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    Fourth-Place Medal
    • It's been three months since we saw all of Team Great Britain's athletes hanging out together. The British athletes, who took home 29 gold medals during their home country's Olympics, brought Great Britain to new levels of excitement with every medal won.

      Now, they're using their fame to help BBC's Children in Need, a fund that aims to give every child in the United Kingdom a life that is safe, secure and allows children to reach their potential. How did the Olympians help? By dancing, of course.

      There is so much to enjoy here. Gymnast Louis Smith's dancing. The rowing team basically dance-rowing. The Kid 'n' Play dance followed by "Shoulda Put a Ring On it." Diver Tom Daley showing off some Chippendale-inspired moves.

      But nothing is better than Zara Phillips and other equestrian team members doing the Gangnam Style dance. That's the granddaughter of the Queen of England dancing in front of a person dressed as a horse to raise money for charity. What a wonderful world we live in.

      If

      Read More »from Zara Phillips, Tom Daley and other British Olympians dance like nobody’s watching for charity
    • Members of the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team, including the gold-medal winning Fierce Five, stopped by the White House this week. They met President Barack Obama and toured the house. At the time of the visit, McKayla Maroney tweeted, "Did I just do the not impressed face with the President?"

      The answer is yes. Yes, she sure did.

      (The White House)

      Nicely done, Mr. President.

      [Related: Auburn fans plea for help from President Obama]

      Maroney first showed her not impressed face after winning the silver medal at the London Olympics. During the vault final, she fell and didn't win the gold she was expected to. While on the medal stand, her face showed her emotion -- not impressed. The face became a viral joke on the internet, and Maroney showed a good sense of humor about it. It culminated with her doing the not impressed face with the most powerful man in the world.

      Nicely done, McKayla.

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      Read More »from McKayla Maroney does her ‘not impressed’ face with President Obama
    • Lindsey Vonn. (Getty Images)Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn has been hospitalized in Vail, Colo., with what her spokesperson has termed "severe intestinal pain."

      Vonn has not trained since Oct. 27 in Soelden, Austria. Her ski technician, Heinz Haemmerle, told the Associated Press that Vonn has been experiencing aches and has visited the hospital on several instances, but this marks the first time she has stayed overnight. Multiple sources told the AP that Vonn had not suffered any broken bones or skiing injuries.

      [Related: Lindsey Vonn photo gallery]

      ''There's been no news, so we're kind of worried,'' Rainer Salzgeber, racing director for Head, Vonn's sponsor, told the AP. ''It's not good.''

      This marks the latest in a number of injuries that have checkered Vonn's career. She suffered a mild concussion at the 2011 world championships, a bruised shin at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, a cut thumb (sliced on a champagne bottle) at the 2009 world championship, an injured knee at the 2007 worlds and a vicious crash at

      Read More »from Lindsey Vonn hospitalized in Colorado with intestinal pain; cause undisclosed
    • (Getty)Heather Petri, a member of the 2012 gold-medal winning U.S. women's water polo team and and a four-time Olympic medalist, has joined a group of Olympians visiting Rwanda and Uganda with Right to Play. While visiting Right to Play's programs in Africa, Petri hopes to inspire the troubled country's children and teach them the virtues of play. She will blog about her experiences for Fourth-Place Medal. Read on for her first entry on how she prepared for the trip and what she expects to experience.

      I have been packing for my trip to Rwanda and Uganda for a few weeks now. Trying to navigate the complexities of traveling to a country I have never been to before. Realizing more and more each day, that I will be stepping into a world very different than what I am used to. Priority number one used to be having my swimsuit, cap and goggles in my bag; the rest if forgotten, I surely could borrow from my teammates.

      Now, three months exactly since the gold medal game in London, I will board a plane and join a new team -- staff and fellow Athlete Ambassadors of the global organization Right To Play, in Africa to use PLAY to educate and empower children facing adversity. My swim suit will stay at home and instead I will make sure I have packed my tennis shoes so that I can join some of the nearly 835,000 children that participate in the weekly activities Right To Play programs offer, taught by local volunteer coaches. I have wanted to participate in one of these "field activities" after I heard Johann Olav Koss, president and CEO of Right To Play, talk about one of his early experiences in Africa.

      I originally learned about RTP in the Beijing Olympic Village, where they had an informational booth on their global programs. Upon return to the US I signed up to go to an event where I met Johann. He told us of a trip to Africa where he observed the most popular boy in the village was the one who had a long sleeve T-shirt on. They soon learned this was because he could take this shirt off, use the long sleeves to tie the shirt into a ball which the children would then use to play soccer in the streets. All these children wanted was to PLAY.

      After hearing this story I often thought about what my life was like growing up. Nearly every memory involved me splashing around in a pool. I started out as a swimmer and eventually was introduced to the sport I love, the sport that has changed my life -- water polo.

      What if I never had the chance to play in the pool?
      What if I never had the chance to play in the pool? I undoubtedly would not be the person I am today. I was very shy as a child. Being on the swim team and then joining the water polo team helped me come out of my shell. Taught me how to set goals, communicate with others to achieve those goals and then believe in myself by achieving the small successes that lead to my end goal. I had no idea that all of this was even happening because all I was doing was having fun.

