USC's Olympic medal haul

In this year's Olympic Games, 40 Trojans competed in nine sports and represented 16 countries. Nine USC athletes are coming home with a gold medal. The last time Troy was shut out from the top of the podium was in 1908.

Here's how USC earned 21 medals in Beijing (all representing the United States, unless otherwise noted):

Gold: 9

• Rebecca Soni (swimming, 200-meter breast stroke)
• Klete Keller and Erik Vendt (swimming, 800 freestyle relay)
• Ous Mellouli (swimming, 1,500 freestyle, Tunisia)
• Amy Rodriguez (women’s soccer)
• Lisa Leslie and Tina Thompson (women’s basketball)
• Gabe Gardner (men’s volleyball)
• Allyson Felix (track, 1,600 relay)

Silver: 10

• Rebecca Soni (swimming, 100 breaststroke)
• Rebecca Soni (swimming, 400 medley relay)
• Allyson Felix (track, 200)
• Patty Cardenas, Kami Craig, Brittany Hayes, Moriah Van Norman and Lauren Wenger (women’s water polo)
• J.W. Krumpholz (men’s water polo)
• Nicole Davis (women’s volleyball)

Bronze: 2

• Larsen Jensen (swimming, 400-meter freestyle)
• Natasha Danvers-Smith (track, 400-meter hurdles, Britain)

If the USC were a nation, its 21 medals would rank 13th in the world (or 17th, adjusted for same-team medals) and tied for eighth in gold. That's well ahead of running powerhouses such as Kenya (14 overall) and Jamaica (11). India, with more than 1 billion citizens, won three medals. South Africa, with 142 athletes, took home only one.

This year, the Trojans contingent fell just shy of a number of its own Olympic records. This was the school's second-highest overall medal count (Troy won 24 in the 1984 Los Angeles Games) and tied for second-highest gold medal total (behind 10 golds in the 1948 London Games). The 40 Trojans who competed formed the school's second-largest delegation, behind the 45 who went to the 2000 Sydney games. Overall in Beijing, USC had the second-largest college contingent behind Stanford.

Three-hundred eighty-four Trojans have competed in Olympic history -- tops among any university. They've collected 257 medals (121 gold, 76 silver, 60 bronze).

--Adam Rose
Top photo:  Allyson Felix (second from right) celebrates after winning the women's 1,600-meter relay at the National Stadium on Saturday at the Beijing Games. Credit: Michael Steele/Getty Images. Second photo: Lisa Leslie, left, and Tina Thompson celebrate their third of four consecutive gold medals in Athens in 2004. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Web Hustler]

pretty cool stats.

[Bobak]

Excellent stats, but it only begs one question: How many medals did the Stanford athletes win this time around?

[The Flem]

Congratulations Trojans!!! Go Troy!!!!

[john]

Alyson Felix never competed at Southern Cal. She trained at Ucla under Bob Kersee for four years and still does. Technically she is not a Trojan athlete.

[Adam Rose]

John-

Correct, Allyson Felix never competed for the Trojans because she turned pro right out of high school. I believe Adidas covered her tuition at USC as one of her stipulations for turning pro. The whole story is pretty cool -- in her position, she never "needed" to go to school but did so because it was important to her.

Having spoken to both Allyson and USC representatives, all parties consider her a Trojan athlete because, well, she's A) a Trojan and B) an athlete.

I figure this is all about fun and good will (at least when measuring college medals), so counting Allyson seems fair to me. It makes more sense than how schools count every individual from a team as a medalist (e.g., USC got "five" medals because of the women's water polo silver), then measure themselves against nations who would only count it as one. That really skews the "if the school were a nation" discussion, and is why I made a reference to it in the post.

-Adam

[The Fake Aadam]

Adamn, Cal sent 41 athletes. UCLA send 40. USC only sent 39 or 38. Including UCLA students in your USC total is more than a bit dishonest.

USC sent the 4th most athletes of any colleges.

Nonetheless, it did beat out Cal in terms of the medal count.

[Adam Rose]

Fake Aadam -- I'm almost afraid to ask, but you're being sarcastic about Felix being a UCLA student, right?

USC sent the second most, even though one apparently didn't compete. Also, UCLA's contingent of 39 includes coaches, which USC's does not.

[pk-in-the-mesa]

Fake or should I say pete carroll the best, we will find you and tar and feather you Cardinal and Gold and ride you out of your town on a pole vault pole.

[Tim]

Stanford studends and alums got 8 gold, 12 silver and 4 bronze (tied for 12th with Cuba if it were a nation) so I guess that pushes USC down to 14th. ;>)

[Bill Baldwin, Jr.]

Congratulations to all the USC athletes, past and present who represented their countries in the Olympics.

Allyson Felix represented the USA, as we all know, but never competed on behalf of USC, so, why is she given the honor of being called a Trojan? As I said in the Daily Trojan yesterday, I wish her well in future competitions, but Allyson Felix never put it on the line for USC, as her brother did so well, and therefore she has not earned the right to be called a Trojan. Not by me, anyway.

It's true Allyson Felix went to USC, but as a student only, while running as a pro in Europe. The money was more important to Allyson Felix at a time when her participation on the track team might have been the difference in helping the USC women win one or more NCAA championships. That refusal on her part to run as a Trojan makes it absurd to identify Felix as a Trojan now.

[Eric Sornoso]

Mr.Baldwin Jr,

If you look at Allyson Felix stats from her senior year of high school, why would she go to college?

She has the fastest time in the 200 in the world.

I was lucky enough to see her race at the Pasadena Invite in the 200/400. She blew the field away. Her 400 race was amazing and she was in lane 5. She was supposed to be in lane 4, but had a shoe problem forcing a time delay.

It's too bad she wasn't able to run in the 400 at Beijing b/c she could have possibly won a Gold Medal. If one wonders why she didn't run it, the 200 semi and the 400 pre-lims were at the same time.

Cheers,

Eric Sornoso

[Bill Baldwin, Jr.]

Eric Sornoso,

I can see your point , although I think she would have become a better runner under Ron Allice than Bobby Kersee. And has she improved her time in the 200 since high school? I would think so, but not by much would be my guess.In addition, many USC undergrads have been at or near world record pace over the years., including the 4 x 100 men's relay team which set the world record in I think February 1968. Earl McCullouch, Fred Kuller, O.J. Simpson, and anchored by Lennox Miller ( father of Inger) and Silver Medalist at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.

As for the USC Athletic department identifying her as USC's Allyson Felix: I'll bet none of the track coaches think of her in that fashion.