MARK CANNIZZARO
Women’s soccer:
U.S. vs. Canada
The fact the match was at Old Trafford, the famous grounds that house Manchester United, was the draw. But then the match became so epic that what was taking place on the field — a U.S. extra-time win over Canada — superseded the venue.
It was one of the best big-tournament matches ever played and it sent the U.S. women to the gold-medal match, which they won. After the U.S. beat Japan in the final at Wembley, I was interviewing Megan Rapinoe when she asked me if I wanted to touch her gold medal.
I did and will never forget it. It was much heavier than I ever imagined. Felt like a manhole cover.
Holley Mangold
The U.S. women’s weightlifter and sister of Jets center Nick Mongold was an absolute joy to interview, which I did at her training facility days before she competed. I’ve covered Nick since he was drafted by the Jets and have gotten to know him and enjoy his self-deprecating personality.
Holley is his personality double. She is funny, self-confident and made me root for her when she lifted. With Nick having flown over to join their family in the stands, she finished a respectable 10th with a bad wrist. Cool story.
Oscar Pistorius
I’ll never forget the first time I saw him in person, as he emerged from the tunnel at Olympic Stadium for his first race. I sat in the press seats in the stadium, which were pretty close to the track and watching him walk past wearing those two bent Samurai swords that serve as artificial lower legs was otherworldly.
The “Blade Runner’’ looked like he was right out of a sci-fi movie.
When Pistorius was finished with his heat, reporters waited nearly 90 minutes to interview him because he was required to do so many TV interviews first. When he arrived, Pistorius apologized and displayed pure grace and humility — traits he displayed throughout the games, despite the fact his results weren’t great.
U.S. swimmers
There were two primary themes to this group: Michael Phelps’ performance in his final competition before he retires and the performance of the U.S. women.
Phelps, who everyone believed was going to be overtaken by teammate Ryan Lochte, showed the world he is still the king of his sport — despite the fact that, at age 27, he’s walking away from it as a competitor.
For the women, what resonates most in my mind are 17-year-old Missy Franklin, who has a chance to be the Phelps of her generation, and New Jersey’s Rebecca Soni, who set a breaststroke world record in a semifinal heat one night and reset it in the final the next night. Remarkable stuff.
Mo Farah
On the second-to-last night of competition, the British long-distance runner sent all of Great Britain into a frenzied celebration when he won gold in the men’s 5,000 meters, a week after he had won gold in the 10,000 meters.
The smile on Farah’s face in the final 10 meters or so, when he knew he had the race won, was one of the images I’ll carry with me whenever I think about these Olympics … until I cover my next.
MARC BERMAN
Gabby Douglas
She showed enough grace on the pink mats in becoming the first African-American to win the women’s gymnastics all-around gold and keying America’s victory in the team competition. But in the mixed-zone press conference in the final two days, Douglas won me over. Douglas finished last in the uneven bars and seventh in the balance beam after slipping. She answered every question with the same bubbliness and perspective as after her triumphs, even about her family’s bankruptcy filing. Sixteen years old going on 30.
Walking in the London rain
Before the U.S. Olympic Team’s basketball opener, I passed on the cozy media bus that brings you straight to the entrance. Instead, looking for exercise to burn off the shepherd pies, I went to Olympic Park to embark on the 20-minute walk that winds through the entire grounds. As it happened, the worst rainstorm of the fortnight hit just as the walking tour began, arriving at the arena wetter than the Thames. But I couldn’t feel so bad. Turns out Knicks vacationing coach Mike Woodson was behind me the whole way, family in tow, getting just as soaked.
Appreciating Coach K
Being around USA coach Mike Krzyzewski was a treat. His specialty is meticulously managing player egos, his chief coaching challenge at the Olympics. He ensured each of his 12 stars they had a role that could be embraced. It’s a shame he never gave the NBA a whirl. The former West Pointer would ace any leadership role. Coach K will be missed in Rio in 2016.
