US Team Goes for Hat Trick in Beach Volleyball

Some Olympic highlights from today:

• Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings won their third consecutive gold medal in beach volleyball, beating April Ross and Jennifer Kessy in an all-American final. The gold medalists have never lost a match at the Olympics. It was the Olympic farewell for May-Treanor.

• Denied twice on the world's biggest stage, Allyson Felix finally won the gold medal she's been yearning for: the 200 meters. Felix won the race in 21.88 seconds, topping Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, by 0.21 second. American Carmelita Jeter got the bronze.
• Brittney Reese won the long jump, becoming the first US woman to win the Olympic long jump since Jackie Joyner-Kersee in 1988.
• Aries Merritt led a 1-2 finish for the United States in the Olympic 110-meter hurdles, winning in 12.92 seconds, with world champion Jason Richardson finishing second.
• Caster Semenya made her Olympic debut three years after being forced to undergo gender tests, finishing second in her 800 heat.
• The first Saudi woman to compete in track and field at the Olympics finished last in the 800 meters—more than a half-minute slower than her nearest competitor—yet Sarah Attar got cheers as she crossed the finish line. Attar said she wanted to inspire women in her country "to get more involved in sports."

(More 2012 London Olympics stories.)