1) Let's start with Australian track star Sally Pearson, 25, (pictured top) who won gold in the 100-meters hurdles. It has to be one of the most challenging track and field events, after pole vault. In her field, Pearson was able to win over stiff competition finish less than a second faster that even sixth place finisher Phylicia George of Canada. Pearson had won silver in the same event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and she beat out American Dawn Harper, the gold winner from the '08 games, who finished with silver in London. Kellie Wells, also of the United States, got bronze. There was an essential tie between Lolo Jones (USA, fourth) and Nevin Yanit (Turkey, fifth).
2) Though the Soviet Union had won three gold medals in men's volleyball, Russia has only managed silver and bronze. But, that changed in London. Thanks to the 31 points from Dmitriy Muserskiy who scored 31 points in the final, which was a come-from-behind upset over Brazil (19-25, 20-25, 29-27, 25-22, 15-9). The oldest member of Team Russia is Sergey Tetyukhin (pictured center), 36. He was on the Russian team which won silver in 2000, followed by the bronze medal teams from 2004 and 2008.
3) Though Israel did not win any Olympic medals, Neta Rivkin, 21, (pictured below) put in an impressive performance which earned her seventh place in the all-around competition, which was won by Russian Yevgeniya Kanayeva. Rivkin is the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants; she won the first world medal ever for Israel in the sport when she won individual bronze in the hoop competition at the world championships in France in 2011. In 2008, she was the youngest member of the Israeli delegation at the Beijing Olympics at age 17.
http://www.politicsandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com (sister blog)
http://www.smh.com.au/
http://www.timesofisrael.com
http://www.russiavolley.com
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