NBC Universal’s Olympic coverage starts today across 10 platforms, and will include a total of 5,535 hours of coverage. For the first time Olympic events will be streamed live on the Internet (NBCOlympics.com). Fans from three Pac 12 schools will be especially grateful for all this coverage, with each having nearly 40 athletes representing their universities in London.
USC has gotten into the Olympics spirit in a big way with a website dedicated to tracking all Trojans competing in London (http://www.usctrojans.com/london2012). The school’s 39 current and former athletes is the most for any university in the U.S.. Trojan athletes are no strangers to the games — dating back to 1904 USC has collected 262 medals (123 gold, 78 silver and 61 bronze), including at least one gold medal in every summer Olympics since 1912. With names like Allyson Felix and Amy Rodriguez, the Trojans are virtually assured to be on the medal stand once again.
Stanford also sports a website dedicated to its Olympians (http://www.gostanford.com/sports/olympics). While not as involved as USC’s site, it has some great feature articles on current and former Olympians. There are 37 Cardinal athletes, representing a total of eight countries in London. In 2008, 49 Stanford athletes combined to win 25 medals, including eight gold, 13 silver and four bronze.
Cal doesn’t have its own website dedicated to the Olympics, but they’re representing in London with 38 athletes. Historically speaking, Golden Bear athletes have won 159 total medals – 91 gold, 40 silver and 28 bronze – including a school-record 17 medals at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. A total of 46 Bears were at the 2008 games, and the 2012 number is second only to USC’s 39 among schools nationwide.
Here’s to an exciting Summer Olympics… especially if you’re an alum from one of these three California universities.