Here is a summation of personal highlights that will in no way do justice to the greatness that was the 2012 London Olympics.
* David Boudia winning the gold in 10m platform diving. Way to perform under pressure. Most pleasant surprise of the Olympics.
* Usain Bolt emphatically silencing his doubters. For-e-v-e-r.
* U.S.A. Women's Gymnastics. Gabby Douglas putting it all together for the All-Around gold. Ali Raisman handing everyone a beat-down for the floor gold. McKayla Maroney's perfect vault in the team competition. The girls' utter dominance in the team competition. But, damn you, Tim Daggett. I'm blaming you for McKayla's fall during the individual finals because you were all like, she just has to run and jump and kind-of-sort-of land on her feet and the judges will hand her the gold. Over and over and over until she was in the air during her second vault. Tim, what the hell is wrong with you? You use the words "catastrophic" and "disaster" all the time and you are never referring to the weather. I'm convinced poor McKayla didn't make it to her feet because of Tim's over-hyping. That and she was trying to be too perfect, god bless her.
* Misty and Kerry winning their third gold and being so elated you would've thought they'd never won anything before in their lives.
* Claressa Shields bringing a ray of sunshine to the amateur boxing world and snagging a gold medal in the process.
* Meb Keflezighi finishing fourth in the marathon at age 37.
* Serena. Just unreal. Completely dismantling the best players in the world.
* Women's soccer. U.S.A. vs Canada and U.S.A. vs Japan. Two great matches, total nail-biters.
* Nathan Adrian winning a gold he clearly wasn't favored to win. There wasn't even an attempt at a package before his swim.
* I liked Michael Phelps a lot more this time around. He was more personable, I think out of relief that it would all soon be over. And maybe with Ryan Lochte having some of the expectation burden placed on his shoulders helped. But trying to make Lochte the face of swimming was a big mistake. This recent conversation with Hubs sums up my Lochte feelings:
Hubs: Ryan Lochte is on the cover of the Men's Health I bought. He's really airbrushed.
Me: Did they make him look like he has a personality?
* Silver medalist high jumper Brigetta Barrett and her crazy-awesome pre-jump routine.
* Ashton Eaton and Trey Hardee killing it in the decathlon.
* Sanya Richards-Ross, Allyson Felix, and Carmelita Jeter running like the wind. They have such great smiles and positive attitudes. Hope to see them all again in Rio.
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