt disappointment for Taylor but I’m glad Sanchez, for whom the gold medal obviously meant so much, had won.

Medal results

Gold: Felix Sanchez, Dominican Republic

Silver: Michael Tinsley, USA

Bronze: Javier Culson, Puerto Rico

Women’s 3,000 meter steeplechase final

I was thrilled to have the perfect view of one of the jumps! Zaripova of Russia set a new personal best to win gold and Ghribi of Tunisia set a new national record to win silver. One of Ghribi’s supporters was so excited that she tried to go on the field and celebrate with Ghribi but security tackled her back to the coaches’ section before she had even taken half a step!

Medal results

Gold: Yuliya Zaripova, Russia

Silver: Habiba Ghribi, Tunisia

Bronze: Sofia Assefa, Ethiopia

Men’s 400 meter final

At the start of the Olympics, I found a list of countries participating in the Olympics that had never won a single medal. Thanks to Kirani James and his victory in the men’s 400 meters, Grenada is now off of that list! The prime minister declared the next day a half day so citizens could celebrate and Grenada became the country with the most medals per capita (1 per 100,000). James also shook hands with everyone of his competitors before he started to celebrate his gold medal. The previous day, James, who won his heat, waited for the last man in his heat to cross the finish line: Oscar Pistorius. James asked Pistorius if they could trade name bibs because Pistorius, and all he had already achieved running on his artificial blade legs, was an inspiration to him. James has to be the classiest nineteen year old around.

Santos of the Dominican Republic was obviously happy with his silver medal but, after Sanchez had just won the gold forty five minutes prior, there were no more big Dominican flags to go around! The poor guy took his victory lap with a dinky little hand held flag!

Medal results

Gold: Kirani James, Grenada

Silver: Laguelin Santos, Dominican Republic

Bronze: Lalonde Gordon, Trinidad & Tobago

You know how I said that Poland’s fans were all decked out in Polish gear at the men’s volleyball match in the morning…I saw this same guy three times in one day at two different venues across town!

And to think, I wasn’t even supposed to have been at this athletics session.

How the sport works

The first team to score twenty five points in three sets wins the match. This was still a preliminary round so there were no medals awarded.

I was eager for the Australia-Poland match up. In general, I love the Aussies and am happy to cheer for them, but I'm an even bigger fan of Poland (and their surprisingly peppy national anthem, named “Poland is not yet lost” but I like to call “Three cheers for Poland”). Since I know nothing about what countries are any good at men's volleyball, I was stunned and delighted to learn that Poland was considered a medal favorite and to see that the overwhelming majority of fans were there to support Poland. It was like being in Little Krakow! The crowd was decked out in red and white as they cheered, sang, clapped, and waved their flags.

It was an exciting game and I loved to see the players from both teams generally disregarded their own safety and went for the ball at all costs, even if it meant hurling oneself onto the laptops on the officials' desk or slamming into one of the side barriers at full speed.

In the end, the Aussies pulled off a huge upset, winning 3-1. The Aussies celebrated as if they had just won a medal. If I remember correctly, this win meant there was a possibility of advancing to the quarter finals, depending on the results of the rest of the day's matches. I was fine with the result because it had been a great game and I am a fan of Australia but the Polish fans were pretty shocked. I think Volley Roo was Australia's secret weapon.

Most of the Polish fans stayed to cheer for Serbia as they took on medal favorites Russia. By the end of the morning, the Polish fans were 0 for 2 as Russia clearly dominated Serbia, winning 3-0.

As my brother and I left our seats and looked for the venue's exit, he said something about the Australian volleyball team. Whatever he said didn't register with me because the tallest men on the planet all seemed to be gathering in the lobby. Seriously, they were giants. Then it dawned on me–they were the Australian volleyball team! They greeting fans and having their pictures taken, so I wasn't going to miss out. Did I mention they were really tall??

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.

Please note the official description of the weather conditions…

Women’s 400 meter hurdles, round 1

Over forty women were vying for twenty four spots in the semi finals. A Canadian earned a slot in the semis and I’m pleased to say the Uzbek didn’t finish last in her heat. Small victories! Favorites like Russia’s Antyukh, the USA’s Demus, and the Czech Republic’s Hejnova all won their respective heats and moved on to the semi finals.

Men’s 100 meter semi finals

Usain Bolt, who is not known for having a fast start, was even slower than usual out of blocks in his heat. Nevertheless, he won his heat convincingly and will be in the final later tonight with two of his countrymen and three Americans. Oh, and a sprinter each from the Netherlands and Trinidad & Tobago, too–not that anyone is too concerned about either of them.

Bolt, shadow boxing before his heat.

Men’s 1,500 meter semi finals

From the two heats, the first five finishers automatically qualified and then the next two overall fastest runners would also qualify for the final. The first heat was about eight seconds faster than the second heat and everyone in the first heat ran faster than the winner of the second heat, which meant that six of the fastest times on the track failed to qualify for the final. Doesn’t quite seem fair.

