7.31.24 Wednesday--
Frederick Richard and Paul Juda competed in the Men's Gymnastics All Around Competition. They were not consistent enough to be on the podium and this became a battle between Japan and China for gold.
Men's Gymnastics All Around Final
1. Shinnosuke Oka, Japan 86.832
2. Boheng Zhang, China 86.599
3. Ruoteng Xiao, China 86.364
One of the stories of this Olympics has to be Team USA's challenges in the pool. On Wednesday there were only two Team USA medals. One was a silver by Torri Huske in the 100m Freestyle and the other was a gold for Katie Ledecky in her signature race, the 1500m Freestyle.
Ledecky's gold was a historic one, tying her with Jenny Thompson, Natalie Coughlan, and Dara Torres for most medals of all time by anyone woman in US history with 12 medals. She won by 10 seconds, about a length of the pool. Ledecky said she doesn't think a lot about history, but says she knows all these women and was inspired by them when she started swimming. There's a saying, greatness recognizes greatness.
Torri Huske picked up a silver in the 100m Freestyle, an event that she was not even heavily favored in. Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden, the current record holder in this event came back from 4th place after 50m's at the turn to take the gold.
Women's 1500m Freestyle
1. Katie Ledecky, USA 15:30:02
2. Anastasia Kirpichnikova, France 15:40:35
3. Isabel Gose, Germany 15:41:16
Women's 100m Freestyle
1. Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden 52.16
2. Torri Huske, USA 52.29
3. Siobhan Haughey, Hong Kong 52.33
Leon Marchand, at 22 years of age, from France already picked up gold in the 400m Individual Medley, and he struck gold times two on Wednesday night in Paris. The best part was seeing Michael Phelps cheer him on. Marchand has been training the US, and I bet he will have a long career ahead of him.
Men's 200m Butterfly
1. Leon Marchand, France 1:51:21
2. Kristof Milak, Hungary 1:51:75
3. Ilya Kharun, Canada 1:52:80
Men's 200m Backstroke
1. Leon Marchand, France 2:05:88
2. Zac Stubblety Cook, Australia 2:06:79
3. Caspar Careau, Netherlands 2:07:90
Lastly, it wouldn't be the Olympics without some controversy. The Men's 100m Freestyle brought us just that. The US Team, one that typically makes the podium for this event, had two men swim in the final. However, they finished last, 7th and 8th in the final. Pan from China won gold and said that he felt Chalmers from Australia and Jack Alexy from the US had a problem with him winning the gold. Pan broke his own record. It's seems a doping scandal is about to erupt and, it would not surprise me. The Australian coaches are saying it's not believable. China has been involved in doping in the past and had bans.
Men's 100m Freestyle:
1. Zhanle Pan, China 46:40
2. Kyle Chalmers, Australia 47:48
3. David Popovici, Romania 47:49
8.1.24 Thursday
Thursday was all about the US women and they are amazing! Simone Biles and Suni Lee continued what they dubbed-- "the redemption tour" wining gold and bronze respectively in the women's all around. Simone has spoken a lot about putting her mental health first since Tokyo and she credits that with her coming back to gymnastics stronger than ever. Rebeca Andrade from Brazil who picked up a silver medal in the all around spoke about looking up to Simone. She also talked about the sacrifice she and her mother made in Brazil so she could go to practice, Rebeca sometimes walking two hours each way to the gym. Suni had her own challenges since Tokyo, gaining weight and not understanding why and discovering that she had two kidney diseases. She thought she would never do gymnastics again. These three young women all have such beautiful stories of resilience and determination. Each of them is so strong and I deeply admire them.
Gymnastics Women's All Around Final
1. Simone Biles, USA 59.131
2. Rebeca Andrade, Brazil, 57.932
3. Suni Lee, USA 56.465
Simone:
Floor Exercise-- 15.066, Vault-- 15.766, Beam-- 14.566, Uneven Bars-- 13.733
Rebeca:
Floor Exercise-- 14.033, Vault-- 15.100, Beam-- 14.133, Uneven Bars-- 14.666
Suni:
Floor Exercise-- 13.666, Vault-- 13.933, Beam-- 14.000, Uneven Bars-- 14.866
The US Women won the Fencing Women's Team Foil for the first time ever.
1. USA
2. Italy
3. Japan
Over in the pool, the US Men continued to struggle-- they were not even represented in the Men's 200m Backstroke.
Men's 200m Backstroke
1. Hubert Kos, Hungary 1:54:26
2. Apostolos Christou, Greece 1:54:82
3. Roman Mityukov, Switzerland 1:58:85
Back to the ladies in the pool....
Summer McIntosh, at the age of 17, continued to have just a stunningly impressive Olympics. She edged out Regan Smith of the US in the Women's 200m Butterfly.
Women's 200m Butterfly
1. Summer McIntosh, Canada 2:03:03
2. Regan Smith, USA 2:03:84
3. Yufei Zhang, China 2:05:09
Kate Douglass, a 15 time NCAA Swimming Champion at University of Virginia can add gold medal to her bio winning the 200m Breaststroke beating out defending champion Tatjana Smith from South Africa and Tes Schouten from the Netherlands.
Women's 200m Breaststroke
1. Kate Douglass, USA 2:19:24
2. Tatjana Smith, South Africa 2:19:60
3. Tes Schouten, The Netherlands 2:21:05
And in the Women's 4x200m Freestyle Relay, the rivalry between the US and Australia continued, this time with Australia coming out on top.
Women's 4x200m Relay
1. Australia, 7:38:08
2. USA, 7:40:86
3. China, 7:42:34
This silver for the US made Katie the most decorated female swimmer ever. Katie was able to celebrate the moment with her teammates-- Claire Weinstein, Paige Madden, and Erin Gemmell.
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