Paris Olympics 2024 Friday and Saturday 8.2 and 8.3

8.2.24 Friday-- 

Uneventful day for the US, just a handful of events worth noting. 

Leon Marchand of France won his fourth individual gold medal. At only 22 years of age, it will be interesting to see where he is in four years at Los Angeles. He is so accomplished and he does train in the US so it would only make sense for him to come back. 

Men's 200m IM

1. Leon Marchand, France 1:54:06
2. Duncan Scott, Great Britain 1:55:31
3. Shun Wang, China 1:56:00

Regan Smith had a successful Olympic games. She walked away from this Game's with five medals, two golds from relays and, three silver medals in individual competition. At the age of 22, this is Regan's second Olympics. 

Women's 200m Backstroke

1. Kaylee McKeown, Australia 2:03:73
2. Regan Smith, USA 2:04:26
3. Kylie Masse, Canada 2:05:57

Track & Field opened at this Olympic Games. Grant Fisher from the US took a bronze, it was the first time the US medaled in this event since 2012 in London. 

Track & Field Men's 10,000m 

1. Joshua Cheptegei, Uganda 26:43:14
2. Berihu Aregawi, Ethiopia 26:43:44
3. Grant Fisher, USA 26:43:46

8.3.24 Saturday-- 

Saturday was very eventful and active in terms of medals for the US. It was an exciting day in Gymnastics, Swimming, and Track & Field. 

Let's start first with rowing and the Men's Eight. The story of the night was that the US Men medaled in this event for the first time since 2008. 

Men's Eight

1. Great Britain 5:22:88
2. Netherlands +1.04
3. USA +2.40

In Gymnastics, there were three event finals. In the floor exercise, Carlos Yulo won the first ever Olympic gold medal in gymnastics for the Philippines and just their second gold medal overall. 

Gymnastics Men's Floor Exercise

1. Carlos Yulo, Phiilippines 15.000
2. Artem Dologopyat, Israel 14.966
3. Jake Jarmen, Great Britain 14.933

 

Stephen Nedoroscik catapulted himself to hero status these Olympic games playing a major part in the US Men securing a bronze medal in team competition. Clark Kent, aka Superman aka Stephen also managed to walk away with the only individual Men's Gymnastics medal for the US earning a bronze for his speciality, pommel horse. 

Men's Gymnastics Pommel Horse

1. Rhys McClenaghan, Ireland 15.533
2. Nariman Kurbanov, Kazakhstan 15.433

3. Stephen Nedoroscik, USA 15.300

Last individual Gymnastics event I want to write about is the Women's Vault. Simone Biles added another gold to her resume, and Jade Carey got redemption from Tokyo earning a bronze. Brazil's Rebeca Andrade continued to impress. 

Saturday also happened to be the last night in the pool and the first night in track and field. There was lots of action and I want to share the news and results with you. 

Swimming: Men's 100m Butterfly (no US medal) 

1. Kristof Milak, Hungary 49.90

2. Joshua Liendo, Canada 49.99

3. Ilya Kharun, Canada 50.45

In the Men's Shot Put Final, Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs have done something special, they have finished one, two respectively in this event for the past three Olympics-- Rio, Tokyo, and Paris. This is truly incredible. The two are said to be friends and rivals. 

Track & Field Men's Shot Put

1. Ryan Crouser, USA 22.90

2. Joe Kovacs, USA 22.15

3. Rajindra Campbell, Jamaica 22.15 

In the 4x400m Mixed Relay, the US Team had set a World Record in the semi finals. Then when it came time to run the finals, the US lost their lead when Femke Bol from The Netherlands passed the field in the closing straight away and grabbed that gold. 

Track & Field: Mixed 4x400m Relay

1. Netherlands, 3:07:43
2. USA, 3:07:74
3. Great Britain, 3:08:01

Back to the pool, Summer McIntosh once again covered in gold this Olympics! She took gold in front of Kate Douglass in the 200m IM. That brought her total to three golds and none silver. Douglass also had a strong Olympics, two golds and two silvers for her. Some disappointment here for Alex Walsh as she had won bronze but was disqualified for an illegal turn. Heartbreaking. 

Swimming: Women's 200m IM

1. Summer McIntosh, Canada 2:06:56

2. Kate Douglass, USA 2:06:92
3. Kaylee McKeown, Australia 2:08:08

Katie Ledecky continued her legacy in the pool in the 800m, she has won this event in three consecutive Olympic Games. She is also, with winning this race, a nine time Olympic gold medalist which is the most won by a woman in Team USA history!

Swimming: Women's 800m Freestyle

1. Katie Ledecky, USA 8:11:04

2. Ariarne Titmus, Australia 8:12:29

3. Paige Madden, USA 8:13:00

The last relay in the pool was the mixed 4x100m Medley Relay. The US Team was made up of Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Gretchen Walsh, and Torri Huske who swan the anchor leg and literally came up with her personal fastest time. 

Track & Field: Mixed 4x100m Medley Relay

1. USA, 3:37:43

2. China, 3:37:55

3. Australia, 3:38:76

Jasmine Moore, at only 23 years old, is no stranger to firsts. She became the first American woman to qualify for both the long jump and the triple jump. She completed on Saturday in the triple jump and became the first American woman to medal in this event! Just staggering stats, and hopefully we will be seeing her for a long time. 

Track & Field: Woman's Triple Jump

1. Thea Lafond, Dominica 15.02

2. Shanleka Ricketts, Jamaica 14.87

3. Jasmine Moore, USA 14.67

One of the premiere events of the Olympics is the 100m of Track & Field in both the Men's and Women's. The US team had three women qualify for the final, including Sha'Carri Richardson who came to these Olympics with a lot to prove. Richardson was the favorite leading to Tokyo, but tested positive for cannabis use making her ineligible to compete at the games. She returned to the sport, and often says, "I'm not back, I'm better". And on this night she was better winning a silver medal. Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia won gold, the first Olympic medal ever for Saint Lucia. Melissa Jefferson won the bronze putting two US women on the podium. 

Track & Field: Women's 100m 

1. Julien Alfred, St. Lucia 10.72

2. Sha'Carri Richardson, USA 10.87

3. Melissa Jefferson, USA 10.92

Paris Olympics 2024 Wednesday and Thursday 7.31 and 8.1

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.