Sunday, December 22, 2024
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U.S. men earn gold in 4x100m freestyle relay and much more from Paris

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After a memorable opening ceremony, the Olympics officially got underway on Saturday.

Saturday’s events were headlined by gymnastics, swimming, beach volleyball and tennis. Men’s basketball had also begun, though Team USA doesn’t compete until Sunday.

Katie Ledecky’s quest for her 11th Olympic gold medal began Saturday in the 400m freestyle, where she competed against Australian rival Ariarne Titmus, the reigning gold medalist. Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal began their doubles journey at Roland Garros, while Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula did the same on the women’s side.

Here’s what happened Saturday:

Osaka eliminated in singles play

After falling in the third round of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Naomi Osaka was eliminated even earlier in Paris. She lost to Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of singles play.

Kerber won the silver medal in 2016 at Rio and will retire after representing Germany this summer. Osaka will now prepare for the US Open in August, where she has won two majors.

Read more: Osaka eliminated by Kerber in Olympic singles

Kloth, Nuss win first beach volleyball match

The No. 2-ranked women’s beach volleyball pair, Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss defeated Canadians Heather Bansley and Sophie Bukovec, 21-17, 21-14 in a preliminary Poll B match.

Kloth and Nuss are both making their Olympic debuts. They will face Australia’s Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy on Monday.

Men’s volleyball has strong start

Team USA comfortably defeated Argentina in straight sets, 25-20, 25-19, 25-16, in their first preliminary-round game. They will play Germany next on Tuesday in the second game of pool play.

Americans move on in men’s gymnastics

That’s a wrap on men’s gymnastics qualifying — a day of competition for opportunities to earn medals later in the week.

After three sessions and 11 hours, the U.S. men qualified fifth for Monday’s team final, where scores reset and the format switches to a three-up, three-count format, which leaves no room for error. The U.S. likely will battle for bronze with Great Britain and Ukraine. Michigan teammates Frederick Richard and Paul Juda will represent the U.S. in Wednesday’s all-around final while pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik, the 2021 world champion in the event, made Saturday’s pommel horse final and is a gold medal favorite. — Alyssa Roenigk

Ledecky earns bronze, Men grab gold in 4x100m relay

PARIS — The first Olympic swimming medals were up for grabs on Saturday night at the Paris La Defense Arena — and it was a strong showing for the Americans.

In the compelling and much-hyped women’s 400m freestyle race, it was Australia’s Ariarne Titmus who ultimately emerged victorious over Canada’s Summer McIntosh (silver) and USA’s Katie Ledecky (bronze). With the victory, Titmus became the first swimmer in nearly 100 years to win gold in the event twice.

Ledecky, who won gold in the event in 2016 and had recorded the fastest time in qualifying, earned her 11th Olympic medal and is now just two medals shy of becoming the most decorated American female Olympian in history. She will have three more chances to do just that.

Lukas Maertens of Germany won gold in the men’s race at the same distance. Elijah Winnington (Australia) and Woomin Kim (South Korea) rounded out the podium. American Aaron Shackell finished in eighth place.

The night closed out with great fanfare — and near-deafening cheers — for the women and men’s 4x100m freestyle races.

The women’s race featured another showdown between the Australians and the Americans and the team from Down Under emerged victorious yet again, while setting an Olympic record with their blistering time of 3:28.92. The American team — featuring Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh (who set an Olympic record of her own earlier in the evening in the 100m butterfly semifinals), Torri Huske and Simone Manuel — finished with the silver medal. China claimed the bronze.

But it was the American men who provided the brightest spot for the country in the pool in the final race of the night.

Having qualified with the fourth-best time, it was unclear how the team of Jack Alexy, Chris Guiliano, Hunter Armstrong and Caeleb Dressel would fare. However, they shattered all expectations by claiming the country’s first swimming gold medal of the 2024 Games with a 3:09.28 finish.

The crowd, sensing what was coming, gave a huge ovation to Dressel in the anchor position as soon as he entered the water and never let up. The arena quickly filled with “U-S-A” chants as the team celebrated.

Australia finished with silver and Italy earned bronze. — D’Arcy Maine

Nadal and Alcaraz advance in doubles

One of the more highly anticipated duos in the men’s tennis competition, Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, ended in victorious fashion. The Spaniards dispatched Argentina’s Andres Molteni and Maximo Gonzalez, the No. 6 seeded team, 7-6(4), 6-4.

