First, the swimmers have been on another planet. Missy Franklin is the new breakout star and America's sweetheart. Dana Vollmer set a world record. Allison Schmitt has owned the freestyle and guided the US to a relay win. Gold is the color of choice for these young women, and they are wearing a lot of it. There are even more events on the way, and new stars can be made in the span of minutes. Who will be the next swimmer to step up?
The darlings of the Olympics so far could very well be the Fab Five- The US Women's Gymastics team. To say women's is almost unfair, because these young ladies aren't adults yet. However, they were able to dominate the Team competition and win gold for the first time since Kerri Strugg, Shannon Miller, Dominique Dawes and the Magnificent 7 in 1996. Then Gaby Douglas aka The Flying Squirrel went out and won the All-Around. All this and they still have the individual events left.
Kristin Armstrong came out of retirement to defend her Gold in the Women's Individual Time Trial cycling, and won in front of her husband and son. Kim Rhode set a world record for shooting, and became the first US competitor to medal in 5 straight Olympics. The syncho-dive team of Kelci Bryant and Abigail Johnston won silver in the 3m springboard, which is just as good as gold in a sport dominated by the Chinese.
And it doesn't stop there. The women's 8 won gold in rowing. Kayla Harrison became the first American to win Gold in Judo. Misty May-Treanor and Kerry Walsh Jennings lost their first set of their Olympic careers, but nevertheless are still undefeated heading into the elimination round. The US soccer team (which qualified for the Games, unlike their male counterparts) remains undefeated, as does the women's basketball squad. All of this even before track and field begins!
Meanwhile, the stars on the men's side have, at times, been underwhelming. Phelps has his record 19th medal (and counting) right now, but he was out-touched in the 200 fly and didn't medal in the 400 IM. Lochte has hardly been the Phelps 2.0 that he was hyped to be. The most successful male swimmers are the lesser known guys who are winning upset Golds, like Nathan Adrian and Matt Grevers. The male gymnasts? Aside from All Around bronze medalist Danell Leyva, choking dogs! Basketball is still cruising, as they should, but soccer didn't make the Olympics.
The male US athletes should feel lucky that this is an athletic battle between countries and not a battle of the sexes.
If it was, the women would be close to knocking the men out.
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