Day 2 of Swimming at the London Olympics

Dana Vollmer

Women's 100 Meter Butterfly:

American Dana Vollmer had a breathtaking performance in winning the gold medal in the 100 meter butterfly.  The Berkeley based swimmer stopped the clock at 55.98, setting her first ever individual world record.  Vollmer, the world, pan pacific and now Olympic champion, pulled away from the field in the last 50 meters of the race and defeated silver medalist Lu Ying of China by nearly a second.  Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom, the previous world record holder who won the event at the 2009 world championships as a 16 year old, failed to medal placing 4th in the event.  Alicia Coutts of Australia won the bronze medal.

Men's 100 Meter Breaststroke:

Cameron Van Der Burgh

South Africa's Cameron Van Der Burgh opened the 100 meter breaststroke at a blistering speed and never looked back.  The gold medal winner set a new world record with an incredible time of 58.46.  Van Der Burgh had previously dedicated his swim to his good friend Alexander Dale Oen of Norway, the defending world champion in the event, who died earlier this year.  Christian Sprenger of Australia tok the silver medal and the bronze medal went to Brendan Hansen, the American who recently returned from retirement.  Japan's Kosuke Kitajima was gunning for his third straight Olympic gold medal in the event, and will have another chance to try to become the first swimmer to ever win an event in three straight Olympics later this week in the 200 meter breaststroke.

Women's 400 Meter Freestyle:

Camille Muffat

Camille Muffat of France and Allison Schmitt of the U.S. swam well ahead of the field for the entire duration of the 400 meter freestyle.  Schmitt, who trains in Baltimore with Michael Phelps under coach Bob Bowman, was unable to keep up with Muffat in the last 75 meters and claimed the silver medal.  Muffat's gold medal winning performance set a new Olympic record at 4:01.45.  Great Britain's Rebecca Addlington the defending champion, was willed to the bronze medal by the wildly cheering fans.

Men's 4x100 Meter Freestyle Relay:

The American 4x100 meter freestyle relay team appeared to be cruising towards the gold medal, before a wild finish changed everything.  In the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the French led the Americans by nearly a second before the final leg of the relay, in which Jason Lezak shockingly came back to keep Michael Phelps' quest for 8 gold medals alive.  This time around, it was the Americans who had a substantial lead over the field prior to the anchor leg.  Nathan Adrian opened the swim for the Americans, followed by Phelps who swam his fastest ever 100 meter freestyle and took a full body length lead over the field.  By the time Cullen Jones finished the third leg of the relay, Ryan Lochte, the anchor, seemingly had a guaranteed victory.  Yannick Agnel, the anchor for the French, incredibly overtook Lochte to claim the gold medal for the French, who had been waiting four years for a chance at revenge.   The relay of Clement Lefert, Amaury Leveraux, Fabien Gilot and Agnel delivered France its first ever gold medal in the event.

French 4x100 freestyle relay team

Day 1 of Swimming at the 2012 London Olympics

Men's 400 Meter IM:

Ryan Lochte

American Ryan Lochte's absolutely dominant performance in the 400 IM was the main headline of day 1 of the London Olympics.  Lochte's time of 4:05.18 blew away the field, defeating Brazilian silver medalist Thiago Pereira by nearly three and a half seconds.  Lochte was first from the opening leg of the swim, and pulled far away from the field in the backstroke leg of the event.  Lochte's world-renowned flip turns gave him a huge advantage over the opposition.  The first major shock of the Olympics was that American Michael Phelps, the two time defending Olympic champion and world record holder in the event, did not medal, placing 4th.  17 year old Kosuke Hagino of Japan who had the fastest time in the preliminaries won the bronze medal. 

Men's 400 Meter Freestyle:

Sun Yang

China's Sun Yang won the gold medal in the 400 Freestyle with a time of 3:40.14, missing out on breaking Paul Biedermann's world record in the event by under 0.1 seconds.  South Korea's Park Taehwan, the defending Olympic champion, led for the first 300 meters and won the silver medal.  Park was disqualified in the preliminaries of the event, however after video review was reinstated in the finals of the event.  The U.S.'s Peter Vanderkaay won the bronze medal in what will likely be his final Olympics.

Women's 400 Meter IM:

Ye Shiwen

China's Ye Shiwen put on a tremendous show in winning the gold medal in the 400 IM.  The 16 year old broke Stephanie Rice's world record with a time of 4:28.43.  At the 300 meter mark American Elizabeth Beisel had a full body length lead over Ye, who's unbelievable finish left the silver medalist Beisel a full three body length's behind by the end.  Shwen's final 50 meters of freestyle were incredibly even faster than those of Ryan Lochte, the winner of the men's 400 IM.

