Olympic Word of the Day: Balk - In equestrian, when a horse refuses to move, or make a jump. Results in a penalty.
For all of the faults the United States tennis team took due to Venus Williams losing her first singles match, Serena Williams losing way earlier than expected, and the Williams sisters falling early in the doubles, failing to win their fourth gold medal, the team actually fared pretty well. In mixed doubles, Jack Sock and Bethanie Mattek-Sands won the gold medal over fellow Americans Rajeev Ram and Venus Williams, who earned the silver medal. It was the second medal for Jack Sock who, along with teammate Steve Johnson earned bronze in the men's double. For all of the starpower of the United States watching as the medal rounds progressed, three medals in the five events is not bad.
Fellow American Sarah Robles won the bronze medal in over 75kg weight class of weightlifting, earning the first American weightlifting medal since 2000 in Sydney. Robles lifted 286 kilograms, 20 kilograms shy of the silver.
It was a great day for Great Britain, who celebrated 5 golds, in gymnastics, cycling, golf, and tennis, and eight medals overall. The gold in cycling was expected, and Justin Rose in golf and Andy Murray in tennis are certainly world renowned, but Max Whitlock in gymnastics stole the show winning the gold in the floor exercise to go with the gold he won in pommel horse.
Speaking of the men's floor exercises, in addition to celebrating Whitlock's gold, the Brazilian crowd went berserk for Diego Hypolito and Arthur Mariano, the home-country gymnasts that won silver and bronze respectively. Hypolito and Mariano could not contain their emotions of winning medals in their home country, and then acknowledged the crowd as they waived their flag for all to see.
In diving, Shi Tingmao continued China's dominance of the 3m springboard by winning the gold medal, China's 8th consecutive in the event. However, it is hard to say whether Shi or He Zi had the better day, as after He won the silver medal, her boyfriend, fellow diver Qin Kai, asked He to marry him at the venue immediately after the medal ceremony. She accepted.
Moving to the track, the long-awaited final of the men's 100 meter dash did not disappoint, ad two time defending gold medalist Usain Bolt of Jamaica flew to a relatively easy victory, over American Justin Gatlin (silver) and Canadian Andre de Grasse (bronze). No word if Drake and Ryan Lochte were present to cheer on de Grasse. Usain Bolt (three golds) and Justin Gatlin (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze) are the only two athletes in history to win three Olympic medals in the 100 meters. Yet, despite all of the buzz surrounding the fastest man on earth, even Bolt could not carry the story of the day.
That honor belongs to South Africa's Wayde van Niekerk, who followed up his world championship in the 400m by breaking the world record in running a 43.03 in beating reigning Olympic medalist Kirani Jones from Grenada and LeShawn Merritt of the United States in one of the strongest races ever run at this distance. van Niekerk passed the immortal Michael Johnson, dethroning Johnson as the fastest man in history at this distance. Congratulations to Wayde van Niekerk, you are the story of the day.
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