Pinned
The United States turned on the style but never got out of first gear, steamrolling past Brazil 122–87 and into the Paris Olympics semifinals.
The routine victory keeps the U.S. on track for a fifth consecutive gold medal and sets up an intriguing final four meeting with Serbia, who advanced with an overtime win over Australia.
Top-ranked duo Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes were defeated by Swiss team Nina Brunner and Tanja Huberli in the quarterfinals, a day after Team USA's Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss lost to Canada.
This means both women's beach volleyball teams are out of the running for a medal for the first time since 2000.
Imane Khelif of Algeria defeated Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand in the semifinals and is on to the match for the gold on Aug. 9.
Khelif is one of two boxers mired in controversy. In the 2023 world championships, the International Boxing Association, a Russia-based organization, disqualified Khelif after an undisclosed test found the boxer had high levels of testosterone.
Amit Elor won the gold medal in women’s wrestling in a 3–0 match against Meerim Zhumanazarova of Kyrgyzstan.
Elor, 20, is the youngest American to ever win gold in the Olympics, and surrendered only two points the entire Paris Games.
Athletics Gold: Headlines about the Kerr-Ingebrigtsen rivalry in the men's 1,500-meter fell way to Team USA nabbing two medals. Cole Hocker raced past both to take the gold, and first-time Olympian Yared Nuguse won the bronze. In the women's 200-meter, Gabby Thomas's gold medal was no huge surprise, and Team USA's Brittany Brown also won the bronze.
USWNT in the Finals: The women's soccer team scored a victory over Germany in the semifinals and will next play the winner of the Brazil-Spain matchup for the gold. The team has not advanced this far since the 2012 London Games.
Speed Records: The Dutch sprint cycling team took the gold while breaking the world record they had set earlier in their first round. The speed climbing event also broke the Olympic record—five consecutive times, ending with USA's Sam Watson finishing in 4.75 seconds, .04 better than the world record he set in April.
The women's 200-meter final was expected to be an all-star showdown and it did not disappoint. Team USA's Gabby Thomas came off the turn in the lead and 100-meter winner Julien Alfred of St. Lucia gave the emotional Thomas a hug after the finish line.
Thomas won the bronze for the event in Tokyo and was the favorite to take the gold.
Sophia Smith scored in the first extra time to lead the U.S. Women’s National Team to a 1–0 victory over Germany in the soccer semifinals of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The United States will play the winner of Brazil–Spain in the gold medal match on Aug. 10 at Parc des Princes in Paris. Germany will play for bronze on Aug. 9 in Lyon.
The United States already has the most Olympic gold and most total medals in the history of Olympic women’s soccer, winning four golds, one silver, and one bronze, and now will have a chance to expand on that success.
When Valarie Allman stepped into the circle to make her final discus throw, her previous high score and competitors' performance had already made her gold medal a sure thing.
"I've never thrown a discus with tears in my eyes," she told NBC the day after the win. "It was a new one. I went in with such joy in my heart and just embraced the crowd. And to end on a good throw—it was such a special moment."
Hurdles defending champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone came out far ahead in her heat, even jogging off the last leg of the race.
"You work all year to get here, what you've done is what keeps you here," she told NBC after the run. "So it's just about executing that, trusting the process, trusting the plan and, ultimately, trusting God."
With one lap left to go, American runner Cole Hocker made his move from the fifth spot to the first.
Fans were anticipating a showdown between reigning world champion Josh Kerr of Great Britain and reigning Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway, but Hocker found his way past both runners in the last stretch.
The Netherlands cycling team of Roy van der Berg, Harrie Lavreysen, and Jeffrey Hoogland have once again redefined speed, smashing their own world record in the men’s team sprint in the first round, and doing it again in the second.
In the first round, the trio clocked in at 41.191, a mere 0.034 seconds faster than their previous best.
Wrestler Sarah Hildebrandt moved ahead in the women’s freestyle 50kg following a 5-0 win over Dolgorjavyn Otgonjargal of Mongolia.
Hildebrandt is looking to build on her bronze medal win in Tokyo. She will now go head to head with Vinesh Phogat of India, who unseated Japan’s Yui Susaki in the first round, in a quest for the gold.
Despite not medaling in the women’s park skateboarding finals, 20-year-old Bryce Wettstein displayed heart and determination.
“I think when you work that hard to get here, and you’re like, ‘I’m here, I need to enjoy it,” she told USA Today before her third and final run.
