The 25 best photos from 302 events in 26 sports spread over 19 days of competition don’t show all 10,500 (more or less) athletes that played a part in the 2012 Olympic games in London, but the two big winners on the track (Usain Bolt) and in the pool (Michael Phelps) remained the same from four years ago.
Table Tennis Marathon
As expected, China took all four gold medals in these Olympic games while adding two more second place finish to completely dominate, as usual, this sport.
Fencing Multiple Exposure
Italy dominated the fencing competitions, winning three gold medals and 7 in total, but South Korea finished a surprising second with 6 while France didn’t achieve a single medal in all 10 events.
Men’s Road Race
The peloton passes Buckingham Palace at the start of the the men’s Road Race. The race was won by Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan.
Tsonga Celebrating
Tsonga celebrating his win over Tomaz Bellucci of Brazil.
Too… Heavy…
Om Yun-Chol setting a new world record in his weightlifting class (56 kilograms) on his way to the gold medal and becoming only the fifth man to ever lift three times his own body weight.
Perfect Entry
The start of the women’s 200 meters freestyle semifinals with Missy Franklin, Federica Pellegrini and Melania Costa Schmid.
Battling the Water
Elise Chabbey of Switzerland competes during the womens Kayak (K-1) heats.
Chad le Clos Takes Gold
Chad le Clos of South Africa celebrating after winning the men’s 200 meters butterfly race, beating Michael Phelps with the final stroke and 0.05 seconds to take the gold medal.
Synchronized Springboard at a slower shutter speed
Not the nicest foul in the world
Tiago Splitter of Brazil fouling Timofey Mozgov of Russia.
Men’s 3000 meters steeplechase – A look from below
Too Heavy 2.0
Cute Celebratino
Missy Franklin celebrating winning the gold medal in the 200 meters backstroke with American Elizabeth Beisel who finished with the bronze medal.
Blade Runner Taking off
Oscar Pistorius running in the heats for the 400 meters.
Michael Phelps – One last throw
Get out of the way
Clarisse Cruz of Portugal falling down during the women’s 3000 meters steeplechase race.
Daily moment of Bend
Ivo Serafimov Angelov of Bulgaria competes against Jiang Sheng of China in the men’s Greco-Roman 60kg Wrestling event.
Close your eyes and block
Robert Harting Goes wild
Robert Harting of Germany and his excessive celebrating after winning the gold medal in the men’s discus throw event.
Liu Xiang’s Moment
Favorite to win, but Xiang didn’t even make it to the finish line of the heats, getting injured in yet another Olympic meet.
How many girls are in this picture?
David Rudisha – World champion, Olympic champion, World record
Covered by Flags
Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia.
Farah and Bolt
Mo Farah and Usain Bolt having fun on the podium. Farah won two gold medals (5000-10,000 double) and Bolt finished with 3 (100-200 double, 4×100 relay).
Stephen Kiprotich
By winning the marathon, Stepehn Kiprotich of Uganda became the country’s only second gold medalist and first since John Akii-Bua in the 1972 Olympics.