Men’s hammer throw final

The throwing events are typically my least favorite of the field events, but even I was impressed to see Pars’ throw of over eighty meters, more than a full meter beyond his closest rival.

Medal results

Gold: Krisztian Pars, Hungary

Silver: Primoz Kozmus, Slovenia

Bronze: Koji Murofushi, Japan

Men’s 400 meter semi finals

Five athletes from four Caribbean countries, twin brothers from Belgium, and an Australian all advanced to the 400 meter final.

Oscar Pistorius ran in the second heat. He is the first person ever to compete in both the Olympics and the upcoming Paralympics. Even though he finished last in his heat and did not advance, he received a huge ovation from the crowd.

It’s interesting to note that Liemarvin Bonevacia, who finished last in his heat and also did not move on to the final, competed under the Olympic flag and not under a country’s flag. He is one of a handful of athletes who hails from a place that, for one reason or another, does not have a recognized Olympic committee. Such athletes are allowed to compete as IOAs: Individual Olympic Athletes.

Women’s triple jump final

For those of you who read this blog closely, you’ll remember that I said I wasn’t likely to hear the Kazakh national anthem anytime soon again after Vinokurov won the men’s cycling road race. I was wrong! Kazakhstan’s Olga Rypakova claimed gold with a jump of fourteen meters, ninety eight centimeters. What’s more is that, like in the men’s cycling road race where Colombia earned silver, a Colombian won silver tonight! Too bad there weren’t any Norwegians in the triple jump to claim bronze.

Medal results

Gold: Olga Rypakova, Kazakhstan

Silver: Caterine Ibarguen, Colombia

Bronze: Olha Saladuha, Ukraine

Women’s 400 meter final

It was a familiar cast from Beijing with defending gold medalist Ohuruogu and bronze medalist Richards-Ross both looking for gold. Trotter and Ohuruogu both ran season’s bests but it wasn’t enough to beat Richards-Ross (below, left).

Medal results

Gold: Sanya Richards-Ross, USA

Silver: Christine Ohuruogu, Great Britain

Bronze: DeeDee Trotter, USA

Men’s 3,000 meter steeplechase final

I’ve long believed that one of the key events desperately missing from the modern Olympics is the obstacle course. Since that’s not likely to happen any time soon, I’m pretty content with the steeplechase (although I believe the word “chase” is misleading. Steeple jump, perhaps? Or how about steeple splash?)

I’m not sure what to make of Kemboi. He is definitely a charismatic guy. After crossing the finish line…

…he took his shirt off and traded with the silver medalist of France…

…before leaping into the Frenchman’s arms…

…and putting on the Frenchman’s shirt, which was about six sizes too big…

…and then dancing a jig!

In the negative column for Kemboi, he was accused of stabbing a woman in June after she allegedly refused his sexual advances. Hmm.

Medal results

Gold: Ezekiel Kemboi, Kenya

Silver: Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad, France

Bronze: Abel Kiprop Mutai, Kenya

Men’s 100 meter final

Just like everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s day, everyone was Jamaican at Olympic Stadium tonight! A Canadian family sat in front of me and the mother had hand sewn dresses for her adult daughters that formed the Jamaican flag when they stood side by side. Like I said, everyone was Jamaican tonight.

Even if you somehow managed to avoid watching the race, I’m pretty sure you already know the results.

Medal results

Gold: Usain Bolt, Jamaica

Silver: Yohan Blake, Jamaica

Bronze: Justin Gatlin, USA

Poor Gatlin was largely ignored by the media on his bronze medal victory lap!

As I joined eighty thousand other people in leaving Olympic Stadium, I noticed two men dressed in Team GB gear. Mind you, half of the fans were dressed like this, but these guys had track numbers pinned to their backpacks and one of them looked like he had a taken off the top half of his unitard. Athletes! I thought I recognized them from the men’s 400 meter semi finals but I couldn’t be sure. I was so dumbstruck that I just walked alongside them, their faces aglow from their smartphones and me trying not to trip over my jaw. It wasn’t long before they noticed me and said a cautious, “Hi.” I managed to respond with a plain, “Hi,” before I had to turn to catch my train. The woman next to me told me they were Nigel Levine and Conrad Williams (respectively, pictured below) and that they were, indeed, 400 meter runners. My first athlete sighting!

How the sport works

You run 26.2 miles. Pretty straightforward!

I’ve run a few marathons and have decided I prefer to cheer on the marathoners rather than be one myself, so that’s exactly what I did at the women’s marathon this morning.

Being summer in London, I put on sunblock as soon as I got to my spot just under two hundred meters from the finish line. Forty minutes later, I put on my raincoat and still got soaked in a downpour that lasted for well over an hour! At one point when the rain had let up somewhat, the emcee interviewed me about having come from abroad for the Olympics and about marathon running. My big screen debut!

Not even rain phases the Dutch fans.

Runners gather at the start.

The pack stayed very tight for the first lap.

