What
would Ireland have done if women’s boxing didn’t make its Olympic debut
in London? Katie Taylor earned the country’s only gold medal of the
Games, out-swinging all the lads on the team — whose best finish was a
silver — and proving that despite being soft-spoken, she can throw a
punch. Taylor’s journey wasn’t an easy one: she and her trainer-father
had to fight policies rooted in the strongly held belief that women have
no place in the ring. But in London during her eight-minute gold-medal
bout, as the entire nation of Ireland held its breath and her countrymen
blanketed the arena in green and orange, quiet Katie delivered. It
wasn’t an austere atmosphere. Organizers treated the new Olympic sport
like a title match in Vegas, complete with dramatic spotlights and a
booming announcer calling the rounds to deafening cheers from the crowd.
9. Dirty Pool?
Did she or didn’t she? After Ye
Shiwen, a shy 16-year-old swimmer from China, captured the gold medal in
the 400-m individual medley event, the whispers began. Had Ye, who swam
her final 50 m faster than her male Olympic counterpart and shaved five
seconds off her personal best, doped in her world-record performance?
The Chinese cried foul, saying there was no evidence whatsoever that
Ye’s performance was chemically enhanced. Yes, a series of Chinese
swimmers had been caught doping in international competition, but that
was back in the ’90s. Besides, drug cheats are hardly a Chinese
phenomenon. Even as a top American swimming coach cast aspersions on
Ye’s time, the International Olympic Committee defended her. Ye captured
another gold in the 200-m individual medley, but her Olympic
celebrations were muted by the controversy surrounding her. A golden
girl was tarred.
8. Shuttlecock Scandal
You wouldn’t think that
badminton would generate intrigue and subterfuge. But watchers of the
London Olympics were transfixed when not one or two but four pairs of
women’s doubles badminton players were disqualified for deliberately
losing their matches. The reason for the foul play? The Indonesian,
Chinese and South Korean shuttlers wanted an easier draw in their
upcoming matches. But they didn’t bother pretending to try to win. “Such
behavior is incompatible with the Olympic values,” said International
Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams. Maybe so. But the players who
were dumped from competition, including the reigning Chinese pair,
argued that they were simply taking advantage of the rules governing the
round-robin format of Olympic badminton. The clear losers were the
spectators, who had to endure a level of play more suitable to a weekend
in the suburbs than the top echelons of sport. That’s putting the bad
in badminton.
7. Making History on the Track
For
Oscar Pistorius, all the scientific questions and legal battles became
worth it on the morning of Aug. 4. That day, with 80,000 fans cheering
him in the starting blocks, Pistorius made history, becoming the first
double amputee to compete in the Olympics. Did prosthetics give
Pistorius an advantage over able-bodied athletes? We may never know for
sure. But after he finished second in his heat, there was no doubting
his grit and sheer athleticism. No matter that he finished last in his
semifinal heat the next evening. Athletes like Pistorius and Sarah
Attar, the first Saudi Arabian woman to run in the Olympics — who
finished last in her 800-m heat — created lasting Olympic memories by
breaking down barriers.
6. Outstanding Opener
Remember when people doubted that
London could put on a great Games? We can’t either. But there were
skeptics aplenty. Now, bathed in the glow of hindsight and Team GB’s 29
gold medals, nobody quite recalls the grounds for pessimism or when they
began to realize that London’s Olympics might turn out really rather
well.
So here’s a reminder: the moment came on July 27, before the torch
was lit or a javelin had been thrown in earnest. Film director Danny
Boyle’s opening ceremony began dramatically, with a green and pleasant
vision of England giving way to the dark, satanic mills of
industrialization. The Olympic stadium was packed to its triangular roof
supports with celebrities, politicians and royalty. William! Kate!
Harry! Charles! Camilla! This was almost a royal flush, but the Queen
and her doughty consort Prince Philip were missing.
