Olympic word(s) of the day: Parry, Riposte - "Parry" is to defend an attack in fencing and "riposte" is the counterattack after parrying an attack.
There were a few stories of the day in this first of three Sundays for this Olympic fortnight (+). A few will be heard from again, such as the utter and complete domination by the United States Women's basketball and gymnastics teams, the former covering a 60 point spread against Senegal and the latter winning the preliminary round by almost 10 full points. A few stories we have heard from before already, but they need to be mentioned again, as they are that important.
First, the Cycling road course reared its ugly head again as the leader, Annemiek van Vleuten of the Netherlands flipped head over heels on the last turn while in the lead, fracturing 3 vertebrae. One longtime cycling writer said that in all of his 26 years of covering the sport, he had never seen an accident like that, and was afraid to continue following the accident because he did not think she had survived. The accident completely overshadowed the race, and eventual winner, van Vleuten's teammate, Anna van der Breggen.
Second, the Brazilian's men's soccer team took to the pitch against Iraq to right their ship after a devastating draw with 10-man South Africa in the first contest of the tournament. Brazil dazzled to a second straight nil-nil draw, giving themselves a really tough route to the knockout stages as they are tied in points with Iraq, and playing the dangerous group leading Denmark in the last game with the Iraqis play the South Africans.
Domination was the name of the game in the pool where Adam Peaty from the United Kingdom cruised to victory in the 100 meter breaststroke, while eclipsing his own world record he set earlier in the day in the preliminaries. Meanwhile, Katie Ledecky of the United States broke her own world record in the 400 meter freestyle while winning by roughly a mile (see below). Either of those would ordinarily qualify for the story of the day except they were not even the story of the day in the pool, but more on that later.
A second straight day of disappointment for Venus Williams, a day after losing in the singles in the first round, she and her sister Serena lost in the first round of the doubles competition to the team from the Czech Republic - Lucie Safarova and Barbara Strycova in straight sets. This is the first ever Olympic loss for the Williams sisters in Olympic doubles, as they won gold in 2000 in Sydney, 2008 in Beijing and 2012 in London. Accompanying the Williams sisters in the locker room after a first round loss was world number 1 and 1 seed Novak Djokovic who lost to Juan Martin del Potro. The tennis medals are wide open!
However, for the story of the day we go back to the pool for the men's 4x100 meter freestyle relay. The Americans recaptured gold and glory in the race they completely owned having won every gold medal until the home Australians - behind Ian Thorpe - claimed victory in 2000. A South African win in 2004 was eclipsed by the most exciting relay finish ever, in 2008, when Jason Lezak out-swam and out-touched France's anchor - Alain Bernard - to reclaim the gold. France won gold in 2012 after American Ryan Lochte could not hold of his counterpart. This redemption was sweet for Michael Phelps, who along with 2016 anchor Nathan Adrian, remember vividly the loss in 2012 as they participated as the first two legs. Michael Phelps took the lead after a phenomenal turn and swim underwater for the the first 15 meters of his last leg. Great legs by first timers Caleb Dressel and Ryan Held supported the two veterans. Thank God Ryan Lochte was on the sideline this year.
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