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On the third day of the Paris Olympics, two of tennis’ biggest stars faced off again, basketball’s popularity soared, the U.S. women’s basketball team made its debut, the U.S. men’s and women’s swimming teams won multiple medals and U.S. men’s gymnastics returned to the podium for the third time since 1984.
Plus, at just 17 years old, Canada’s Summer McIntosh has firmly established herself as one of the swimming’s future stars, winning the first of what will likely be multiple gold medals in her career.
Read on for more Olympic drama on Monday, and if you’re banging your table in excitement, be careful.
USA wins three medals in swimming, close to four
Although the U.S. men’s and women’s swimming teams didn’t win any gold medals, they left the pool Monday with four medals.
Ryan Murphy won the bronze medal in the men’s 100m breaststroke, marking his third consecutive Olympic medal.
In the women’s race, Lily King narrowly missed out on a place on the podium, beating Ireland’s Mona McSharry by 0.01 seconds.
The U.S. team won two more medals in the women’s 400m individual medley final, with Katie Grimes winning silver and Emma Weyant winning bronze. Canada’s Summer McIntosh won gold, her first in what promises to be a stellar Olympic career.
The 17-year-old McIntosh won silver in the 400m freestyle and is also expected to win medals in the 200m butterfly and 200m individual medley.
U.S. men’s gymnastics wins first Olympic medal in 16 years
The U.S. men’s gymnastics team won the bronze medal for the first time since 2008. Japan won the gold medal, and China took silver despite dominating in the qualifying rounds.
The American quintet of Asher Hong, Paul Judah, Frederick Richard, Steven Nedorosic and Brody Malone started the day in fifth place but vaulted themselves onto the podium, mainly due to their performance on the pommel horse, with Nedorosic closing out the day with a spectacular performance.
Steven Nedorosik had to score big on the pommel horse for Team USA in his final rotation…
And he did it. 🤯
📺: NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/hkhiHpovyh
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 29, 2024
Hong’s strong performances on the rings and vault kept the U.S. in medal contention, while Richard earned the team’s highest scores on the parallel bars, high bar and floor exercise, thrilling the large U.S. fan base at the Bercy Arena.
The Michigan State University sophomore produced one of the USA’s iconic moments in Paris, completing his dismount from the horizontal bar as the crowd and his teammates cheered.
A’ja Wilson leads U.S. women’s basketball in Olympic opening game
The U.S. women’s basketball team defeated Japan, 102-76, in their opening game at the Paris Olympics, keeping their sights on an eighth consecutive gold medal.
A’ja Wilson led the USA with 24 points and 13 rebounds, which shouldn’t come as a surprise as she currently leads the WNBA in both categories. Breanna Stewart added 22 points, while Brittney Griner, Sabrina Ionescu and Kelsey Plum each had 11 points. “Point God” Chelsea Gray finished with 13 assists.
The team probably knows they can play better, as they shot just 20 percent (4 of 20) from three-point range.
The U.S. women’s team has won 56 straight games, dating back to the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
Next up for Team USA is a match against Belgium on Thursday before their final group game against Germany on Sunday.
Djokovic beats Nadal in men’s singles
Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal 6-1, 6-4 in the second round of the men’s singles in what was the 60th meeting between the tennis legends, who have a combined 46 Grand Slam singles titles between them.
It remains to be seen whether this will be the final meeting between the two men. Nadal has been plagued by injuries over the past two years and has openly spoken about retirement.
Nadal is out of medal contention in singles but still has a shot at gold in doubles with partner Carlos Alcaraz. The Spanish pair will face Taron Griekspoor and Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands in the second round.
Djokovic will next face Germany’s Dominik Koepfer in the third round of singles on Thursday.
U.S. men win silver and bronze medals in street skateboarding
Team USA had a great day in men’s street skateboarding, as Americans Jagger Eaton and Nyjah Huston advanced to the finals and made it onto the podium to win silver and bronze medals, respectively.
The quality of skateboarding was very high across the board, but Eaton and Jagger each delivered one impressive run and two high scoring tricks.
For most of the final, Houston and Eaton held first and second place. Houston took first place with a 93.37-second second run, followed by Eaton with a 91.92-point score on his second run. They held first and second place on their first two tricks, both landing them, but then ran into a bit of trouble. They both fell on their third tricks, putting them under even more pressure on their final two tricks.
Eaton wasn’t done yet: his fourth trick earned him 95.25 points, the second-highest score of the trick stage, and propelled him into first place, while Houston held on despite falls on the fourth and fifth tricks.
Eaton looked all but certain to win until Yuto Horigome, the defending gold medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, landed his final move. He needed a big score to take the lead, so he went for it — and he did: his fifth move earned him 97.08 points for a final total of 281.14 points, just one-tenth better than Eaton’s 281.04.
U.S. women’s rugby sevens team still has medal chance
The U.S. women’s rugby sevens team and rising star Ilona Maher defeated Great Britain, 17-7, to reach their first Olympic semifinal appearance. On the same day, the U.S. team lost to hosts France, 31-14, but is one win away from reaching the final.
The U.S. next faces defending Olympic champion New Zealand at 9:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday. Canada and Australia will play the other semifinal game at 10 a.m. A win will see them compete for the gold medal at 1:45 p.m. A loss will see them advance to the bronze medal game at 1 p.m.
Both medals are firsts for the U.S. women’s rugby sevens team.
Team USA Medals
Today’s highlights
Where else besides the Olympics will you see Billie Jean King sitting next to Snoop Dogg? The two were spotted King was with Djokovic at Monday’s tennis match against Nadal at Roland Garros and posed for photos afterwards which he posted on social media.
Along with the photo, King noted that he and Snoop are from Long Beach, California, and graduated from Long Beach Polytechnic High School, which leaves one to wonder what these two cultural icons have in common. NBC should have had them host the opening ceremony coverage alongside Mike Tirico.
one more …
NBC’s Scott Hanson is like all of us who watch the Olympics and root for our country: The host of Peacock’s “Gold Zone” (and, of course, the host of the Sunday football show “NFL Red Zone”) got so excited when the U.S. won a medal that he slammed his desk.
Unfortunately, this resulted in Hanson cutting his hand, which judging from the photo, looked pretty bad, presumably because he hit it with too much force on the edge of a glass desk.
Hanson Don’t bleed for the jobBut he may have to wear gloves for the rest of the Paris Olympics, and he may want to take precautions this upcoming NFL season as well.
