Blow Dealt To U.S. Gold Medal Count

By Brendon Rosenau
Love of Sports Correspondent

Before the Opening Ceremonies were even underway, two gold medals were already understood to be in U.S. possession: softball and women’s beach volleyball.

Wednesday night, the coronation for the queens of the sand and the queens of the diamond were set to take place. Only one problem, though. One of them lost.

The first year softball was held in the Olympic Games was 1996. The U.S. won gold. They also won in 2000 and 2004. The IOC had decided the take the sport off the Olympic docket after this year mainly because of the American’s complete domination.

This Olympics was supposed to be softball’s swan song, and the Americans were leading the chorus. They squared off against Japan in the gold medal game that was supposed to be the crowning achievement of the sport’s best team ever. Instead, it was the stage for one of the biggest upsets in any arena, stadium or ballpark. Bigger then Appalachian State over Michigan, Chaminade over Virginia, U.S. over Russia - even Balboa over Creed. That is the magnitude of what took place at the expense of the Americans.

Japan absolutely STUNNED the U.S., 3-1, handing the Americans their first Olympic loss since 2000 and just their fifth ever and first in 23 games. The Japanese scored runs in the top of the third, fourth and seventh innings, matching the amount of runs the U.S. had previously allowed throughout the entire tournament.

Eri Yamada hit a solo homer off Cat Osterman (five innings, three hits, two runs, nine strikeouts) in the fourth to put Japan up 2-0. It was the only home run the Americans allowed in the Olympics.

Crystal Bustos’ sixth home run cut the lead in half in the bottom of the frame, but that would be all the U.S. could muster. Yukiko Ueno held the U.S. to five hits in her third outing in three days. She pitched 28 innings in her final three games and stole the show from the entire American squad. It really is difficult to sum up exactly how big of an upset this was.

The bottom line was that the Americans were beat, and it was a shock to the players and the coaches and fans. The team was as dominant as the original Dream Team. It’s exactly why the Olympics provides the greatest sports drama in the world.

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh weren’t the least bit interested in an upset, though. The dynamic tandem repeated as gold medal winners with a 2-0 (21-18, 21-18) rain soaked win over China.

China led early in the first game before May-Treanor took over handling every ball that came her way. The best setter in the world consistently set up her teammate for easy points. In the second game, they jumped out quickly. They led 18-16 when one of the Chinese players needed a medical timeout. It wasn’t the first time this ploy was used, and yes it was a ploy.

The plan initially worked, as the five minute rest sapped the momentum from the Americans. China scored twice before Walsh and May-Treanor said enough is enough. Walsh scored the gold medal point with a beautiful shot that proclaimed the women as the greatest beach volleyball tandem of all-time. The duo’s never lost a set in Olympic play and extended their winning streak to 108 matches. Since the 2004 Olympics, the tandem is now 461-18, which amounts to a .962 winning percentage.

Medaling in Beijing

The U.S. and Brazil women’s soccer teams faced off for the second straight Olympics with a gold medal on the line. The U.S won in 2004 and they won again in 2008, thanks to a 1-0 overtime win.

Carli Llyod scored the golden goal in the 96th minute (sixth minute of overtime) on a beautiful left-footed blast from the left side. The game nearly didn’t go to overtime, though. In the 88th minute, Brazil had a free kick just 20 yards out. The shot was just off, sailing high over the net. The U.S. quickly countered and got a one-on-one, but the Brazilian keeper made a sensational play to preserve the tie.

In the final two minutes of the game Brazil had two chances, but U.S. keeper Hope Solo was amazing. Brazil had a corner in the 119th minute. After Solo tipped the ball at first, Brazil had an open net, but they knocked it into the side of the goal.

U.S. water polo coach Guy Baker called it the greatest performance he had ever seen. Too bad he was talking about Dutch player Danielle de Bruijin. De Bruijin scored seven goals to lead the Netherlands to a 9-8 win over the top-ranked Americans in the women’s gold medal game.

The Americans had to settle for silver after falling behind the Dutch, 4-0. The U.S. finally tied the score at 5-5, only to see de Bruijin lead her team to a 8-5 lead. With 5:05 left in the game, Moriah van Norman tied the game for the U.S. For the next five, breathless minutes the two teams traded chances. With 45 seconds left, the Dutch were awarded a 6-on-5 power play, which de Bruijin capitalized on for her seventh goal of the game. The Americans had two final chances in the final seconds, but couldn’t score.

Six Pack on the Track

The U.S. grabbed six more medals on the track with the men sweeping the 400. LaShawn Merritt, Jeremy Wariner and David Neville finished 1-2-3 in an impressive show of U.S. strength.

Wariner was the defending Olympic champ, but finished behind Merritt by over a full second. Neville literally dove across the finish line to edge out Christopher Brown by .04 seconds for the bronze.

In the 110-meter hurdles, David Payne won silver and David Oliver took bronze. Payne and Oliver ran nearly identical times with Payne finishing the race in 13.17 and Olive clocked at 13.18. Dayron Robles of Cuba won the event with a time of 12.93.

Allyson Felix ran her best race of the year, but it just wasn’t enough to win gold in the 200. Felix’s time of 21.93 was just off Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica. She won the race in 21.74.

It’s a Family Thing

Mark and Diana Lopez, members of the fighting Lopez family, each medaled in Taekwondo. Mark (68kg) won silver and Diana (57kg) won bronze. Another sibling, Steven, is still competing in the 80kg division. The oldest of the clan, Jean, is in Beijing as the coach of all three.

Horsing Around

Four horses tested positive for banned substances, rocking the equestrian world. If it were up to me, I’d find the guilty trainers and put them in a stable for the rest of their lives. American Beezie Madden and her horse Authentic (irony anyone) won the bronze in the individual jump off.

The success of the USA on Wednesday separated them from China a bit more. After Day 13, the U.S. now has a 95-83 medal count lead.

Quick Notes

The women’s volleyball team beat Cuba 3-0 and will face Brazil in the gold medal game. Neither team’s ever won gold. The U.S. won silver in 1984 and Brazil has won the bronze in the past two Olympics.

The women’s hoops team found themselves in a struggle, trailing Russia by five points in the third quarter of their semifinal game. Diana Taurasi (21 points) led a 12-0 run that resulted in a 67-52 win for the Americans. They’ll next face off with Australia for the gold.

Andrea Kramer needs to get back on the gridiron or go into criminal law. Wednesday night, she grilled a 14-year-old diver who narrowly missed qualifying for the finals. The poor girl could barely hold back tears before the interview. Once Kramer sunk her teeth in, the waterworks came. Maybe she can back off the “How does it feel to lose, or tell me what you’re feeling” line of questioning after these athletes come up painfully short of a lifelong dream.

Inspiring Beyond Belief

South African Natalie du Toit and Maarten van der Weijden of the Netherlands provided two more heartwarming stories in a Games that’s been full of them.

In the 10 km marathon swim, van der Weijden won gold seven years after being diagnosed with leukemia. At the same time, du Toit finished 16th while swimming with one leg. At the age of 17, she was hit by a car and had to have her leg amputated. At the time, she had dreams of being an Olympic swimmer. Yesterday, she realized those dreams.

Both van der Weijden and du Toit have tremendous stories, and I urge you all to look them up as a small mention doesn’t nearly do justice to them. Both were dealt a vicious hand by life and both played it the way they wanted. A great lesson for us all.

(Follow Rosenau’s daily Olympic coverage in this same spot every afternoon.)