Olympics - Paris 2024 - Day 18

Day 18 - August 10, 2024

So the International Olympic Committee, by virture of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, has stripped Jordan Chiles of her bronze medal an awarded it to the Romanian Ana Barbosu.  In case you don't know, when the floor exercises was finished in the individual apparatus finals, Jordan Chiles was officially listed in fifth, behding gold medal winner Rebecca Andrade of Brazil, silver medalist Simone Biles of the USA, Barbosu and a fourth-place Romanian.  But, the US officials noticed that the scores, which are based upon a starting difficulty rating for the perforamnce, had been underscored for Chiles by .1.  They appealed to the judges who corrected their error.  That extra .1 point raised Chiles from 5th to 3rd, earning her the bronze medal, which was awarded at the podium.  Romania then appealed that decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which concluded that the US coaches did not appeal in time, doing so four seconds after the one-minute deadline has expired.  So, Barbosu was announced as the bronze medalist and Chiles dropped to fifth.  The IOC has demanded the bronze medal awarded to Chiles be returned.  The United States gymnastic officals state they have time-stamped video evidence of them appealing the decision at 40 seconds and 55 seconds after the conclusion of the meet, thus within the time frame.  Who knows where this is going to end up?!

In the first ever Breaking events in the Olympics, the b-boy battle was decided with Canada's Phil Wizard winning gold in his battle over Frenchman Danny Dan, with American b-boy Victor (Montalvo) winning bronze.  This is likely the only time Breaking will be contested in the Olympics, as it will not return in Los Angeles in 2028.  Phil Wizard joins b-girl Ami from Japan as the Breaking gold medalists.

In ladies golf, New Zealand's Lydia Ko won gold, her third consecutive medal in the Olympics, and, with this win has now qualified for the Golf Hall of Fame, 

In sport climbing, in the ladies boulder and lead, Janja Garnbret of Slovenia won the gold medal just ahead of thh USA's Brooke Raboutou (silver) and Jessica Pilz of Austria (bronze).

The USA also won silver thanks to Nevin Harrison's performance in the women's canoe singles 200 meters, just behind Katie Vincent of Canada, who won gold, and just behind Yarisleidis Cirilo Duboys of Cuba, who won the bronze.

Today a lot of emphasis fell to the team events, as the gold medal games happened to end the two weeks of game play.  And none was as hyped as men's basketball where host France played the previously dominant United States close, and then Steph Curry scored 12 points in the last three minutes of the gold medal game to secure victory over the France and secure gold.  LeBron James was named MVP of the tournament by FIBA, with Curry also making the first team along with Germany's Denis Schroeder, France's Victor Wembanyama, and Serbia's Nikola Jokic.

 

Nikola Jokic had only the fifth triple-double in Olympics history, as hed led Serbia to the bronze medal.

Despite falling short in basketball, France did win gold in men's volleyball, sweeping Poland 3-0.  Poland settled for silver.

In women's soccer, a late goal by Mallory Swanson put the USA women up 1-0 against Brazil, and some great goalkeeping by Alyssa Naeher preserved the shutout, her third straight in the knockout rounds.

In women's handball, which was one of the most exciting tournaments during thes games, Norway was able to defeat the home crowd and France, bringing gold to the Scandinavians and silver to France.  Seriously, if you haven't watched team handball, men or women, WATCH IT!

Women's water polo was also exciting in these games, and they wrapped up today with Spain defeating Australia 11-9 in the gold medal match.

But, as like most final weekends in the Olympics, the action on the track dominated.  In a fantastic race, Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya won the gold medal in the men's 800 meters, closely followed by Canada's Marco Arop (silver) and Djamel Sedjati of Algeria earned bronze.  American Bryce Hoppel wa right on the heals of the medalists, finsihing in fourth as the top four runners all finished within .48 seconds of each other, with first and second separated by only .01 seconds.

And, as close as the men's 800 meter finish was, the women's 120 meter hurdles race waws even closer.  American Masai Russell and France's Cyrena Samba-Myela both defeated the favorite Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico.  Masai edged Samba-Myela of .01 of a second for gold.

At the 5,000 meter distance, Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen won gold ahead of Ronald Kwemoi of Kenya (silver) and the American Grant Fisher (bronze).  Fisher is the first American ever to medal in the 5,000 and the 10,000 meter races at the same Olympics.

An even much farther distance, the marathon, was held today as well, with Ethiopia's Tamrit Tola winning gold ahead of Belgian Bashir Abdi and Benson Kipruto of Kenya.

The men's high jump was hotly contested, but New Zealand's Hamish Kerr came away with the gold, American Shelby McEwen earned silver, and defending gold medalist Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar winning bronze.

And then we get to the final races of the Olympics on the track (women's marathon still remains tomorrow), teh 4x400 meter relays, men and women, and we had some doozies.  In the men's race, anchor leg Rai Benjamin held off 200 meter gold medalists Letsile Tobogo, setting an Olympic record and earning gold for the Americans.  Tobogo, of Botswana, finished second for his country.  By virtue of his running a leg in the qualifying rounds, Quincy Wilson, 16, becomes the youngest track gold medalist in US History.

Another gold for the US women, who absolutely dominated their race running the second fastest time every in the event, behind only the Soviet Union in Seoul in 1988.  The American coaches pulled two runners from the relay inserting 400 meter hurdle gold medalist and world record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and 200 meter gold medalist Gabby Thomas into the 2 and 3 slots, between leadoof Shamier Little and anchor Alexis Holmes.  The gold medal is Harvard's 13th medal at these games!

Athlete of the Day - Mallory Swanson, United States, Soccer

As deflated as the women's soccer team was after the last Olympics and World Cup, a new coach and a new outlook led to a gold medal, and a bright future for the entire team, but also its forwards, Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman, and Mallory Swanson.

U.S. Athlete of the Day - Masai Russell, USA, Athletics

Her first victory in a major tournament was in the U.S. Olympic trials, and her second in these games.

Team of the Day - France Men, FRA, Volleyball

The host country dominated a Polan team that has the best player in the world, Wilfredo Leon.

U.S. Team of the Day - Women's 4x400 meter relay, USA, Athletics

Domination.

Olympic Term of the Day:  b-boy; b-girl - Athletes that compete in breaking are called b-boys (males) and b-girls (females).

Olympic Events Watched:  Athletics, Basketball, Breaking, Canoe, Golf

USA Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer (listed alphabetically): KATIE LEDECKY, NICK MEAD

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