Day 12 - August 4, 2024
I have been trying my best to watch as many events as possible, which means that in order to maximize events, I have missed some of the general news, and such was with Saturday's big news surrounding the sprints.
Sha'Carri Richardson of the United States and Jamaican legend Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce were both denied entrance to the warm-up facility on Saturday due to the fact that they made their own travel arrangements and did not arrive on the Olympics-provided shuttle bus. Apparently they had done the same thing for the previous days, but on Saturday, they were told that they had to walk to a different general entrance that required about an hour walk to-and-fro the other entrance. Both runners were told that this was a rule change from the day prior. So, given that neither runner was going to have their normal prep time/warm-up, and given that Fraser-Pryce, in her fifth Olympics, was nursing a bit of an injury, the Jamaican chose to DNS (did not start) rather than risk further injury. Richardson did run the 100 meter semi-finals, but she did not look her top self. She did win the semi-finals after a fabulous run by St. Lucia's Julien Alfred, but again Richardson did not run her top time. Was she affected? Probably for her semifinal run, but she most likely was able to do he rproper warmup for the final.
In bad news, the Belgian delegation announced that they would not be participating in the triathlon relay due to the fact that one of their triathletes became sick after the women's triathlon event, and they believe that swimming in the contaminated Seine River may have caused. There is no way the Paris Olympic Committee could have seen this coming, since swimming has been prohibited in the Seine for over 100 years because of said contamination.
The men's 100 meter final has already been written about - A LOT - and deservedly so. I am just going to say WOW, and congratulations to Noah Lyles of the USA (gold), Kishane Thompson of Jamaica (silver) and Fred Kerley of the USA (bronze). Each runner finished the race under 10 seconds, and here is the finish line!
Lyles was truly one of the superstars entering these games, and his gold medal solidified his status as a track legend, even before the 200 meters and the 4x100 meters. Two other superstars entering Paris are Novak Djokovic and Scottie Scheffler. Novak Djokovic defeated Carlos Alcaraz in an instant classic 7-6, 7-6, easily taking both tiebreakers. This completes the career Golden Slam for Novak Djokovic (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, US Open, Olympic gold), joining Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, and Serena Williams.
Scottie Scheffler came to these games the number 1 ranked player in the world, but entering Sunday's final round, Scheffler found himself in sixth place, and 4 shots out of the lead. Jon Rahm Made the turn
in the lead, and after the 10th hole, found his lead had grown to 4 shots. But Scheffler birdied four holes down the stretch to take the lead, which he did not relinquish, even as the remaining leaders finished after he did, with Tommy Fleetwood of Great Britain needing to chip in from about 80 feet to earn a playoff. Fleetwood earned silver and Japan's Hideki Matsuyama won silver. Scheffler definitely cherished this win, as he showed his emotions on the podium!
From one emotion to another ... let's go to the badminton court. Rio 2016 gold medalist in singles, Carolina Marin from Spain did not have the opportunity to defend her title in Tokyo thanks to a left ACL tear in 2019 and a right ACL tear in 2021. She goes up 10-6 in the second set of the semi-finals before falling straight to the floor as she attempted to return the shuttlecock. She immediately rolled onto her stomach and screaming. The entire room went quiet (and keep in mind they play several matches simultaneously). After a long time down, Marin gets up and puts a knee brace on her right knee to try to continue, and now ahead 10-7, she makes one step toward the shuttlecock and let's out a scream. She goes down crying as we all know it is another knee injury. She is surrounding by her coaches (which incidentally, her personal coach was also named coach of the French team, but he took that job only on the condition that he would also be allowed to coach Marin), trainers, her opponent - who exhibited nothing by genuine class and concern - and the officials. You could see that the officials were trying not to ask the coaches if Marin could not continue because they did not want to force the coaches to have to say yes, but alas, they did. She gets up and is helped to the sideline with the entire arena standing and applauding. Get well soon Carolina.
Two other superstars competed in the last day of swimming, and succeeded in winning gold. First, Caleb Dressel was fresh off his 9th gold medal won the day prior as the US team won the 4x100 mixed medley relay. (He was not mentioned as winning his 9th medal in yesterday's update as Ryan Murphy and Nic Fink swam in the finals; with Dressel winning a gold from his participating in the semi-finals round. His 9th gold medal ties him for second of all time with Paavo Nurmi, Larissa Latynina, Mark Spitz, Carl Lewis and Katie Ledecky.) Dressel swam the third leg - the butterfly leg - in the 4x100 medley relay, and was amazing, clocking a 45.9 second leg. He single-handedly gave the team a chance for gold while simultanesouly pulling away from third, fourth and fifth places. But, the 10th gold was not to be, as China, with two swimmers who have had prior positive steroid tests swept under the rug, defeating the USA.
