Beginning a series of articles in which I recap the highlights of each day of the Olympics so far, and each remaining day as it comes, here's my recap of London 2012 day 1, plus the opening ceremony and the events which technically preceded the opening ceremony.
Caveat: I probably will not be able to keep these recaps from being United States-centric, as that's the foremost perspective I have when watching the games. I'll try my best to consider champions from other countries who stood out in my mind.
- On July 25th, fully 2 days before the opening ceremonies, the first Olympic event kicked off - soccer. As the US Men's soccer team shamefully did not qualify for the Olympic tournament, the US Women's soccer team has the duty of representing US soccer at the Games. After sweeping through the qualifying tournament with an amazing record of 38 goals scored and none allowed, the US team was likely taken aback when they found themselves down 2-0 fifteen minutes into their opening match against France. However, a 19-th minute goal by Abby Wambach of the US stemmed the tide, and the US team eventually stormed back to win their opening group stage game, 4-2. This put the US team atop their group, tied with the North Korean team who surprisingly won their opening match against Columbia. (This marked the first victory by North Korean over anyone in any televised event I can remember.)
- On the night of the 27th came the opening ceremony, which wisely did not attempt to outdo the Beijing 2008 opening ceremony in scale and simply told its own stories, the best of which was helmed by a winning combination of Rowan Atkinson (pictured above) and classically self-deprecating British wit. Overall I liked the opening ceremony, with the exception of the 'modern love story' skit which was confusing and underwhelming.
- The actual first day of the Olympics saw US swimmer Ryan Lochte start off his quest to replace Michael Phelps as the premiere male US swimmer on a high note, winning gold in the Men's 400m individual medley while Phelps finished fourth. The US also picked up two bronzes and a silver in assorted other swimming events.
- In archery, the US men's team upset favorites South Korea in the semifinals before losing to Italy on the last shot of the final round, 219-218.
- In soccer, the US women's team had an easy victory, 3-0 over Columbia, in the second group stage game, taking sole possession of first place in their group.
If you want to see a somewhat live set of information about how the US is doing in the Olympics, consult this Wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_at_the_2012_Summer_Olympics
(Image taken from telegraph.co.uk.)
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