Wednesday once again was another big day in the pool for Team USA, highlighted by Katie Ledecky winning the first ever Olympic women’s 1,500-meter freestyle, with fellow American Erica Sullivan taking silver in the race. Ledecky entered the race as the world record-holder with a time of 15:20.48.
Alex Walsh and Kate Douglass also added onto Team USA’s success in swimming, as they became the fourth and fifth American teenagers in four days to medal, winning silver and bronze, respectively, in the 200-meter individual medley
Later in the day, another gold medal first will come in the finals of 3×3 basketball. Team USA will face France in the women’s semifinal, and a win would put them in the gold-medal match later on in the night.
In men’s basketball, the U.S. team of NBA stars will look to regroup from their disappointing opening-game loss to France when they take on Iran.
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CHIBA, Japan — The U.S. men’s sabre team, ranked seventh in the tournament draw, dropped its table of 16 match to No. 2 Hungary, 45-36, on Wednesday.
Daryl Homer kept the Americans in it by winning all three of his matchups with a combined 21 touches.
“I think we both know each other very well, the two teams,” said Homer, who placed first at the 2019 Pan American Championships in Lima, Peru. “I think they just executed their strategy a bit sharper. We have a lot of young guys on the team, first Olympic Games, first Olympic team event, so I think that showed.”
“I think Daryl had the match of his life in the first round,” Eli Dershwitz, ranked No. 2 in men’s sabre, told USA TODAY. “That might be the best fencing I’ve ever seen him do.”
Homer recalled the U.S. team being ranked No. 1 in the world just six years ago.
“My experience definitely helped,” he said. “I tried to share a bit before the match with the other guys, but I think maybe I should have done a better job.”
Homer fell in the round of 32 during the individual men’s competition earlier these Games, a 15-11 loss to Mohamed Amer of Egypt. The U.S. sabre team dropped their first classification match against Iran, 45-36. They will face the Russia Olympic Committee later Wednesday to determine seventh and eighth place.
“I think it was one of the worst performances of my life, to be perfectly honest,” said Dershwitz, who was out-touched 15-9 against Hungary and 15-10 against Iran. “I haven’t figured out why yet.
“It hurts, especially in a small-name sport, when you have the Olympic Games every four or five years. You want to show up and feel like … you did everything in your power to help your team succeed. Me personally, I definitely feel like I let the people around me down.”
USA Fencing has been clouded by assault allegations by men’s epée fencer Alen Hadzic. According to a USA TODAY Sports report, the organization sequestered Hadzic in a separate hotel, away from the team’s accommodations in the Olympic Village. Hadzic, 29, said through his lawyers the treatment was unfair. USA Fencing athletes, including Dershwitz, signed a letter signaling support in keeping Hadzic at a distance.
“I don’t have any new information or anything that’s widely available in all the papers coming out,” Dershwitz said. “So at least for right now, I’ll stick to focusing on my next match and letting U.S. Fencing and SafeSport handle it the correct way.”
When asked by USA TODAY Sports about the allegations against Hadzic and USA Fencing’s handling of the situation, Homer said he did not want to comment.
In light of the recent Simone Biles news, Homer said he is happy the conversation around mental health and Olympic athletes is taking the forefront.
“We’re all kind of thinking about this,” he said. “I’m happy there’s a reckoning.”
— Chris Bumbaca
TOKYO — U.S. featherweight boxer Duke Ragan defeated Kazakhstan’s Serik Temirzhanov in the round of 16 by unanimous decision, advancing to the quarterfinal round.
The Cincinnati native, who turned pro in summer 2020, earned Team USA’s ninth win of the Tokyo Olympics. In the quarterfinal on Sunday, Ragan will face off against Ireland’s Kurt Walker. The Irish featherweight defeated Uzbekistan’s Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov, the 2019 world champion, in the round of 16.
Two other U.S. boxers have advanced to the quarterfinal round: Welterweights Delante Johnson and Oshae Jones.
— Olivia Reiner
TOKYO — America’s Katie Ledecky has done it again. The most versatile swimmer at these Olympic Games won a gold medal in the first-ever women’s 1,500-meter freestyle, a little more than an hour after finishing fifth in the 200.
Ledecky finished first in 15:37.34, followed by U.S. teammate Erica Sullivan, 4.07 seconds back.
Ledecky, already the most decorated female swimmer in history, won the silver medal in the 400 freestyle Monday with her second-best time ever, beaten only by the swim of a lifetime by Titmus.
It is the first time women have been allowed to swim the 1,500 at the Olympic Games. Ledecky was the strong favorite for the gold medal in that event.
— Christine Brennan
The U.S. men finished fourth in the 4×200 freestyle relay, almost 4 seconds behind the gold medalists from Great Britain. It’s the first time since the 2000 Sydney Olympics that the Americans failed to win gold in the event.