Women's 4x100 Meter Freestyle relay:

The Australian women won the gold medal with the Netherlands coming in second place.  Despite having the lead after 300 meters, the American women were passed in the final leg of the relay by both international swimming powers.  The Americans have not won this event since the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Australian 4x100 freestyle relay team

Bryce Harper's unprecedented success

Bryce Harper, the Washington Nationals' rookie center fielder, is playing at an historic level through the first half of the season.  Earlier this week the 19 year old became the first teenage position player to be named an all-star.  Harper, the number one overall pick in 2010, was featured on a Sports Illustrated cover at the age of 16.  Unlike most teenage prodigies, Harper has surpassed all expectations and is playing better than any 19 year old has in the history of the majors. What have allowed Harper to succeed at such a young age are the maturity and professionalism that he possesses  Harper plays with a very visible effort and always runs the bases hard, which has endeared him to the D.C. sports fan base.
Earlier this season Harper was asked by a reporter whether he would be celebrating a win in Toronto with a beer, and take advantage of the lower drinking age in Canada.  Harper responded to the reporter with his now famous catch phrase "That's a clown question, bro."

When recently asked to explain the quote in an interview on 106.7 The Fan, Harper displayed the professionalism and high-character that has led him to such great achievements so early in his career.  Harper explained, “I’d rather be a good person off the field than a good baseball player on the field.  I wanna be as good as I can be off the field for these fans and this town and I don’t wanna put anything into my body and do anything outside of this clubhouse that’s going to affect this team or anybody in this city or anything like that.  I give everything I can every single day and I don’t wanna go out, I don’t wanna party, I don’t wanna drink or anything like that.  So, when someone asks me a question that, I think it’s a little disrespectful and, you know, it was the first thing that came to my mind. Like I said, my body is a temple and I’m not going to put anything in it that will affect me or the way I play because I want to give everything I can for this team and this city every single day.”
Harper and the rest of his Nationals teammates appear to be fully committed to winning.  D.C. fans had better enjoy the next few seasons.

Washington Nationals at the All-Star Break

The Washington Nationals enter the All-Star break with a 49-34 record, the best in the National League.  Postseason baseball hasn't been played in the nation's capital since 1933, when the Washington Senators lost in the world series to the New York Giants.  D.C. is among the most tortured sports markets of the past two decades, and therefore local fans are brimming with excitement at the prospect of having a first place team.

Stephen Strasburg (photo by Nir Levy)

The Nationals starting pitching rotation of Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez, Jordan Zimmerman, Edwin Jackson and Ross Detwiler is widely considered the best in the majors and the bullpen is also among the best in baseball.  The Nats lead the league in ERA, WHIP, opponents' batting average, on base percentage, slugging and a plethora of other commonly used statistics.  Strasburg and Gonzalez were both named to the all-star team, Strasburg leads the NL in strikeouts, Gonzalez is tied for the lead in wins, and Zimmermann joins the two in the top 12 of the league in WHIP and ERA.  Strasburg's fastball and Gonzalez's lefty curveball are among the most unhittable pitches in baseball.  Losing streaks are far and few between for the team when it has an ace pitching almost every day.  Among the top story lines of the second half is Strasburg's innings limit.  Because Strasburg is coming off Tommy John surgery the team has decided to follow standard medical protocol and limit Strasburg to 160 innings of pitching this season.  The team will shut him down in early September as the playoff race heats up in order to protect his bright future and reduce the risk that he breaks down at an early age.

Ryan Zimmerman (photo by Nir Levy)

The Nats have weathered serious injuries to many of their key contributors including closer Drew Storen who has yet to make an appearance this season, outfielder Michael Morse who only made his season debut in June, outfielder Jayson Werth who will miss 12 weeks with a broken wrist, catcher Wilson Ramos who is out for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL and third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who battled a shoulder injury for much of the season's first half.
The Nats have been able to sustain success by having players repeatedly step up and perform in relief of the team's injured stars.  Tyler Clippard, the team's 8th inning setup man has pitched lights out as the team's closer in the absence of his good friend Storen.  Players like rookies Steve Lombardozzi and Tyler Moore have been dependable when given opportunities to play and have provided the team with big hits in crucial situations.

Ian Desmond (photo by Nir Levy)

All-Star shortstop Ian Desmond has improved his play significantly, leads the team in most batting categories and has made spectacular plays defensively.  Desmond's 17 home runs rank 6th in the NL, and are already a single season career high.  First Baseman Adam Laroche has returned from an injury plagued season to play golden glove worthy defense and lead the Nats in OPS and RBIs.  Zimmerman received a cortisone shot in his shoulder two weeks ago and has responded with 5 home runs and 18 RBIs in his last 14 games.  With Morse, who hit 31 home runs last season, back in the lineup the Nats' offense should only improve as the season progresses.

Bryce Harper (photo by Nir Levy)

19 year old rookie sensation Bryce Harper has been better than advertised.  The former number one overall pick was among the most hyped athletes of all time.  Harper was called up from the minors earlier than expected on April 28th and since then has done nothing but dazzle the sports world.  Harper's statistics as a teenager are unprecedented historically and superior to those of MLB legends Mickey Mantle and Ken Griffey Jr.  By being placed on the all-star team in place of the injured Giancarlo Stanton, Harper became the youngest position player ever to be named an all-star.  Harper has taken over as the Nats' starting center fielder providing the team with a potential superstar at the team's position of greatest need and is already among the three best center fielders in the NL.

The second half of the season should surpass the highly entertaining first half in excitement and intrigue.  Follow along to find out if the 2012 Nationals can become only the fourth baseball team in Washington D.C. history to make the postseason.

Note: All photos in this post were taken by me, Nir Levy at a Nationals game on July 6th.