Olympics - Rio 2016 - Day 13

Day 13 - August 15

Today's Events:  Basketball, Boxing, Cycling, Track, Wrestling (Greco-Roman)

Olympic Word of the Day:  Greco-Roman Wrestling - A form of wrestling where the wrestlers are forbidden to tackle, trip or use holds below the waist.

Then lets start with Greco-Roman wrestling, where Cuba's Mijain Lopez won gold in the 130kg (superheavyweight) class, his third Olympic gold, tying him for the most Greco-Roman Wrestling golds of all time with the legendary Soviet/Russian Alexander Karelin.  Karelin, you might recall, just missed a fourth gold when he was upset by American Rulon Garner 1-0 in Sydney in 2000 in one of the most notable sports upsets of all time.  Congratulations to Lopez, easily one of the best of all time in his sport.

At the track, American Emma Coburn won the bronze medal in the 3000m steeplechase, the first American women to medal in that event (and only second American ever; after Brian Diemer in 1984). Coburn's charge at the end brought her into third place, only 1/2 second behind silver medalist Hyvin Jepkemoi of Kenya; both well behind winner and gold medalist Ruth Jebet of Bahrain.  Congratulations to Jebet, and Bahrain!

In the men's 800m dash, David Rudisha of Kenya followed up his shocking gold medal from London with an expected gold medal this time, traversing 800 meters in 1:42:15, just ahead of Algerian Taoufik Makhloufi and American Clayton Murphy.

Coburn, who is 25, and Murphy, who is only 21, are expected to be early favorites for Tokyo in 2020.

But the story of the track, and the story of the day goes to the women's 400m, where co-favorites Allsyon Felix of the United States and Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas, literally flinging themselves to the line for first place.  Miller, whose dive at the finish line was better than any of Ryan Lochte's into the pool, took gold in a personal best 49.44, just beating Felix's lean at the tape who finished second at 49.51.  Jamaica's Shericka Jackson took third in 49.85.  Allyson Felix, with her 7th medal (with the 4 x 400m relay still to go), becomes the most decorated female track athlete in American history.

As amazing as the men's race was with Wayde van Niekerk breaking the world record from lane 8, this race was even better.  Not much is going to be able to top the 400 meters in this Olympics, or maybe any.  That, is the story of the day.