Diana Matheson '08 (Photo: Courtesy Wikipedia/Ann Odong)
Women’s soccer star Diana Matheson ’08 capped her Olympic run in dramatic fashion, scoring the game-winning goal in the 92nd minute of Canada’s bronze-medal match against France. The goal was Matheson’s first in the 2012 Olympics, and the medal is Canada’s first in the sport – and its first summer team-sport medal since 1936. Princetonians have now captured seven medals in London: one gold, two silver, and four bronze.
Coach David Blatt ’81 and the Russian men’s basketball team took one step closer to an Olympic medal Aug. 8, beating Lithuania 83-74 in the quarterfinal round. Russia faces Spain in the semifinals Aug. 10. In an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Ian Thomsen, Blatt, a longtime pro coach in Europe and Israel, admitted that joining the Russian team seemed like an unlikely move when he took the job six years ago: “You take an American growing up in the time of the Cold War, add to it the fact that I’m Jewish and with an Israeli passport, and then you time-warp me into the ex-Soviet Union as the head of the Russian men’s basketball team. It’s almost mind-boggling. And I lasted! I didn’t get my head chopped off in the first year or two.”
The U.S. women’s field hockey team will play its Olympic finale in the 11th-place game Aug. 10. The Americans’ lone win was an impressive one – a 1-0 victory against gold-medal contender Argentina – and Katie Reinprecht ’13 sees a bright future ahead for the national program. “We know we can compete with the best teams in the world,” she told Phil Sheridan of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “It’s a matter of learning how to finish games. … We’re a young team, and that’s something we’re still learning how to do.”