Kieran Smith got the U.S. team off to a strong start in the first leg, taking a lead that Drew Kibler couldn’t hold. Zach Apple fell even further behind in the third leg. The Americans finished in 7:02.43, .59 of a second out of the medals behind Australia, which won bronze.
Russia took silver in 7:01.81.
TOKYO — The teens are on a tear.
Alex Walsh and Kate Douglass became the fourth and fifth American teenagers in four day to make it on the podium at the Tokyo Olympics, winning silver and bronze, respectively, in the 200-meter individual medley. Walsh finished in 2:08.65, with Douglass following close behind in 2:09.04.
Yui Ohashi of Japan won the event in 2:08.52, narrowly edging the two Americans.
The teenage quintet for Team USA – all of them women – has now accounted for more than one-third of the nation’s medal haul in the pool.
Emma Weyant, 19, got it started with silver in the 400-meter individual medley Sunday, followed by Regan Smith, also 19, and Lydia Jacoby, 17, on Tuesday. Jacoby took gold in the 100 breaststroke, and Smith won bronze in the 100 backstroke.
Douglass and Walsh, who are both 19, finished first and second at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials late last month, with Walsh winning it by a razor-thin margin of .02 of a second. Both swim collegiately at the University of Virginia, where Douglass is a rising junior and Walsh a rising sophomore.
— Tom Schad
TOKYO — The Italian men’s four took bronze in their race at the Olympic regatta after making a last-minute change when one of its members tested positive for COVID-19.
Bruno Rosetti, the boat’s two-seat, tested positive from a sample taken on Tuesday, July 27, which was confirmed the morning of the competition, World Rowing announced. The other three rowers, Matteo Castaldo, Matteo Lodo and Giuseppe Vicino tested negative on Tuesday and again before the race.
None of the other Italian rowers tested positive. World Rowing said additional precautions are being taken with the team.
Rosetti was replaced by Marco Di Costanzo from the Italian men’s pair. Together, the four crossed the finish line with a time of 5:43.60, .84 seconds behind first-place Australia and .47 behind second-place Romania.
Di Costanzo’s seat in the pair will be filled by spare Vincenzo Abbagnale when they compete in the semifinal on Wednesday afternoon.
— Olivia Reiner
TOKYO — The U.S. failed to medal in the men’s 200-meter butterfly Wednesday for the first time since 1988.
But the women’s event is shaping up to be a completely different story.
Hali Flickinger and Regan Smith cruised to the top two spots in their semifinal heat Wednesday, each besting the rest of the field by roughly 2 seconds. Flickinger clocked the second-fastest time in the semifinals at 2:06.23, behind China’s Yufei Zhang, who won the other semifinal heat in 2:04.89.
Flickinger and Smith will return to the pool for Thursday’s final with hopes of adding to the individual medals they’ve already won in Tokyo. Flickinger won bronze in the 400-meter individual medley Sunday, while Smith followed with a bronze of her own in the 100-meter backstroke Tuesday.
— Tom Schad
TOKYO — On the first day of finals at the Olympic regatta, the American crews failed to place on the podium.
The U.S. women’s double sculls duo of Gevvie Stone and Kristi Wagner took fifth in the Olympic regatta at Sea Forest Waterway. Stone, 36, and Wagner, 28, crossed the finish with a time of 6:52.98, 11.95 seconds behind the winner Romania. A U.S. boat has never won a medal in the women’s event at the Olympics.
A three-time Olympian, Stone won the silver medal in the women’s single at the 2016 Rio Olympics. The Newton, Massachusetts, native also raced the single at the 2012 London Olympics, placing first in the B final and seventh overall. Her father, Gregg Stone, coaches the women’s double. Wagner is competing on her first Olympic and senior national team.
The U.S. men’s four of Clark Dean, Michael Grady, Anders Weiss and Andrew Reed took fifth in in their race. With a time of 5:48.85, the four crossed the finish line 6.09 seconds behind first-place Australia.
Just one member of the boat had previous Olympic experience – Weiss raced the men’s pair at the 2016 Rio Olympics and placed fifth in the B final. Dean and Reed were members of the men’s four that qualified the boat for Tokyo by finishing fifth at the 2019 World Rowing Championships.
Despite a lack of American medals, there were a plethora of exciting races on Wednesday. In the first four A finals, the first-place boats set Olympic bests – Romania in the women’s double sculls, France in the men’s double sculls and Australia in the women’s and men’s four. In the men’s quadruple sculls, the Netherlands set a world record. And in the women’s quad, China also set a world record.
Four more U.S. boats remain in the hunt for a medal – the women’s single, pair, eight and the men’s eight.
— Olivia Reiner
TOKYO — Katie Ledecky, the most versatile swimmer at these Olympic Games, disappointingly did not win a medal, finishing fifth, Wednesday morning in the women’s 200-meter freestyle.