Nadal and Alcaraz will play the winners of Tallon Griekspoor/Wesley Koolhof vs. Marton Fucsovics/Fabian Marozsan.

Gauff and Pegula handle doubles opponents

Americans Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula had a strong start to their Olympic doubles run. They swiftly defeated Australian’s Ellen Perez and Daria Saville 6-3, 6-1.

The No. 1 seeded team, Gauff and Pegula will play the winners of Ekaterina Alexandrova/Elena Vesnina vs. Karolina Muchova/Linda Noskova.

Gretchen Walsh sets an Olympic record

PARIS — It took all of one race during the opening night session at La Defense Arena for an Olympic record to be broken.

American Gretchen Walsh, who set the world record in the women’s 100m butterfly last month at the Olympic trials in Indianapolis, was just shy of her best Saturday, but still made history with a 55.38 during the first semifinal heat. Realizing the mark was within reach during the latter stages of her swim, the crowd became increasingly more vocal with every stroke until she touched the wall. When her record was announced, the 21-year-old Walsh smiled and waved from her lane in the pool.

Walsh, who will also be competing in the 4x100m freestyle relay later Saturday, will have a chance to win her first individual Olympic medal Sunday in the final. Her 4x100m teammate Torri Huske qualified with the second-fastest time (56.00) from the night’s second semifinal heat. — D’Arcy Maine

France halts Fiji’s streak

Prior to Saturday, only one nation had ever taken home gold in rugby sevens since the sport made its Olympic debut at the 2016 Rio games: Fiji.

However, Fiji’s run of dominance came to an end Saturday, as host nation France — led by Antoine Dupont — captured a 28-7 victory. The loss marked Fiji’s first in the competition’s short Olympic history.

Billie Jean King in the crowd

PARIS — There was more than one tennis legend on center court at Roland-Garros on Saturday night.

Minutes before 14-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal graced the clay, International Tennis Hall of Famer Billie Jean King took to the stage.

As Olympic fans were still filling the stands inside roof-covered the Philippe-Chatrier Court, King emerged from a tunnel. The sight of her energized the already-buzzing crowd.

While slamming down a cane-like object, mimicking actions demonstrated on an arena videoboard just before she came out, spectators started clapping in unison with the beat she was thumping.

Then, after King waved and took a bow, Nadal and his doubles partner for the night, fellow Spanish phenom Carlos Alcaraz, were shown on the videoboards, waiting to make their entrance from the tunnel. Minutes later, they began their match against Argentina’s Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni. — Coley Harvey

The U.S. men’s national team off to a flying start

Coming off a 3-0 loss to France in the team’s first game, the USMNT needed a strong response in its second group stage match against New Zealand — and got one.

The U.S. scored three goals in the first 30 minutes (including the team’s first Olympic goal in 16 years), with three different players getting on the scoresheet.

A potential heavyweight fight looms in men’s tennis

PARIS — The Olympics have only just begun, but in mere days, we could have a tennis ending for the ages.

With Rafael Nadal, 38, back competing for possibly the final time at a venue the Spaniard has practically owned, the stage could be set for another possible last: a meeting between Nadal and fellow Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia.

In order for that to happen, Nadal has to win his opening-round Olympics singles match Sunday afternoon at famed Roland-Garros Stadium, the place where he has won a record 14 French Opens.

“If we get to face each other,” Djokovic said of Nadal, after winning his opening-round match Saturday over Australia’s Matthew Ebden, “it’s going to be possibly the last time we’re going to face each other on a big stage. So I’m sure that people would enjoy it.”

Djokovic currently holds a 30-29 lead in the all-time head-to-head series with Nadal. The last time they played, however, Nadal earned the victory, advancing out of the quarterfinals of the 2022 French Open in the process.

“Playing him is like finals, in any tournament,” Djokovic said. “Particularly here, knowing what he has achieved and what he’s done for our sport, but particularly here at Roland-Garros, his record speaks for itself.”

During Nadal’s last match at the French Open this past May, Djokovic spectated as a “fan” to take in the experience of watching him play.

The second round in Olympic men’s singles is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. — Coley Harvey

Gymnastics qualifiers roll on

PARIS — After two qualifying sessions, the U.S. men sit in fifth place in the team standings behind China, Japan, Great Britain and Ukraine. Nearly 10 points separates first and fifth places, but only 3.332 separates the U.S. from a bronze medal.

The good news: Scores reset for Monday’s team final and Team USA has the scoring potential to fight for bronze with Great Britain and Ukraine.

