sochi sisters 2.

usa’s hendrickson becomes first woman olympic ski-jumper ever.
sarah hendrickson, 19yo of salt lake city, knew she wasn’t going to win the gold, thanks to a torn acl & mcl injury late last year. nevertheless, she still went down in history tuesday by wearing bib 1 at the first women’s ski-jumping event ever at the winter games. hendrickson came in 21st; 22yo carina vogt of germany won the gold.

usa’s hamlin becomes first american to medal in singles luge.
erin hamlin, 27yo of new york, achieved something no other u.s. athlete has in the half-century since luge was introduced as an olympic sport: she captured a medal in singles luge. the bronze win also makes hamlin the first-ever american woman luger to medal. a three-time olympian, hamlin had finished 12th at the 2006 winter games in turin and 16th at the 2010 winter games in vancouver. of the 81 medals awarded in singles luge since 1964, 54 had been won by germany – who still took the gold & silver at sochi.

usa’s kate hansen loves her some beyonce.
21yo california luger kate hansen has a pre-race ritual she’s been sharing all over the media: she dances. to beyonce. big-time. quoth hansen, “she just gets me fierce, & i get stoked, & i just have to (dance). i have good mojo going on, so it’s just how i roll. i’m completely in my own world, and it doesn’t matter who’s staring. i’m still gonna dance.” hansen came in 10th in women’s single luge, but her olympic spirit sure is winning!

maze & gisin share downhill skiing gold.
30yo tina maze of slovenia & 28yo dominique gisin of switzerland raced to a gold medal tie in the women’s downhill skiing event wednesday, the first time olympic gold was awarded to two skiers in an alpine skiing event. gisin began in 8th position, maze in 25th, and both crossed the finish line in 1:41.57 to share the spot atop the podium. this was only the eighth time ever that two gold medals were awarded for one winter games event.

kowalczyk wins cross-country gold with a fractured foot.
31yo polish skier justyna kowalczyk is just plain hard-core. kowalczyk won the women’s cross-country 10km classic thursday with a foot fracture she sustained last month. kowalczyk completed the course in 28:17.8, gaining her second olympic gold; she won the 30k classic women’s cross-country at the 2010 vancouver games.

vieira pinch-hits for costas & makes media history.
meredith vieira became the first woman ever to anchor nbc’s primetime olympic coverage solo. filling in for bob costas, who has been suffering through the sochi games with a nasty, lingering, double eye infection, 60yo vieira hosted friday night’s coverage, giving three-day substitute matt lauer a necessary rest. costas was sent to the anchor bench tuesday, ending a 157-appearance streak as nbc’s olympics primetime host – his first missed olympics broadcast since 1988.

just a moment between friends.
noelle pikus-pace, 31yo of salt lake city, clinched the silver in the women’s skeleton event friday night, following huge disappointment in vancouver, retirement, two kids, one devastating miscarriage, de-retirement, & a blackout wreck/concussion during training last week. her teammate, katie uhlaender – 29yo of vail – meanwhile missed the bronze by four-hundredths of a second. silver for supermom, heartbreak for katie read the headline. but before pikus-pace moved on to a medalist’s celebration, she turned, found her friend & they embraced – one sad for the other in her happiness, one happy for the other in her sadness. a perfect olympic yin+yang.

more medaling moms.

ok, folks. my final post honoring the women of the xxx olympiad.
it's been over for 34 days, so i guess it's about time.
i just had to offer appropros props to a sampling of these
amazing women athletes. & i'm just about ready to turn the corner.

but first — & last — the remaining american moms who medaled
[aside from kerri walsh jennings & kristin armstrong] @ the 2012 london summer games:

danielle scott-arruda.
event: women's indoor volleyball.
won: silver — her second; she also won silver in 2008 in beijing.
age: 39yo.
olympics: five. scott-arruda was the team's youngest member in atlanta in 1996 @ 23yo, & is the first u.s. volleyball player — woman or man — to play in five olympics.
mom of: 2yo daughter julianne.
other tidbits: scott-arruda plays professionally for the brazilian league sao bernardo.

tayyiba haneef-park.
event: women's indoor volleyball.
won: silver — her second; she also won silver in 2008 in beijing.
age: 33yo.
olympics: three.
mom of: 2yo son ajani.
other tidbits: haneef-park is 6ft, 7in & the tallest member of the u.s. women's team. she plays professionally for igtisadchi baku in azerbaijan, but intends to retire in 2013. her name, tayyiba, is arabic, & she's married to a u.s. air force pilot.

