9 August - Day 14 - Paris Summer Olympic Games

 

It's Friday and lots of great action today!  Here's what happened.

Women's Golf:  Team USA is inching up but they may run out of time!  Let's go Ladies!

Men's Open Water Marathon:  Swimming in the Seine seems to be something that Team Hungary enjoys!  They led the field almost from the start and finished 1 & 3.  Germany stuck with the Hungarian leader and thought about making a move for 1st in the last 200 M but the current of the Seine changed his mind and he decided Silver was his color, instead.

Men's Platform Diving:  In the Prelims, we found out that Team USA was able to add a diver and they added veteran, Loschiavo.  It was a good that we did, since Tyler didn't make it out of the preliminary rounds but Loschiavo did.  Team Mexico, Team Canada, and Team GB are giving Team China some nerves!  Unfortunately, Team USA did not make it out of the Semifinals, but the Chinese did seem to be feeling some heat from the others teams I mentioned previously.  Finals should be interesting to see.

Women's Water Polo:  It is the end of an era!  Team USA could not pull out a win over a tough Serbian team and will not go for the Gold again.  Instead they head to the Bronze medal match.  

Women's Springboard:  Team Australia gave the Chinese a fight and ended up winning the Silver.  Gold and Bronze go to China.

Wrestling:  Team USA's wrestling team (men's and women's) are doing really well!  On the Men's side, Brooks won the Bronze in the 86kg class.  On the women's side, Maroulis won Bronze in the 57kg class as well!

Men's Volleyball:  Team USA wins Bronze by completely dominating Team Italy in three straight sets.  It was to the point that Team Italy's coach was almost on the court in order to shout at them!  Very proud of these guys!  I hope that we will see many of them back in LA 2028!

Women's Basketball:  Team USA wins over Australia and will go onto the Gold Medal Game.

Men's Climbing Boulder & Lead:  Team USA's Duffy was in the mix but fell a little too early and took fourth place.  Team GB's Roberts proved to be the best in the combined competition and wins Gold.  Japan takes the Silver.  Australia wins Bronze.

Women's Breaking:  Well the first competition of Breaking in the Olympics was just a Hoot!  Team USA didn't make it into the finals but it was okay.  It is the most laid-back of any of the games.  Japan's Ami wins Gold.  Lithuania's Nicka wins Silver.  China's 671 (that's her breaking name)  wins Bronze.

Women's Beach Volleyball:  Brazil proved they were the best in this Olympics in a very solid win over Canada  Canada takes the Silver.  Swiss take the Bronze.

Rhythmic Gymnastics Individual:  What a beautiful competition!  Germany's quirky routines impressed the judges the most winning them the Gold.  Bulgaria settle for Silver.  Italy took the Bronze.

Taekwondo:  Team USA's Teachout won Bronze in the 67kg class!  Way to go!

Track &  Field

Qualifiers:

Women's 4 x 400M Relay:  Team USA qualifies for the finals in style!

Men's 4 x 400M Relay:  Team USA qualifies for the finals.  Watch those passes guys!

Semifinals:

Men's 800M: Team USA's Hoppel is the only one to make it through to the finals

Women's 100M Hurdles: All three American's make it through to the finals.

Finals:

Heptathlon - Day 2:  Long Jump started us off and none of the leaders did great but did score.  In Javelin, Anna  Hall made a mistake in celebrating a great throw and crossed the foul line which threw out her best throw.  She still did well but never as good as that first throw.  Belgium and Team GB still leading.  Last was the 800 M and Team USA's Anna led the race but not by enough.  Belgium and Team GB stayed close.  Belgium's Thiam wins Gold.  Team GB's KJT wins the Silver and Beligium takes Bronze as well.

Women's 10,000M:  Wow!  That is a long race!  Kenyans and Ugandas for most of the race but at the end Team Italy and Team Netherlands made a play and passed the Ugandans and most of the Kenyans!  Gold to Kenya.  Team Italy wins the Silver.  Team Netherlands wins Bronze.

Women's Shotput:  Germany threw a monster last round throw dethroning New Zealand.  Germany wins Gold.  New Zealand wins Silver.  China wins Bronze.  Team USA had a really bad day.

Women's 4 x 100M Relay:  Team USA looked great and Sha' Carrie anchored for us giving the other teams looks as she passed them to win the Gold!  Silver goes to Team GB.  Bronze goes to Germany.

Men's 4 x 100M Relay:  What a disaster!  What is it with out men and passing the baton!  We keep screwing this up!  I knew there might be a problem when in the qualifier, Benardek didn't start before getting the baton.  In the final, with Lyles out due to COVID we had a substitute on the first leg, who didn't do great but more importantly, Bendarek started to early and then had to almost stop to get the baton.  They passed out of the zone and would have been disqualified if they weren't so far back that it didn't matter.  We never recovered from that bad pass.  Canada wins the Gold.  South Africa wins the Silver.  Team GB wins the Bronze.  I really don't understand this.  This is the 3rd Olympic games in a row where our Men's relay team just can't get it togther.  The Women can do it so why can't they?!?!

Women's 400M:  What a tough field.  The Dominican Republic came to play as did Bahrain!  Dominica wins Gold and sets an Olympic record!  Bahrain wins Silver.  Poland wins Bronze.  Team USAs Holmes came in sixth.

Men's Triple Jump:  Team USA wasn't in the mix here.  Spain wins Gold.  Portugal wins Silver.  Italy wins Bronze.

Men's 400M Hurdles:  Rai Benjamin did not disappoint and crushed the field winning Gold for Team USA!  Norway wins Silver.  Brazil wins Bronze