5. Fantastic Farah
It
may have been the greatest night in British sporting history. Within an
hour, three British athletes — heptathlete Jessica Ennis, the U.K.’s
poster child for the Games, long jumper Greg Rutherford and distance
runner Mohamed Farah — won gold. “We got Willy Wonka’s ticket,” said
delirious British fan Steve Wilkinson as he was leaving the Olympic
stadium. Farah’s finish, in the 10,000-m race, was the most dramatic:
during his kick in the last 50 m, you’d be hard-pressed to find a louder
stadium anywhere in the world. “It was like someone gave me 10 cups of
coffee,” Farah said of the home crowd’s effect. “It was just like,
‘Whoa.’ ” A week later, Farah electrified the stadium again as he took
gold in the 5,000 m on the last night of racing.
4. A Scintillating Soccer Semifinal
The setting was historic: Old
Trafford, the pitch that Manchester United calls home. And the game —
the women’s soccer semifinal, between the U.S. and Canada — was epic.
Canada’s Christine Sinclair and American Megan Rapinoe each traded two
goals to tie things up in the second half (Rapinoe scored her first one
directly off a corner kick, a rare shot that was dubbed, ironically
enough, the “Olympico”). Two minutes after Rapinoe knotted the match at
2-2, Sinclair headed in another in the 73rd minute, giving her a hat
trick. A few minutes later, Canadian goalkeeper Erin McLeod got whistled
for holding onto the ball for more than six seconds, a rule that is
rarely enforced. And on the indirect free kick, Rapinoe blasted the ball
against the arm of Canada’s Marie Eve-Nault. The refs made another
debatable call — hand ball — that gave the Americans a penalty kick.
3. Glorious Gabby
It’s every gymnast’s dream to win the
Olympic all-around title, but no U.S. athlete had ever done the twofer —
the all-around and a team gold medal — until Gabrielle Douglas flipped
and tumbled her way to the top of both podiums in London. Two days after
doing her part to help the U.S. women’s gymnastics team earn its first
gold since 1996 with nearly flawless performances, Douglas did it all
again to claim the all-around gold. Even she didn’t know that she would
be making history. “You learn something new every day!” she said when
she found out. Douglas’ hug with coach Liang Chow when the final
standings were announced spoke volumes: following her wins, she admitted
that she had come close to quitting the sport after being the victim of
bullying at a gym early in her career.
2. Bolt Strikes the Olympics — Again
One
of the more pressing questions entering the London Olympics boiled down
to, What’s wrong with Usain Bolt? He didn’t win Jamaica’s Olympic
trials — Yohan Blake, his training partner, beat him in both the 100-m
and 200-m races. But Bolt quieted the doubters with another stunning
Olympic showing. In the 100 m, Bolt beat his time in Beijing, running a
9.63 sec. — a new Olympic record — in the fastest race ever, as seven of
the eight finalists finished in under 10 sec. “There was a lot of
talk,” Bolt said afterward. “I’m still the best.” Four days later, he
won the 200 m, becoming the first Olympian to defend both the 100-m and
200-m titles. “I am now a living legend,” Bolt said. “Bask in my glory.”
He wasn’t done: Bolt ran the anchor leg of the 4-by-100 relay two
nights later, and he and his Jamaican teammates successfully defended
that title too. After the 200 m, Bolt called himself “the greatest
athlete to live.” After his performance, you can’t really call that an
overstatement.
1. Grand Phelps Finale
When
you’re the greatest Olympian of all time, it’s a challenge to find new
ways to top yourself. After setting a record in gold-medal wins in
Beijing, Michael Phelps wanted to make a new mark in London: the most
decorated Olympian ever. And even with an uncharacteristic fourth-place
finish in his first race, Phelps ended up accomplishing just that,
closing out his career with his 18th gold medal (and 22nd medal overall)
in the men’s 4-by-100-m medley relay. For eight years, both diehard
fans and those new to the sport have been lured to the pool to satisfy
their “will he or won’t he” curiosity, and they were rewarded by
witnessing history. FINA, the international swimming federation,
recognized Phelps’ achievements with a first-ever trophy to commemorate
his unique status in both the sport and the Olympic movement. “I’ve been
able to do everything I wanted,” said Phelps, who retired in London, of
his history-making career. And now legions of new swimming fans can’t
help but ask, What will we do in Rio?