In individual competition, it’s now safe to say that University of Michigan teammates Frederick Richard and Paul Juda, in ninth and 11th in the all-around after two subdivisions, will advance to the all-around final and specialist Stephen Nedoroscik will contest the pommel horse final. His 15.2 is the top score so far. Asher Hong is still in the mix to make the rings final.

The third and final qualifying session takes place at 2 p.m. E.T. and includes Italy and Spain. — Alyssa Roenigk

Late drama in handball

Croatia men’s handball saved the best of its opening game against Japan for last.

After trailing by five goals at the halfway point, Croatia stormed back into the contest with a ferocious late rally — capped by an emphatic match-winning goal with just seconds remaining in the contest. The late winner gave Croatia an early, but crucial, leg up in Group A competition.

A high school connection

PARIS — Of the roughly 334 million people living in the United States, just 592 are on the Olympic team in Paris.

And yet, two of them — tennis player Chris Eubanks and sprinter Christian Coleman — were in the same freshman year English class together at Westlake High School in Atlanta during the 2010-2011 academic year.

While we’re not entirely sure what the odds of that happening are, we know they’re incredibly slim. The former classmates went from looking for symbolism in “The Catcher in the Rye” to parading down the Seine in Paris during the Olympic opening ceremony together.

“Crazy how far we’ve come,” Eubanks wrote on X, alongside two pictures of the duo in the Ralph Lauren fits. — D’Arcy Maine

Allyson Felix’s unique project

Allyson Felix has seven gold medals and 11 total Olympic medals to her name across five different Games. But the now-retired track and field star isn’t done making her mark on the Olympic stage. Felix won’t be on the track this year, but she will be in Paris — launching the first-ever Olympic Village nursery. The project hopes to add some “comforts of home” to the Olympic experience for athletes who are also mothers.

Heartbreak in the city of love

Serving as his nation’s flag-bearer at the Opening Ceremony came with a bittersweet trade off for Italian high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi. Tamberi, a gold medalist at the 2020 Tokyo games, took to Instagram to confirm that he lost his wedding ring in the Seine River while carrying Italy’s tricolor.

Tamberi kept positive about the situation, though, writing “May it be a good omen to return home with an even bigger gold!”

Swiatek notches opening-round win

Top-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland is stellar on clay, and she secured an opening-round victory over Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania on Saturday morning to kick off her quest to add a gold medal to her four French Open titles at Roland Garros. Swiatek won the last four games of the match en route to a 6-2, 7-5 victory.

Tom Daley’s wholesome side quest

PARIS — Tom Daley is in the French capital to defend the Olympic diving title he famously won in Tokyo. First, though, he has a side quest to complete.

Daley produced one of the most wholesome moments of the Tokyo Games when he brought his knitting needles and his yarn to the stands above the diving pool in a bid to take his mind off the competition. The activity helped produce his first Olympic gold medal — at his third attempt — as well as an Instagram page called “Made With Love By Tom Daley” where he has knitted items ranging from a patchwork sweater vest to a knitted bag.

The page has provided a community for other knitters ever since. More recently, though, it revealed Daley’s inspiration for his latest Olympic jumper.

Last week, he posted a video of him sketching the design for his Paris 2024-themed crew neck jumper, as well as him knitting the first stitches. “Watch this space!” he wrote in the caption. He’s made light work of the project.

On Saturday, the first official morning of competition, Daley was spotted in the stands as he knitted the seemingly near-completed jumper, emblazoned with “DALEY” on the back in bold white letters and a red collar.

After that, he can get on with the business-side of his activities here in Paris, as he competes alongside partner Noah Williams in the men’s synchronized 10m platform on Monday. — Connor O’Halloran

Gymnastic qualifying gets underway

PARIS — A quick refresher on Saturday’s gymnastics qualifying.

How it works: Teams are broken up into three subdivisions on Saturday and the U.S. men competed in the first, alongside Canada, Germany and Great Britain, the team they bumped from the podium at 2023 world championships in Antwerp.

The good: The U.S. finished second in their subdivision behind Great Britain and will likely qualify into team finals in the top five. They also will likely send two athletes to the all-around final: Fred Richard, who won U.S. trials last month, and his University of Michigan teammate, Paul Juda, who had the meet of his life. Richard finished third in the group, Juda finished fourth and the top 24 athletes (with a maximum two per country) make the all-around final.

Juda led the U.S. lineups on five of six events and hit six-for-six. “I knew I was going to be first on at least one event and have been training with that mindset,” Juda said. After each performance, Juda switched roles and became his team’s biggest cheerleader.