Bobby Finke took the lead immediately in teh men's 1500 meters freestyle, with a 54 second first lap, and tired the field quickly to the point where no other swimmer could mount a charge as Finke finished in world record time!
Another world record was set in the pool as the United States women set the record in winning gold in the 4x100 meter medley relay. The team of Regan Smith (backstroke), Lilly King (breaststroke), Gretchen Walsh (butterfly), and Torri Huske (freestyle) secured the gold over the Australians (silver), and also secured the title of most golds in the pool for the US with 8, over Australia's 7.
Also in the pool, Sweden's Sarah Sjoestrom maintained her dominance in the sprints by winning gold in the 50 meter freestyle to go along with her gold in the 100 meter freestyle.
Sunisa Lee won bronze on the uneven parallel bars, finishing just behind Qui Qiyuan of China who won silver, and the gold medalist Algeria's Kaylia Nemour.
The United States women's basketball team secured the number 1 overall seed in the knockout rounds by crushing Germany, mostly behind the strength of the bench, which outscored their opponents 52-13 in this game. Both basketball teams are huge favorites to win gold.
At the skeet shooting venue, American Austin Jewell Smith secured the bronze medal, shooting better than everyone except Chile's Francisco Corvetta (gold) and Britain's Amber Rutter (silver). Tomorrow is the first ever mixed team skeet shooting event, and with Jewell Smith winning the bronze, and Victor Hancock securing gold in the men's event, the USA should be primed to medal.
In the men's archery gold medal match, Brady Ellison of the USA competing against South Korea's Kim Woo-jin, and after both secured the same amount of points after all 5 sets, they went to a 1 arrow arch-off. And despite hitting the 10 point bullseye, Ellison's arrow was just a bit farther from the center from Kim's, giving the South Korean the gold and Ellison the silver.
And, in Harvard athlete news, Kristen Faulkner, an alternate for the cycling road race who is competing in the indoor cycling events, took to the road race when Taylor Knibb withdrew to concentrate on the triathlon. Faulkner, with Belgian Lotte Kopecky, began to chase Marianne Vos and Blanka Vas, who had taken off much earlier to form the lead. Faulkner and Kopecky caught them with about 6 kilometers remaining, and Faulkner kept pushing the attack. Kopecky, Vos and Vas just started looking at each other, and none of them had the will, or the ability, to try to go with Faulkner. Faulkner continued unabated to the finish line for gold. Kopecky, Vas and Vos finished in a photo finish for silver and bronze, with Vos from the Netherlands winning silver and Kopecky earning bronze. The tally so far in these games for Harvard athletes is now 3 golds and 1 silver.
The table tennis men's final was amazing, as 19th seed Truls Moregard of Sweden gave Chinese world champion Fan Zhendong all he could handle, but Zhendong was too much, winning gold.
Back at the track, Ukranian and Australian athletes dominated the women's high jump, with Ukranian world champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh winning gold and her compatriot Iryna Geraschenko earning bronze. The Australians Nicola Olyslagers (silver) and Eleanor Patterson (bronze) also captured medals.
But I don't think we will see any ending like that men's 100 meter final. Here it is again!
Athlete of the Day - Noah Lyles, United States, St. Lucia, Athletics
Delivered on all the hype in winning gold in one of the marquis events of the Olympics, in an ending that will be discussed for years. Bobby Finke and Kristen Faulkner with honorable mentions.
Team of the Day - 4x100 meters women's medley relay, USA, Swimming
Regan Smith, Lilly King, Gretchen Walks and Torri Huske for a world record, and the gold that decided the team "competition".
Olympic Term of the Day: Shuttlecock - In badminton, the cork to which feathers are attached to form a cone shape, or similar item of plastic, to be struck with the badminton rackets.
Olympic Events Watched: Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Cycling, Golf, Kayak, Shooting, Swimming, Volleyball
USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer (listed alphabetically: Simone Biles, Ryan Crouser, Caleb Dressel, Brady Ellison, Kristen Faulkner, Vincent Hancock, Torri Huske, Lee Kiefer, Katie Ledecky, Ilona Maher, Tom Murphy
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