United States, Olympics | featured news

Serena Williams turns her highly-anticipated match up with Russia's Maria Sharapova into a clinic on Centre Court. After Williams dominates 6-0, 6-1 in the final, she dances in celebration. Serena WIlliams became only the second woman to complete a career Golden Slam, winning the most lopsided women's final in Olympic history Saturday by beating Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-1. The victory completed a remarkable run of domination by the No. 4-seeded Williams, who lost only 17 games in six matches en route to her first singles gold medal. She went 13-0 this summer at the All England Club, where she won her fifth Wimbledon title a month ago.

The last group in England with this many records was The Beatles. The U.S. men's Olympic basketball team beat Nigeria 156-73 Thursday night, an epic blowout that answered the Americans' detractors and sent a clear message to let them be.

It's time for Round 2 of Michael Phelps vs. Ryan Lochte. Their first showdown of the London Olympics went to Lochte in a runaway on the opening night of the swimming competition. This one figures to be a lot closer. The American stars compete against each other for the last time in the 200-meter individual medley on Thursday night. Lochte qualified fastest in 1 minute, 56.13 seconds. Phelps was 98-hundredths of a second back in third.

Allison Schmitt rallies the Americans to victory with a strong anchor leg... The U.S. took the gold with in an Olympic record time of 7 minutes 42.92 seconds. Australia, which had led after three legs,
was second in 7:44.41 and France was well back in 7:47.49 to take the bronze.

Nathan Adrian of the United States won the gold medal in the Olympic 100-meter freestyle on Wednesday night, completing the furious, water-thrashing, lung-busting test one-hundredth of a second faster than James Magnussen of Australia.

The Americans lived up to their considerable hype and then some Tuesday night, routing silver medalist Russia and everybody else on their way to their first Olympic title in women's gymnastics since 1996. Their score of 183.596 was a whopping five points ahead of Russia and made their final event, floor exercise, more like a coronation. Romania won the bronze.

The Colorado teenager Missy Franklin won the 100-meter backstroke to earn her first gold medal, outracing Emily Seebohm of Australia in a stirring duel that completed a wild 20 minutes at the London Aquatics Centre for her.

France earned an Olympic-sized upset in the 400 free relay Sunday, when 20-year-old Yannick Agnel chased down Ryan Lochte on the final lap to avenge the Americans' 2008 victory... The win is France's first in the history of the event. Not only that -- it's France's first relay victory of any kind, men or women, in the history of the Summer Olympics.

She wanted an individual world record and an individual gold medal. Dana Vollmer didn’t even need 56 seconds to accomplish both feats. The former University of California swimmer and reigning world champion had the Aquatics Centre buzzing when she became the first woman to break the 56-second barrier, winning gold in the 100-meter butterfly in 55.98 seconds, a world record.

Kim Rhode hit 99 of 100 targets to win a medal in her fifth consecutive Olympics. Rhode, 33, became the first American athlete to win five medals in an individual event in five consecutive Olympic Games. She earned a gold medal in women’s skeet Sunday, setting an Olympic record and tying the world record by hitting 99 out of 100 targets. She also became the first woman to win three gold medals in Olympic shooting.