Day 7 - July 27, 2021
Day 7, and lots of action in the pool, so I am going to dive right in!
Thomas Daley and Matty Lee pulled off an incredible upsetting the Chinese duo of Cao Yuan and Chen Aisen, who finished with the silver. Both Cao and Chen have won golds before in the event (1 in 2016 the other in 2012), and were favored by far to win this match, but Daley and Lee pulled off some incredible dives!
The women's synchronized diving was nowhere near as eventful as favorites Chen Yuxi and Zhang Jiaqi absolutely dominated after four dives that all they technically had to do in their fifth and last dive was jump off the platform together and land in the water. They defeated the surprising Americans of Jessica Parratto and Delaney Schnell, who captured silver despite only being partners 10 days before the Olympic trials, due to an injury to Schnell's original partner. Parratto and Schnell nailed their last 2 dives to move up from 6th after their second dive, into the silver medal.
In the other side of the pool, four noteworthy events took place. In the men's 200 meter freestyle, Tom Dean of Great Britain won the gold medal, with is compatriot Duncan Scott winning silver. Great Britain has to be the favorite for the gold in the 4x200 meter freestyle relay.
In the 100 meter backstroke, World and Olympic record holder, as well as the defending champion, Ryan Murphy looked to defend his title, only to finish third to win the bronze medal. Murphy finished behind Russian Olympic Committee's Evgeny Rylov who won gold and Kliment Kolesnikov, who earned silver. Rylov is the first Russian male swimmer to win a gold medal at the Olympics since the great Alexander Popov in 1996 (50 meter freestyle; 100 meter freestyle).
Kaylee McKeown of Australia won the gold medal by finishing first in the 100 meter backstroke, setting an Olympic record in the process. This was the fifth time that the Olympic record has fallen in this meet, as McKeown, silver medalist Kylie Masse of Canada, and the USA's Regan Smith (twice), who earned the bronze medal, all broke the record previously in the heats and the semi-finals. McKeown is forever going to be remembered as the swimmer that screamed "Fuck Yeah!" when asked how it felt to win the gold. All three of these women deserve their picture in this blog!
A surprise win - and loss - for the United States in the 100m breaststroke as Lydia Jacoby from Alaska - which has only one 50 meter pool in the state - surprisingly won gold, with pre-race favorite Lilly King winning the bronze. Tatjana Shoenmaker from South Africa won silver.
Moving from in the water to, well, on the water, Carissa Moore from the United States won the first women's surfing gold medal ever!!! Here's hoping this event remains in the games for a long, long time.
The Russian men's gymnastics team won the gold in the men's team competition defeating host Japan by just .103 points (China earned the bronze), but all gymnastics was overshadowed by the fact that Simone Biles withdrew from the team competition. We don't yet know if she will compete in either the individual all around or in the apparatus finals, for which she qualified on all four apparatus.
Also out of the Olympics, but this time because of defeat, is home favorite and number 2 seed in women's tennis Naomi Osaka, who lost 6-1, 64 to Marketa Vondousova of the Czech Republic in the third round. But, the only real winner in tennis this Olympics is the heat, which has damn near crippled the players, sending at least one player off the court in a wheelchair.
Also of bad news in Tokyo, the city had 2,848 new cases of Covid-19 yesterday, the most it has ever had since the pandemic began. Approximately 160 of those cases are linked to the Olympics.
It wasn't all bad news for the Japanese, as they won two big gold medals in the Olympics. Fist, Japan defeated the United States for the gold medal game, technically defending their championship from 2008, and avenging their loss to the United States just one day earlier. Softball will not be featured in 2024, and to be honest, until the rest of the world catches up to the 4 or 5 countries that actually play at a high level, it shouldn't return.
The host country also won an unexpected gold in mixed table tennis, as Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito knocked off China's Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen 4-3, after falling down 0-2 (5-11; 7-11). China swept all 4 table tennis championships in Rio in 2016 (mens, womens, mens doubles, mixed doubles) and is such a strong team that Liu Shiwen isn't even on the women's singles team, playing only doubles.
In other noteworthy events, Milica Mandic defended her gold medal in Taekwondo at 67kg. Over in weightlifting, Hidilyn Diaz from the Phillipines won a gold in weightlifting, the first gold medal ever for teh Phillipines! In a similar vein, Polina Guryeva won a silver medal in wieghtlifting, the first Olympic medal in Turkmenistan's history!!! And USA's 3x3 hoopster Kelsey Plum hit a last second-shot to send the United States into the semi-finals as the number 1 seed!
Athlete of the Day - Hidilyn Diaz, Weightlifting, Philippines
First gold medal ever for the Philippines!!
Olympic Term of the Day: First Pull - In weightlifting, the first pull of the snatch or clean is the movenment of the bar from its starting point on the floor until it reaches approximately mid-thight, the point at which the final upward explosive effort is initiated.
Olympic Events Watched: Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Diving, Gymnastics, Handball, Softball, Surfing, Triathlon, Water Polo
USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer: Phillip Dutton, Brady Ellison, Lee Kiefer, Kelsey Plum, Anastasija, Zolotic
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