Longhorns In The Olympics: Texas Exes Bring Home 13 Medals

Of the 24 Texas Exes who just finished competing in the 2012 Olympic Games in London, including the 16 who competed for the United States, 10 brought home medals, leaving the final tally at six gold medals, five silver medals, and two bronze medals for 13 overall, all brought home by former Longhorns wearing the red, white, and blue of their native country.

Here's the list of medal-winners, courtesy of TexasSports.com:

Overall, the haul from London was impressive, but not quite as impressive as the 21 medals won by Texas Exes in Athens in 2004, which included two from former Longhorns who hailed from other countries. But even that performance in Greece didn't feature the overall medal count from Syndey in 2000, when the final tally was 22, with all but two of those medals coming in swimming and diving.

Longhorns be slacking off these days, yo.

A few more notes:

• When Leo Manzano took silver in the 1500m, he was the first American to medal in the event since 1968, setting an American Olympic record in the process. The Mexican-born Manzano, who is now a US citizen, drew some criticism for wearing both American and Mexican flags during his victory lap.
• When the Team USA women's volleyball squad defeated Brazil earlier in the tournament, the American appeared poise to take home a first-ever gold and revenge a gold-medal match defeat to the Brazilians in 2008. It was not to be, as the Americans were never particularly close after dominating the first set, with the Brazilians shifting their defense in the final three sets in an effort to shut down break-out American star Destinee Hooker, the Texas Ex who entered the match as the second-leading scorer in the tournament, but scored only 14 in the final. She did lead the US team in points and kills overall. The good news for Ms. Hooker? She will be back and better than ever in Rio.
• Like Hooker, Kevin Durant was competing in his first Olympics after leading the 2010 team in scoring at the World Championship. In taking down Spain for the gold medal, Durant was impressive, dropping 30 points. The best player in the world is still LeBron James, but on the international level, Durant may be the better scorer.
• After a somewhat disappointing effort in Beijing that saw Sanya Richards-Ross finish with a bronze in the 400m following the fastest qualifying runs, Richards-Ross finally grabbed a gold in the event, then said that she hasn't decided yet about trying to run in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, though she would like to compete there. Now with four gold medals overall, Richards-Ross is probably at the tail end of her prime at 27. However, she is still faster than her husband, Jacksonville Jaguar cornerback Aaron Ross. Will that joke ever get old?
  
• The worst news, perhaps? Any Longhorn relay swimmers in Brazil in 2016 won't have the massive benefit of teaming with Michael Phelps, easily the greatest swimmer of all time.
• In the overall medal count, Longhorn nation finished tied with Kazakhstan and New Zealand, and ahead of countries like Iran, Belarus, Kenya, Poland, Denmark, Mexico, India, Turkey, and Ireland, among many others. There were 193 independent countries at the Olympics (204 "countries overall), and the Longhorns finished tied for 19th in the world in total medals, better than 173 independent countries.
  
• Oklahoma athletes won as many medals as Monmouth and Montana -- a bronze by Will Claye in the long jump. But Claye finished his career at Florida, so does he really count? By any count, Alaska Fairbanks produced more medalists than the Sooners. The Aggies won only two.
• Even counting Claye towards Oklahoma's totals, Texas blew out the rest of the Big 12, with the 13 medals dominating the six managed by the rest of the league.
• Aided by five medals from swimmer Ryan Lochte, Florida won 19 medals, with Stanford, Cal, and USC the only other schools that could hang with the Texas Exes. However, Florida swimmer Dana Vollmer finished her career at Cal, so maybe her four golds should only count for the Golden Bears. USC athletes won 14 medals, while Stanford and Cal matched Texas with 13.
  
• Finally, it's not particularly Longhorn-centric, but this Google Maps mash-up of the hometowns for American medal winners is pretty cool.

All told, today's not a bad day to feel good about Longhorn athletes and their exploits on the biggest stage in the world.