14-year-old Australian skateboarding sensation Arisa Trew clinched the gold medal in women’s park skateboarding.
Trew delivered a jaw-dropping performance, including a massive body varial 540. Her score of 93.18 catapulted her to the top of the leaderboard with only five skaters remaining.
Aug. 5 was a rollercoaster of a day for Simone Biles, who took a fall on the balance beam after days of competing, and failed to make the podium. Immediately following that, she had to perform her floor event, where she won a silver and Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade took the gold.
Of course, every reporter asked her, how she felt about the outcome, and what's next? They weren't questions she particularly wanted to answer in the moment. In fact, she tweeted the day before: "you guys really gotta stop asking athletes what's next after they win a medal at the Olympics," followed up with another post, "let us soak up the moment we've worked our whole lives for."
Leon Marchand, whose four gold medals at the Paris Olympics puts him alongside legends like Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz, sat down with the Today show to talk about his record-setting week.
"I was trying to win one race, I won four," he said. "It was a lot. The first day, the forum was shocking for me. When I went poolside I could hear just the pool going crazy. I've never seen that before."
The marathon swimming familiarisation session scheduled for Tuesday in the Seine river has been canceled because of water pollution concerns, the international federation said.
Open-water swimmers are hoping to plunge into the Seine for 10km marathon races on Thursday and Friday, but pollution readings will have the final say.
Team USA’s Noah Lyles qualified first in his heat for the 200-meter race, his main event, but shared that his 100-meter gold the night before left him sore.
"That was the hardest-fought battle I've ever had in my career,” he told NBC. “I think I really take that to heart because it shows me what I'm willing to dig down deep for.”
USA sprinter Gabby Thomas placed first in her heat for the 200-meter race and said it was just a matter of executing her game plan, and that she is going into each round with a feeling of calm.
“It’s my happy place. I feel so happy running,” Thomas told NBC. “When I see the finish line in my sight, I just have that boost.”
Sam Watson, making his Olympics debut, broke his own world record during the men's speed climbing qualifications. He finished the climb in 4.75 seconds, .04 seconds faster than the 4.79 record he set in April.
Just moments prior to this feat, four climbers broke the Olympic record time of 5.45 with a 5.07 climb by Rahmad Adi Mulyono of Indonesia and Wu Peng of China, then 4.89 second by Amir Maimuratov of Kazakhstan, and finally Veddriq Leonardo of Indonesia at 4.79, matching Watson's April world record.
A Greek athlete tested positive for banned substances at the Paris Games and was expelled from the athletes' village, the Greek Olympic Committee said on Aug. 6.
Greece's anti-doping agency informed the team on Monday afternoon, and the athlete, whose name or sport was not announced, was provisionally suspended and removed from the team.
So far, the Paris Games have seen only a handful of positive tests during competition, including that of Commonwealth Games bronze medalist and African Games boxing champion Cynthia Ogunsemilore of Nigeria.
Germany's Christian Kukuk, with his grey gelding Checker, won Olympic gold in individual showjumping on Tuesday, delivering a flawless ride in the final jump-off between the three best riders.
Kukuk's victory, following German gold medals in individual eventing, dressage, and the dressage team competition, cemented Germany's standing as the main equestrian bastion.
It's win-or-go-home time in the star-studded men's basketball tournament, which will hold its knockout phase in Paris after the group stage was held near the northern city of Lille.
The quarterfinals include four marquee games featuring 15 current or former NBA All-Stars with a combined 97 selections among them.
The women's 200-meter final will begin at 9:40 p.m. CET (3:40 p.m. ET) at the Stade de France.
American Gabby Thomas, who won bronze in the event in Tokyo, is the favorite. She cruised through the semifinal in 21.86 seconds.
The U.S. women's team faces Germany in a semifinal match at Lyon Stadium. Tuesday's match starts at 6 p.m. CET (12 p.m. ET).
The second semifinal match is between Brazil and Women's World Cup champion Spain at Marseille Stadium at 9 p.m. CET (3 p.m. ET).
Simone Biles clinched silver in the floor exercise final, after missing out on a medal in the balance beam, on the last day of artistic gymnastics at the Paris Games.
Team USA's Valarie Allman captured her second consecutive Olympic women's discus gold medal, unleashing a 69.50-meter effort on her fourth throw, which was nearly two meters better than the rest of the field.
Meanwhile, Britain's women thrilled the crowds by setting a new world record in the qualifying rounds of the Olympic track cycling team sprint at the National Velodrome.