christie rampone.
event: women's soccer.
won: gold — her third; she also won gold in 2004 in athens & in 2008 in beijing, & silver in 2000 in sydney.
age: 37yo.
olympics: four.
mom of: 6yo daughter rylie & 2yo daughter reece.
other tidbits: this was rampone's second olympics as the u.s. team captain; america won all six matches it played at the games, finally winning over japan for the gold. rampone has never finished lower than third place in any of the olympics or world cup competitions she's played in.

candace parker.
event: women's basketball.
won: gold — her second; she also won gold in 2008 in beijing.
age: 26yo.
olympics: two.
mom of: 3yo daughter lailaa.
other tidbits: parker plays professionally for the wnba's los angeles sparks & the ummc ekaterinburg of russia. she was the first woman to dunk in an ncaa tournament game & the first wnba player to dunk in consecutive games. she's the younger sister of nba player tony parker, & the wife of brooklyn nets player shelden williams.

lashinda demus.
event: women's 400m hurdles.
won: silver — her first.
age: 29yo.
olympics: two — she competed in 2004 in athens, but didn't advance to the final. she failed to qualify for the 2008 games in beijing, but went on to win the 2009 & 2011 u.s. championships.
mom of: 5yo twin sons dontay & duaine.
other tidbits: demus is the american record-holder in the 400m hurdles, & trains with her mom, yolanda rich. she comes from a family rich with twins: her grandfather was one of twenty kids, eight of whom were twins.

other olympic sister acts.

besides serena & venus williams, five other pairs of siblings
competed at the london games for team usa —
three of them were sisters, & two of them earned olympic medals.

jessica & maggie steffens, 25yo & 19yo respectively,
both helped the u.s. women's water polo team
win gold over silver-earning spain,
with maggie scoring 21 goals of 27 shots during the final.

the steffens' dad, carlos, played water polo
for the university of california, was a member of the
1977 ncaa championship team, & was a three-time all-american.

steffens sister #3, teresa, also plays water polo,
& their brother, charlie, made the usa youth team.

swimming sisters alyssa & haley anderson, 21yo & 20yo respectively,
both medaled separately — alyssa as a member of the women's 4x200m freestyle relay team,
& haley on her own in the 10km [6.2-mile] open water marathon.

alyssa swam along with missy franklin, allison schmitt & dana vollmer
in the preliminary round, qualifying the u.s for the final.
shannon vreeland replaced alyssa for the third leg of the final,
helping the americans win the gold with a new olympic record.

haley narrowly missed competing in the pool with her big sister,
finishing third in the 800m freestyle at the olympic trials.
but she finished first at an olympic marathon swim qualifier,
& earned silver behind hungary's eva risztov & ahead of italy's martina grimaldi.

the andersons' mom, colette, swam for the university of hawai'i,
& their younger sister, jordan, also swims competitively.

serena & venus williams, olympic sisters.

serena & venus williams — the strong-arming sisters of tennis —
swung through the 2012 summer olympics & shimmered like gold.
exactly like gold.

the powerhouse pair won the women's doubles in a three-peat performance,
becoming the first pair ever to win women's doubles three times —
having won in 2000 in sydney & again in 2008 in beijing.
[serena was injured during the 2004 athens games;
venus played with another partner, but didn't medal.]

playing against the czechs on a rainy afternoon,
the williams women also became the first tennis players
to win gold indoors since 1912.

a day earlier, little sister serena had matched her big sister's three gold medals
by winning the women's singles against russia's maria sharapova.
venus won the women's singles in 2000 in sydney.
with the singles win, serena joined steffi graf as the only women
to complete the career golden slam — olympic gold plus wins at the four majors:
australian open, french open, wimbledon & u.s. open.

only three women tennis players ever have won two gold medals at the same games —
serena, venus & fellow american helen wills moody in 1924 in paris.

with the doubles win, the sisters each reached
a record four olympic tennis gold medals.

both of the williams women have been playing tennis since the age of four.
at 30yo [serena] & 32yo [venus], while still in spectacular shape,
the pair is feeling their quarter-century+ of on-court wear & tear:

venus has suffered strained abdominal muscles, knee tendonitis,
a separate knee injury, wrist injuries in both arms, & last year,
was diagnosed last year with incurable autoimmune disease —
sjogren's syndrome — which causes fatigue & swollen joints.

