Olympics - Paris 2024 - Day 12

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

Olympics - Paris 2024 - Day 4

Day 4 - July 27, 2024

It was the first full day of competition, and boy was it jampacked with events, including our first medals!

Might as well start with controversy, as more comes out surrounding the Chinese swimming doping scandal.  Positive tests from the Tokyo Olympics were revealed in April of this year (after being swept under the rug by the Chinese federation for three years!)  It turns out 23 members of the Chinese swim team in Tokyo tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.  Eleven of those 23 are swimming in this Olympics.  At least one member of the Australian delegation is contemplating a podium boycott if a Chinese swimmer wins a medal.  We shall see!

In the first medal match of these games, China 1 defeated South Korea 1 in the 10m Air Rifle mixed team event 1-12, earning gold, while South Korea settled for the silver.  Kazakhstan earned bronze by easily  outdistancing Germany 17-5.

The United States won its first medal in the women's 3m springboard synchronized diving event as Kassidy Cook and Sarah Bacon earned silver behind China's Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen.  Great Britain earned the bronze.

In some exciting games, Spain defeated Slovenia 25-22, and Egypt outlasted Hungary 35-32 in Handball.  Croatia narrowly escaped Japn 30-29 as well.  Germany beat Japan in volleyball 3-2.

 in a great matchup.

In the most dominating American performance yesterday, rower Kara Kohler won her heat by open water, easing into the semi-finals.

Right behindg Kohler's performance was that of the women's water polo team, which defated Greece 15-6!.

The US men's soccer team bounced back from their 3-0 defeat at the hands of the host country France to beat New Zealand 4-1.

In what looks like a literal passing of the torch and a scary combination for its opponents, Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz are teaming up for men's doubles for Spain!

France defeated two-time defending Olympic champion - and previously undefeated in the Olympics Fiji - to win the rugby 7s gold medal, but the game of the day was the South Africa - Australia bronze medal game.  South Africa scored two tries in the waning minutes of the second half to tie the match, and then the deciding try as time expired to win the bronze medal!  Just exhilarating.

But, the primary focus yesterday was on the pool, specifically the women's 400m Freestyle final and both 4x100 meter freestyle relays.  The women's 400 meter Freestyle final featured the three women that have hte best 30 times in history, and in this battle of the titans Australia's Ariarne Titmus defeated Canada's Summer McIntosh (silver) and Katie Ledecky of the United States (bronze).

Australia won the women's freestyle relay, with the US winning silver and China winning the bronze, and the stage looked set for an Australian sweep of the day.  But, third leg Hunter Armstrong - sorry Greg Olsen - took over second place and then the lead before handing the proverbial baton to perhaps the greatest finisher in relay history, Caleb Dressel.  And with about a body length lead when he entered the pool, Dressel coasted to gold despite a charge from Australia, which came in second and Italy earned the bronze.

Athlete of the Day - Ariarne Titus, Australia, Swimming

She dominated the race that most swim fans were most interested in seeing, as her, McIntosh and Ledecky are the three most dominant women at the 400 meter distance ever, and they were all competing in the same race.

American Athlete of the Day - Chloe Dygert, United States, Cycling

Dygert suffered a crash during the women's individual road racing time trail, yet got up to win bronze, just missing out on the silver by seconds.  A well earned bronze!!!

Olympic Term of the Day:  Open Water - Rowing - When a boat is more than a full length ahead of every other team in the race.

Olympic Events Watched:  Badminton, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Cycling, Gymnastics, Rowing, Rugby, Soccer, Swimming, Table Tennis, Volleyball, Water Polo

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer (Alphabetically):  Chloe Dygert, Brady Ellison, Casey Kaufhold, Alyssa Naeher Mallory Swanson                            

Olympics - Tokyo 2020 - Day 12

 Day 12 - August 1, 2021

Entry 2 of catch-up mode, so here we go ...

Last day of swimming, so we won't change a good thing and we will once again start in the pool.

And the pool did not disappoint.  The USA's Robert Finke added a second gold (to his 800m meter freestyle gold) by winning the 1500 meter freestyle, outdistancing the Ukraine's Mykhail Romanchuk and Germany's Florian Wellbrock, who joined him on the podium.

Australia's Emma McKeon earned the title fastest woman in the pool by breaking the Olympic record in the 50 meter freestyle, earning her 4th gold of these games (and 7th overall!!!).  This Olympic record stood for 1 whole day, as she broke her own record set the day earlier.  Sweden's Sara Sjoestroem finished second and Denmark's PErnille Blume earned the bronze.  Closing out the women's meet, Australia set an Olympic record in teh 4x100 meter medley relay, but with some controversy.  The aforementioned Emma McKeon looked like she jumped early to start her third leg (butterfly), and overtook the USA's Torri Huske at the start to cruise Australia into the lead, a lead which anchor Cate Campbell was not going to give back.  The United States finished second with China earning the bronze.

