Alabau Windsurfs Her Way to Gold at the London Games

London Olympics 2012

Marina Alabau Neira proved to be unstoppable on the seas at the 2012 Olympic Games

After dominating the field in Olympic women’s windsurfing in the contests leading to the final race, the 26-year-old Spanish sailor windsurfed serenely over the tricky shoreline on the medal course to win her final race and secure the gold in women’s RS:X windsurfing at the London Games.

Marina Alabau Neira

“It was super exciting,” said Alabau, whose victory give Spain its first gold medal at the 2012 Olympics. “I managed to do everything I wanted to do. I feel I had a really good week and a really good medal”.

Alabau led going into the medal race, recording four wins and three top-three results during the opening series of races, carrying a 14-point advantage leading into the women’s RS:X medal race.

Marina Alabau Neira

Alabau only had to finish Tuesday among the first seven out of the 10 competitors to win the gold. But she did better than that… She crossed the finish line of the medal race in first place to win the competition by a whopping 20 points.

Finland’s Tuuli Petaja took home the silver, while Poland’s Zofia Noceti-Klepacka came away with the bronze.

Marina Alabau Neira

It’s the first Olympic medal for Alabau Neira, who finished  fourth in the same event at the 2008 Beijing Games.

This is the final year for the RS:X in the Olympics. The 2016 Olympic Games will replace the sailboarding event with kiteboarding.

Gómez Claims the Men’s Triathlon Silver at the London Games

London Olympics 2012

Javier Gómez has plenty of reason to celebrate – once he gets his electrolytes back to normal…

Following a disappointing fourth place finish at the 2008 Olympic Games, the 29-year-old Spanish triathlete finally has a coveted Olympic medal in his possession.

Javier Gómez

Gómez had entered the Olympic triathlon in Beijing as the world champion and pick to take home the gold. And the gold looked to be in his grasp as he attacked for much of the final run stage on the challenging course. But Gómez ended the race just seconds behind the three eventual medalists.

This time around, the two-time world champion would not be denied a medal…

Javier Gomez

After a brutal race over 54.5 kilometers of swimming, cycling and running around central London, Gómez claimed the silver medal in the men’s triathlon at the 2012 Olympic Games. He finished between British brothers Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee after some speed racing in and around Hyde Park. His time of 1:46:36 was a mere .11 seconds off Alistair’s winning time.

Even though Olympic gold had eluded him once again, Gómez—who has placed in the top 10 in 65 of his 70 international races—wasn’t complaining.

“Alistair showed he was the strongest today, and I was the second strongest. So it was fair,” said Gómez, who lives and trains in Switzerland. “It was a pretty quick run, especially on the first lap. I knew Jonathan Brownlee had to stop for a penalty, so I knew I just had to hang on to Alistair for as long as I could. But when you run close to 29 minutes for 10K, I couldn’t do much more today. I am pretty happy with that, I think it was my best race this year.”

Javier Gomez

So could the third time be a charm for Gómez at the 2016 Olympic Games?

“I hope I will be in Rio with a medal chance,” said Gómez. “I’ll be 33 in 2016, so hopefully I’ll still be fit and enjoying the sport.”

López Defends His Greco-Roman Wrestling Title at the London Games

London Olympics 2012

It’s a tale of redemption for Mijaín López at the 2012 Olympic Games…

The 29-year-old Cuban wrestler took down Heiki Nabi of Estonia 2-0, 1-0 on Monday to claim his second consecutive Olympic gold medal in the men’s Greco-Roman wrestling 120 kg category at the London Games.

Mijaín López

But it was López’s semifinal against Riza Kayaalp of Turkey that proved to be the most highly anticipated match of the day.

The wrestling world was left in shock and disbelief when Kayaalp beat the seemingly unbeatable Lopez at the 2011 World Championships. López had won world titles in 2005 and 2007, claimed the gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, and then went on to the next two world championships.

Mijaín López

But Lopez restored order to the heavyweight division he’s ruled for years by dropping Kayaalp in that semifinal match. He scored a couple of late points while on offense to win the first period. That set the tone heading into the second period, which also went to the “par terre” tiebreaker position. This time López  stayed on the bottom, keeping Kayaalp from scoring on him. Kayaalp flailed wildly as he attempted to pick López off the mat, but nothing worked.

Following that redemptive win over Kayaalp, López believed no one else could touch him… And that proved to be the case when he defeated Nabi in the final in similar fashion to take home the gold.

Mijaín López

“I think it was a really good fight,” said López, whose performance on Monday solidified his place as one of the great Greco-Roman heavyweights of all time.

With the victory, López becomes the third wrestler to win multiple gold medals at 120 kilograms, joining Russian legend Alexandre Karelin and Alexander Koltschinkski of the former Soviet Union.

Asked if he’d be back for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, López was noncommittal.

“I mean I am [almost] 30 already. I have three Olympics behind me. It is going to be a little bit more difficult, but life goes on,” said López.

Lochte Wins Two Medals to End His London Games With Five Medals

London Olympics 2012

It may not have been a golden night for Ryan Lochte… But he’ll still have plenty of reason to celebrate when he turns 28 on Friday.

The 27-year-old half-Cuban American swimmer lost to rival Michael Phelps in the 200-meter individual medley on Thursday at the 2012 Olympic Games, but Lochte’s silver finish gave him his fifth medal of the London Games.

Ryan Lochte

Earlier in the night—in a disappointing performance in his signature event—Lochte came in third to teammate Tyler Clary in the 200 backstroke, roughly half an hour before his race against Phelps.