serena has suffered a lower back injury, a shoulder strain, a leg injury,
a knee injury, an ankle injury, & two years ago, underwent emergency treatment
for blood clots in her lungs due to a pulmonary embolism.

nevertheless, this dynamic duo of tennis titans is nowhere close to done,
both asserting they're ready for rio 2016, & a fourth gold medal together.

heather stanning, olympic military.

captain heather stanning of the 32nd regiment royal artillery,
along with her rowing partner, helen glover, won the host country's
first gold medal of the london games &
team gb's first-ever gold medal in women's rowing.

five days into competition, brits were growing rather anxious
about their lack of golden olympic awards.

but then along came stanning & glover, with a time of 7.27:13 in the coxless pairs,
besting not only the silvering aussies [great band name, yes?],
but also the bronze-earning new zealanders, who had beat them
out of the gold at the world championships in 2010 & 2011.

stanning began rowing in 2004 at the university of bath,
where she was attending as part of the university officer training corps.
she went on to the royal military academy sandhurst &
was commissioned into the royal artillery in 2008.

in 2009, she was paired with 26yo former pe teacher glover,
who had never rowed until 2008, when she entered the
national lottery-funded sporting giants talent identification program.
sporting giants identified glover's talent as rowing. they were spot-on.

with stanning temporarily released from her army duties
in order to train full-time for the olympics,
the two won silver medals [behind new zealand, remember]
at the 2010 & 2011 world championships, & have been unbeaten this season,
gaining gold at all three world cup races &
setting an olympic record with their winning heat time.

the captain's army colleagues were permitted to take a break from training
exercises to watch her & her rowing mate win the gold 3,000 miles away.

stanning, whose parents were royal navy officers &
whose brothers are both in the british military,
returns this month to begin training for a future post in afghanistan,
a source of national pride, twice over.

the royal mail has issued a stamp in tribute to the golden twosome.

dana vollmer, olympic comeback.

dana vollmer spent the 2008 summer olympics in fiji,
thinking about why she wasn't in beijing.

the native texan — who had competed in her first meet at age 4,
who at 12yo was the youngest swimmer ever to compete in the u.s. olympic trials,
who in 2004, at 16yo, helped set the world record &
won gold in the 800m freestyle relay at the athens games —
hadn't even made the team for the 2008 games.

vollmer had a history of health issues — supra ventricular tachycardia,
a racing-heartbeat arrhythmia she'd had surgery to correct,
followed by back, shoulder & knee injuries.
but her biggest challenge was her mindset: she was just too focused in
on other people's expectations, & she had buckled under the pressure.

over the next four years, vollmer graduated from college,
changed up her training, changed her diet upon discovering
she was suffering from an allergy to gluten & eggs,
& got married.

& she came to the 2012 olympic trials lifted up with energy & excitement,
rather than weighed down by others' expectations.

& she went on to win a gold trifecta.

the 24yo set the world record & won gold with a time of 55.98
in the 100m butterfly, despite losing her outer swimcap during the race
[the inner cap covers hair; the outer cap holds goggles & smoothes bumpiness].
lu ying of china was almost a full second behind vollmer for the silver,
while australia's alicia coutts earned the bronze.

vollmer proceeded to win gold medals in the other two events in which she swam —
the 4x200m freestyle relay, where she swam the second leg, with
missy franklin, allison schmitt & shannon vreeland, &
the 4x100m medley relay, where she swam the butterfly leg, & helped set
a new world record with missy franklin, allison schmitt & rebecca soni.

dana vollmer, with her spectacular butterfly stroke, soared in london —
thanks to a little necessary cocoon time in fiji.

yi siling, olympic opener.

yi siling, the 23yo chinese woman known as "shooting beauty,"
was the first athlete to qualify for &
to win gold at the games of the xxx olympiad.

eleven hours after queen elizabeth officially opened the london games,
yi got her gold in her first-ever olympic competition, with a 10+ score
on all 10 shots of the women's 10m air rifle shooting event.
poland's sylwia bogacka earned the silver, &
yi's chinese teammate dan yu earned bronze.

yi tried track + field & dancing before she began shooting in 2007.
she debuted internationally in 2009, & in 2010,
won the world championship in the 10m event, setting a new world record &
becoming the first person worldwide to qualify for the 2012 olympics.

