Tuesday’s edition of the Olympics did not bring too much excitement in its own right, but set the stage for a series of thrills in the days to come. Team USA did pick up some more hardware, as gymnast Aly Raisman won gold in the floor exercise and a bronze on balance beam. Cyclist Sarah Hammer earned a silver medal in the women’s Track Omnium, as did Erik Kynard in the men’s high jump. Dawn Harper and Kellie Wells both stood atop the winner’s podium in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, getting silver and bronze, respectively. Lastly, Leo Manzano came in second place in the men’s 1500-meter run, earning a silver medal and Team USA’s seventh medal of the day.

The team sports that Americans are involved in are slowly but surely getting around to the medal rounds, but no major medal events happened after a first week of constant action in the swimming events. The one major highlight of the day’s events was the inspiring performance put on by Trojan alums April Ross and Jennifer Kessy, who advanced to the finals in women’s beach volleyball after besting the 2011 World Champion Brazilian team. 

Coming into this match, the Brazilians had beat Kessy and Ross nine straight times. Apparently, the tenth time was the charm.

Ross and Kessy found themselves down a set after dropping the first set, 21-15, to the top-seeded Brazilians, Larissa and Juliana, but rallied back and won the next two, 21-19 and 15-12. The pouring rain only added to the drama of the moment, as these women fought a good fight in the bitter cold, wet conditions. The Brazilians yielded nothing to the Kessy and Ross and made the duo fight for every point, dig and ace. They actually trailed early in the second set, but showed much resilience and determination as the Americans found their stride and climbed their way back. 

These women of Troy will take on fellow Americans and beach volleyball legends, Misty May-Treanor and Kerry Walsh-Jennings in the gold medal match on Wednesday night. 

More from Team USA Olympians…

The American women’s basketball team dominated Canada, beating its northern neighbors, 91-48, in the quarterfinals. They will take on Australia in the first semifinal game on Sunday, Aug. 9.

On the women’s volleyball front, Team USA swept the Dominican Republic, 3-0, in the quarterfinals, and will move on to face South Korea, also on Sunday. USC Olympian Nicole Davis is on the team.

Trojans in the Olympics:

Tuesday was a good day for Trojan track and field athletes, as a handful of them qualified to move on to the semifinals or finals in their respective sports. Aaron Brown (Canada), a soon to be USC junior recorded the 12th-fasted time in the 200 meters (20.55) on Tuesday and will move on to the semis tomorrow. The 200-meter favorite, Allyson Felix, ran in the semis for this event on Tuesday and will run in the finals—as expected—Wednesday, as well. She qualified with a time of 22.31. 800-meter runner Duane Solomon secured himself a spot in the finals when he finished his race with a time of 1:44.93. In the men's high jump finals, Jesse Williams tied for ninth with a mark of 2.25 meters. In cycling news, Joseph Veloce (Canada) finished fourth in a men's keirin heat and did not qualify for the next round.

Tumua Anae, Kami Craig and Lauren Wenger, contributed in a women’s water polo victory over Australia, 11-9 in overtime. They earned the right to play in the gold medal match. Coincidentally, the Spanish vs. Hungary match also featured two Trojans, Flora Bolonyai (Hungary) and Anni Espar (Spain). In a nail-biter, the Spanish narrowly defeated the Hungarians, 10-9, and will take on Team USA in the finals.

Water polo players Sofia Konoukh (Russia) and Aniko Pelle (Italy) competed against Great Britain and China, respectively. Russia won 11-9 whereas Italy fell to China, 14-10. 

See April Ross and Jennifer Kessy above. 

Day 14 Medal Results:

Cycling

Women's Omnium | Gold: Laura Trott (Great Britain), Silver: Sarah Hammer (United States), Bronze: Annette Edmondson (Australia)

Women's Sprint | Gold: Anna Meares (Australia), Silver: Victoria Pendleton (Great Britain), Bronze: Guo Shuang (China)

Men's Keirin | Gold: Chris Hoy (Great Britain), Silver: Maximilian Levy (Germany), Bronze: Simon van Velthooven (New Zealand) and Teun Mulder (Netherlands)

Diving

Men's 3-meter Springboard | Gold: Ilya Zakharov (Russia), Silver: Qin Kai (China), Bronze: He Chong (China)

Equestrian

Team Dressage | Gold: Great Britain, Silver: Germany, Bronze: Netherlands

Gymnastics

Men's Parallel Bars | Gold: Feng Zhe (China), Silver: Marcel Nguyen (Germany), Bronze: Hamilton Sabot (France)

Women's Balance Beam | Gold: Deng Linlin (China), Silver: Sui Lu (China), Bronze: Aly Raisman (United States)

Men's Horizontal Bar | Gold: Epke Zonderland (Netherlands), Silver: Fabian Hambüchen (Germany), Bronze: Zou Kai (China)

Women's Floor Exercise | Gold: Aly Raisman (United States), Silver: Catalina Ponor (Romania), Bronze: Aliya Mustafina (Russia)

Sailing

Men's RS: X | Gold: Dorian Van Rijsselberghe (Netherlands), Silver: Nick Dempsey (Great Britain), Bronze: Przemek Miarczynski (Poland)

Women's RS: X | Gold: Marina Alabau (Spain), Silver: Tuuli Petäjä (Finland), Bronze: Zofia Noceti-Klepacka (Poland)

Synchronized Swimming

Women's Duet | Gold: Svetlana Romashina & Natalia Ishchenko (Russia), Silver: Ona Carbonell & Andrea Fuentes (Spain), Bronze: Liu Ou & Huang Xuechen (China)

Table Tennis

Women's Team | Gold: China, Silver: Japan, Bronze: Singapore

Track and Field

Men's High Jump | Gold: Ivan Ukhov (Russia), Silver: Erik Kynard (United States), Bronze: Derek Drouin (Canada), Robbie Grabarz (Great Britain) and Mutaz Essa Barshim (Qatar)

Men's Discus Throw | Gold: Robert Harting (Germany), Silver: Ehsan Hadadi (Iran), Bronze: Gerd Kanter (Estonia)

Women's 100-meter Hurdles | Gold: Sally Pearson (Australia), Silver: Dawn Harper (United States), Bronze: Kellie Wells (United States)

Men's 1,500 meters | Gold: Taoufik Makhloufi (Algeria), Silver: Leonel Manzano (United States), Bronze: Abdalaati Iguider (Morocco)

Triathlon

Men's Olympic Distance | Gold: Alistair Brownlee (Great Britain), Silver: Javier Gómez (Spain), Bronze: Jonathan Brownlee (Great Britain)

Weightlifting

Men's +105-kilogram (More than 231 lbs) | Gold: Behdad Salimi (Iran), Silver: Sajjad Anoushiravani (Iran), Ruslan Albegov (Russia)

Wrestling

Men's Greco-Roman 66-kilogram (145.5 lbs) | Gold: Kim Hyun-Woo (South Korea), Silver: Tamás Lörincz (Hungary), Bronze: Steeve Guenot (France) and Manuchar Tskhadaia (Georgia)

Men's Greco-Roman 96-kilogram (211.5 lbs) | Gold: Ghasem Rezaei (Iran), Silver: Rustam Totrov (Russia), Bronze: Jimmy Lidberg (Sweden) and Artur Aleksanyan (Armenia)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read more of Neon Tommy's 2012 Olympic coverage here.

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