4 August - Day 9 - Paris Summer Olympic Games

 

What a Sunday!  It's the middle weekend of the Olympics which is also known as Gold Rush weekend.  Today was full of shockers and that always elusive Gold!

Women's Road Race:  Once again, a wonderful tour of the countryside around Paris.  It was going as expected when listening to the announcers, but then about 3.3 km from the finish, Team USAs Faulkner, who had been working with #3 from the Netherlands, sling-shoted out around #3 and powered through to the finish!  Team USA won the Gold!  Faulkner wasn't even suppose to be in this race.  She was given the position by a friend who qualified and wasn't feeling well.  Faulkner is here for Indoor Cycling time trials.  She pulled out an amazing win!  Gold for Team USA.  Silver goes to the Netherlands (#3). Belgium wins Bronze.

Kayak-cross:  Okay....this is just joyful chaos!  Four paddlers on the same course all trying to finish first.  There is bumping and blocking and running others into walls and gates....it is insane!  So much fun to watch.  Team USA's Evy is in the mix on the Women's side and Casey is there on the Men's side.  Nothing has been decided except that this is so much fun!

3 X 3 Basketball:  Team USA's Women won over China which puts them through to the next level of elimination rounds.  The Men weren't as lucky and have been eliminated.  Overall, Team USA is not very good at this sport and until there are some rule changes that will allow for members of the NBA or WNBA to participate, it is doubtful that we will get much better.

Women's Basketball:  Team USA won over Germany...easily.

Golf - Men's:  Team USA's Scheffler finished -19 and won the gold for Team USA!  Fleetwood from GB won the Silver.  Hideki from Japan won Bronze.

Tennis - Men's Singles: Serbian Djokovic is now, after winning today, one of 5 players to have a Golden Sweep, meaning to win all 4 major tourneys and a Gold Medal in the Olympics.  Congrats!

Men's Archery Single:  Brady Ellison made his way through the brackets winning again and again until he made lost a match sending him to the Gold Medal round!  In that match, Brady's luck ran out and he had to settle with the Silver.  Korea wins Gold and Silver.  Way to go, Brady!

Women's Skeet:  Team USAs Smith made it to the final round and the final four!  She shot really well, but couldn't match the shooters from Chile and Team GB so she settled for the Bronze.  Chile wins the Gold.  Team GB wins Silver.

Women's Indoor Volleyball:  Team USA knew they were into the finals but needed to win this last match against Team France to get the best seed.  They succeeded, winning in three jam-packed sets!  The French definitely put up a great fight!  Team USA, the defending Gold medalists, goes onto the Elimination rounds!

Women's Beach Volleyball:  Team USAs Hughes/Cheng faced a scrappy Team Italy to make it into the Elimination rounds.  Italy didn't make it easy!  The volleys were INSANE!  The match went to 3 sets where Team USA pulled off some incredible digs and a victory.  They move onto the Elimination rounds!  Nice job, Ladies!

Track & Field:  The morning started off with qualifiers and had many finals today but first, I want to talk about the bell.  There is a bell off to the side of the track that when you win a Gold Medal, you are encouraged to go and ring.  This bell isn't just any bell.  It was cast in the same bell foundry as the original bells of Notre Dame!  This same foundry is casting the new bells for Notre Dame as well since they had to replace some after the fire.  The bell that is on the track will be available throughout the Olympic games and the Paralympic games but then will find its forever home in one of the steeples of Notre Dame!  Isn't that cool?!?! 

Qualifiers:

Women's Steeplechase:  Wayment & Constein made it through to the final.  Howard did not.

Women's Hammer throw:  Echikunwoke and Price are through but Reese did not make the top 12.

Men's Long Jump:  None of our guys made it through to the finals.  It is a really tough field and should be a great event to watch.

Women's 200M:  Thomas, Long, and Brown all made it through to the next round.

Men's 110 Hurdles:  Roberts and Holloway made it through but in an interesting decision, Crittenden wasn't feeling his best so he came in last and hopes to "game" the repechage and make the final there after some further treatment.  

Women's 400M Hurdles:  Team USA dominated in this qualifier!  Jones, Cockrell, and Mclaughlin-Levrone are all through to the next round.

Men's 400M:  Bailey, Norman, and Hall all made it through to the next round.

Semifinals:

Men's 100M:  Lyles, Bednarek, and Kerley all made it through but it wasn't easy!  These guys are going to have to be on their game for the finals!

In the Women's 800 M, Whittaker makes it through but Akins did not.

In the Men's 1500M, Hocker, Nuguse, and Kessler all made it through to the final!