known for her unflappability as well as her good looks,
yi wept with relief in her coach's arms following the final.
she intends to defend her gold medal at the next summer games, she says,
but first, will spend some well-deserved time with her family —
her father has been ailing while she's been training for the past year.
time with his champion daughter is sure to be a shot of joy for a proud dad.

wojdan shaherkani, olympic beginner.

wojdan ali seraj abdulrahim shaherkani, a 16yo judoka,
has been termed both a progressive & a prostitute by her fellow saudis.

but regardless of what they might have called her via twitter,
one title for wojdan is irrefutable: she is the first female athlete ever
to compete at the olympics for saudi arabia.
& it's for this distinction that she's been both damned & praised.

wojdan was one of two women selected to represent the kingdom of saudi arabia
at the london games — following intense pressure from the
international olympic committee upon the saudi arabian olympic committee,
& months of negotiations between the two entities, to include women on the the team.

saudi arabia has a sort of "gender apartheid" of sports,
effectively banning women from athletic activity.
girls do not participate in sports at state schools, &
women athletes must fund themselves & arrange their own training elsewhere.

of course, sports is just the tip of saudi arabia's laws for women —
women are required by law to wear a black abaya [cloak] &
a hijab [headscarf] whenever they're out in public.
saudi women may not drive, run a business or enter main government buildings.
women may not travel abroad without official permission
from their guardians & authorization from their government.

a product of her culture, wojdan shaherkani had never left her home country
until she came to london. & she was woefully underqualified for
olympic competition, having practiced judo for only two years
at home with coaching from her father, a judo referee.

while at the olympics, both wojdan & her fellow saudi female —
19yo runner sarah attar — had to agree to dress "modestly" [hijab,
long sleeves, long pants], always be accompanied by a male guardian,
& never mix with men.

competition clothing had to comply with islamic law, too —
but no headwear is permitted in judo. scandal erupted.
wojdan threatened to withdraw from the event
if she wasn't permitted to wear her hijab during bouts.

the ioc, saoc & the international judo federation went to work,
& together, came up with a special design for wojdan:
a tight-fitting cap-style head covering, rather than the typical
draping headscarf, which might prove a strangulation hazard.

so wojdan competed in the over-78kg judo event,
the lone blue-belt judoka against a sea of black belts.
she lost her first match — against puerto rico's
melissa mojica — in 82 seconds.

but wojdan's spirit & perspective were undefeated:
"i am happy to be at the olympics," she said following the match.
"unfortunately, we did not win a medal. but in the future, we will,
& i will be a star for women's participation."

her saudi teammate, sarah attar, fared similarly.
though sarah has spent much of her life in the u.s.
& is currently studying at california's pepperdine university,
she hadn't raced competitively since high school

wearing a white hijab & black leggings,
sarah finished a distant last in the final heat
of the women's 800m. yet she smiled & waved to the cheering crowd
as though she'd won the gold.

because for the women olympians of saudi arabia,
it's really not whether you win or lose,
or even how you play the game —
it's just getting a chance to play the game at all.

fierce five, olympic stars.

seven u.s. women's teams — gymnastics, basketball, soccer,
swimming relays, track relays, rowing & water polo —
won the gold at the summer olympics.

but the "fierce five" — the u.s. women's gymnastics team —
won the bulk of media attention. & i confess, it worked for me;
i found the 2012 gymnastics competition captivating.

the fierce five is comprised of 17yo jordyn wieber, 16yo gabrielle douglas,
16yo mckayla maroney, 18yo team captain alexandra raisman, & 15yo kyla ross.
& yes, "women's gymnastics" is rather an oxymoron.

but these young women won the team gold medal —
the first for the u.s. since 1996 & the second for the u.s. ever —
by 5.06 points over russia's silver & 7.82 points over romania's bronze.
gold defender china earned fourth place.

gabby douglas was the only team member to compete in all four events
[vault, uneven bars, balance beam, floor] during the team competition.
aly raisman was the final american to perform; she had tears in her eyes
as she completed an incredible floor routine, cinching the u.s. win.

gabby & aly also competed in the individual all-around —
jordyn, the reigning world champion, was denied, as only the top two team
members from each country are allowed into the all-around competition.

