Day 2 - July 25, 2024
Before I get into yesterday's recap, a couple of notes from points raised in yesterday's column. First, Canada's women's soccer coach Bev Priestman has been dismissed and sent home after the cheating scandal involving the use of drones to scout New Zealand's practices. It appears that Canada has been doing this for year's according to article released yesterday, including in Tokyo 2020 - which occurred in 2021 - an Olympics in which Canada won gold. Hmmmmmm ....
I also want to raise a point that I completely missed heading into the Argentina - Morocco soccer match. After Argentina was victorious in the Copa American, its players were seen celebrating and racially mocking the French team - which wasn't even there. What does this have to do with Wednesday's match? Well, the mocking is about the French's players of African - particularly North African - descent (see Zidane, Zinedane red card from World Cup). So Moroccan fans were particularly riled up. And just lost it when Argentina thought they tied it up right at the end of extra time and celebrated in front of the Moroccan fans. I am not condoning what the fans did, just putting the actions in some context.
Also important, albeit negative, some criminals have vandalized some of the train systems heading into Paris, including committing arson by burning trains, tracks and parts of some stations, which could affect travel in and to the capital city through the weekend.
Lots of women's soccer and rugby yesterday, with archery and handball also getting started.
In women's soccer, the United States cruised to a 3-0 lead in the first half, and then coasted to win 3-0 over Zambia. Trinity Rodman opened the scoring and Mallory Swanson finished it with a brace. Lindsay Horan had 2 assists.
Canada - despite the absence of its coach, did defeat New Zealand 2-1. Other victors include Germany (3-0 over Australia), and France (3-2 over Colombia),
In women's team handball, perhaps the game of the team was the Netherlands winning 34-31 over Angola in a high-scoring affair. Other winners were Denmark (27-19 over Slovenia), Brazil (29-18 over Spain), France (31-28 over Hungary), Sweden (32-28 over Norway) and Korea (23-22) over Germany.
In the men's 7s in rugby, both the final group stage match and the quarterfinals matches were played yestreday. The United States qualified for the quarterfinals with an impressive 33-17 win, led by an impressive 4 tries (American record) by Perry Baker. But alas the United States ran out of steam - and points - as they lost to Australia 18-0. The other semi-finalists are Fiji, a 19-25 victor over Ireland, France, who wond 26-14 over Argentina, and South Africa, which defeated New Zealand 14-7.
In archery, Korea dominated in the ranking round with Kim Woojin placing first with a score of 686, Kim Je Deok finishing second, and Lee Wooseok coming in sixth. American Brady Ellison sits comfortably in 7th, finishing just 4 points from a medal position, 5 points from second place, and nine points out of first. Heading into the medal rounds it should be noted that Ellison has the world record score of 702 which he set in 2019, but Kim Woojin has the Olympic record with 700 set in Rio in 2016. Let's hope Ellison can find a few extra points in the medal round.
The South Koreans also dominated the preliminary rounds of women's archery, wih Lim Sihyeon setting a new World Record of 694, followed by her teammate Nam Suhyeon, who had a personal best of 688. American Casey Kaufhold finished in 4th, just behind Yang Ziaolei. Although it looks like the South Koreans are going to be hard to beat, Kaufhold has a medal in her sights, as it took personal best and season bests for all of the 5th through 8th finishers to just qualify in their positions. Can we get two medals in archery?
Athlete of the Day - Lim Sihyeon, Korea, Archery
You set a world record, you will be considered for this award.
American Athlete of the Day - Perry Baker, Rugby, Mallory Swanson, Soccer
Baker scored 4 tries to lead the US into the quarterfinals. Swanson scored a brace in the US win over Zambia.
Olympic Term of the Day: Try - Rugby - A way of scoring points in rugby by grounding the ball in the opposition's in-goal area. Worth 5 points in rugby union; four in rugby league.
Olympic Events Watched: Rugby (Men's Sevnes), Soccer (Men's)
USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer (Alphabetically): Brady Ellison, Casey Kaufhold, Alyssa Naeher Mallory Swanson
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