The team was lead in scoring by Maggie Steffens, 19, (we believe that is her pictured top) who will go on to play for Stanford, scored five goals in the final. She scored 21 goals overall. Her older sister Jessica Steffens was among her teammates as well as a holdover from the 2008 team that won silver in Beijing.
2) The Dutch women's field hockey team was a social media sensation because of the team members' good looks and their flashy orange uniforms, ironically, a quarter of the team, including captain Maartje Pausen (profiled in Aug. 9th entry) is lesbian. The Netherlands/Holland won gold in the event, also in large part because of Ellen Hoog who scored the game-winning shoot-out goal over New Zealand in the semi-finals. In the final, the Dutch beat Argentina 2-0 with one goal coming from Pausen.
3) Turkey's Olympic team was being skewered back home due to a low medal tally. But, that radically changed when Asli Cakir Alptekin, 26, who won gold (pictured) and her teammate Gamze Bulut, 23, (silver) came through in the 1,500-meters. Along with weightlifter Naim Suleymanoglu aka "The Pocket Hercules" setting a world record at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the moment is now considered to be one of the greatest in Turkish Olympic history. Alptekin edged out Bulut by a time of 4:10:23 to 4:10:40.
In the same event, Maryam Yusuf Jamal, 28, won bronze for Bahrain; it was the tiny gulf Arab nation's first-ever medal. She finished with a 4:10:74. Other countries that won first time medals in London, include Botzwana, Cyprus, Grenada, Guatemala and Montenegro.
UPDATE: In an earlier version of this post, we wrongfully reported that Afghanistan had won its first ever medal in London, but actually Rohullah Nikpai, who won bronze in men's taekwondo, had actually won a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics as well.
Links:
http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com (Our sister blog with a sister entry)
http://www.usawaterpolo.org
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com
http://www.rnw.nl/
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