gabby douglas became the first african-american ever
to win the all-around gold; aly came in fourth place following
a tie-breaker for the bronze with russian superstar aliya mustafina.
but a tie-breaker broke the other way for aly at the individual balance-beam event.

aly's overall score originally came in beneath romania's catalina ponor,
but u.s. coach martha karolyi requested a review of aly's routine,
based upon its higher difficulty; the judges rescored, tying aly with ponor.
aly's higher execution score gave her the edge, & she took the bronze.

aly raisman also became the first american woman to win
the individual gold for floor exercise. aly, who is jewish, performed
her practically perfect routine to the hebrew folk song "hava nagila."
next spring, she'll be inducted into the national jewish sports hall of fame.

mckayla maroney, the reigning world champion in vault, aced her first
but fell on her second vault during the individual event.
the up-ender ended her 33-vault streak in competition, & earned her the silver.

during the medal ceremony, mckayla's expression briefly revealed
a scowl of disappointment; someone snapped the shot, & the image
quickly became associated with an internet meme called "mckayla is not impressed."

mckayla is not impressed with democrats' one-word slogans.

mckayla is not impressed with the republicans' ticket.

mckayla is not impressed with princess fascinators.

mckayla was surely unimpressed with the absurd social media kerfluffle
over gabby's hair. as gabby was making african-american olympic history,
african-americans were taking to twitter to kvetch about her "messy" 'do,
& its apparent overabundance of clips & gel. gabby's response?

"nothing is going to change. i'm going to wear my hair like this ...
you might as well just stop talking about it." done & done.

i still don't understand what the issue was with gabby's hair —
especially considering many of her teammates & competitors
were rocking almost the exact same style. additionally,
they're olympians — who cares what their hair looks like?

regardless of scrunchie usage, i was duly impressed with the fierce five.
way to represent, girls! & way to represent girls!

kim rhode, olympic straight-shooter.

kim rhode [pronounced roh-dee] did at the london 2012 games
what no u.s. olympic champion had done before:

she became the first american athlete to win
an individual medal in five straight olympics.

the 33yo native californian won gold in skeet shooting,
tying her own world record & setting an olympic record
for the finals with an almost perfect score:
she hit 99 of 100 4-inch clay targets flying at about 60mph —

which was eight shots better than silver medalist wei ning of china,
nine shots better than bronze medalist danka bartekova of slovakia, &
seven shots better than the prior record of 93 targets.

rhode's lone miss came 65 consecutive hits into the finals, during a rainstorm.
she had also set the olympic record in the preliminary round, hitting 74 of 75.
her win means she is the first woman to earn three gold medals in shooting,
& the eighth u.s. woman to earn five or more individual medals.

rhode won the gold in double trap shooting at 17yo
— the youngest person ever to medal in the sport —
in her first olympics in atlanta, 1996.
she earned the bronze in barcelona in 2000,
& recaptured the gold in athens in 2004.

in 2008 in beijing, double trap was replaced with skeet shooting.
rhode switched sports & earned the silver.

during her first four olympic games, rhode had used "old faithful,"
her competition shotgun for 18 years.
but just after beijing, the gun was stolen from her truck.
anonymous donors bought her a new gun within weeks of the theft.
eventually, old faithful was found in an unrelated search of a parolee's house,
but rhode had already adapted to her new shotgun, so she retired her older weapon.

that wasn't the only stumbling block between beijing & london:
rhode had a benign two-inch tumor removed from her breast two years ago, &
earlier this year, her husband lost his passport & had to have it replaced,
& her dog ate her airline boarding pass to europe [for realz!].

but rhode, who began shooting at the age of 6yo &
began competing at 10yo — coached by her dad, richard rhode, then & now —
wasn't about to let those speedbumps slow her down.
she trains 6-8hrs daily, spending up to $700/day for shells & targets.

& this one-of-a-kind olympic champion — who, in addition to shooting, also
collects rare children's books, is a gourmet cook & restores classic cars —
isn't about to call it quits at five games/medals.

noting the oldest shooting medalist, oscar swahn of sweden,
won his last gold at 64yo & his final medal at 72yo,
rhode quips, "i feel i've got a few more left in me."

zara phillips, olympic royal.

zara phillips is an excellent olympic equestrian . . .
& queen elizabeth's eldest granddaughter.

so all british eyes — including her cousins', princes william & harry —
were on 31yo phillips & her 10yo horse high kingdom
during the three-day team eventing competition at the london games.

