Olympic Memories of a Sports Nut: A Golden Night for America

The U.S. is supposed to be losing its dominance in Track and Field, but Wednesday night in Olympic Stadium should put that to rest. Of 12 medals up for grabs, U.S. athletes claimed 7, with 3 Gold out of four events. In the Decathlon, Ashton Eaton and Trey Hardee were 1-2 after five events, with Eaton scoring tops in 3 of the 5 events completed. In qualifying events, there were 3 qualifying for the Women's 800, 2 for the Women's 100, 3 in the Men's 5000, and 1 in the Men's 200. Even the stadium announcer had to acknowledge it was a great night for Americans.
It was an amazing night to be a sports enthusiast and be 17 rows from the stadium floor. High jumping for the Decathlon, Long Jump final for the women, and Javelin qualifying went on throughout the evening. Interspersed were the Men's 200 qualifying (3 races), Women's 400 Hurdle final, Women's 200 final, Men's 110 High Hurdles final, and Women's 1500 qualifying (2 races). The last event was the 400 meter race in the Decathlon, in which Eaton and Hardee increased their overall lead.
Medal winners:
Men's 110 High Hurdles - Aries Merritt, Gold and Jason Richardson, Silver
Women's Long Jump - Brittney Reese, Gold and Janay DeLoach Bronze
Women's 400 Hurdles - Lashinda Demus, Silver (by .07 sec.)
Women's 200 Meter - Allyson Felix (a crowd favorite), Gold and Carmolita Jeter, Bronze
There should be some kind of medal for doing your personal best (noted as PB in the results page on www.London2012.com) in an event. To record your best even performance on THE day of your athletic career ought to mean something, particularly if you finish out of the medals. American Aries Merritt recorded a PB to win the 110 High Hurdles. American Georganne Moline recorded a PB in the Women's 400 Hurdles while finishing fifth. Russia's Natalya Antyukh recorded a personal best to just barely nick Demus in the same event. Many athletes at the Olympics recorded national records for their country and still finished well behind the medal winners.
The crowd (80,000 strong) provides amazing support for all the athletes. Strongest cheers are for "Team GB", which is to be expected, but most of the athletes played to the crowd, asking for rhythmic applause at each attempt in field events.