Americans claimed three gold medals in swimming events. Michael Phelps continued to add to his record personal Olympic medal collection. Number 20 overall and his record 16th gold medal came in the 200-meter individual medley. Phelps became the first male swimmer to win the same individual event in three straight Olympics. He outdueled teammate Ryan Lochte who settled for a silver medal about 30 minutes after he won the bronze in the 200-meter backstroke. Rebecca Soni posted a world record in the women's 200-meter breaststroke. She became the first women to break the 2 minute, 20 second barrier with a time of 2 minutes, 19.59 seconds. That was one-hundredth of a second faster than the mark she set in the semifinals on Wednesday.
Gabby Douglas has won the gold medal in women's all-around, adding it to the team gold she shared with her teammates on Tuesday. Douglas became the third straight American to win gymnastics' biggest prize, taking the lead on the first event with an impressive vault. She finished less than three-tenths ahead of Russia's Viktoria Komova. Douglas brought the house down with her energetic floor routine, and U.S. teammates Jordyn Wieber, McKayla Maroney and Kyla Ross jumped to their feet and cheered when she finished. American Aly Raisman finished tied for the bronze but lost a tiebreaker and had to settle for fourth place.
Kayla Harrison of the U.S. defeated Gemma Gibbins of Britain 2-0 in the gold medal match of women's 78-kg judo. After leaving the mat, Harrison, a former world champion, hugged her coach and draped herself in the American flag. The medal is the first gold for the U.S. in judo
The heavily favored team from the U.S. won its second straight Olympic rowing gold medal in the women's eight. The U.S. held off Canada to get the gold, maintaining its six-year dominance of the high-profile event.
NBC researchers are finding that people who know Olympic results before the network's tape-delayed telecast are more likely to watch it. The preliminary research undercuts an assumption that has guided production of Olympic broadcasts from locales outside of U.S. time zones for decades. NBC has been criticized for not televising live some of the London Games' marquee events like swimming and gymnastics so they can be aired in prime time. NBC chief researcher Alan Wurtzel says that people who watched the events earlier in the day via computer stream watched the tape-delayed broadcast for a longer time than those who hadn't.
Medal events coming up today, the women’s 800m freestyle, men’s 50m freestyle, women’s 200m backstroke and men’s 100m butterfly and track and field gets underway, men’s shotput and women’s 10,000m go for gold this afternoon.
Back at home the Mets took three out of four in San Francisco with a 9-1 victory and Boston loses to the Twins 5-0. The Red Sox now sit 9 games behind the first place Yankees in the AL East.
Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press