& the gasps were heard 'round the british isles
when phillips' horse clipped a fence during the showjumping section,
docking her seven points & narrowly losing her team the gold.

but team gb rallied to earn the silver,
& phillips finished third-strongest of the five-member team,
& ranked eighth overall.

phillips comes by her "horse sense" honestly — her mother, princess anne,
competed in the same equestrian event during the 1976 montreal olympics,
& her father, mark phillips, won equestrian team gold at the 1972 munich games.

it was zara's first olympics — she missed the past two games
due to injury of her now-retired horse, toytown
[she did ride toytown earlier this year while toting
the olympic torch at cheltenham racecourse].

& it was princess anne who presented her only daughter
with her first olympic medal — a silver. bob's your uncle, zara!!

natalia partyka, olympic paralympian.

natalia partyka is a 23yo table-tennis player from poland
who happens to have been born without her right hand & forearm.
partyka, along with south african "blade runner" oscar pistorius,
are the only athletes to compete in both the olympic & paralympic london 2012 games.

it was partyka's second olympics & fourth paralympics;
in 2008 in beijing, she earned a paralympic gold in individual competition
& a team silver. this year, she made it to the final 32
in women's olympic singles table tennis; the paralympics are still underway.

partyka began playing table tennis at 7yo,
in order to be able to beat her four-years-older sister, sandra.
by the age of eleven, natalia was at her first paralympics,
the youngest athlete to compete in any sport at the games.

partyka's disability affects only her serve —
rather than tossing the ball into the air with the non-dominant hand,
she cradles the ball in the crook of her right elbow,
& simply drops her right arm & swings to serve the ball with her left hand.

partyka is currently ranked number 68 in the world.

"i can show people that nothing is impossible," she says.
"maybe being disabled makes things more difficult than for able-bodied people,
& maybe we have to work a little harder.
but we can do anything we want to do if we just try.
maybe someone will see me & realize their own disability is not the end of the world,
that they can achieve bigger dreams than they had imagined."

maybe somebody already has.

zofia noceti-klepacka, olympic spirit.

zofia noceti-klepacka, a 26yo polish windsurfer,
finally earned a medal at the london games:
a third-place bronze at her third olympics.

three was clearly the magic number for noceti-klepacka —
& for another polish girl, named zuzia.

prior to coming to london, noceti-klepacka pledged
that if she won a medal at the games, then she would
sell it by auction, with the proceeds going to 5yo zuzia,
a neighbor of noceti-klepacka's who has cystic fibrosis.

cystic fibrosis is a chronic, ultimately fatal disease
that targets the lungs & digestive tract,
causing ongoing infections & breathing difficulties.

noceti-klepacka — a mother herself to 2yo son mariano — has known zuzia since birth.
the little girl — who is noceti-klepacka's biggest fan —
has already undergone five surgeries & requires constant care,
a huge financial burden for her family to bear.

noceti-klepacka won the bronze in the women's rs-x —
a windsurfing event involving a heavy sailboard —
behind gold-medalist marina alabau of spain &
finland's tuuli petaja, who took the silver.

noceti-klepacka finished just in time —
three seconds faster than another finnish rival,
& in the summer olympics' final year of windsurfing competition;
the sport will be replaced by kiteboarding in the 2016 rio games.

no word yet about where or when the medal will be auctioned.

sarah menezes, olympic independent.

sarah menezes beat defending champion alina dumitru of romania
to be the first brazilian woman ever to win gold in judo.

22yo menezes began judo at 9yo,
because she found it the least offensive sport
being offered for p.e. credit at her elementary school.

as she grew to love judo, she also learned to lie about it to her parents,
who insisted it was not a girl's sport &
being an athlete was not a proper girl's career.

luckily, this girl didn't listen.
for years, menezes had neighbors secretly deliver her to the judo studio,
told her parents she had to stay late at school in order to practice.

when menezes' coach finally met with her parents to tell them how good she was,
that she could make brazil's national team & maybe the olympics,
they finally got it. they began supporting her training,
& even solicited sponsors so she could travel to compete.

menezes did her olympic training while
working toward her bachelor's degree &
taking english-language courses.

her industriousness — & earlier sneakiness — paid off big-time,
with a gold medal
& a national first for brazilian women.

katie ledecky, olympic ingenue.

katie ledecky, at 15yo, was 529-member team usa's
youngest athlete at the london games.
she competed in a single aquatic event:
the women's 800m freestyle.

she won the gold.