Richard anchored three of six events and was solid, but left room for improvement. “We’ve been preaching, ‘Just do average,’ and I think there’s still some crumbs left on the table, absolutely, for everyone, including myself,” Juda said.

The great: Stephen Nedoroscik is in Paris to do one job: hit pommel horse routines. The U.S. started on the event and Nedoroscik delivered the highest-scoring routine of the session on any apparatus, a 15.2, and likely made the event final. [The top eight athletes make event finals.] “As soon as I got down and was giving the guys high-fives, Paul pointed to my arm and said, ‘You have goosebumps.’ The moment was surreal,” Nedoroscik said. “I’m so proud of what I did.

The less-than-great: The U.S. finished more than three points behind Great Britain, a surprisingly large deficit considering the U.S. team’s scoring potential and how close the teams were at worlds. But this was not Team USA’s best day — far from it — and the scores thankfully do not carry over into team finals. Brody Malone, the only returning Olympian from Tokyo, had a rough afternoon. He fell off pommel horse and high bar, his signature event, and will not make the all-around final. He finished 11th in the group and third in the U.S.

“Brody is our leader. He’s calm, collected and is that headstrong person that brings us back to reality,” Richard said. “When I watched him miss today, I wasn’t worried because I know he’s the type of person who learns from his mistakes. He’s going to come back stronger in the team final. I’m not too worried. I believe in all of us, and I think we’re gonna be deadly in two days.” — Alyssa Roenigk

The First Fan

PARIS — The U.S. men’s gymnastics team had quite the cheering squad during team qualification Saturday afternoon. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden was in the stands, sitting with Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass, South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley and 1984 gymnastics gold medalist Bart Connor. The group was decked out in red, white and blue and cheering loud for Team USA.

“I don’t think about who’s watching as I’m performing,” Stephen Nedoroscik said. “I just lock into what I’m doing. But afterwards, I can appreciate who was there and that’s really cool.

After the meet, as the gymnasts began their interviews in the mixed zone, the U.S. team was whisked away briefly to meet Dr. Biden. “That was pretty sick. I did not expect today that I would meet the First Lady,” Frederick Richard said after the meet-and-greet. “But I’m grateful for the opportunity and I’m glad they were watching. [Dr. Biden] said that she’s very proud of me and was impressed. That means a lot.” — Alyssa Roenigk

Anthony Edwards’ cross-sport confidence

First it was claiming he’d take on any of his teammates in the swimming pool. Now it’s become a challenge in table tennis. Regardless of the sport, nobody can question the self-assurance of Team USA men’s basketball guard Anthony Edwards. From stating he’s still the No. 1 option on a stacked Team USA roster to dunking on Kevin Durant in practice, Edwards has made plenty of headlines already in Paris. But pulling off an upset with a paddle in his hands would be his most noteworthy moment yet.

Team USA battling illness ahead of men’s basketball opener

Team USA boasts a stacked men’s basketball roster, but the squad hasn’t been at full strength as it prepares for its opening game Sunday against Nikola Jokic and Serbia. Both Joel Embiid and Anthony Davis have missed time over the past few days with an undisclosed illness, according to coach Steve Kerr. Kerr says, however, that he’s ‘confident’ the full roster will be ready for Sunday’s game.

Cyclists critique venue

Cycling trials began Saturday, but the results weren’t the only thing from the event that generated buzz. A number of competitors offered criticism of the respective venues for both cycling and mountain biking.

Belgian cyclist Remco Evenepoel noted that while the Parisian view was beautiful, stretches of road left something to be desired in terms of quality, while Team Switzerland’s Nino Schurter noted that the man-made nature of the mountain biking paths created a slippery side.

Swimming gets underway

PARIS — Olympic swimming officially got underway at La Defense Arena with six preliminary events. There was a large — and very spirited — crowd on hand complete with air horns, drums, flags and even an inflatable kangaroo.

Perhaps no event got the fans more fired up than the qualifying heats for the women’s 400m freestyle — and specifically the final heat that featured American Katie Ledecky, the 2016 gold medalist in the race and the Olympic record holder, and her Australian rival Ariarne Titmus, the 2020 champion and current world record holder. Titmus led for most of the race before Ledecky picked up the pace in the final 100 meters and overcame her.

