USA Basketball Defeats Spain [107 - 100]To Win Gold Medal At London Olympic

There may still be no doubt of that after the Americans 107-100 victory at North Greenwich Arena, but Team USA's second consecutive gold medal game win over Spain was hardly a leisurely ride down the adjacent River Thames. The Americans led by one at the half, trailed briefly in the third quarter and never really had a comfortable margin.

As good as Spain is with Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, Rudy Fernandez, Juan Carlos Navarro and Serge Ibaka - all either current or former NBA players - when the U.S. replaces All-Star with All-Star, it wears down an opponent. It might be possible to stop one star. But to stop one after another after another?

The U.S. has won 14 of the 16 gold-medal games in which it has played and is now 130-5 in Olympic games. The U.S. has now won 17 consecutive Olympics games and furthered distanced itself from the bronze-medal debacle at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Not coincidentally, the U.S. turnaround in this decade began when Jerry Colangelo took over as USA Basketball's chairman in 2005, stabilizing the program by naming Mike Krzyzewski coach and securing long-term commitment from the USA's best NBA players.

The ability of James, Chris Paul and Deron Williams to create open shots for themselves and others, namely Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant - made it near impossible for an opponent to stop the U.S. from scoring.

While the rest of the world has closed the gap in 20 years since the 1992 Dream Team at the Barcelona, James, Bryant, Anthony, Durant, Deron Williams, Chris Paul and the rest ensured the world lags behind. With Colangelo's leadership, the U.S. is in outstanding shape headed into the 2014 World Cup in Spain and the 2016 Rio Olympics, especially given the tentative plan not to make the competition 23-and-under for Rio.

FIBA secretary general Patrick Baumann said, "It would probably be premature right now …… to make any changes in the Olympic program.

"The feeling is that we will not be proposing an under-23 for 2016."

That sounds good to NBA players, such as Bryant, James and Durant, who have bought in to the USA Basketball do not want to see an age limit.

Earlier Sunday, Russia beat Argentina 81-77 for the bronze medal. It was the Russians' first Olympic basketball medal since 1988 when the Soviet Union won gold. That was the last Olympics before professional basketball players were allowed to compete.

Manteo Mitchell U.S. 4x400M Runner Finishes Olympic Relay After Breaking Leg

Manteo Mitchell heard the POP! and knew it wasn't good. "It felt like somebody literally just snapped my leg in half," he said.

The American sprinter had 200 meters to go in the first leg of the 4x400-meter relay preliminaries Thursday and a decision to make: keep running or stop and lose the race. To him, it was never much of a choice.

He finished the lap and limped to the side to watch the Americans finish the race and qualify easily for the final. A few hours later, doctors confirmed what he suspected: He had run the last half-lap with a broken left fibula.

"I heard it and I felt it," Mitchell told The Associated Press. "But I figured it's what almost any person would've done in that situation."

Mitchell finished his heat in a more-than-respectable 46.1 seconds, and the United States tied the Bahamas in the second heat in 2 minutes, 58.87 seconds – the fastest time ever run in the first round of the relay at the Olympics.

The 25-year-old sprinter from Cullowhee, N.C., said he was diagnosed with a complete break of the left fibula – but it was not a compound fracture and the bone is expected to heal on its own in four to six weeks.

He knew what the stakes were when he lined up to run the first leg of his first Olympics. The Americans have won gold in the last eight long relays they've entered at the Olympics.

"Even though track is an individual sport, you've got three guys depending on you, the whole world watching you," Mitchell said. "You don't want to let anyone down."

He said he slipped on the stairs a few days ago in the athletes village but didn't think much of it. Training went well and he felt good when he lined up to kick things off for the Americans. He said he was feeling great, as well, when he looked at the clock while approaching the 200-meter mark, somewhere in the high-20 or low-21-second range.

Allyson Felix Wins Gold In 200M

Denied twice on the world's biggest stage, Felix won the Olympic gold medal she's been yearning for, taking the 200 meters Wednesday night to fill in the last, and biggest, hole in her otherwise stellar resume.

Felix won the race in 21.88 seconds, topping Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who won the 100 four nights earlier, by .21 seconds. American Carmelita Jeter added bronze to go with her silver in the 100 meters.

One more spot back was Jamaica's Veronica Campbell-Brown, who defeated Felix in the Athens and Beijing Games and was trying to become the first woman to win the same individual track and field event in three consecutive Olympics.

Instead, the Americans were the ones celebrating three straight.

Felix's win was quickly followed by Aries Merritt's victory in the 110 hurdles and Brittney Reese's long jump title.

Felix won easily, leaving nothing to chance - or a coin flip - as she burst ahead of Fraser-Pryce with 40 meters to go.

USA Aly Raisman Wins Olympic Gold In Gymnastics Floor Exercise

Raisman won gold with her gorgeous floor exercise routine and bronze on balance beam Tuesday while the rest of the Americans came up empty-handed.

