It was the sixth day of the London Olympic Games and Jim and Cecilia Adrian still hadn’t seen their son Nathan for whom they traveled 4,800 miles to watch swim for the United States. Nathan, 23, was competing in his second Olympics. Nathan and his mom were exchanging text messages, but the two hadn’t spoken in-person in days. While waiting to watch the 100-meter freestyle race on Aug. 1, the Adrians chatted with some Australian spectators who were on their way to see a water polo match in the Olympic Park.

“They wished Nathan good luck,” says Jim. “But not enough to come in first…at that point, everyone was predicting [James] Magnussen would win.”

In a dramatic, heart-racing sprint, Nathan, of Bremerton, Wash., took home his first individual gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle swim, beating Magnussen by one-hundredth of a second. 

Nathan Adrian, 23, of Bremerton, Wash., took home his first individual gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle swim in the London Olympic Games last week, winning by a "fingertip," beating Australian favorite James "The Missile" Magnussen. 

The Seattle Times reported:

The margin of victory—one-hundredth of a second—was the tightest at the London Olympics.

Perhaps the swimmer's work ethic can be traced to his upbringing in a union family. Adrian's father, Jim, is a retired nuclear engineer for the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and former president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 12. His mother, Cecilia, is a nurse in the Bremerton school district. Check back on the AFL-CIO Now blog next Monday for an exclusive interview with Jim and Cecilia Adrian. 

Errol Spence Jr.’s dreams of Olympic gold were revived early Saturday morning when Olympic Games boxing officials overturned the decision that gave Friday’s welterweight bout to Spence’s opponent. Spence is the son of Debra—a Dallas, Texas, member of National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU) Local 311—and Errol Spence Sr.

Those of us in the middle and working classes will see our taxes raised big time if Mitt Romney is elected president, according to a new report released today by the Center for America Progress at a day-long event examining Romney’s proposals. Romney is proposing a set of so-called tax reforms that would increase taxes for 18 million working families, meaning an average income couple with two kids would pay $850 per year more in taxes.

In sharp contrast, Romney would gain $4.5 million in tax cuts in just the first year, and rake in more than $100 million in tax breaks over his lifetime (click chart at left to expand).

Following recent public outcry that the ceremonial uniforms U.S. athletes wear at the Olympics are made in China, clothes designer Ralph Lauren announced that beginning in 2014, athletes’ uniforms will be Made in America after all. They will not change the uniforms this year, but the public’s strong support for Buy America won the day for the future.

Good thing Mitt Romney wasn’t making the decision. He told ABC News on Friday, just before Lauren made his announcement, that it really didn’t matter where the uniforms are made. When asked whether workers in the United States should make the unforms, here’s what Romney said:

Summer Olympic Games medal supplier, Rio Tinto—a union-busting global mining conglomerate with a track record of worker and environmental abuse—should be kept off the podium in London, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. In a letter sent to the chairman of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), Trumka points to Rio Tinto’s Jan. 1 lockout of 750 USW members in Alma, Quebec.

For the first time in history, the world’s two biggest sports events—the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics—are being held in the same country, within two years of each other. This month, hundreds of workers and activists met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, site of the events, to launch a campaign to ensure that all the workers involved in the construction of facilities and manufacturing of event products work under decent conditions.