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Showing posts from August, 2012

Ali Bernard, Lolo Jones, and the Women of the London Olympics

Coming into the Olympics , I had a hunch that these games were going to be remembered for the performances of the U.S. women. Maybe it had something to do with the local media attention on Missy Franklin , or my native state 's attention on Gabby Douglas and Lolo Jones , but it seemed there was a lot more talk about our female Olympians than there was for the men. ( Michael Phelps  is the obvious exception. Remember, NBC thought it was worth skipping part of the Opening Ceremony so we could listen to Ryan Seacrest ask him about his fear of spiders.) Now through 13 days of competition, it appears my hunch was right . U.S. women have so far won 51 medals to the men's 38 (neither figure counting the bronze won in tennis mixed doubles), and the women have struck gold twice as often as the men , 26 to 13. Give yourself this quiz: Name a male U.S. Olympic gold medalist who isn't a swimmer . (crickets) Give up? It's not easy, because there have only been three: Vincent Han