Finals:

Women's High Jump:  Whenever I watch High Jump, I just want to give these women a sandwich!  All of them are super tall and super skinny!  They look like when cartoon characters are flatten.  LOL!  Anyway, Team USA's Cunningham didn't make height to make it into the medal positions.  Instead it was a battle between the Ukraine and Australia.  In the end, Ukraine pulled off the win.  I think what's even better though is that the "second" jumpers tied for third.  So Ukraine gets Gold and Bronze and Australia gets Silver and Bronze!

Men's 100M:  Team USA had three runners in the final: Lyles, Bednarek, and Kerley.  After watching the semis, I knew this was going to be close but this close?!?!  I watched it live and I couldn't tell who won.

The Announcers were calling the race for Jamaica and even Lyles thought Jamaica won.  But then...the results didn't pop up on the screen but instead....the camera symbol.  Lyles was being a really good sportsman and congratulating the Jamaica's Thompson when that happened.  We waited...and waited.  you see...where your feet are doesn't matter.  It's where you torso is that determines who crosses the line first.  Lyles had the best lean and wins the GOLD!  Jamaica's Thompson wins Silver and then ...no one mentioned who won Bronze!  I actually had to go on-line and look it up.  I mean...I can't tell from that picture, can you?  Well...Team USA's Fred Kerley comes away with the Bronze.  Wow!  What a race!

Noah got to ring the bell!

Swimming:

Women's 50M Final:  Team USA's Walsh was just not fast enough today to pull off a medal win.  She came in fourth.  Sweden wins the Gold.  Australia wins the Silver.  China wins the Bronze

Men's 1500:  Bobby Finke, who trains with Swim God Katie Ledecky, took to the pool and led from the beginning!  He just got faster and faster, like Katie does, and actually set a new World Record with his win for the Gold!  Italy won the Silver.  Ireland won Bronze.  Way to go, Bobby!

Men's 4 X 100 Medley Relay:  Murphy for Backstroke, Nic Fink for Breaststroke, Caleb Dressel for Butterfly, and Armstrong for Freestyle.  This was our relay dream team and while we did best both France and the Aussies, Team China pulled out the win for Gold.  Team USA takes the Silver.  France takes the Bronze.

Women's 4 X 100 Medley Relay:  Smith for Backstroke, King for Breaststroke, Walsh for Butterfly, and Huske for Freestyle....Team USA's dream team for a medley relay...OH YEAH!  Team USA was just behind the leaders in the first two legs...barely behind.  It was close enough for Walsh to give us a nice lead going into the last leg and then Tori Huske, our anchor from the Mixed Medley Relay, took over and set a World Record in winning Gold for Team USA!  Aussies won the Silver and China won the Bronze.  Way to go ladies!  Katie Ledecky was going nuts in the stands cheering on the team and ringing her own Cow Bell!  It was a sight to see!

As Rowdy Gaines pointed out, Team USA finishes Olympic swimming with 9 Gold.  The Aussies....8 Gold.  Ring Your Cow Bells!

Gymnastics - Event Finals:  Today's Event finals were Bars for the Women and Rings & Vault for the Men.

Women's Uneven Bars:  Suni Lee had a wonderful routine scoring just behind China but Algeria's Nemour treated us all to an amazing routine and was finally rewarded for all her hard work!  Algeria wins the Gold.  China's Qui wins Silver.  Team USA's Suni Lee wins the Bronze.

Men's Still Rings:  Team USA didn't score high enough on Rings to have someone in this event final.  China showed true mastery of this event and won Gold and Silver.  Bronze was won by the gymnast from Greece who really impressed me with the structure of his routine!

Men's Vault:  Team USA didn't score high enough on Vault to have someone in this event final.  Remember Yulo from the Phillipines?  The one who won Gold in the Floor event final from yesterday.  Well....he is a double Gold medalist now.  He had an amazing first vault and a wonderful second which solidly placed him in the lead!  Armenia's Davtyan won the Silver with nice vaults but extra hops and Team GB's Hepworth won the Bronze.

Whew!  That was Sunday.  Tomorrow we will have the last of the Event finals in Gymnastics, lots of 3x3 basketball, the start of Artistic Swimming (a.k.a. Synchronized Swimming), lots of Beach Volleyball, more Track & Field action, Women's platform diving, more whitewater events, the start of the sport climbing events, more shooting events, surfing & sailing (weather permitting), team triathlon, the start of indoor cycling events, men's waterpolo, and men's indoor volleyball.   It's going to be a jam-packed day!