Red, White, and Gold
Day 11: Team USA had a Very Good Weekend
Forget all that talk from last week about Medal counts and how to rank them.
Team USA had a monster weekend in Paris and now leads in Golds (19, tied with China) and Total (71) medals. Saturday alone saw a haul of 18 medals, tying the country’s single-day Medal record set at Seoul 1988. That’s more than 20% of all the Medals awarded on Saturday. For two of those Americans, the Medals elevated them into truly rarified air.
Before Saturday only 5 athletes in history had won 4 Gold Medals in the same individual event: Carl Lewis, Michael Phelps, and three people you’ve never heard of. Then Katie Ledecky and Vincent Hancock both joined that club within a few hours of each other - Katie won the Women’s 800m Freestyle to further cement her legacy as the greatest female Swimmer and Olympian in history, and Vincent narrowly beating his own protege Connor Prince in Skeet Shooting. And that was just Saturday.
Not content to take Sunday off, Team USA picked up another 10 medals (half of them Gold) and a few world records on the way. Bobby Finke ignored the “slow pool” narrative and set a new WR in the Men’s 1500m Freestyle, and the US women did the same in the 4x100m Medley Relay.
Noah Lyles won the Men’s 100m in a race where every runner finished under 10 seconds for the first time in history, and two national records were set. Over on the Golf course Scottie Scheffler played his best round of the year (already the best year of his career) to come back from 4-strokes down and claim victory.
On the streets of Paris, Kristen Faulkner became the first American to win the Cycling Road Race since 1984, and she wasn’t even supposed to be competing at these Games! Oh, and Shot Put world record holder Ryan Crouser became the only Olympian to ever three-peat that event.
So yeah, it was a good weekend for the Americans in Paris. Look for that to continue with team sports entering their knockout rounds, Simone Biles continuing to do her thing, and Team USA’s Track and Field stars keep stretching their legs this week.
What To Watch Today
(All times Eastern. Full event replays available on-demand on Peacock)
The final week of the Paris 2024 Olympics begins. Is today the last day of Simone Biles career? Will she add two more Gold medals to her GOAT resume? Find out as we bid farewell to 3x3 Basketball, Gymnastics, Badminton, Canoe Slalom, Shooting, and Triathlon. Plus welcome some of the Games most photogenic sports: Artistics (aka Synchronized) Swimming, Track Cycling, Sport Climbing, and Wrestling. (And once again we await the Surfing Finals…)
2:00 am - Triathlon: Mixed Relay 🇺🇸 🥇
3:30 am - Shooting: 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men's Final 🥇
3:45 am - Badminton: Women's Singles Finals 🥇
4:00 am - Climbing: Men's Boulder & Lead, Semifinal Boulder 🇺🇸
4:05 am - Athletics: Men's 400m Hurdles Round 1, Men's Discus Qualis, Women's Pole Vault Qualis, Women's 400m Round 1 🇺🇸
5:45 am - Gymnastics: Men's Parallel Bars Final 🥇
6:38 am - Gymnastics: Women's Balance Beam Final 🇺🇸 🐐🥇
7:33 am - Gymnastics: Men's Horizontal Bar Final 🥇
7:35 am - Climbing: Women's Speed, Qualification heats 🇺🇸
8:00 am - Beach Volleyball: Men's Round of 16, USA vs Norway 🇺🇸
8:23 am - Gymnastics: Women's Floor Exercise Final 🇺🇸 🐐🥇
8:30 am - Badminton: Men’s Singles Finals 🥇
9:00 am - Shooting: Skeet Mixed Team Medal Matches 🇺🇸 🥇
10:15 am - Canoe Slalom: Women’s and Men’s Kayak Cross Semis and Finals 🇺🇸 🥇🥇
11:00 am - Beach Volleyball: Men's Round of 16, USA vs Italy 🇺🇸
11:30 am - 3x3 Basketball: Women’s Semi-Final, USA vs Spain 🇺🇸
12:00 pm - Beach Volleyball: Women's Round of 16, USA vs Canada 🇺🇸
12:00 pm - Soccer: Men’s Semi-Final
1:00 pm - Athletics: Men's 3000m Steeplechase Round 1, Men's 200m Round 1, Women's 200m Semi-Final, Men's Pole Vault Final, Women's Discus Final, Women's 5000m Final, and Women's 800m Final 🇺🇸 🥇🥇🥇🥇
1:30 pm - Artistic Swimming: Team Technical Routine 🇺🇸
1:46 pm - Track Cycling: Women's Team Sprint Medal Finals 🥇
3:00 pm - Volleyball: Men’s Quarter-Final, USA vs Brazil 🇺🇸
3:00 pm - 3x3 Basketball: Women's and Men’s Medal Games 🇺🇸 🥇🥇
3:00 pm - Soccer: Men’s Semi-Final
3:24 pm - Surfing: Men’s and Women’s Medal Matches (rescheduled, again) 🇺🇸 🥇🥇
In Other Olympic News…
Visualizing just how close that Men’s 100m Final really was.
Some athlete’s Olympic experience is over in a flash.
Novak Djokovic finally gets the one piece of hardware that had eluded him.
Photo of the Day
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