New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather and Canada’s Summer McIntosh — the other two favorites to medal in Saturday night’s final — competed in the second heat and qualified in third and fourth, respectively. Safe to say, this race is already living up to the hype and tonight could be epic. Was Titmus just preserving herself for the final? Will Ledecky be able to find that other gear again when the stakes are highest? We’ll find out soon enough.

In the men’s 400m freestyle, Lukas Maertens of Germany recorded the best qualifying time (3:44.13). Aaron Shackell was the lone American to qualify for Saturday night’s final with the sixth-fastest time of the morning.

The women’s 100m butterfly heats kicked off the action with Yufei Zhang of China notching the fastest time (56.50). Americans Torri Huske (56.72) and Gretchen Walsh (56.75), who earned the world record at trials last month, qualified for the semifinals with the third- and fourth-best times.

Saturday morning closed out with the qualifying races for both the women’s and men’s 4x100m freestyle and both events had the fans on their feet throughout. The American women (which included the resurgent Simone Manuel in the second leg) easily won their heat with a 3:33.29 finish — 2.84 seconds better than second-place Great Britain. However, it was Australia, competing in the second heat, that recorded the best time (3:31.57) ahead of Saturday night’s final, setting up yet another clash between the two countries with a gold medal on the line.

The American men (3:12.61) finished second in their heat behind — you guessed it — Australia and had the fourth-best qualifying time overall. China (3:11.62) recorded the best time of the morning and will be in the coveted fourth lane in the final.

Saturday’s evening session gets underway at 8:30 p.m. local time/2:30 p.m. ET. — D’Arcy Maine

First medals of the Games are confirmed

It didn’t take long for the first Olympic hardware to be awarded. Kazakhstan earned bronze in the mixed air rifle final just after 5 a.m. ET, making it the first team to medal in Paris. In that same event, China and South Korea won the first gold and silver medals of the Games, respectively. Team USA captured its first medal later in the morning when Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook took silver in women’s synchronized 3m springboard.

Suboptimal weather

After a rainy opening ceremony, conditions in Paris haven’t improved much entering the Games’ first official day of competition. Saturday’s forecast calls for rain throughout the day, affecting the event schedule. Men’s street skateboarding, deemed too unsafe to compete in during Saturday’s rain, has been pushed back two days to July 29.

New technology

PARIS — Just how high does Simone Biles fly on her triple-double tumbling pass?

After her performance on floor at Olympic trials in Minneapolis last month, “SportsCenter” attempted to find out with a post on Instagram. The graphic measured the top of Biles’ head to be 12 feet from the ground, providing enough room for 7-foot-4 NBA center Victor Wembanyama to fit beneath her.

There were no measuring devices at the Target Center during trials, so ESPN’s measurement served as an approximation based on a photo.

In Paris, fans will learn exactly how high Biles flies.

Omega, the official timekeeper of the Olympics, is debuting technology across sports that uses cameras, motion and positioning sensors and AI to capture the biomechanical movement of athletes and generate precise measurements like height, reaction time and airtime.

“In tennis, we’ll finally be able to see if reaction times have an influence on the quality of returns,” Alain Zobrist, CEO of Omega Timing told ESPN earlier this week.

For sports with a finish line like track and field, Zobrist says upgraded photo-finish cameras will capture 40,000 photos per second and deliver immediate results.

In gymnastics, the tech will be utilized during men’s and women’s competitions for storytelling purposes in live broadcasts and to aid head judges when there are discrepancies. While this technology was not used to create the “SportsCenter” post from trials, that is precisely the type of content Zobrist said can be generated during meets.

The cameras and sensors will be positioned around only the floor exercise and the data that’s generated in real time — such as height and airtime of skills — will be provided to television broadcast crews. More sophisticated data that takes a few seconds to generate — like body positioning throughout a pass — will be provided to head judges, as well as to athletes, their coaches and delegations for training purposes.

Zobrist said the tech has been tested at local and international meets for about four years to ensure judges were comfortable with them before the Paris Games. He also said that while the sensors can detect when an athlete steps out of bounds on a pass, they will not replace humans for this job, for now.

“We are still working strictly according to the rules of the federation and the rules require for judges to be around,” Zobrist says.

However, in the future that could change — for more than just out-of-bounds decisions.

“We are going to see major evolution in the technology for gymnastics in the next couple of years,” he said. “It’s difficult to say when we will be more accurate than humans to spot differences in the performances of athletes, though. It will be interesting to ask me that question again before the Olympics in Los Angeles [in 2028]. I may have a better answer to give you then.” — Alyssa Roenigk


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