U.S. women's soccer takes gold behind Carli Lloyd

By Associated Press

CREATED Aug. 9, 2012

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WEMBLEY, England (AP) Behind the scoring of Carli Lloyd, the American women won the gold medal in soccer. The U.S. gained a measure of revenge by beating Japan in the gold medal game 2-1. The gold is the third straight for the U.S. in women's soccer and fourth of five Olympics since women's soccer was introduced at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Other notes from the 2012 London Olympics:

  • The United States women's water polo team won the gold medal today. The Americans beat Spain 8-5 for their first ever Olympic gold medal. The U.S. got five goals from Maggie Steffens.
  • America's Ashton Eaton can now be called, "The World's Greatest Athlete.'' He earned that title by winning the Olympic decathlon gold medal by 198 points. Eaton set the decathlon world record at the U.S. trials in June and backed it up with an Olympic victory with 8,869 points.
  • Usain Bolt won the 200 meters in 19.32 seconds to become the first man with two Olympic titles at that distance. Bolt beat countryman Yohan Blake by .12 seconds with Warren Weir took third to make it a 1-2-3 sweep for Jamaica.
  • Christian Taylor of the U.S. won the Olympic triple jump gold medal, overtaking U.S. teammate Will Claye with his fourth jump in the final. Taylor, the world champion, earned the Olympic title with a best jump of 17.81 meters.
  • Claressa Shields is the first U.S. woman to win a boxing medal in an Olympics. The 17-year-old shuffled, danced and slugged her way past her 33-year-old opponent from Russia, winning the championship bout of the 75-kilogram class 19-12.
  • Tina Charles and Diana Taurasi (tohr-AH'-see) scored 14 points apiece and the U.S. women's basketball team cranked up its defense in the second half to beat Australia 86-73. The win secures a spot in a fifth straight gold medal game for the U.S. women.