& if that alone is not impressive enough for you,
then consider the following:

katie is the second-youngest swimming medalist in team usa history,
just 77 days older than beth botsford, who won gold in atlanta 16 years ago.

she never swam in a major competition until the u.s. olympic trials in june,
where she took first in the 800m, third in the 400m & ninth in the 200m.

she broke the 23-year-old american record held by swimming sweetheart janet evans.

she just missed the world record of british legend becky adlington,
who is a four-time olympian & was a double gold-medalist in beijing.
adlington earned the bronze almost six seconds behind katie.
[spain’s mireia belmonte garcia earned the silver, over four seconds behind katie.]

katie is a high-school sophomore at bethesda, maryland's
stone ridge school of the sacred heart.
she began swimming at the age of five, & at the age of six,
approached michael phelps' — who was not yet an olympian — with an autograph book.

nine years later, he handed back a [metaphorical] golden baton.

misty may-treanor & kerri walsh jennings, olympic partners.

misty may-treanor & kerri walsh jennings,
teammates for eleven years —
the best women's beach volleyball team of all time,
two-time olympic champions in athens & beijing —
executed a three-peat in london,
capturing their third consecutive gold medal in an all-american final
against up-&-comers jennifer kessy & april ross.

for misty & kerri, the golden moment
was another type of final, too —
their last match together as a team.

35yo misty may-treanor, the most decorated female beach volleyball player ever,
is retiring as a player from the sport
in order to start a family with her athlete husband.

the duo split as a team following the 2008 olympics
so that now-33yo kerri could start a family with her athlete husband —
the couple now has sons joseph, 3yo, & sundance, 2.

meanwhile, misty tore her left achilles tendon
& missed a year of play for recuperation.

but the pair reunited in 2011 to come to the olympics.
their journey wasn't easy —
kessy & ross actually came to the games
ranked higher on the fivb world tour,
& misty & kerri sought help from a sports psychologist
in order to reconnect better as partners.

it worked.

in the sand of horse guards parade, misty & kerri
went where no woman has gone before:
a trio of olympic medals in women's beach volleyball. [all gold, too.]
& a winning streak of 21 consecutive olympic matches & a 42-1 winning set record.

"the first two medals, i think, were more volleyball,"
says misty. "this was so much more about the friendship.
the togetherness. the journey.
volleyball was just a small part of it."

kerri intends to continue playing, with a new, as yet unnamed partner,
& to pursue a fourth gold in rio in 2016.
while motherhood is misty's reason for retirement,
it's a large part of kerri's purpose for continuing to indulge her passion.

"i want this so badly, & my children just make me want it even more,"
says kerri. "i want to make them proud. i want to do it as a mom.
i'm so inspired, so determined to be the best i can be
so i can be a great example for them."

karen hultzer, olympic lesbian.

karen hultzer is a 46yo south african archer who came in 46th
of 64 competing athletes [she's been shooting for only five years],
& then came out as a lesbian.

noting that she waited until post-competition
to avoid distraction due to media attention,
hultzer issued a simple yet eloquent statement:

"i am an archer, middle-aged & a lesbian.
i am also cranky before my first cup of coffee.
none of these aspects define who i am,
they are simply part of me.

"i am fortunate that my sexual identity is not an issue,
& i don't suffer the level of discrimination & violence
that black lesbians in south africa do.

"i look forward to the day when this is a non-issue
& as relevant as my eye color or favorite sushi."

hultzer's announcement made her the only out olympian
competing from the african continent, & a rarity
among all olympic athletes;

the gay website outsports.com tried to count how many
of the 10,500 or so competing olympians were openly gay.
it came up with only 23.

kayla harrison, olympic survivor.

"this is my day.
this is my purpose.
i am an olympic champion."

for five years, this was kayla harrison's mantra.
it got her through the hardest part of her life,
& it got her through the best:
winning judo gold in her first olympics.

