#London2012 Wrap-Up...

Apparently my brain was still stuck in training mode for my proposed Olympic event Tuesday; I nearly established a new personal best! I'm sure it had absolutely nothing to do with the fabulous food and wine pairing 'plus' events of Monday night, or my 3AM bedtime. Yeah... productivity-wise I'm going to need a 'mulligan' for Monday and a 'try again' for Tuesday. Anywho, back to our regularly scheduled programming -- being a gal myself, I'm focusing my #London2012 wrap-up on the Ladies.

Seems logical, right? Okay, maybe not Iron 'MAN', but how about 'Wonder WOMEN'? The London Olympic Games was full of fantastic female firsts, a few phenomenal highlights:

Of the 10,000+ athletes that participated in the London Games, 45% of them were Women. At long last, every country’s delegation included at least one female athlete and every sport included both male and female competitions. Special note to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei for sending their first-ever female athletes and Women's Boxing being added as an event.

For the first time, Americans sent more female athletes than male. US Women won 58 of the 104 medals earned by TeamUSA; 29 of them Gold. Two-thirds of the times you heard the US national anthem played, it was because a female had earned the top spot in her event. If US Women were a Country, they would have placed fifth in overall medals and THIRD in Gold medal wins! EXTRAORDINARY. What better way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Title IX?

<Speaking of Title IX, More magazine has a must-read article in their June 2012 issue showcasing the changes and benefits related to the law experienced by Women to date: '37 Words That Changed Women's Lives Forever'. Some additional perspective: the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, held the same year Title IX was passed, had no women's basketball event or women's soccer event; women's water polo, women's rowing, women's cycling, women's boxing and women's judo did not exist.>

At this point you may be asking yourself, "Just who are these TeamUSA Wonder Women and what events did they medal in?" Here's a Gold medal run down with some fun facts too:

In the pool, Women's Water Polo won Gold for the first time. Missy Franklin, Dana Vollmer, Rebecca Soni and Allison Schmitt each nabbed the Gold in her specialty (Franklin took both the 100m and 200m Backstroke); later they combined for the 4x100m IM Relay and garnered another Gold as a team. The 4x200m Free Relay (Franklin, Vollmer, Shannon Vreeland and Schmitt) set a new Olympic Record and grabbed Gold as well. 15-year-old Katie Ledecky, the youngest member of the American team, won Gold in the 800m Free.

US Women brought team Gymnastics Gold back to the US for the first time since 1996. Gabby Douglas won the all-around title, the first time an African-American Woman has done so. Aly Raisman won a Gold medal in the floor routine, another first for the United States.

At the track, US Women proved a force to be reckoned with, winning several single events: Sanya Richards-Ross (400m), Allyson Felix (200m), Brittany Reese (Long Jump) and Jenn Suhr (Pole Vault); breaking a 27-year-old World Record in the 4x100m Relay (Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight and Carmelita Jeter) and finishing up with an unbelievable performance in the 4x400m Relay (DeeDee Trotter, Allyson Felix, Francena McCorory and Sanya Richards-Ross), beating the other teams by more than four seconds.

The US Women's Soccer team added another Gold medal to its stash, taking its third straight medal by beating Japan 2-1 in a thrilling rematch of the World Cup final. The Women's Basketball team won its fifth straight Gold, something that has never been done by any team in the history of the Olympics. All seven of America's cycling medals were earned by Women, with 39-year-old Kristin Armstrong winning Gold in the Individual Time Trial. The Women's Rowing Team captured Gold in the Women's Eight event.

Rounding out the count: Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings had their historic three-peat in Beach Volleyball Gold; Doubles Gold for the Williams sisters and Singles Gold for Serena in Tennis; 17 year-old Claressa Shields' ground-breaking Gold in Women's Middleweight Boxing; Gold for Jaime Lynn Gray in 50m Rifle, Kimberly Rhode in Skeet Shooting (Rhode has won an individual medal in each of her five consecutive trips to the Olympics) and Kayla Harrison, the first US athlete to win a Gold medal in Judo. Again, these are only the GOLD medals awarded to the US Women, you may see the full list of TeamUSA medal results here. WOW!

I think Judo Gold medalist, Kayla Harrison, summed up the 'girl-power-effect' here perfectly: “I’ve been thrilled to see how well US women have done. It feels amazing to be a part of something so much bigger than myself, I definitely feel connected. To be able to say, I’m a strong confident young woman and an Olympic champion is amazing and I hope we have a million young girls inspired right now.” If the TeamUSA Wonder Women can inspire a grown woman, as they have me, I am positive they have inspired the young girls too...

TeamUSA Women Exemplify the Olympic Motto: Faster, Higher, Stronger!

AP/Getty/Reuters Images