Miami’s Danell Leyva finished fifth on high bar, behind gymnasts whose routines were even more gravity-defying than his.

“We just didn’t have the stuff those crazy, amazing guys had,” Leyva said. “When I saw my score, I knew it wouldn’t be enough.”

Epke Zonderland of the Netherlands won the first Dutch gold medal in gymnastics since 1928 with a 16.533-point routine that had a start value seven-tenths of a point higher than Leyva’s. Silver medalist Fabian Hambuchen of Germany and bronze medalist Zou Kai of China also incorporated more difficulty in their maneuvers than the Americans and hit them all in a display of virtuosity that had fans inside North Greenwich Arena roaring their approval. Leyva’s score was 15.833 and Jonathan Horton (15.466) of Houston finished sixth.

Leyva won the sole medal for the U.S. men, capturing bronze with his dramatic comeback in the all-around event Tuesday.

“We just have to go home and get stronger,” Leyva said. “Before you get to the Olympics all you think about is gold, gold, gold. I’m extremely happy with my bronze because of the way I won it. But I’m not satisfied.”

Nor were the men happy with their fifth-place team finish, especially after they had placed third at world championships. But Horton said with Leyva and John Orozco still reaching for their prime, the United States should be able to convert its potential in the coming years.

“We had a young team that experienced the Olympic Games,” said Horton, who won two medals in 2008. “Mistakes were made, but we had to learn from this. I think we’ve awakened a sleeping giant because the U.S. can be a giant in this sport.”

The American women proved they are the team to beat with the team title and Gabby Douglas’ all-around gold — a double that was a first for the U.S. women. They nicknamed themselves the “Fierce Five” in a nod to the last U.S. team to win Olympic team gold, the “Magnificent Seven” of 1996.

Then Raisman finished with a red, white and blue flourish. Her floor routine was so clean she mopped up her erring opposition, and that included teammate Jordyn Wieber, the reigning world champion who was expected to dominate the podium in London. But Wieber didn’t qualify for the all-around final, scoring fewer points than Douglas and Raisman. Then, during her chance at individual gold on floor, she stepped out of bounds and flubbed a landing on her first two tumbling passes and had to settle for seventh place.

She frowned afterward at her 14.5 score and shouted, “Go, Aly!”

Raisman sprang across the floor with impressive height and snap. She mixed in clever dance moves and concluded with a thunderous run and perfectly timed, graceful split jump.

As Raisman came off the floor, Mihai Brestyan — her coach at his suburban Boston gym — pumped his arms and lifted her in a hug. Wieber patted her on the back.

“I felt like I had nothing to lose,” she said. “It was going to be my last memory of London, so I wanted to make it count and enjoy it.”

The five gymnasts who followed couldn’t match her 15.6 score. When Sandra Izbasa of Romania crash-landed, the usually ultra-composed Raisman knew she had won and broke into a big smile.

“It was definitely the best floor routine that I’ve ever done,” Raisman said. “It was the best feeling ever. That’s what you work for your whole life.”

Raisman won the first Olympic gold for an American woman. She finished fourth in all-around, missing a medal in a tiebreaker with Russia’s Aliya Mustafina. But on Tuesday a ruling in her favor enabled her to bump Romania’s Catalina Ponor from third to fourth on balance beam.

After Raisman’s initial score of 14.966 was shown, U.S. team coordinator Martha Karolyi and husband Bela requested a video review. Judges added a tenth to her difficulty, which tied her with Ponor, but Raisman got third on the basis of her higher execution score.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/07/2938872/aly-raisman-closes-strong-for.html#storylink=cpy

Team USA Vs. Lithuania Final Score: LeBron James Saves Americans In 99-94 Win

LeBron James scored 9 of his 20 points in the final four minutes for the U.S. (4-0), which had looked nearly invincible in thrashing Nigeria 156-73 on Thursday night and breaking several records. But the Americans were reminded that the path to the gold medal is loaded with traps and Lithuania nearly sprang one.

"You want to get tested. The best teams want to be tested. We love the competition," James said. "I think we've got some of the greatest competitors in our league, in this world, so you want to have a game where you feel like you were tested, and we had that today."

Carmelo Anthony added 20 points, Kevin Durant 16 and Chris Paul added seven rebounds, six assists and four of the U.S. team's 17 steals.

Linas Kleiza scored 25 to lead Lithuania, which led by 84-82 with 5:50 to play. After the U.S. took a three-point lead, Lithuania would not go away and pulled within 87-86 on Darius Songaila's bucket with 4:12 left.

That's when James, who has already won an MVP trophy and NBA title this year, took control of the offense.

"I've been kind of doing everything else, which I'm OK with. I'm here to do all the little things, do whatever this team needs, especially from Coach K's perspective, but like I told you guys I can also score," James said. "I'm blessed and happy that I was able to make a few buckets down the stretch."
James knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the key, and after Paul stole the inbounds pass, James took a pass down the right side and delivered one of his trademark dunks, a basket that brought the American players off the bench and seemed to restore world basketball order.