London Olympics 2012: Day 1 Highlights – Huffington Post

— _ American Ryan Lochte turned his significantly-anticipated duel with Michael Phelps into a blowout, pulling away to win the Olympic 400-meter person medley by more than 3 seconds for the very first U.S. gold medal in London.

_ China picked up proper exactly where it left off from the Beijing Olympics, where it won the most gold medals with 51. The country won four on the first full day of competition in London: Yi Siling, who got the 1st gold of 2012 in women’s 10-meter air rifle shooting Ye Shiwen, who set a world record in women’s 400 individual medley swimming Sun Yang in men’s 400 freestyle swimming and Wang Mingjuang in women’s 48-kilogram weightlifting.

_ Natalie Coughlin tied Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres for most career medals by an American woman with 12 when the United States won a bronze in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay. And she did not even have to swim in a final: She swam a leg in the preliminaries, assisting the U.S. qualify second-fastest. But for the evening final, the Americans went with teenager Missy Franklin and Jessica Hardy, and brought back Olympic rookie Lia Neal and Allison Schmitt, leaving Coughlin to play cheerleader.

_ Wimbledon champions Roger Federer and Serena Williams every single won their opening matches. 4-time Olympian Federer beat Alejandro Falla of Colombia 6-3, 5-7, 6-3. Williams, seeded fourth, defeated former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-1 as 1st lady Michelle Obama watched from the front row of Williams’ box.

_ Australia completed the 400-totally free swimming relay in 3:33.15, Netherlands won the silver, and the Americans got bronze.

_ The American guys are atop the standings in gymnastics, whilst defending Olympic champion China and perennial powerhouse Japan struggled.

NOT THEIR FINEST HOUR

_ No medals for the hosts on the 1st day of their Olympics. The British cycling “dream group,” which includes Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins, failed to break out of the major pack in the road race, which was won by Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan.

_ Not only did Michael Phelps shed in the 400-meter individual medley, he did not win a medal at all. He was attempting to become the very first male swimmer to win the same person occasion at three straight Olympics. He’ll have 3 more chances at a threepeat: the 200 person medley, plus the 100 and 200 butterfly.

ROYAL Remedy

_ Fresh from her overall performance as a Bond Girl for the duration of the opening ceremony, Queen Elizabeth II returned to Olympic Park for an encore and met with about 150 members of the British Olympic group. Said Rose Anderson of the women’s basketball group: “She went inside one of the athletes’ bedrooms and chatted to us. It was just awesome, particularly following final evening.”

SUNDAY’S SCHEDULE HIGHLIGHTS

_ Swimming: gold medal finals in men’s 100-meter breaststroke, 400-meter freestyle relay, women’s 100-meter butterfly, 400-meter freestyle.

_ Women’s gymnastics: team competition.

_ Women’s diving: synchronized springboard gold medal final.