Olympic Results 2012: USA Athletes and Teams Ready to Win Gold

USA and China sit atop the overall medal board and the competition for the most gold medals has been fierce. For the U.S. to ensure that it tops China in the gold medal category, it will need all American athletes and teams in position to win gold to come through.

As Week 2 of the Olympics gets underway, these are the American athletes and teams that are in a good position to claim gold in their respective sports and events.

Women's Soccer

Since the event's inception in 1996, the United States National Women's Team has won gold in three out of the four Olympic Games that the tournament has been played.

The women's team stormed through group play, racking up a 3-0 record that included a 4-2 victory over France and back-to-back shutout victories over Colombia and DPR Korea. Entering the the quarterfinals, the Americans punched their ticket to the semifinals with a dominating victory over New Zealand 2-0.

This team has been consistently excellent throughout the tournament and is the overwhelming favorite to come out as the gold medal winners. 

Serena Williams

Serena Williams reminded us just how dominant she can be with her performance against No. 1 ranked player in the world Victoria Azarenka. Williams secured a win in straight sets, winning the match from start to finish 6-2, 6-1. 

Williams' serve was spot on as she was won 89 percent of points on her first serve. When Williams' serve is accurate, she's nearly unbeatable and she looked to be that way after the semifinal match. A matchup against an equally dominating Maria Sharapova awaits, but Williams has plenty of momentum heading into the gold medal match.

Men's 100-Meter Medley Relay

Team USA has unsurprisingly dominated the swimming events at the Olympics. If the gold medal race were to come down to swimming alone, the competition would be a runaway. 

With the swimming events drawing to a close, the Men's 100-meter medley relay presents the U.S. with another chance to add to its already staggering gold medal collection. If the preliminary heats are any indication, the 100-meter relay should be yet another gold for the U.S.

The Americans put together a good run in their heat, swimming a time of 3:32.65. The time was good enough to put them ahead of primary rival Japan, who were just one second behind their time. 

A gold medal in the medley would be the perfect exclamation point to a great showing by USA swimming.