Ledecky swam the 200 in 1:55.21, finishing 1.71 seconds behind Australian Ariarne Titmus, who won in an Olympic record 1:53.50, and claimed her second gold medal of these Games.
Siobhan Haughey took silver followed by Penny Oleksiak of Canada.
Ledecky had a little more than an hour before her 1,500 final later Wednesday.
Ledecky, already the most decorated female swimmer in history, won the silver medal in the 400 freestyle Monday with her second-best time ever, beaten only by the swim of a lifetime by Titmus.
This was just the beginning of an extraordinary morning for the 24-year-old from Bethesda, Maryland. It is the first time women have been allowed to swim the 1,500 at the Olympic Games. Ledecky was the strong favorite for the gold medal in that event.
— Christine Brennan
TOKYO — Kara Lawson has spent five years in coaching, a profession that has taken to her to an NBA bench and presently the helm of the Duke Blue Devils’ women’s basketball program. Her name has also been floated in the NBA head-coaching rumor mill.
But the former WNBA All-Star actually started her coaching career in the 3-on-3 format.
“As my 3-on-3 responsibilities grew,” Lawson told USA TODAY Sports via video call. “I also became a 5-on-5 coach at the same time.”
It was in her first year coaching 3-on-3, 2017, Lawson helped lead the U-18 3-on-3 team to gold at the World Cup in China. USA Basketball then asked her to coach the U-18 men’s side. More success followed, and she began working with G League and WNBA players in her first exposure to the senior squads.
Eventually, Lawson became the official “adviser” – 3-on-3 teams don’t have official coaches like 5-on-5 teams do – for the women’s 3-on-3 Olympic team.
At the Tokyo Olympics, the team has been a bright spot for Team USA. The roster of four won their first six games before losing to host Japan. By then, they’d secured the best record in group play and a bye into the semifinals against France, which will take place Wednesday at 4 a.m. EDT. The gold- or bronze-medal contest will take place later that day.
“I feel like we’ve gotten better throughout the tournament and we’ve put ourselves in position to win, just like three other teams,” Lawson said.
The mentality heading into medal day?
Win two, win gold.
— Chris Bumbaca
Steffen Peters, a 56-year-old equestrian rider, becomes the oldest U.S. Olympic medalist since 1952. U.S. gets silver behind Germany in team dressage. Peters has participated in four Olympic, winning a team bronze medal on two occasions (in 1996 and 2016).
For the U.S., it was the best finish in team dressage since the 1948 London Games, when the country also won silver.
TOKYO — A distraught Simone Biles pulled out of the Olympic team final on Tuesday, leaving in the middle of the competition after struggling to land a vault.
“After the performance that I did, I didn’t want to go into any of the other events second guessing myself, so I thought it was better if I took a step back and let these girls go out there and do the job and they did just that,” Biles said.
She said she has been trying to cope with the stress of competing at the Tokyo Olympics.
“I was still struggling with some things,” Biles said of competing Tuesday night.
“Therapy has helped a lot as well as medicine. That’s all been going really well. Whenever you get in high-stress situations, you kind of freak out and don’t know really know how to handle all of those emotions especially at the Olympic Games.”
Biles left the competition floor moments after she struggled to land a vault that is second nature for her. On the team’s first event, she shockingly bailed on an Amanar – one of her more difficult vaults – and just barely landed a one-and-a-half.
A visibly upset Biles talked with one of her personal coaches, Cecile Landi, and the team doctor, Marcia Faustin. Though she put on her grips to prepare for uneven bars next, she left the competition floor.
When she returned, she took off her grips and put on her warm-ups.
“This Olympic Games I wanted it to be for myself,” Biles said fighting back tears. “I came in and felt like I was still doing it for other people. That just hurts my heart that doing what I love has been kind of taken away from me to please other people.”
— Rachel Axon
TOKYO — USA women’s gymnastics loses Simone Biles, then loses to Russia.
USA softball loses the gold medal to Japan, just as it did the last time softball was in the Olympics 13 years ago.
USA women’s soccer plays Australia to an unimpressive scoreless tie, moving on in the Olympics but not looking very good in the process.
All of that bad news happened within less than four hours Tuesday evening at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Three of the mainstays of the American Olympic effort, three of the most reliable U.S. success stories, all struggled at the same time.
This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. Women’s sports are the backbone of the U.S. Olympic team, particularly women’s team sports. Women make up a majority of the U.S. Olympic team for the third consecutive time. Women usually are the biggest stars of Team USA, thanks to Title IX, the 49-year-old law that opened the floodgates for women and girls to play sports just like their brothers had for generations. It’s not a surprise then that the Olympics are the Super Bowl for female athletes.
Since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, American women’s team sports have mostly thrived at the Olympic Games. But in Tokyo, it turns out that for some of the nation’s best women athletes, it was just that kind of a day.
— Christine Brennan
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