Pinned
On Aug. 8, the U.S. men’s basketball team faced Serbia with a trip to the gold medal game at the Summer Olympics on the line. After winning the first meeting with ease, the United States needed all 40 minutes to win 95–91 and advance to play for the gold medal.
Stephen Curry hadn’t asserted himself much early in the tournament, but he came out of the gates firing in the semifinal. He scored the first five points for the United States and had 14 points in the first four minutes of the game. Unfortunately for Team USA, all five Serbian starters were on the board, while Curry had 14 of 15 total points at the mid-point of the first quarter.
Curry was the last American starter to check out of the game, heading to the bench with 1:42 left in the first quarter. At that point, he had 17 of the USA’s 23 points. And the United States trailed by four.
Redemption: Hurdler Grant Holloway triumphed in Paris, winning the gold he narrowly missed in Tokyo and becoming the first American in 12 years to win the men's 110-meter hurdles.
GOAT: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone reigned supreme in the women's 400-meter hurdles, breaking her sixth world record while taking the gold. This is the first time any athlete has won gold in the event twice.
A Hard-Won Bronze: Sprinter Noah Lyles's much-publicized attempt to win both the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints met some complications when the athlete came down with COVID-19 two days before the 200-meter race. He won the bronze, but he said that while that same medal caused him great disappointment in Tokyo, it was a testament to his perseverance this time around, and he couldn't be more proud.
Team USA's Grant Holloway was triumphant in the men's 110-meter hurdles, winning the gold medal he has aimed for for three years.
Holloway missed the gold by .05 seconds in Tokyo, and said at the time it was the worst race he ran. This year, the three-time world champion has been undefeated. It's also been 12 years since an American won the gold in this event.
The U.S. women’s water polo team’s reign is over in the Olympics after losing to Australia 14–13 in a shootout in the semifinals of the Paris Games.
The Americans had won three consecutive Olympic gold medals in London (2012), Rio (2016), and Tokyo (2020, held in 2021). They also won silver medals in Sydney (2000) and Beijing (2008) and a bronze medal in Athens (2004).
Maddie Musselman and Jenna Flynn, who won an NCAA championship with Stanford in 2023, led the Americans with two goals apiece. U.S. goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson came up huge with 12 saves, including several from point-blank range.
Team USA's Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won gold in the 400-meter hurdles while setting a new world record with a time of 50.37—her sixth world record in this event. McLaughlin-Levrone has been dominant in the sport for the last five years and did not disappoint, becoming the first athlete to win back-to-back gold in the event.
Team USA won a second medal as Anna Cockrell took the silver.
Team USA’s Tara Davis-Woodhall, ranked no.1 in the world in the women’s long jump, is now also the Olympics champion of the event.
Defending champion Malaika Mihambo of Germany won the silver and Team USA's Jasmine Moore won the bronze.
Noah Lyles spoke to NBC about his health and the 200-meter race after receiving medical treatment, revealing he may sit out upcoming events.
“I woke up early about 5 a.m. Tuesday morning and I was just feeling really horrible, I knew it was more than just being sore from the 100. Woke up the doctors, was tested, and unfortunately it came out that I was positive for COVID,” he said.
Team USA sprinter Noah Lyles was short of breath after the 200-meter race, and seen leaving the stadium in a wheelchair. A Paris Games spokesperson said Lyles was unable to walk off the track on his own, and is now receiving treatment from the onsite medical team.
An NBC reporter spoke with Lyles’s mother, Keisha Caine Bishop, who said Lyles had been diagnosed with COVID-19 two days ago. He had been seen on camera wearing a mask ahead of the 200-meter final.
Letsile Tebogo, 21, of Botswana won the gold in the much anticipated 200-meter showdown, giving the African continent its very first gold medal in this event. Tebogo, who ran a time of 19.46, is also the youngest to win the gold in the event in more than 60 years.
Team USA took two medals, with Kenny Bednarek neck to neck with Tebogo for much of the race, finishing with a time of 19.62, and Noah Lyles coming in third with a time of 19.70.
France’s men’s basketball team is one win away from Olympic gold after defeating Germany 73-69 in a semifinal matchup.
Isaia Cordinier sealed the victory for the hosts with free throws in the final seconds. Guerschon Yabusele led France in scoring with 17 points, while Victor Wembanyama contributed 11 points, four assists, and seven rebounds.
Morocco’s men’s soccer team wins the country’s first-ever Olympic medal in soccer with a 6-0 victory over Egypt.
Soufiane Rahimi emerged as the tournament star, adding two more goals to his tally to finish as the Olympic’s top soccer scorer.
The reigning Olympic champion U.S. women’s volleyball team outlasted Brazil in the semifinals in Paris on Aug. 8, winning in a five-set thriller.
Kathryn Plummer led the United States with 26 points, while Avery Skinner scored 19 and Andrea Drews added 18.
