My 12 Favorite Moments of London 2012

It's been a great Olympics.  It always is. There are so many stories ot inspiration, of hard work, of underdogs rising to the challenge. So, as the 30th Games come to a close, let's look back at some of the best moments.

Honorable mention: Spice Girls reunion.  Oh man.  So awesome.  And they all look so good!!

12. Andy Murray winning Olympic gold at home at Wimbledon.  Pretty special for all the Brits.

11. Missy Franklin.  I think NBC put it best, over and over....and over.... and over... again.  She's the 17-year-old phenom.  In her Olympic debut she won 4 golds and a bronze medal.  She handled the pressure and the media swimmingly (pun intended) being both poised and articulate.  That within itself is a feat for anyone, let alone a 17-year-old.

10. US Women's 4x100 Relay.  They haven't won since 1996 and there was a lot of pressure on them to perform, plus with the Jamaicans in the mix, nobody knew what was going to happen.  Well, they set a new world record.

9. US Women's Sports Teams.  The Women's soccer team, basketball team, and water polo team kicked ass.  The soccer and bball team were expected to win gold. The soccer team was looking for their thrid gold in a row, while the basketball team was looking for their unprecedented FIFTH in a row.  The water polo team was new on the scene winning its first gold in history.  Kickass ladies.  Kickass.  

8. Misty and Kerri. 3 Time Olympic gold. Dropped one set EVER in their Olympic run.  Best beach volleyball team ever. 

7. Mo Farah. Said to be the greatest distance runner Britain has ever seen, Mo certainly gave the home crowd something to cheer about, winning gold in both the 5 and the 10K.

6. Kirani James. He won Grenada's first medal.  And it was gold. Just a 19 year old kid, his success quickly skyrocketed and he became an ambassador to his country. He also displayed an awesome display of sportsmanship when he traded bibs with Oscar Pistorius after their first race.  His country is immensely proud of him, and it's really cool to see an island nation that small come together and be so supportive of their celeb who has experienced overwhelming success.

 5. The Fab 5. First team to win gold since 1996! Only second US team to win gold EVER.  These ladies are so young, and with the way gymnastics is now, they have one chance.  One chance to get it right.  To live the dream.  And before, you could throw scores out and you had two chances on vault.  This time, EVERYTHING counts.  No redos, no cushion... everything has to be perfect on the first try.  And it pretty much was.  They rose to the challenge.  Jordan Wieber got over her own personal disappointment in not making the individual all-around competition and was amazing.   Not only that, but she was the biggest cheerleader for her teammates both during the competition and also from the stands.

4. Usain Bolt.

3. David Boudia.  The US have gone the past two Olympics without diving medals.  But for London, the program stepped it up.  We won three medals in the synchro competition, but were eying a medal in the individual events.  With a less than stellar performance in the prelims, David Boudia grabbed the 18th and final spot in the semi final rounds.  He stepped up his game in the semis, but it's the finals that really count.  And he made it count.  Hitting an almost perfect dive in the later rounds, three divers went into the final round with just tenths and hundreths of a point dividing them.  He needed a perfect dive.  He got it.  And the US Men won their first gold medal since 1988.  It was pretty awesome to watch. Any medal would've been awesome.  But a gold?  Not too many people saw that coming.  Especially with the powerhouse Chinese and the British version of Justin Bieber (except this guy is actually pretty hott--- if he wasn't 18, I'd hop on that train immediately) in the mix, gold was a farther stretch than anybody was really looking.

2. Oscar Pistorius. Not much needs to be said about this one.  A double amputee running against everybody else in the OLYMPICS?  A seriously phenomenal story.  When you watch his interviews and the pieces done on him, he's a super articulate guy and just someone you can't help cheering for.

1. Mikey's Medals.  If you hadn't figured it out by my last post, I'm obsessed with Michael Phelps. But this obsession has very little to do with his number one position on this list.  18 gold medals and 22 in all?  That's a pretty ridiculous feat.  Yes, he's in a sport that allows him to win a lot of medals, but even within his sport, nobody even comes close.  Nobody matches the sheer dominance that he does in anything that they do.  It's been amazing to watch what he's brought to the sport of swimming.  It's been amazing to watch him over the years.  I admit I didn't know who he was since Athens, but ever since then--- <3  <3  I almost passed out when I got his autograph.  He's a phenomenal athlete and a great role model.