Day 5 - July 25, 2021
A little late today, but that is mostly because it was a workday for me, and it was a Monday. Ugh! But at least it was an Olympics Monday!
So, in something that I will most certainly be typing again, USA Men's Basketball lost to France 83-76. France is a very talented team led by Evan Fournier and Rudy Gobert, among other NBA players, but Kevin Durant should be leading this team through pool play and into the medals. Except he scored 10 points. UGH!
Also surprising is that number 1 women's tennis seed Ashleigh Barty is out of the competition after losing her first round match to Spain's Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-4, 6-3. At leat the Americans are still in pool play.
Not all of the pre-Olympic favorites faired poorly, as the US women's softball team won a walk-off victory thanks to a 2 RBI single by Amanda Chidester to secure not only the 2-1 victory, but also a place in the gold medal game. The runs scored by Australia was the first run given up by the Americans in the tournament so far - and it was an unearned run. Monica Abbot struck out 13 in 8 innings to go 2-0 in the tournament.
In other good news, Japanese siblings Uta Abe and Hifumi Abe both won gold medals in judo, Uta in the women's 52-kg weight class and Hifumi in the men's 66-kg weight class. The are the first brother-sister combination to win gold on the same day in the same Olympic competition.
In another feel good story, the dressage competition in equestrian has started, and American Phillip Dutton has started his 7th Olympics competition. Dutton is unique in that he competed 3 times for Australia (1996, 2000, 2004), and now 4 times for the United States after changing his citizenship (2008, 2012, 2016, 2020). He has won gold for Australia (1996 Atlanta - team eventing; 2000 Sydney - team eventing) and a bronze for the United States (2016 Rio de Janeiro - individual eventing).
Australia showed that they are again just as competitve as the United States in the pool (hint: foreshadowing for tomorrow's post) as they set a new World Record in the 4x100 meter freestyle relay, earning gold for Bronte Campbell, Meg Harris, Emma McKeon and Cate Campbell as the team finished in 3:29:69, the first time a women's relay has finished under 3:30. Canada just nipped the United States at the wall for the bronze, while the Americans earned a silver.
Staying in the pool, the men's 400 meter freestyle was certainly something to watch. White the favorites, Jack McLoughlin of Australia and Kieran Smith of the United States certainly swam well, they only could earn the silver and bronze respectively as relatively unknown Tunisian Ahmed Hafnaoui, only 18 years old, swam the swim of his life to capture the gold while out in lane 8 - which means he was the slowest qualifier for the finals, and in fact, only qualified for the final by .14 seconds! He out-touched McLoughlin and Smith, who all finished under 3:44:00.
Even more confusing than Hafnaoui's victory, was the women's cycling road race, at least to some. Early in the race, 6 riders including Anna Kiesenhofer of Austria broke away from the peloton practically as soon as the race started. As often happens, most of the favorites - including Annemiek van Vleuten, Anna van der Bregge, Marianne Vos and Demi Vollering of the Netherlands - let Kiesenhofer and the other breakaway riders go, knowing they would have a chance to reel her in later with the rest of the peloton. This occurred as the 5 breakaway riders were caught by the peloton, when van Vleuten made her move, and finished the race in Fuji Speedway thinking she had won gold. Except, the peloton had only caught 5 of the breakaway riders, but not Kiesenhofer, who earned gold. Van Vleuten, who suffered a horrific crash in Rio in 2016, settled for the silver. Van Vleuten blamed her mistake on the fac that she is used to using a radio, as communications are ordinarily allowed in professional races where teams keep racers apprised of the race status, but those communications are not allowed in the Olympics.
The United States won two unexpected golds. Lee Kiefer prevailed in individual foil over Inna Deriglazova of the Russian Olympic Committee. Deriglazova was the defending Olympic gold medalist.
Anastasija Zolotic, an 18 year old from Clearwater, Florida, also won gold. She defeated Tatiana Minina of the Russian Olympic Committee in the 57 kg final of Taekwondo.
On the downside, Skateboarding made its very disappointing debut. It is nowhere near as exciting to watch as when snowboarding was added to the Winter Olympic schedule, and certainly pales in comparison to the other newcomer which has already started, 3x3. Hopefully surfing is more like 3x3 and less like skateboarding.
I would also be remiss if I did not mention Amber English and Vincent Hancock's gold medals in skeet shooting.
Athlete of the Day - Ahmed Hafnaoui, Swimming, Tunisia
Nobody - and I mean NOBODY - foresaw his victory in the men's 400 meter freestyle.
Olympic Term of the Day: Ollie - In skateboarding, it is a jump where the front wheels leave the ground first, and both the skater and the board are airborne. This is the foundation of a lot of other technical tricks.
Olympic Events Watched: Badminton, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Cycling, Diving, Equestrian, Fencing, Gymnastics, Skateboarding, Swimming, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Tennis
USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer: Monica Abbot, Phillip Dutton, Brady Ellison, Lee Kiefer, Cat Osterman, Kelsey Plum, Anastasija, Zolotic
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