For the men, Caleb Dressel set an Olympic record in the 50 meter freestyle, easily defeating France's Florent Mananudou and Brazil's Bruno Fratus (second and third respectively), with fellow American Michael Andres finishing fourth.  Then, 40 minutes or so later, Dressel took the lead in his third leg of the men's 4x100 medley relay, which Zach Apple brought home for gold in World Record time, along with teammates Ryan Murphy (backstroke) and Michael Andrew (breastroke).  This was Andrew's first medal in what was supposed to be his coming-out party.  Perhaps he should have not badmouthed people that wear masks or got vaccinated.  Caleb Dressel won 5 gold medals in 6 events (the 6th being yesterday 4x100 mixed medley relay, in which Lydia Jacobs had her goggles incident), and Dressel was taken out of the 4x200 meter freestyle relay due to scheduling concerns with his other races.

In gymnastics, America's Jade Carey followed up her silver medal in the team competition with a gold in the floor exercises.  A trio of medals for the United States women, as Mykayla Skinner won silver in the vault, and Sunisa Lee - fresh off her individual all-around gold medal, won bronze in the uneven bars.  Also of note is Israel's Artem Dolgopyat winning gold in the men's floor exercises, with fellow non-Olympic power Rayderley Zapata from Spain taking silver.  China - now there is an Olympics gymnastics power - won bronze through Xiao Ruoteng.

Germany's Alexander Zverev followed-up his semi-finals defeat of Novak Djokovic by easily handling the ROC's Karen Khachanov 6-3, 6-1 for gold.  ALso in tennis, Belinda Bencic could not double after her singles gold, as Switzerland - with her and Viktorija Golubic losing the Barbara Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic, who earned the gold medal.  Still a great two weeks for Bencic.

In fencing, the United States won bronze in team foil as Alexander Massialas, Race Imboden and Gerek Meinhardt defeated their Japanese counterparts for third.  This was the first team medal in foil in the United States history.  France defeatd the Russian Olympic Commitee 45-28 in the gold medal match.

The most watched sport for the next week will no doubt be track & field (Athletics), and it did not disappoint yesterday.  Raven Saunders of the United States won silver, as China's Gong Lijiao took home the gold.  But no doubt, the coverage is going to be of Saunders elevating her arms in an "X" sign on the podium, which she says indicates "the intersection where all oppressed people meet."  The International Olympic Committee if investigating whether Saunders' arm signal violates its rules, but the United States Athletics Federation supports her.

In the men's high jump, Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar, and Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy were tied at 2.37 meters (with bronze medal winner Maksim Nedasekau of Belarus), and they had the same amount of misses (Nedasekau had more), which is the tiebreaker in the high jump.  While an official was discussing the jumpoff rules with Barshim and Tamberi, Barshim said, "or we can have 2 golds?".  It was determined that the two competitors and friends would both get a gold medal! 

Tamberi-Barshim share Olympic gold, heartwarming moment leaves netizens in tears - YouTube

Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela outdistanced Patricia Mamona of Portugal and Spain's Ana Peleteiro for the gold medal in the women's triple jump, with a world record jump of 15.67 meters, or 51.411 feet.

In the feature race of the Olympics, the men's 100 meter dash (and who will replace Usain Bolt), traditional sprinting powers Canada finished third (Andre de Grasse with his second consecutive 100 meter dash podium finish), and the United States (Ronnie Baker fifth and Fred Kerley winning silver), are upset by Italy's Lamont Marcell Jacobs, who ran away with the gold in 9.80 seconds.  This is Italy's first gold medal ever in the 100 meter dash, and first sprinting gold medal since the 200 meter great Pietro Mennea's gold in Moscow in 1980.

But, the best, most exciting, and closest action of the day occurred at Kasumigaseki Country Club, as Xander Scahauffele - the fifth ranked golfer in the world - earned the gold medal with an 18-under 266, to narrowly hold off a "come out of nowhere" course and Olympic record 10 under par 61 from Slovakia's Rory Sabbatini, who won silver.  The battle for third place was amazing, as seven players tied for 3rd with a 15 under 269, and headed for a sudden death playoff.  Local hero Hideki Matsuyama, feeling the pressure after shooting a pedestrian 69 (2 under) in the final round, and Great Britain's Paul Casey were dropped on the first playoff hole (18).  The remaining 5 players all parred the second playoff hole (hole 10).  A par on the third playoff hole (hole 11) was the end of the line for Colombia's Sebastian Munoz, Ireland's Rory McIlroy, and Chile's Mito Pereira, leaving Taipei's C.T. Pan and the USA's Colin Morikawa to shoot it out at 18 again, where Pan's par earned him the bronze.

