Paris Olympics 2024 Sunday and Monday 8.4 and 8.5

8.4 Sunday--

Sunday had some good stuff from the individual event finals in Gymnastics, Swimming (the real final night in the pool), and Track & Field. 

Let's start first with some Tennis and Golf!

In Tennis, Novak Djokovic won the gold medal that alluded him for most of his career and Carlos Alcaraz from Spain took the silver. 

Then in Golf-- Scottie Scheffler from the US won the gold. Tommy Fleetwood from Great Britain took silver and Hideki Matsuyama from Japan took bronze. 

In Cycling, Kristen Faulkner from the US won the Road Race in 3:59:23. 

There was another day of Gymnastics individual event finals. Sunday included the Women's Uneven Bars and the Men's Rings and Men's Vault. Carlos Yulo of the Philippines won a second gold, this time in Vault! In the Uneven Bars, Suni Lee from the US picked up another bronze. Maybe not what she hoped for but I think she was so grateful nevertheless. 

Gymnastics Men's Rings

1. Yang Liu, China 15.300
2. Jing Yuan Zou, China 15.23
3. Eleftherios Petrunias, Greece 15.100

Gymnastics Men's Vault

1. Carlos Yulo, Philippines 15.116
2. Artur Davtyan, Armenia 14.966
3. Harry Hepworth, Great Britain 14.949

Gymnastics Women's Uneven Bars

1. Kaylia Nemour, Algeria 15.700
2. Qiyuan Qiu, China 15.500
3. Sunisa Lee, USA 14.800 

Swimming wrapped up in interesting fashion. In the race often dubbed, the splash and dash that determined the fastest woman in the pool, the US finished off the podium. However, the 1500m Men's Freestyle, a race of strength, calculation, and endurance saw the US at the top with Bobby Finke winning and setting a new World Record. The theme of the year of the women at these games continued with a gold in the relay. The men made it to the podium but struggled. 

Swimming: Women's 50m Freestyle

1. Sarah Sjostron, Sweden 23.71
2. Meg Harris, Australia 23.97
3. Yufei Zhang, China 24.20
4. Gretchen Walsh, USA 24.21

Swimming: Men's 1500m Freestyle

1. Bobby Finke, USA 14:30:67 World Record
2. Gregorio Paltrinieri, Italy 14:34:55
3. Daniel Wiffen, Ireland 14:39:63

Swimming: Men's 4x100m Medley Relay 

1. China, 3:27:46
2. USA, 3:28:01 -- Ryan Murphy 52.44, Nic Fink 58.97, Caeleb Dressel 49.41, Hunter Armstrong 47.19
3. France, 3:28:38

Swimming: Women's 4x100m Medley Relay 

1. USA, 3:49:63 -- Regan Smith 57.28, Lilly King 1:04:90, Gretchen Walsh 55:03, Torri Huske 52:49
2. Australia, 3:53:11
3. China, 3:53:23

In Track & Field, one of the premier events is the Men's 100m Dash, it essentially determines the fastest man in the world. Three men represented the US, Noah Lyles-- very hyped, and the favorite coming in, Kenny Bednarek-- often an adversary of Lyles, and Fred Kerley a medalist from Tokyo. The race was so close a photo finish was needed. Many thought Kishane Thompson from Jamaica won, but the photo proved Lyles just edged him out. 

Track & Field: Men's 100m Final

1. Noah Lyles, USA  9.79
2. Kishane Thompson, Jamaica 9.79
3. Fred Kerley, USA 9.81

8.5 Monday-- 

The final round of gymnastics individual event finals were today. It was an interesting and controversial day for the women. Suni Lee and Simone Biles fell off the balance beam and they weren't the only ones. I kept thinking, is there something wrong with the beam?

Then in the floor exercise, controversial rulings by the judges. Jordan Chiles was underscored and given a lower start value for successfully completing more difficult elements. A Romanian gymnast Sabrina Maneca Voinea was penalized for stepping out of bounds, even though she did not. Ana Barbosu originally landed in third place once everyone performed. She believed she was the bronze medalist. Jordan Chile's coach filed an appeal, something often done in gymnastics. When the appeal had been decided,  Jordan was awarded the bronze medal. Barbosu was left devastated. The lastest is that Romania appealed this decision, and the IOC decided Jordan must give back her medal. 

Gymnastics: Men's Parallel Bars

1. Jingyuan Zou, China 16.200

2. Illia Kovtun, Ukraine 15.500

3. Shinnosuke Oka, Japan 15.300

Gymnastics: Women's Balance Beam

1. Alice D'Amato, Italy 14.366

2. Yagin Zhou, China 14.100

3. Manila Esposito, Italy 14.000

Gymnastics: Men's High Bar

1. Shinnosuke Oka, Japan 14.533

2. Angel Borajas, Colombia 14.533

3. Behing Zhang, China 13.966

4. Chia Hung Tang, China 13.966

Gymnastics: Women's Floor Exercise

1. Rebeca Andrade, Brazil 14.166

2. Simone Biles, USA 14.133

3. Jordan Chiles, USA 13.766

Track & Field: Men's Pole Vault

1. Mondo Duplantis, Sweden 6.25

2. Sam Kendricks, USA 5.95

3. Emmanouil Karalis, Greece 5.90

In the Women's Discus Valarie Allman of the US repeated as Olympic Champion having won in Tokyo. 

Track & Field: Women's Discus

1. Valarie Allman, USA 69.50

2. Bin Feng, China 67.51

3. Sandra Elkasevic, Croatia 67.51

Surfing: Women's Event

1. Caroline Marks, USA

2. Tatiana Weston Webb, Brazil

3. Johanne Defay, France