U.S. Basketball and 4x400 Relay Teams Sweep Gold

• Aug 24, 2008 01:20 PM ET
• by Richard1211

The penultimate day of competition from Beijing began with the U.S. women's basketball team dismantling Australia, 92-65, in the gold-medal game. "There is just too much offense for the U.S. team," NBC analyst Ann Meyers said. "The Aussies just can't keep up with it." Lisa Leslie solidified her iconic status by winning her fourth straight gold medal. In her Olympic career, dating back to the 1996 Atlanta Games, the U.S. has won 32 straight games. "We put it all out there on the floor every single time and we didn't leave anything for anybody else," Leslie said after the game. "I thought we were the team who played the best basketball this whole Olympics, and we were the team who was deserving of the gold medal."

Russia won bronze over China, 94-81. American Becky Hammon - or Rebekka as she is listed on the Russian roster - led the way for her adopted team with 22 points.

And, no surprise here, the U.S. men's basketball team completed their redemption, winning gold over Spain, 118-107.

Sammy Wanjiru won the men's marathon in 2:06:32, an Olympic record. The 21-year-old Kenyan survived a fast early pace to win his country's first gold in the event. NBC missed his decisive move to take the lead, at about 23 miles. Ironically this came just as they cut away to their first shots of Dathan Ritzenhein, who had been the leading American runner for the entire race, but got no love from the network until the hour and 48-minute mark. He ended up in ninth place (2:11:59).

Australia's Matthew Mitcham spoiled China's diving party, winning gold in the men's platform and preventing the home team from sweeping all eight events. The 20-year-old Mitcham, was "the epitome of poise," according to NBC's Cynthia Potter, nailing his final dive to come from behind and upset Zhuo Luxin. Mitcham, a Perez Hilton favorite, is one of the few openly gay athletes who competed at these Games.

And in the final night of competition at the Bird's Nest, the U.S. swept the men's and women's 4x400-meter relays. Women's anchor Sanya Richards won a homestretch duel against Russia's Anastasia Kapachinskaya, which brought some redemption for her disappointing bronze in the open 400. Jeremy Wariner - running much faster than he needed to - brought the American men home in an Olympic record time of 2:55.39, nearly three seconds ahead of the Bahamas. After failing to defend his Olympic gold in the open 400, Wariner clearly wanted to go out on a high note.

Both American teams wore red uniforms, rather than the traditional blue, as a tribute to their Chinese hosts.