Bay invasion set to take London Olympics

Looks like Team SFBay should’ve sent boxes of “All Bay, All Day” stickers with Team USA to pass out at Friday’s Olympic opening ceremony.

While incredible athletes representing the United States in the 2012 Summer Olympics come from all over the country, it’s hard to miss that a large number of participants hail from the Bay Area.

The Mercury News didn’t miss it, as they devoted a full photo gallery this week to highlighting a handful of the 71 athletes that are reppin’ the Bay in the London games.

And 71 is just the number of Bay Area athletes competing for Team USA! There are another 36 from our stomping grounds that are competing for other countries.

Seriously, as if the Bay didn’t already dominate enough during baseball’s Midsummer Classic. You know, when a few Giants trounced the entire AL All-Star squad 8-0? Now, we’ve got delegates halfway around the world who make up more than 13 percent of the U.S. Olympic team.

The Merc suggests we have our own country called the Bay Area Republic. In which case, I would like to suggest that our anthem be either “Lights” by  Journey or “Yay Area” by E-40.

When you look back, the Bay Area has churned out Olympic greatness for generations. Figure skaters Peggy Fleming and Kristi Yamaguchi are Bay natives. Soccer star Brandi Chastain is a San Jose girl. The ladies swim team has been dominated by Cal and Stanford product for some time now, including 11-time medalist Natalie Coughlin.

And even now-reality star Bruce Jenner trained at San Jose State before becoming master of the decathlon in the 1976 Games.

Forget the British Invasion. The London Games need to be set for the Bay Invasion. And hopefully for lots of medals coming home as well.