A tough tie for 22nd for Sungjae Im and tied for 32nd for Si Woo Kim, both of South Korea, as a medal for either - or both - of them, would have enabled them to skip compulsory military service.

Athlete of the Day - Lamont Jacobs, Athletics (Track & Field), Italy

He really did win the 100 meter dash!!!

Olympic Term of the Day:  Fosbury Flop - In track, specifically the high jump, the method of jumping by American Dick Fosbury who used it in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, in which the final four or five steps of the approach are fun in a curve, allowing the jumper to turn away from the bar as they jump, and thus going over the bar with their back.  This method gives a longer time period for take-off thrust, and produces a rotation of the jumper's body along the bar's axis, aiding in clearance.

Olympic Events Watched:  Athletics (Track & Field), Badminton, Equestrian, Fencing, Golf, Swimming 

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer (Alphabetically):  Caleb Dressel, Phillip Dutton, Brady Ellison, Robert Finke, Lee Kiefer, Katie Ledecky, Sunisa Lee, Kelsey Plum, Anastasija, Zolotic                          

Olympics - Tokyo 2020 - Day 10

 Day 10 - July 30, 2021

Hooray - I am back on pace to blogging at a normal hour!  Real post today!

As usual, let's start in the pool.  In hopefully some foreshadowing for what should be a great finals race, the USA's Caleb Dressel tied an Olympic record in the 100 meter butterfly in his Heat (which happened to be the last heat of the first round) of 50.39 seconds.  In the first semi-final, Kristof Milak of Hungary broke the Olympic record by swimming the race in 50.31 seconds.  Caleb Dressel immediately came back to break that record in the second semi-final by going 49.71.  Can't wait to see this final today!!!

Emma KcKeon of Australia won gold in the 100 meter freestyle, breaking the Olympic recod that she set just two days ago.  This is her second gold medal of these games.  Hong Kong's Siobhan Haughey earned the bronze, and Australia's Cate Campbell won bronze.

The best result in the pool on Day 10 was turned in by South Africa's Tatjana Schoenmaker in teh 200 meter breastroke.  Not only did Schoenmaker win gold, but she broke the world record in the process.  The USA finished second and third, with Lilly King earning silver and Annie Lazor winning the bronze.

However, it wasn't Dressel, or McKeon, or Schoenmaker that were the talk of the pool, as American backstroker Ryan Murphy - without pulling any punches - stated that swimming results were tainted by doping, and that he doesn't think his races were clean.  Murpy finished third in the 100 meter backstroke earlier this week behind Evgeny Ralnov (gold) and Kilment Kolesnikov (silver); and he finished with the silver medal in the 200 meter backstroke behind Evgeny Ralnov.  Both Ralnov and Kolesnikov swim for the Russian Olympic Committee because Russia itself is banned from international competition for systemic doping and testing procedures, as well as the erasing of testing records of its athletes.

Qualifying heats have started on the track, and boy-oh-boy do we already have some controversy.  The USA's 4x400 mixed medley relay easily won its heat, but was disqualified for passing the baton outside of the exchange zone on the fist and second legs of the race.  However, team USA was reinstated after it was shown that race officials lined up Lynna Irby, running the second leg, incorractly.  Tape also showed the officials lining up other runners in other heats incorrectly, but those runners noticed it and self-corrected.  Team USA advances.

On a completely other track, Bethany Shriever won the finals in the women's  BMX.  The Great Britain rider narrowly defeated Colombia's Mariana Pajon by just .09 seconds.  Pajon was the two-time defending gold medalist in the event, having won gold in 2012 in London and 2016 in Rio.  Merel Smulders from the Netherlands finished with the bronze.  Apologies to Shriever, but this was the best picture I saw.

On the men's side, Conor Fields of the USA, the defending gold medalist and the number 1 seed entering the finals, took a horrific crash in the first turn of the finals, sending him to the hospital, where last report was that he was stable, but still undergoing tests.  With Fields down, Niek Kimmann of the Netherlands won gold, Kye White of Great Britain took silver, and Colombia's Carlos Alberto Ramirez Yepes earned bronze.

