Any hopes of seeing a face-off between Gabby Douglas and Jordyn Weiber were dashed Monday night, as Douglas edged out Weiber for a spot in the medal round of the women’s all-around competition, which takes place on Thursday.
The women’s all-around event only takes two participants from each country, and Weiber’s score of 60.032 placed her third behind teammates Douglas (60.265) and Aly Raisman (60.391).
Wieber, who had lost only two all-around competitions since 2008, cried as she made her way past the media and did not speak to reporters.
Douglas was spectacular in her first three efforts. However, she was disqualified for a medal in the floor exercise when she stepped out of bounds on her routine. Still, Douglas will compete for four gold medals.
It rained, as it often does in London, and Douglas said she took it as a positive sign.
“It’s like a manifestation is going to happen, you know, like a good thing is going to happen. It’s God; it’s God,” Douglas said. “So when it rains, me and my mom always text each other like, ‘its going to be a great day today.’ So I had peace in my heart and I came out here and performed very well.”
Douglas and Team USA will need to duplicate their dominant performance in order to hold off Russia, Romania and China for its first gold in the team event since 1996.
Swimming: French Come From Behind To Beat USA
This year’s men’s 400-meter freestyle relay final had shades of the same race four years ago in Beijing, only this time it was the French who powered through the last leg to defeat Ryan Lochte, and Team USA.
America looked poised to take the race again, especially after Phelps increased its lead from 0.14 to 0.76 during the second leg. It was a strong bounce back from a disappointing performance in the 400 individual medley to post the best split for the Americans at 47.15.
However, Frenchman Yannick Agnel powered pass Lochte in the final leg. Agnel’s split clocked at a stunning 46.74, a full second faster than Lochte.
Vollmer Sets Butterfly Record, Wins Gold
Dana Vollmer claimed the first gold medal of 2012 for U.S. women’s swimming in dramatic fashion, breaking the world record in the 100-meter butterfly with at time of 55.98 seconds.
The victory was the ultimate form of redemption for Vollmer, who failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics after making the Olympics as a 16-year-old in 2004. Vollmer has overcome several injuries and health problems to return to championship form.
Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, who wore a now banned high tech bodysuit when she accomplished the feat, set the three-year-old record at the World Championships.
Soccer: Hope Solo Will Not Be Punished For Twitter Rant
Team USA goalie Hope Solo will not be punished for her Twitter rant toward former Team USA member Brandi Chastain. Solo took to twitter to defend her team after what she believed were negative comments by Chastain, who was commentating on television.
“Its 2 bad we cant have commentators who better represents the team & knows more about the game,” Solo tweeted. She then tweeted “lay off commentating about defending and gking(goalkeeping) until you get more educated. The game has changed from a decade ago.”
Solo is known to speak her mind, like when she was nearly kicked off the team during the 2007 World Cup for criticizing then head coach Greg Ryan for benching her during the semifinals.
Solo wasn’t shying away from her comments either, tweeting, “Discipline? Ha! For what! Never even a topic! We talked about our team deserving the best!”
