College Ties

While the United States had a fantastic showing on the track at the 2012 London Olympics, the world of college track & field can claim a lot more than the 29 medals earned by Americans at Olympic Stadium.

Of those U.S. medalists, all but one competed collegiately here in the States. That one — Allyson Felix — turned professional right out of high school, but her sponsor at the time, adidas, paid her college tuition at the University of Southern California and she since graduated with a degree in elementary education.

So even if you were to strip college track of Felix's three gold medals, you more than make up for them with 19 collegians who won medals in London for countries other than the U.S., including seven gold medalists.

Among those gold medalists were three of the four legs of the Bahama's winning 4x400-meter relay — Chris Brown (Norfolk State), Demetrius Pinder (Texas A&M) and Michael Mathieu (Texas Tech). Others forging gold with some aid from the American college system were Czech javelin thrower Barbora Spotakova (Minnesota), Dominican hurdler Felix Sanchez (Southern Cal), Grenadian 400m champion Kirani James (Alabama) and Jamaican relay member Michael Frater (TCU).

To take a full look at how well U.S. colleges both represented and fared at the Games, take a look at the brilliant work of the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association: