Olympics Day 15: Four In a Row
Let me get this straight. The IOC is ditching softball, because the Americans are too dominant, even though Japan just won the gold medal, but they are keeping women's basketball? The US just won their fourth straight gold, routing Australia 92-65 in the final game.
On paper, the Americans shouldn't be this far ahead of the field. Australia has two of the best players in the world - Lauren Jackson and Penny Taylor - and a deep roster, but the United States crushed them.
The American men looked just as good in the 4x400 relay, winning by open daylight, but the women had to work for it. Sanya Richards made up for her fade in the 400-meter individual race, running down the Russians in the last few yards to clinch the gold.
The other big story came from the Belgian women's track & field juggernaut. After not winning a single medal in the first 112 years of the modern Olympics, they won their second in two days on Saturday. This time, it was high-jumper Tia Hellebaut upsetting Croatian star Blanka Vlasic.
There was also one of the stranger moments in Olympic history, when Cuba's Angel Matos kicked a referee in the head after being disqualified during a taekwondo bronze-medal match. Both Matos and his coach were giving lifetime bans from the sport.
RealSports Medal Standings
1) United States 32-29-32=279
2) China 29-18-19=218
3) Russia 18-16-20=158
4) Great Britain 17-13-9=133
5) Australia 12-13-17=116
6) Germany 13-7-12=98
7) France 6-13-13=82
South Korea 9-9-5=77
9) Italy 7-8-10=69
10) Japan 9-4-9=66
11) Ukraine 6-5-8=53
12) Holland 6-4-4=46
13) Spain 5-6-2=45
X) MichaelPhelpsLane 8-0-0=40
14) Jamaica 6-2-3=39
15) Kenya 4-5-4=39
16) Belarus 4-3-9=38
17) Cuba 2-7-7=38
18) Canada 3-4-6=33
19) Brazil 3-3-7=31
20) Poland 2-6-1=29