The Americans play the winner between Turkey and Italy for the gold medal.
Eleanor Aldridge of Great Britain won the gold medal in the women’s kiteboarding event, a new Olympic sailing sport.
The silver went to Lauriane Nolot of France, who took a fall into the water and lost her lead but had two wins from previous rounds.
Decorated American track and field star Allyson Felix was elected to the International Olympics Committee (IOC). The retired Olympian has 11 medals to her name and was one of 29 athletes considered for four spots on the comittee.
Joining Felix are canoer Jessica Fox of Australia, who won two gold medals in Paris; German gymnast Kim Bui; and New Zealand's tennis player Marcus Daniell.
Max Rendschmidt was among the four of Germany’s men’s kayak team to take the gold on Aug. 8 in a sprint that beat Australia by a hundredth of a second. This is his fourth kayaking gold medal in four Olympics.
The Germans won a second kayaking medal that day when the women’s team wook the silver in the 500-meter event. New Zealand won the gold and Hungary the bronze.
The pathway followed this year by golfers Nelly Korda and Scottie Scheffler shares a common direction for the world’s No. 1 female and male players.
Both players started the 2024 season with rocket-like launches.
Scheffler won five times on the PGA Tour before the U.S. Open, a feat last accomplished by Tom Watson in 1980.
Decorated swimmer Michael Phelps said he got chills watching Bobby Finke swim the 1,500-meter freestyle, breaking both the world and Olympic records in taking the gold.
Finke was a breakout star during his debut Olympics in Tokyo, where he won gold in the 800-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle in a surprise upset. Finke had been in the middle of the pack in those early laps and not expected to make the podium, but he turned things around in the last laps in a memorable upset. This time, people—including his competitors—knew what to expect. Finke’s last-minute sprint in the 800-meter proved to not be enough, and he narrowly missed a medal. But in the 1,500-meter, he outswam the pack.
Team USA athletes have voted swimmer Katie Ledecky and rower Nick Mead to lead the team in the Aug. 11 closing ceremony as the flag bearers.
"Congratulations to our Closing Ceremony flag bearers, Katie Ledecky and Nick Mead, who exemplify the spirit of sport and the pride of Team USA," said USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland. "Katie and Nick have significantly contributed to the joyous and celebratory atmosphere. We are thrilled and proud to follow them into Sunday’s closing festivities.”
Ledecky posted on social media, "Honored to lead @TeamUSA at the Closing Ceremony with Nick! Proud of my teammates here in Paris, and excited to celebrate with all of them on Sunday."
Climber Sam Watson set a world record in speed in April, broke it in the qualifiers, and then again in the final round, taking the bronze medal.
The men's speed climbing event has seen the record broken by climbers one after another by tenths or hundredths of seconds.
New Zealand's Lisa Carrington led her women's kayak four crew to the gold medal at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, increasing her personal Olympic tally to six golds and one bronze.
Germany came in second and Hungary third but it was the Kiwis who were triumphant, with Carrington, her nation's most successful Olympian of all time, slapping the hull after they crossed the finish line in first place after a tough battle.
Double world champion Chase Jackson of the United States failed to qualify for the Olympic shot put final on Thursday after a miserable performance in the heats.
Jackson had two fouls and then managed only 17.60 meters with her third throw, almost two meters short of the automatic qualifying mark of 19.15, to finish 17th, with 12 advancing to Friday's final.
It was a rotten end to an Olympics that also started badly for the 2022 and 2023 world champions after the 30-year-old posted a social media video of herself crying because her team kit did not fit.
Casting aside concerns about the safety of swimming in the Seine River, Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands used a late pass to win the women's 10-kilometer open water swimming.
After Moesha Johnson of Australia led most of the way, van Rouwendaal cut into the strong current of the Seine as the lead pack came around the final bridge support. Johnson stayed closer to the shore, allowing the 30-year-old Dutch swimmer to claim the gold.
The newly minted world's fastest man, Noah Lyles, takes to the track again aiming to complete the prestigious sprint double by adding the 200 meters title to his 100m victory last week.
If he succeeds, Lyles will be the first American to achieve the sprint double since Carl Lewis in 1984.
Two-and-a-half years after competing at the Beijing Winter Olympics, American and Japanese figure skaters stepped on to the podium in Paris on Wednesday to receive reallocated gold and silver medals, drawing a line under a Russian doping saga that rocked those Games.
In athletics, Quincy Hall produced an incredible late surge to overhaul Briton Matthew Hudson-Smith and take the first Olympic 400-meter gold for the United States since 2008. Team USA also shone in events it hadn’t dominated in for years, with Hampton Morris claiming a bronze in weightlifting, a feat not accomplished in 40 years, and the artistic swimming team securing a silver, breaking a 20-year dry spell.
