Gymnastics ends with a bang

Gabby's gold in gymnastics all-around was exciting, but Aly Raisman really shined in this year, as well. She won bronze on the beam in a tie breaker, and then went on to win gold on a nearly perfect floor exercise, with the crowd clapping along with her music, as usual. Aly was the one who edged out Jordyn Wieber for the all-around final, and while everyone was upset that Jordyn didn't get a chance to compete for that title, Aly proved herself the better gymnast this year. Way to go Aly!

Men's gymnastics high bar is so fun to watch! This year the gold medal went to Zonderland of the Netherlands, the first Dutch man to win a medal in gymnastics. His routine was AMAZING--he had a combo of 3 releases in a row, contributing to the most difficult piece of gymnastics in the entire games. Plus, he has a rockin' 70s haircut. You can watch his routine here.
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I don't care that much about equestrian, but the jumping is kinda fun to watch, and I got to root for an Irish guy named Cian O'Connor. He was tied for silver with Gerco Schroder from the Netherlands, so they had a jump-off. It was neat to see these two countries have a go, 'cause the Netherlands is usually a Winter Olympics country, and Ireland doesn't win many medals in general. O'Connor went second, and his time was much better than Schroder's--it looked like he had it won... until he botched the very last jump. It was close, but O'Connor got the bronze, Ireland's first (and probably only) medal of these games. Yay Ireland!

The two American beach volleyball teams played each other for gold, and Misty May/Kerry Walsh won. No surprise there. They've never lost a single set in 3 Olympics. That's just... wow. You can tell in their interviews that they're such great friends. That's probably one reason why they're such an amazing team--they know each other well enough to predict each others' moves, and they trust each other well enough to know that their backs are covered. That's the very definition of teamwork.

So far, we've won 20 medals in track and field. That's twice as many as the 9 that second place Russia has. We always dominate in track and field, and it should give us the edge over China for the overall medal count. Right now, we're up by 4, though China has 2 more golds. I'm hoping we get gold and silver in the decathlon--our two American athletes are at the top after day 1.