6yo kayla began judo at her mother's urging.
at 8yo, the little girl from middletown, ohio,
began training with coach daniel doyle.
he took her to two national championships & several international tournaments
by the time she turned sweet 16.

he also took her trust & her childhood —
at 16yo, kayla revealed to a friend that her coach
had been sexually abusing her for years.
the friend told kayla's mom, who first
smashed doyle's car windows with a baseball bat,
then called the police & had him arrested.

kayla was broken.

her mother, in an instinctive & insightful move,
sent kayla to wakefield, massachusetts,
to train with two-time medal-winner jimmy pedro & his father, big jim,
at their full-time resident training program for judokas,
team force [focus on results, civic responsibility & education].

slowly & surely, pedro helped kayla rebuild her strength & sense of self.
in 2010, she became the first u.s. woman to win a judo world championship
in 26 years, & the first of either gender to win
it since pedro had in 1999.

harrison returned to ohio to testify against her abuser,
who pled guilty, was sentenced to serve ten years in prison
& was expelled for life from usa judo.

then harrison came to the london games as the highest-ranked
u.s. judoka, regardless of gender or weight class.

it was her day.
it was her purpose.
& she became an olympic champion.

22yo harrison beat team gb's gemma gibbons
2-0 in the women's under-78kg division.

"she should inspire many to be brave, to have courage, to realize
they're a victim, & to come forward & move on with their lives," says pedro.
"kayla harrison stepped forward. she is a hero.
there's nothing on the olympic mat that compares with what she's already beat."

harrison, now happily engaged to firefighter aaron handy
& working toward becoming a firefighter herself,
sums up her greatest lesson learned thusly:

"never give up on your dreams.
i mean, if i can do it, anybody can do it.
this just proves that you're only a victim
if you allow yourself to be."

habiba ghribi, olympic first.

habiba ghribi is a woman. a tunisian. a runner.
& the first tunisian woman ever to win an olympic medal.

28yo ghribi won silver in the women's 3,000m steeplechase [obstacle race],
behind world champion yuliya zaripova of russia.

"this medal is for all the tunisian people,
for tunisian women, for the new tunisia," ghribi said.

but while tunisia may be "new," it's not necessarily improved.

the north-african country underwent a revolution in late 2010/early 2011,
leading to a thorough democratization of the nation & free, democratic elections.
but the winner was the islamist ennahda movement.
& though ennahda assumed power with a pledge of not weakening women's rights, party leaders have proposed a constitution which states
women are "complementary" — not equal — to men, in the family & in the country.

within this environment of diminishing equality among the sexes,
conservative muslims felt free to express their disgust & outrage at
ghribi's olympic performance, in which she ran "in her underpants" —
a reference to ghribi's standard-length running shorts.

luckily, some important tunisians support ghribi.
during a recent radio debate with a member of ennahda,
independent al aridha party member ibrahim kassas joked,
"the underpants of habiba ghribi have honored us.
what have [ennahda members'] underpants done for us?"

missy franklin, olympic phenom.

missy franklin struck me as just about
the most down-to-earth aquatic athlete ever.

the 17yo from centennial, colorado,
was the first u.s. woman to compete in seven olympic swimming events.
counting qualifying & semifinal rounds, she swam 15 races
during the london games.

she medaled five times — four gold, one bronze.
she established a new world's record twice.
she established a new american record the other three times.

melissa jeanette franklin was born in pasadena, california,
the daughter of two canadian parents.
she began swimming at age five.

she has been coached by todd schmitz of the colorado stars club team
since she was seven. he has never coached an olympian before.

missy, now 6'1" with size 13 feet & a smile just about as big,
to date has declined prize money & endorsements
so she can continue to compete as an amateur
for her high-school team at regis jesuit.

day one of olympic competition, missy —
along with teammates jessica hardy, lia neal & allison schmitt —
won her bronze in the 4x100m freestyle relay
with a time of 3:34.24, a new american record.
australia won the gold, the netherlands the silver.

day three, missy won her first gold
in the 100m backstroke with a time of 58:33,
beating her own american record.

day five, missy won gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay —
along with teammates allison schmitt, dana vollmer & shannon vreeland —
with a time of 7:42.92, a new american record.

day seven, missy won gold & broke the world record
in the 200m backstroke with a time of 2:04.06,
the first american woman to win the event in 40 years.

finally, missy — along with teammates allison schmitt,
rebecca soni & dana vollmer — won gold in the 4x100m medley relay
with a world-record-breaking time of 3:52.05.

it should be noted, in the two events where she didn't medal,
missy came in fourth [200m freestyle] & fifth [100m freestyle].

of the 10,500 or so athletes competing at the london games,
only one earned more medals than missy: michael phelps, who won six.