Friday, November 22, 2024
Sports

Team USA women's basketball up again, Korda tees off, and more from Wednesday in Paris

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A’ja Wilson and the United States women’s basketball team can extend their Olympic winning streak to 59 games with a quarterfinal win Wednesday at the 2024 Paris Games.

But before that, several American athletes will compete on their sport’s biggest global stage.

Team USA’s Nelly Korda has begun her gold medal defense in women’s golf. Fellow Americans Lilia Vu and Rose Zhang, ranked No. 2 and No. 9 on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, respectively, are also playing in the first round.

Several track and field events continue throughout the day. Defending women’s pole vault champion Katie Moon looks to return to the top of the Olympic podium. Three Americans will race in the 400-meter women’s semifinals for a chance to contend for a medal in the final. Meanwhile, top-ranked Quincy Jones and Christopher Bailey hope to add to Team USA’s medal count after the final of the men’s 400.

Here are some of Wednesday’s marquee events.

10:12 a.m. ET — Salif Mane finds solace in the voice of his late father

When Mane competes in today’s triple jump event, he’ll do so having drawn inspiration from his distinctive competition-day tradition: listening to a voicemail from his late father.

Mane credits his father as his biggest supporter and says he was drawn into the sport “somewhat for him.” To learn about Mane’s tradition, READ MORE from Coley Harvey.

9:54 a.m. ET — Jonathan Owens talks making the trip to Paris to support Simone Biles

Plenty of athletes flocked to the Olympics to watch sports and stars of all kinds. But fewer such athletes were there to see family. And even fewer still were actively training for the season while they made the trip.

Simone Biles’ husband, six-year NFL vet Jonathan Owens, was starting training camp while Biles floated down the Seine with Team USA for the Olympic opening ceremony. The Chicago Bears permitted Owens to miss practices and the Hall of Fame Game so he could travel to Paris to watch his wife compete. Owens returned to Bears training camp this week and spoke about what the experience was like supporting his wife as she became America’s most-decorated gymnast. — READ MORE

8:04 a.m. ET — Women’s singles competition gets underway in golf

Nelly Korda is the reigning gold medalist in women’s singles golf, but it’s been her American teammate, Lilia Vu, off to one of the hottest starts in round one. Vu currently sits in first place at a score of 4-under through seven holes, just outpacing France’s Celine Boutier. The two other U.S. players in the field — Korda and rising star Rose Zhang – are currently even par for the day and tied for tenth.

6:52 a.m. ET — Tom Daley’s mid-event crocheting steals the show again

Daley, who earned a silver medal in synchronised diving earlier in the Games, is a star in the pool — but his habit while in the stands has drawn attention of its own. At the 2020 Tokyo Games Daley picked up crocheting as a way to get his mind off the competition in the heat of an event. And while Daley may be finished competing in Paris, his distinctive in-the-stands tradition has continued.

6:32 a.m. ET — A dramatic first finish for Masai Russell

There were no debut nerves to be had from Russell in her first Olympic race — and she needed every ounce of focus she could muster to eek out a razor-thin victory. Russell’s finish line lean just barely inched her ahead of Nadine Visser, of the Netherlands, as well as France’s Cyréna Samba-Mayela, for first place in her heat.


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