The British Volunteers
Worn down by a tooth infection, I couldn’t have made it without the smiling faces of the 20,000 volunteers. They wore their pink/purple shirts, were stationed at all the venues, tube stops and transportation hubs. They dispensed directions in their lovely British accents with such enthusiasm and vigor, it made me forget about the dental pain. And when they weren’t around, the Londoners were equally as sweet and helpful. All the British cheeriness makes me a little apprehensive about returning to NYC. We can learn from them.
Aly Raisman
You didn’t need to be a gymnastics aficionado to know what had just taken place. As the 18-year-old gymnast from Needham, Mass., finished her floor routine to “Hava Nagila,” an Israeli folk song, after she had somersaulted, danced, darted and flipped her way into history, the 15,000 fans erupted in the loudest roar heard inside North Greenwich Arena during the Olympics. Raisman, an observant Jew, became the first American gold-medal winner in that event. She said it was a tribute to get gold to that song, in this Olympics — the 40th anniversary of Israeli’s Olympic athletes and coaches slain at the Munich Games. Mazel tov, Aly.
Mike Vaccaro
Usain Bolt
There is no more magnificent sight in sports anymore than Bolt turning on his jets, launching himself into a gear that no man on earth possesses at this point in time — and never has. Yes, every time he helps lower a world record there will be questions because that’s the nature of sports — especially his sport — now.
But there is also little doubt that he alone makes track and field a watchable sport, one that isn’t necessarily beholden to national affiliation any more. In the same way other golfers had to thank Tiger Woods — however reluctantly — for making their game matter on a grand scale, so too must other track stars thank Bolt. He is their meal ticket. And also their gold standard.
Women’s beach volleyball
There is no tougher challenge in sports than winning when everyone expects you to win — and also when everyone is aiming their arrows straight at your backs. That’s what Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh faced this Olympics, and all they did was win a third straight gold medal.
More importantly, they seemed to bring a needed strand of seriousness and credibility to a sport that for obvious reasons has often lacked both. Yes, they wear bikinis. Yes, it may seem silly to manufacture beaches at venues like the Parade Horse Grounds. But the duo’s stunning athleticism is impossible to deny, and their level of excellence impossible not to appreciate.
Mo Farah
What you learn after a while is that everyone sees the Olympics differently. What you read in American newspapers bears little resemblance to what you’ll read on English tabloids, or in Australia, or in Spain. The Olympics are a personal event.
And for the hosts this year, nobody made that personal touch ring more clearly than Farah, who won the 10,000 meter run on the second night of track and then the 5,000 on its final day, both times being carried to the end by the shrieks and roars and please of 80,000 partisan fans.
It was ear-splitting and it was almost frightening in its power, but that thunder and those roars were a grateful nation thanking one of its favorite sons for a thrill and a half on two unforgettable Olympic nights. There’s always room for a local to bring down the house at track — think Michael Johnson in Atlanta, Cathy Freeman in Sydney — and there always will be.
Nathan Adrian
It wasn’t just that Adrian gave the Americans victory in the 100-meter freestyle for the first time in 28 years, it was who he beat — chatty Australian James Magnusson — and how he beat him — by a hundredth of a second, the tiniest unit of measurement at the Olympics.
Four years ago, Michael Phelps had memorably kept alive his hope of winning eight medals by winning a race in that same amount of time, and it was part of what made him into a myth beyond the pool. That probably won’t happen for the unassuming Adrian, but he did provide a jolt of electricity that was still being felt in the Aquatics Center long after diving had replaced swimming there.
Michael Phelps
His first time in the water here he proved he was human, finishing fourth in the 200 IM, and he was beaten to the wall in what used to be his signature event, the 200 fly. But he also upped his medal count to an unthinkable 22, a number that no one is likely to ever approach in any sport.
And he did it with a smell-the-roses approach that really did seem to make him far more appealing — far more human — and far more accessible. He swears he’s done with the sport forever. If so, good for him. Not so good for the sport.