Sydney

Photograph by Diana Mathew, Myshot 

Sydney Vander Werff

Mr. De Groot

English 6

March 11, 2024

London’s Third Go 

As Allyson Felix walked up to get her gold medal after the 200 meter Olympic race, little did she know that this would be the year she would receive not one, but three gold medals. Competing in the Olympics was nothing new for Allyson. She had been competing since 2004 at the age of 18. Even though she had received her first gold in Beijing in 2008, the 2012 London Olympics would prove to be better than any of her past Olympics. Not only was the 2012 Olympics better for Allyson, but for the U.S.A. and the London Olympics as a whole. The London Olympics was better than the previous London Olympics.

The 2012 London Olympics drew a lot of people to the U.K. At least 180,000 spectators entered the park each day. The Olympics had been held in London two other times before the 2012 Olympics. These times were 1908 and 1948. The Olympic Village was easy to access and set up in such a way that you could walk to all of the events. There were 204 teams and 10,568 athletes in the 2012 Olympics. The average number of teams participating in the Olympics from 1896 to 2021 was around 206 teams. That means the 2012 Olympics was on the higher end of team participants. With more team participants, there also were more visitors to the U.K.

At the 2012 Olympics, the U.S. women had better success at winning medals than the U.S. men. The American women won almost two times more medals than the men. The United States women won 100 medals and the men won only 59 medals. In fact, the U.S.A. sent more women than men. Not only that, but the U.S. women even had a 54 year old lady and a 15 year old girl compete; they had all of the ages. Some people even forgot to put the term “women” in front of different sports like soccer and beach volleyball when talking about the women because they were so good. Overall, the U.S. women proved to be a great set of athletic, successful women in the 2012 London Olympics.

The London Olympics had more sports than past London Olympics. In the 1908 London Olympics, there were 22 sports and in 1948 they had 17 sports. The 2012 London Olympics had 26 sports. Some of these sports have multiple disciplines or events/categories. In fact, the sport of aquatics has four different events including: diving, swimming, synchronized swimming, and water polo. Nevertheless, athletics (running, walking, throwing and jumping) was the largest sport in the 2012 Olympics. Overall, the London Olympics had more sports than the past London Olympics.

From the very first year that the modern Olympics started in 1896 to 2012, the Olympics continue to get bigger and better. There are a larger variety of sports being played and the number of competitors has also grown, including the inclusion of women. In conclusion, the 2012 London Olympics was the largest and best Olympics in London’s history.

Bibliography

“2012 Summer Olympics,” Olympedia, OlyMADMen, 2006-2023. https://www.olympedia.org/editions/54. Assessed on 4 February 2024. 

“London 2012,” Olympics.org, International Olympic Committee, 2024. https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/london-2012. Assessed on 6 February 2024.

Dumke, Kimberly “2012 Summer Olympics,” National Geographic, Edited by Jeannie Evers, Emdash Editing, Kara West, National Geographic Society, 19 Oct. 2023. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/2012-summer-olympics/. Assessed on 6 February 2024.

Chappell, Bill “Year Of The Woman At The London Games? For Americans, It's True,” npr, 2024. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetorch/2012/08/10/158570021/year-of-the-woman-at-the-london-games-for-americans-its-true. Assessed on 10 February 2024.