Let's Marvel at the Beauty of Our Olympic Track Champions
The American track team won seven Olympic medals -- three of them gold -- for its best night at the Olympics in 20 years Wednesday. That was in part thanks to Allyson Felix, who finally won the 200-meter sprint after getting silver in both 2004 and 2008. Felix gets a lot of attention because she's beautiful, but before The New York Times gets too upset, she's also very talented. One of the reasons she's so fun to watch is her beautiful long stride. It looks more perfect than a Greek vase.
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Track is the Olympic sport with the simplest rules -- run fastest on the ground -- and that allows viewers to focus not on the rules, but one the athletes' power and grace. Here's Felix as she crossed the finish line with a time of 21.88 ahead of Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. American Carmelita Jeter, the silver medalist in the 100-meter dash, came in third.
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Here's the finish:
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Some of the female track champions have collapsed on the ground crying after winning, but Felix didn't. She seemed more to have the sense that all was finally right in the world.
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And yet: Felix wasn't the only American to win Wednesday. Brittney Reese won the long jump with a distance of 7.12 meters, and Janay Deloach came in third.
Here's Reese jumping:
And Deloach:
Aries Merritt won the men's 110-meter hurdles in a personal best of 12.92. He's on the left. Teammate Jason Richardson got the silver.
Lashinda Demus got a silver in the women's 400-meter hurdles, and seemed heartbroken. In her post-race interview, she immediately said she would go compete in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janiero, because she wouldn't stop until she won gold.
(Photos via Reuters.)
