Long Beach’s Esther Lofgren (third from right) won a gold medal as part of the USA Women’s 8-person rowing team.
Following the initial six medals the Post reported were won by Long Beach athletes at the Olympic Games as of last week, nine more were added before the closing ceremonies on Sunday, bringing Long Beach to a total of 15 Olympic medals and making the city one of the lagest medal-winning regions in the world.
In addition to the previous six reported last week, medal winners returning to Long Beach included:
LBSU beach volleyball star Misty May-Treanor, along with her partner Kerry Walsh Jennings, won an unprecedented third Olympic gold medal in their sport last week before announcing her retirement.
Carmelita Jeter, the Cal State Dominguez Hills graduate who earned the moniker of the world’s fastest woman by holding three of the top ten times ever in world running history, scored metal in all three medals: gold for the 4x100m Relay, silver for the 100m, and bronze for the 200m.
Lauren Wenger, a 6’3″ Long Beach native who currently plays for the University of Southern California, and Courtney Mathewson, the Orange County transplant who calls Long Beach her home, both scored gold with the U.S. Women’s Water Polo team after ousting Spain in the gold metal match last Thursday.
Russell Westbrook, the Long Beach-born breakout NBA star whose home team is the where-did-they-come-from-this-year Oklahoma City Thunder, went back home with a gold metal following the USA Men’s Basketball team’s 7-point win over Spain.
Lashinda Demus, hurdle extraordinaire and Wilson alumna, earned a silver after a 52.77 second 400m hurdle, losing to Russia’s Natalya Antyukh by .167 seconds. Demus’s personal 400m best is 52.47, the women’s third fastest time ever, which she achieved in September of last year in South Korea.
Bryshon Nellum, the Poly track star who faced an athlete’s hill of Sisyphus-lke proportions after being shot in the legs four years ago, endured three operations (and help from from local coach Ron Allice) before getting back on the track and proved that such a comparison was a myth. He earned a silver in the men’s 4x400m relay and as an added bonus, was chosen by his fellow athletes to carry the U.S. flag during the closing ceremonies.
Tayyiba Haneef-Park, Logan Tom, and Danielle Scott-Arruda—the Long Beach women who dominated the indoor volleyball scene—walked home with silver medals along with their fellow teammates after losing the final match to Brazil in a 3-1 upset.