Gold Medal Edition

What I love, among many things, about the Olympics is the sheer, unfiltered joy on the faces of the women as they reach their goals. It may be a gold medal. It may be a personal best. It may just be having made it to the grandest stage of her sport. But in that moment of supreme accomplishment, she has a beauty that transcends simple victory. This is not about bragging. This is about happiness. Of course, I also love that in their jubilant moments of triumph these women tend to look super, duper gay.

Kerri Walsh & Misty May-Treanor , USA, beach volleyballGreat sport or greatest sport ever?

Tamsin Barnett & Natalie Cook, Australia, beach volleyballCloser, closer, closer...

Luiza Almeida & friend, Brazil, dressageShe is 16, so behave.

Keri-Anne Payne & Cassandra Patten, Great Britain, women's marathon swimmingAll that swimming deserves a kiss.

Hanna Thompson & Emily Cross, USA, fencingParry, parry, thrust

Women's Eight, USA, rowingOh, to be the ninth.

Nicole Hudson & Sarah Young, Australia, field hockeySticks, tattoos, muscles, dresses...where was I?

Rebecca Adlington & Cassandra Patten, Great Britain, swimmingPublic pool, private moment.

Xue Chen & Zhang Xi, China, beach volleyballHands, hands!

Li Jia Wei & Feng Tianwei, Singapore, table tennisI watched table tennis all last night. It. Was. Awesome.

Anastasia Davydova & Anastasia Ermakova, Russia, synchronized swimmingClearly too much eyeshadow to actually be gay, and yet......this is how they celebrated their 2004 gold medal in Athens.

Dara Torres, USA, hottieThis one is for the ladies of Shakesville, you know who you are. Sorry I couldn't bring along Tina, too. Sadly, they still haven't officially recognized “awesome” as an Olympic sport. Bastards.