The US men’s basketball team will face France for the second time at the Tokyo Olympics, only this time gold is at stake. NBC – not Peacock – will televise the game live at 10:30 p.m. ET.
The United States, a historically dominant force in international basketball, fought in Tokyo – and even before that. In July it lost exhibition games to Nigeria and Australia. Then in the opening game of the Olympic game of billiards, it lost 83-76 to France.
After a semi-final victory against the Aussies, the American team finally got it right. Milwaukee Bucks star Jrue Holiday and Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker, who were preoccupied with the NBA finals during U.S. shows, added on an offensive carried by Olympic veteran Kevin Durant.
The United States has won 15 gold medals since men’s basketball was added to the Olympic list in 1936, and four of the five this century. USA basketball’s only flaw was its loss to Argentina in the 2004 semi-finals in Athens before the team came back to beat Lithuania for bronze.
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TOKYO – At the Olympic Games in Tokyo, US athletes repeatedly climbed onto the medal podium to be rewarded with gold, silver or bronze. In a historic first, nearly 60 percent of these U.S. medalists were women.
If the US women were their own country, they would rank fourth in the Olympic medals, ahead of the UK, Germany, Italy, France and nearly 200 other countries and only behind the entire US team, China and the Russian Olympic Committee.
Of the 99 Team USA medals going into the final weekend of the Games, 59 were won by women, almost twice as many as 35 by men. (Five of the medals were won in mixed competitions involving male and female athletes.)
That means 59.6 percent of all US medals were won by women. If that number holds up to the final events of these Olympics, it will easily surpass the American women’s all-time best result, which won 55.8 percent of medals at the London 2012 Olympics.
The U.S. is guaranteed at least three more American women’s medals, with U.S. women’s basketball, water polo, and volleyball playing for gold over the next two days. The U.S. women’s water polo team will face Spain in the gold medal game on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET. Later on Saturday night, at 10:30 p.m. ET, the US clinches its seventh consecutive gold medal in women’s basketball against Japan. The U.S. women’s volleyball team has a chance to win their first Olympic gold medal when they face Brazil at 12:30 p.m. ET on Sunday.
– Christine Brennan
Left outside a Cambodian orphanage as a child, Jordan Windle was adopted by his Jerry Windle at the age of 18 months and grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Jerry Windle put Jordan on his first water sports course at the age of 7. Campers had a chance to jump off the 1-meter springboard, and from a young age Jordan caught people’s attention. The head of the watersports program, Tim O’Brien, son of former Team USA instructor Dr. Ron O’Brien said Jordan needed to be put on a diving program.
Jordan switched several times to train under various coaches, all of whom were delighted when their former protégé rose to the US Olympic team. Now he’s fighting in Tokyo for a chance for an Olympic medal.
The men’s 10-meter platform jumping semifinals began at 9:00 p.m. ET and the finals are scheduled for Saturday at 2:00 p.m. ET.
Molly Seidel continues to impress. After an impressive performance to qualify for Team USA, Seidel ran another brave race on Saturday. It was only the third marathon that Seidel, 27, has ever run.
Seidel crossed the finish line in 2:27:46 on a sultry morning in Sapporo in third place. The Kenyans Peres Jepchirchir and Brigid Kosgei came in first and second. Seidel is only the third American to ever receive a medal in the women’s marathon. Joan Benoit won gold in 1984 and Deena Kastor bronze in 2004.
It’s an incredible achievement for a four-time NCAA track cross country champion, for whom the marathon is still a relatively unknown distance.
American Sally Kipyego finished 17th. Aliphine Tuliamuk, who won Olympic tests, was about half out of the race, with her team citing an injury in a social media post.
– Tom Schad
Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band have resumed their Broadway residency, but all eyes are on The Boss’ daughter Jessica as she competes in the Olympics. She will have one last chance along with her teammates McClain Ward and Laura Kraut to win a medal in the show jumping teams final on Saturday at 6 a.m. ET.
Ward and Kraut already have four career medals between the two, but they’re looking for another with Springsteen. The team qualified after a trio of near-perfect runs in the qualifiers, good enough for the fifth of 10 teams that advanced.
Aliphine Tuliamuk dropped out of the women’s marathon on Saturday due to an injury, according to a post from her team on social media.
Tuliamuk, 32, won the US Olympic marathons in early 2020. She broke off the race on Saturday just before halftime, about 19 kilometers after the 26.2-mile race. Her running team, HOKA Northern Arizona Elite, wrote on Twitter that her hip “bothered her for the past two weeks.”
“She did her best to get it right but couldn’t fix it,” wrote the club. “More will follow when we have details.”
The American Molly Seidel was still in the lead at the 15-mile mark, while Sally Kipyego was a little behind in 9th place.
– Tom Schad
Canada’s victory over Sweden in the women’s gold medal game was not only the country’s first Olympic or World Cup title, but cemented a more important piece of history.
Quinn, a Canadian midfielder and one of the first openly transgender athletes to compete in the Olympics, is now a gold medalist. Your victory is a significant one for the representation and acceptance of transsexuals.
“It’s such a big deal for me, just making sure the kids know they have a place in the sport,” Quinn said after the game. “I enjoy sport so much, so hopefully I can pass this message on and be a role model for younger people because they can see that they can be themselves and have a place here and become Olympic champions.”
While the International Olympic Committee has long had rules for transgender athletes attending the Games, the Tokyo Olympics will be the first to attend. New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard also took part in Tokyo.
– Nancy armor
The women’s marathon, originally scheduled to start at 7 a.m. in Tokyo on Saturday, has been postponed to 6 a.m. due to the high temperatures that created dangerous running conditions.
The race will be broadcast live in the US on Friday at 5 p.m. ET.
Climate change is becoming an increasingly important issue in sport. The competition times at the US Olympic track and field tests in Eugene, Oregon were changed when temperatures rose above 100 degrees. In Tokyo, a caddy belonging to the US golfer Lexi Thompson had to give up his service due to heat exhaustion.
Aliphine Tuliamuk, the US marathon champion, Sally Jepkosgei Kipyego and Molly Seidel will all compete for the US. Tuliamuk was one of the Olympic athletes who fought to ensure that nursing mothers could take their children to Tokyo after they were originally not allowed to.
