The Blog

Celebrating Our Local Olympians!

This summer we’ve loved watching the 2012 London Olympics, especially since there are so many athletes hailing from the SCV! Take a look at this year’s Olympians.

Olympic Gold Medalist Allyson Felix

Santa Clarita resident and Team USA athlete Allyson Felix has sprinted her way through the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. At the past two Olympic Games, Felix has done well but has always settled for silver. This year Felix felt this was her chance to take home the gold – and she did! She was the first to cross the finish line in the 200-meter final, beating Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce by .21 seconds. Felix won the gold in 21.88 seconds!

At 26, Felix has won two gold and two silver medals, which makes her the most decorated Olympian from Santa Clarita! And she has a chance to add to that number when she joins the U.S. team for the 4×100 relay this Thursday.

Gold Medalist Hopeful Alysia Montano

First–time Olympian and Canyon High graduate Alysia Montano ran the 800-meter dash and clocked 2:00.47 at the preliminaries in the Olympic Stadium – giving her the fastest qualifying time!

Prior to the London Olympics, Montano won the bronze medal at the World Championships and two NCAA titles while running for UC Berkeley. Make sure you cheer her on as she continues her quest for the gold in the semifinals this Thursday!

Two-Time Olympic Medalist Anthony Ervin

Anthony Ervin, a Hart High School graduate and two-time Olympic medalist, finished third in this year’s semifinals in the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 21.62.

Winning both a gold and silver medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympics Ervin took a break from swimming, but he returned to the London Olympics as a 31-year-old ready to compete. Even though he didn’t win a medal this time around, Ervin is still a winner for coming back after a brief hiatus to swim again.

Olympian David Smith

With Saugus High alum David Smith on the Olympic team for the first time, the U.S. was ranked 5th in the world!

Prior to this year, the United States men’s volleyball team won gold in the Beijing Olympics, but in the London Olympics they finished with 4 wins and 1 loss. Sadly, the men’s U.S. volleyball team has been eliminated from the Olympic Games with a quarterfinal loss to Italy.

We’re proud to call David Smith a native of the SCV and wish him and the entire men’s volleyball team better luck at the next Olympic Games.

We’re so proud to have had so many athletes from the SCV head to the Olympics this summer! Do you know any other Olympic athletes from the Santa Clarita Valley who didn’t make this list? How many do you think will make it in 2016?

Check back often to get the latest news on Awesometown and be sure to follow us on Twitter (@ValenciaSoCal) or LIKE us on Facebook for frequent updates.

By John

Posted August 9th, 2012 | 0 Comments

Comments are closed.