This is the end of competition for Lochte at this year’s Olympics. So how does he rate his performance in London?

“A little above average,” said Lochte. “Sometimes you have it, sometimes you don’t. But overall, I can’t be too disappointed. I am coming home to my country with five Olympic medals.”

Ryan Lochte

Lochte’s silver and bronze Thursday brought his career total to 11. Only Phelps has more among American men with 20 Olympic medals, 16 of them gold.

So what Lochte’s favorite memory of these Games?

“The 400 IM,” he said. “Getting that gold. It was the first race, the first day of the Olympics. Getting it off right for Team USA. That definitely was one of the greatest feelings.”

And he could have more great Olympic medals. Lochte plans to compete at 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Leyva Earns Bronze in Men’s All-Around at London Games

London Olympics 2012

Talk about a colossal comeback… Following a shaky start in the first half of the men’s gymnastics all-around competition, American Danell Leyva stormed back to claim the bronze medal at the 2012 London Games.

The 20-year-old Cuban American gymnast, who appears completamente desnudo in ESPN‘s fourth annual “The Body Issue,” was always considered a strong candidate to win an all-around medal at the 2012 Olympic Games. After all, he’d earned the highest qualifying score of the finalists during the team competition.

Danell Leyva

But Leyva stumbled in his second routine, the pommel horse, and appeared to be totally out of the competition halfway through the competition. After three of his six routines, Leyva was tied for 17th place.

But Leyva roared back to life on his fifth event, the parallel bars, where the Cuban-born gymnast showed why he’s the defending world champion in that event. He hit his routine and earned a 15.833, putting him in sixth place in the final rotation, less than a point behind eventual silver medalist Marcel Nguyen of Germany.

Danell Leyva

Leyva then completed his miraculous comeback with an inspired routine on the high bar. He nailed each release; and he topped off a stellar routine with a landing that had just a small step and pumped his fists. Leyva didn’t need the scoreboard to tell him he’d turned the beat around to end the day as the first Latino Olympic men’s all-around medalist.

Danell Leyva

“It was so much fun,” Leyva said of his final routine, which scored a night’s best score of 15.700 in the routine. “I didn’t think about anything else but the fun.”

Kohei Uchimura of Japan, the three-time defending world champion, earned the gold with a final score of 92.690 and Nguyen was the surprise silver medalist with a total of 91.031. Leyva had 90.698 points.

Leyva had praise for the 23-year-old Uchimura and a prediction.

“If I spoke Japanese,” said Leyva, “I would tell him that he is the best gymnast that ever lived. So far. I’m going to keep working to beat him.”

Leyva also said he hoped Uchimura sticks around for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro because, Leyva said, “I want to beat him.”

Meanwhile, Leyva’s teammate John Orozco, who beat Leyva to win the U.S. Men’s Gymnastics Championships in June, finished in 8th place.  The 19-year-old Puerto Rican gymnast ended the night with a score of 89.331.

Espinosa & Orozco Win a Silver in Women’s Synchronized Diving

London Olympics 2012

It’s almost a case of déjà vu as Mexico’s Paola Espinosa and Alejandra Orozco earn Mexico the country’s second silver medal in diving in two days, after Iván Garcia and Germán Sánchez claimed a similar diving silver on Monday.

Espinosa and her 15-year-old partner put on an impressive display to finish in second place in the Women’s Diving: Synchronized 10m Platform final at the 2012 Olympic Games on Tuesday, July 31—Espinosa’s 26thbirthday.

Paola Espinosa & Alejandra Orozco

China’s Chen Ruolin and Wang Hao—the favorites this year—took home the gold with 368.40 points. Espinosa and Orozco scored 343.32 points to earn the silver; and Canada’s Roseline Filion and Meaghan Benfeito won the bronze with 337.62 points.

With her medal-winning performance, Espinosa enters Mexico’s history books as the first woman to win medals at two Olympics. She earned a bronze medal in the same event at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing with her partner Tatiana Ortiz.

Paola Espinosa & Alejandra Orozco

“It’s a great gift”, said Espinosa of winning a second medal with her new partner Orozco, the youngest athlete to represent Mexico at the 2012 Olympic Games. “It was a great competition for us. We’re very happy with this result and the truth is that we did it very well, we dove very well. Our expectations today were to be on the medal podium and that’s how it was.”

At the start of the competition, the British duo of Sarah Barrow and Tonia Couch surprised the audience with their first two dives and remained behind the Chinese with Espinosa and Orozco ranked seventh.

Paola Espinosa & Alejandra Orozco
But in the third round the Mexican divers performed an excellent dive that gave them the maximum qualification (84.48 points) and moved them into second place.

“I realized (of the possibility to win the silver) from the first free dive, that we were already in second,” said Espinosa. “And I felt that we could [medal] because we‘ve trained very well, very strong. I believe Alejandra and I have made a great duo. We communicate very well.”

Paola Espinosa & Alejandra Orozco

The Mexican divers remained consistent in the last two dives and ended up with a solid point difference between them and the third place team. Following their fifth and final dive, Espinosa and Orozco hugged tightly knowing they’d done enough to medal.

“It was simply about going dive by dive, laboring as we have done for a long time,” said Orozco, who thanked her partner for the constant “support” and “motivation” she gave her.

Espinosa, competing in her third Olympics after her debut at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, hasn’t ruled out participating at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio of Janeiro.

“If God wants and my body and my mind, now that I am older, permit me, I will continue working for the next Games and be in the fight.”