Windes wins gold to pace four local stars in London Olympics

LONDON — While the rest of America has its head spinning over the medal count from the recently completed 2012 London Olympics, folks in Beaverton are focused instead on the head count.

And the head count from Beaverton numbered four —that’s the number of athletes that Beaverton sent on to the London Games.

ELSIE WINDES

Foremost among that group this year was Beaverton High grad Elsie Windes. Windes, a former Oregon high school water polo Player of the Year, Valley Times Female Athlete of the Year, and college star at Cal-Berkeley, added another even bigger titles to her cadre success this year — she’s now an Olympic gold medalist.

Windes, a defender on the U.S. women’s Olympic water polo team, joined the rest of her squad in earning America’s first-ever gold medal in the sport.

The Americans opened the tournament with a tight 14-13 win over Hungary on July 30 in Group A competition, took a 9-9 draw with Spain on Aug. 1 in its second pool play match, then slipped past China 7-6 to finish second in its group.

Windes and the U.S. then dumped Italy 9-6 in championship play on Aug. 5 to advance to the tournament semifinals.

There, the Americans squared off against rival and gold-medal co-favorite Australia on Aug. 7. And this time, Windes and her teammates would not be denied, beating the Aussies 11-9 to earn a spot in the gold-medal match and another shot at Spain.

Energized by their victory over Australia, the Americans just kept rolling in the Aug. 9 finale, beating the Spaniards 8-5 to claim gold.

MARIEL ZAGUNIS

Beaverton’s most famous Olympian, sabre fencer Mariel Zagunis, made her third straight appearance in the Summer Games and was fabulous yet again.

No, Zagunis — a Valley Catholic High grad who later attended Notre Dame — wasn’t able to win a third straight gold medal, but she gave it a darned good run.

She opened her tournament with a 15-7 win over Indonesia’s Diah Permatasari on Aug. 1, then followed that up with a 15-9 victory over Japan’s Seira Nakayama later in the day.

Zagunis, the top-ranked fencer in the draw, dumped China’s Min Zhu 15-6 in the Aug. 1 tournament quarterfinals, and looked for all the world like she would keep rolling in the semis too.

There, facing South Korea’s Jiyeon Kim on Aug. 1, Zagunis raced out to an 8-2 lead after one period, then stretched her edge to 12-5 in the second.

But Kim rallied there, scored 10 of the bout’s final 11 points and escaped with a 15-13 victory that sent her on to win gold over Russia’s Sofya Velikaya. Zagunis then dropped a 15-10 decision to Ukraine’s Olga Kharlan in the bronze medal match to finish fourth.

ANA-MARIA MONTOYA

Southridge High graduate Ana-Maria Montoya made her Olympic debut this year as a member of the Colombian women’s soccer team.

Montoya, getting ready for her junior season as a midfielder at the University of Arizona, joined her Colombian teammates in a 2-0 loss to North Korea in their July 25 opener.

Next, Montoya and her teammates dropped a 3-0 decision to the gold medal-bound U.S. women on July 28. And finally, Colombia ended pool-play competition with a 1-0 loss to talented France on July 31 and were eliminated from medal consideration.

LISA GIBSON

Also hailing from Southridge High was graduate Lisa Gibson, who made her first appearance in the Olympics as a member of the Great Britain women’s soccer team.

Gibson, a former Oregon Player of the Year, and her Brit teammates kicked off Olympic competition with a 7-6 loss to Russia on July 30.

Next, Gibson — a centre forward (that’s hole set in U.S. terms) — and her teammates fell 16-3 to gold-medal co-favorite Australia on Aug. 1. And finally, England was eliminated from medal consideration when it dropped a 10-5 decision to Italy on Aug. 3.