The marathon course led the field of one hundred eighteen runners past me a total of four times over the next few hours. Each time, I got faster at picking out the running kits of the different countries. I noticed the South and North Koreans running together during the first couple of laps. For the first two laps of the race, Timor Leste’s Juventina Napoleao was in last place and the crowd roared for her. She ended up finishing one hundred and sixth out of one hundred seven runners.

A breakaway of Kenyans, Ethiopians, and a Russian produced the eventual medal winners. An Ethiopian took off in the last mile and left a Kenyan in second and the Russian took third.

Just after winning the race and setting a new Olympic record, Tiki Gelana came running back down the course with the Ethiopian flag on her shoulders. I didn’t get a picture but I did get a high five!

Americans Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher finished tenth and eleventh, respectively.

New Zealand’s Kim Smith finished fifteenth.

With the finish line in sight, a few of the marathoners, like sixty seventh place Ivana Sekyrova of the Czech Republic, got excited and waved to the crowd, prompting even bigger cheers.

The medal ceremony took place after the last runner had finished, Caitriona Jennings of Ireland. She was in visible pain already on the first lap so it must have taken tremendous courage and determination to finish the race. Eleven runners abandoned over the 26.2 miles.

Medal results

Gold: Tiki Gelana, Ethiopia

Silver: Priscah Jeptoo, Kenya

Bronze: Tatyana Petrova Arkhipova, Russia

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.

Men’s 400 meter hurdles semi finals

I was lucky enough to attend the Sydney Olympics in 2000 where I saw Angelo Taylor of the USA win the gold medal. That night as I was leaving the Olympic Park, Taylor, along with a few of his teammates, was coming back from a celebratory trip to McDonald’s and letting people touch his gold medal. I never thought I’d get to touch an Olympics gold medal, so I was pretty excited! So for the past twelve years, I’ve been a big fan of Taylor’s and was thrilled to learn he’d made the semi finals here in London and that I’d get to cheer him on.

Along with other big names like the Dominican Republic’s Felix Sanchez (pictured below, far left) and Puerto Rico’s Javier Culson, Taylor advanced to the final to be held two nights later.

Women’s 100 meter semi finals

It was incredible to see how fast the world’s fastest women can run. In the three semi final heats, favorites like Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Veronica Campbell-Brown and, my family’s favorite, Alison Felix of the USA all advanced to the final as expected.

Women’s 400 meter semi finals

The twenty four women competing for the eight spots in the next night’s final were all off in a flash. Americans DeeDee Trotter and Sanya Richards-Ross and defending gold medal champion of Great Britain, Christine Ohuruogu, advanced to the final.

Women’s discus final

Sandra Perkovic of Croatia took home the gold by out throwing her nearest competitor by almost two and a half meters.

Medal results

Gold: Sandra Perkovic, Croatia

Silver: Darya Pishchalnikova, Russia

Bronze: Yanfeng Li, China

Women’s heptathlon: 800 meters (final event)

I like events like the heptathlon because it rewards individuals who are incredible all-around athletes. Heptathletes compete in seven running, jumping, and throwing events over two days, earning points for each results. Tonight was the last of the seven events in the women’s heptathlon, the 800 meters. Going in to the 800 meters, Jessica Ennis of Great Britain was in the overall lead. The crowd absolutely adored her and the stadium roared when she was introduced. Ennis coped well with the tremendous pressure on her shoulders, winning her 800 meters heat and thereby taking home the gold.

Medal results

Gold: Jessica Ennis, Great Britain

Silver: Lilli Schwarzkopf, Germany

Bronze: Tatyana Chernova, Russia

Men’s long jump final

This was a big night for Team GB as the women’s track cycling team had already set two new world records, Jessica Ennis had her gold medal, and Greg Rutherford had the two longest jumps of the night.

Medal results

Gold: Greg Rutherford, Great Britain

Silver: Mitchell Watt, Australia

Bronze: Will Claye, USA

Men’s 10,000 meters final

I know the sprint events tend to be the crowd favorites, but I personally prefer the longer distances (maybe its because, even when rounded down, my 100 meters time is still closer to what it should take to run 200 meters!).

Somali born, British raised Mo Farah was the crowd’s darling. If they adored Jessica Ennis, then they loved Farah. I never thought a stadium full of people would be on their feet for an entire 10k, but that’s exactly what happened. Eighty thousand people roared nonstop for Farah and the noise only grew with each lap he completed. I’ve been to a lot of loud sports events, including when New Zealand won the Rugby World Cup on their home turf last year, but I have never heard noise like this before. Below, Farah leads on the home stretch.

Farah won by half a second, slapping his shiny, bald head in shock and joy as he crossed the line. Victory secured, he started doing the “Mo-bot”–spelling his name, YMCA style.

Medal results

Gold: Mo Farah, Great Britain

Silver: Galen Rupp, USA

Bronze: Tariku Bekele, Ethiopia

Women’s 100 meter final

Defending gold medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce couldn’t be beat and retained her title by three one hundredths of a second.

Medal results

Gold: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce

Silver: Carmelita Jeter, USA

Bronze: Veronica Campbell-Brown, Jamaica