The games of the day is no doubt the women's soccer quarterfinals - all of the games (well, 3 out of 4)!  Sweden beat Japan 3-1, and in a barnburner, Australia defeated Great Britain 4-3, setting up an Australia-Sweden semi-final matchup.  In the other half, Canada outlasted Brazil in penalty kicks after a 0-0 draw.  In the final quarterfinal matchup, Vivienne Miedema earned her 100th cap in the game against the USA, and then proceeded to score her 9th and 10th goals of these Olympics.  It wasn't enough as the USA added 2 goals within a 3 minute stretch of the first half to send this game to extra time.  Preserving the tie was a late penalty kick save by US goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher.  After a goalless extra time, the U-S prevailed 4-2 on penalty kicks, with Naeher making 2 saves in the shootout!  The clinching goal calmly scored by Megan Rapinoe.

Athlete of the Day - Alyssa Naeher, Soccer, United States

Not just the 2 shootout saves (Canada's goalie also had 2), but the big penalty shot save late in the second half as well.

Olympic Term of the Day:  Exchange Zone - A track and field term for the marked area in a lane of track where two relay runners must meet and exchange the baton; the exchange zone is 20 meters long.

Olympic Events Watched:  Athletics (Track & Field), Baseball, Basketball, BMX, Canoe, Handball, Judo, Soccer, Table Tennis, Volleyball 

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer (Alphabetically):  Caleb Dressel, Phillip Dutton, Brady Ellison, Lee Kiefer, Katie Ledecky, Sunisa Lee, Kelsey Plum, Anastasija, Zolotic                          

Olympics - Tokyo 2020 - Day 9

 Day 9 - July 29, 2021

Again, since I am doubling up on entries no pictures, but here are the stories!

There is only one story for today (I mean there are others, but not really), it is Sunisa Lee, the Hmong-American gymnastics start that was in the shadow of Simone Biles, winning the gold medal in the all-around, defeating Rebecca Andrade of Brazil, the silver medalist, Angelina Melnikova of the ROC, the bronze medalist, and everyone else.  To date, given the situation surrounding Simone Biles and the US team, this is THE story of the Olympics.

The best single event of the day was the women's 4x200 meter freestyle relay.  The heavily-favored Australian team did not disappoint in breaking the world record - BUT FINISHING THIRD!  The United States team also broke the world record and won silver.  It was China celebrating as they set the World Record and won gold!  Katie Ledecky earning her third medal of these Olympics, with the 800 meters freestyle still to go.

On the men's side, the Great Britain team won gold, and will forever be remembered for the interview by a Bristish reporter asking Matthew Richard about his incredible third leg!!!  Tom Dean led off to win his second gold of these Olympics.  The US men failed to medal, for the first time in Olympic relay history, finishing fourth by about half a second.  The US coach pulled Caleb Dressel from the team because ...

Caleb Dressel also had to compete in the men's 100 meter freestyle final, which he won and set an Olympic record while beating defending gold medalist Kyle Chalmers of Australia, who won silver.  This is Dressel's second gold in two events, with the 100 meter butterfly (he set an Olympic record in his heat), and the 50 meter freestyle still to come, along with up to two more relays.

Robert Finke won the gold for the United States in the 800 meter freestyle.  Regan Smith and Hali Flickinger earned the silver and bronze respectfully in the 200 meter butterfly, finishing only behind China's Zhang Yufei, who set an Olympic record.

In a completely different type of water event, Hungary defeated the United States women's team in water polo 10-9, scoring the winning goal with 45 secondd remaining in the game.  This was the first loss for the United States in the Olympic pool since 2008!

In the men's trap shooting event, Czech Republic teammates Jiri Liptak and David Kostelecky went to a shootoff, where Liptak won the gold medal.  Kostelecky was competing in his 7th Olympics.  SEVENTH!!!  He won gold in Beijing in 2008, and finished fourth in Rio in 2016.

Also in shooting, Alessandra Perilli of San Marino won the bronze medal in women's trap shooting, a first for her country and making San Marino - which has a total population of about 34,000 - the smallest country to ever win a medal.  Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova of Slovakia won the gold medal with an Olympic record, and American Kayle Browning won the silver.  Stefecekova previously won silver in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012.

Aaron Wolf of Japan was impressive in winning the gold medal in the over 100kg weight class in judo.  His gold medal was Japan's 8th gold medal (and 11th overall) in judo alone!!!

Athlete of the Day - Sunisa Lee, Gymnastics, United States

Seriously, was this a questions?

Olympic Term of the Day:  Twisties - In gymnastics, a condition where a gymnast loses their sense of space and dimension when in the air, causing them to lost control of their bodies, and do extra, unintended, twists and flips, and may result in an inability to land safely.

Olympic Events Watched:  Archery, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, BMX, Boxing, Rugby, Shooting, Tennis, Volleyball, Water Polo, 

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer (Alphabetically):  Caleb Dressel, Phillip Dutton, Brady Ellison, Lee Kiefer, Katie Ledecky, Sunisa Lee, Kelsey Plum, Anastasija, Zolotic