The 2012 Olympic Games in London is finally over. After 16 long, grueling days of competition between the best athletes in the entire world, the United States walked away as the winningest country, both in terms of total medals and in terms of gold medals. The Bay Area was well-represented and local athletes will be bringing more than their fair share of medals back to Northern California
One of the biggest medals in the XXX Olympiad was, of course, the gold won by the United States Women's National Team in women's soccer, as Team USA held on to defeat their old rivals Japan, who had upset them in the World Cup just one year earlier. Alex Morgan, from Cal, was the one who nailed the game-winning goal in the instant classic semifinal match against Canada in the 122nd minute. Nicole Barnhart, Rachel Buehler and Kelley O'Hara from the USWNT are all Stanford women and Megan Rapinoe is a Redding native.
Bay Area swimmers all made big impressions as well. The U.S. women's water polo team won their first-ever gold medal in the event and a full five players are local, with five coming from Stanford and two from Cal. Cal's Nathan Adrian picked up two gold medals and a silver medal, while Dana Volmer -- also from Cal -- picked up three gold medals.
Stanford's Kerri Walsh-Jennings and her partner Misty May-Treanor picked up their third straight gold medal in women's beach volleyball in an all-United States final, putting the exclamation point on the complete U.S. domination of the event.
Here are some of the other medal winners from the Bay Area.
- Natalie Coughlin, a Cal alumnus from Vallejo, captured her 12th medal in the women's 400 free relay.
- Santa Clara's Haley Anderson won silver in the women's 10k Open Water.
- Bay Area residents Erin Cafaro and Mary Whippie won gold in the women's rowing eights.
- Stanford's Kristian Ipsen earned a bronze in the three meter synchronized springboard.
- Scott Gault won bronze in the men's coxless four.
- Jeneba Tarmoh, a San Jose native, was part of the relay pool in the gold medal-winning women's 4 x 100 meter relay, while Keshia Baker of Fairfield ran a prelim for the 4x100m
You can check out SI's complete medal tracker here.
Stick with this StoryStream for more coverage of local athletes at the 2012 Olympic Games. For more on the 2012 Olympic Games, make sure that you check out SB Nation's dedicated Olympics hub.