      Read More »from The benefits of play: Olympian Heather Petri’s Right to Play Rwanda visit journal

    • Well, that was easy.*

      Just months after coming away empty-handed at the London Olympic Games, track star Lolo Jones has switched sports, and seasons, and come away with hardware. At the bobsled World Cup opener in Lake Placid, N.Y., on Friday, Jones and driver Jazmine Fenlator won a silver medal in the competition. Placing third by just 0.01 seconds? Driver Elana Meyers and Tianna Madison, who won gold in London in the 4x100m relay.

      Track stars are welcome in the sport of bobsledding because of their ability to get up to top speed almost immediately. They can push the sled and then effectively hop in for the ride; as you can see from the video above, Jones' strong push gave the team a bit of breathing room through the run and still allowed them to take home the silver. (Gold went to Canada's team.)

      "I'm kind of in shock," Jones said after the run. "We've been training with all the other Team USA members. It's been an inner battle within our own team. I think this is great that we had

      Read More »from Lolo Jones takes silver medal in bobsled debut
    • Parachuting out of a helicopter is tough enough. Parachuting out of a helicopter with the entire planet watching? With just 500 feet to spare? Wearing a dress? Yeah, it takes a special kind of fellow to pull that off.

      (Getty Images)The last time you saw Gary Connery was most likely as he descended into the London night wearing a pink dress and a parachute in the most spectacular moment of the 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony. An estimated 1.4 billion people worldwide watched that moment, the culmination of a skit involving Queen Elizabeth and Daniel Craig, the current James Bond. The live stunt worked to perfection … which came as no surprise to its jumper.

      "It was not that difficult from a technical perspective," Connery told Yahoo! Sports, "but with the whole world watching, if you get it wrong, you get it very wrong."

      Connery, a 42-year-old stuntman with decades of high-profile stunt work, had worked with Opening Ceremony creator Danny Boyle before, giving everyone involved a sense of confidence in

      Read More »from Meet the skydiver who played the Queen’s role during the Opening Ceremony
    • (Getty)

      With 22 Olympic medals, Michael Phelps will always be associated with the Olympics. But he retired after the London Olympics, and has made it quite clear that he will not compete in the pool again.

      Phelps is currently spending time in Brazil, teaching children to swim and touring the country that will host the next Summer Games. He is also taking advantage of the country's golf courses. He admitted he just may try the Olympics again -- as a golfer.

      Golf will be an Olympic sport again in 2016, and Phelps joked that he could come back if he becomes an "amazing golfer," but admitted it was unlikely. Considering that each country can only send two representatives, Phelps will have to leap over Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Bubba Watson.

      But this is Michael Phelps we're talking about. He's a freak of an athlete, and just may surprise us.

      Read More »from Michael Phelps could return to the Olympics — as a golfer
    • Josh Sundquist's leg was amputated when he was 10 because of cancer. When he was found to be cancer free at 13, he tried skiing and made it to the U.S. Paralympic team. He represented the United States in the 2006 Paralympics. Since then, he's become a motivational speaker and a master of Halloween costumes. Sundquist uses his disability to come up with some pretty hilarious costumes.

      This year, he dressed as the famous lamp from the movie "A Christmas Story."

      (Josh Sundquist)Yes, it was the leg lamp that Ralphie's dad received as "A Major Award," in the box marked fra-gee-lay. (If you're not familiar with the film, wait a few weeks. When it is ominpresent during the holidays, a lightbulb will go off.)

      Read More »from Paralympian Josh Sundquist has best Halloween costume ever
    • Michael Phelps decided to do a little crowd-surfing at XS, a Vegas club, this week, and as the video above (via TMZ, original finding credit to Papurazzi) shows, it didn't end so well.

      People. That's Michael Phelps you're trying to hold up! An American icon! An American treasure! Is this how we treat our Olympic heroes, casting them to the floor as soon as we're done with them? You wouldn't have treated Gabby Douglas this way! (Probably because she only weighs about a third of what Phelps does, but still.) This is not the way to impress McKayla Maroney, folks.

      Yeah, so, bottom line here: the Olympics are far too infrequent. These people need something to do with their time. Otherwise we'll end up putting all of them in the hospital.

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      Read More »from Michael Phelps is not so good at crowd-surfing
    • Dress warmer, Lolo. (Getty Images)Well, here's a bit of a surprise: Lolo Jones has made the U.S. bobsled team only a few weeks after trying the sport for the first time.

      Jones was invited to the bobsled team's tryouts in Lake Placid, N.Y., both as inspiration and as possible recruit. Bobsledding has long sought athletes from other sports, particularly track, to fill the role of "push athlete." That position requires an athlete to push the sled while getting up to top speed as soon as possible, and Olympic-level track competitors have a demonstrated skill in that area. Also named to the team: Olympic sprinting gold medalist Tianna Madison.

      Jones doesn't have a direct route to the U.S. team competing in Sochi in 2014 just yet. She and the rest of the team will participate in World Cup competition in Lake Placid beginning Nov. 8, and from there the team will determine who will represent it in the 2014 Games.

      "This is a breath of fresh air," Jones said, according to ABC News. "Cool, very cool, cold air."

      For Jones, it's an

      Read More »from Lolo Jones makes U.S. bobsled team just weeks after first attempt

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