Tag Archives: Japan Olympic Team

World

Shcherbakova wins figure skating gold as Valieva collapses

Leave a comment

BEIJING (AP) —

Anna Shcherbakova won a stunning gold medal in women’s figure skating at the Beijing Games on Thursday night, relying on her experience to deliver a clean performance, while Russian teammate Kamila Valieva tumbled out of the medals in a mistake-filled end to her controversial Olympics.

Shcherbakova performed a near-flawless free skate to leap over the 15-year-old Valieva, the leader after the short program, who threw up her arms in resignation and disgust after her program. Russian teammate Alexandra Trusova leaped to silver with her quad-packed program while Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto held onto the bronze medal.

Valieva, the center of the latest Russian doping scandal, was left sobbing in the kiss-and-cry area after her scores were read. She was heavily favored to win the gold medal but is headed home with nothing from the women’s program and still faces investigation for a positive drug test.

Moments after she walked off, workers began setting up for a flower ceremony that the International Olympic Committee said would not take place if Valieva was in the top three. Medals will be handed out Friday at a ceremony that would not have occurred in Beijing if Valieva had reached the podium.

Valieva tested positive for a banned heart medication at the Russian championships in December, but the result was not revealed until last week, shortly after she helped to win a team gold medal that is now also in doubt.

She was cleared to compete earlier this week by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled that she had protected status as a minor and would suffer “irreparable harm” if she was not allowed to perform. The court did not rule on the full scope of the case, leaving that anti-doping investigators.

The court’s decision has cast a polarizing shadow over one of the marquee events of the Winter Games.

“Do I feel sorry for her? I don’t think so. I wouldn’t say so,” Sakamoto said after her short program. “Of course, there were moments where I thought: ‘What’s going to happen? What’s happening?’”

Valieva has claimed the drug triggering her positive, trimetazidine, entered her system by accident. But the World Anti-Doping Agency filed a brief stating that two other substances she acknowledged taking, L-carnitine and Hypoxen — though both legal — undercut the argument that a banned substance could have been ingested in error.

“You use all of that to increase performance,” U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart said.

In the meantime, IOC President Thomas Bach tried to appease angry American skaters by offering Olympic torches to those who helped win their team silver medals, The Associated Press learned late Wednesday. The torches are meant to serve as holdover gifts while the world awaits the resolution of Valieva’s doping case.

“It’s unfortunate that we aren’t able to get our medals,” said Karen Chen, who competed in the team event for the U.S. and finished 16th in the women’s program Thursday night. “I have yet to see the torch, but once that is like given to us, I think it will be such a special moment that we will cherish forever.”

As the doping case unfolded around her, Valieva tried to go about her business as usual, taking part in every practice on her schedule. And though she looked calm and cool during a run-through for her short program, the first cracks began to appear when she skated off the ice and broke down in tears — even though she was leading the event.

The collapse came with the eyes of the world watching Thursday night.

Valieva was shaky on an opening quad salchow, then stepped out on a triple axel and fell altogether on a quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination. She fell again on her other quad toe loop, preventing her from completing a high-scoring combination, and spun out on another jump late in the program — though by that point, her fate was sealed.

The calamitous program only made Shcherbakova’s just before it look better.

With the fewest quads of the three Russian women, the 17-year-old world champion instead captured the gold medal with back-to-back clean programs. She was flawless in her short program and, beginning with a quad flip-triple toe loop, peerless in her free skate, making her the third straight Russian to stand atop the Olympic podium.

Just not the one that everyone was expecting.

___

More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports



Read original article here

Sports

Russian skater Kamila Valieva cleared to compete at Olympics

Leave a comment

BEIJING (AP) — Russian teenager Kamila Valieva has been cleared to compete in the women’s figure skating competition at the Winter Olympics despite failing a pre-Games drug test, setting her up for an attempt at a second gold medal.

Whatever happens on the ice, Valieva will not get a medal ceremony moment in Beijing. Nor will any skater who finishes in the top three with her.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport cleared Valieva to skate less than 12 hours after a hastily arranged hearing that lasted into early Monday morning. A panel of judges ruled that the 15-year-old Valieva, the favorite for the women’s individual gold, does not need to be provisionally suspended ahead of a full investigation.

The court gave her a favorable decision in part because she is a minor, known in Olympic jargon as a “protected person,” and is subject to different rules from an adult athlete.

“The panel considered that preventing the athlete to compete at the Olympic Games would cause her irreparable harm in the circumstances,” CAS Director General Matthieu Reeb said.

Now, Valieva and her fellow Russian skaters can aim for the first podium sweep of women’s figure skating in Olympic history. The event starts with the short program Tuesday and concludes Thursday with the free skate.

The International Olympic Committee said Monday afternoon that if Valieva finishes in the top three, there will be no medal ceremony during the Games. There will also be no ceremony for the team event won by Valieva and the Russian team a week ago.

“It would not be appropriate to hold the medal ceremony,” the IOC said.

Valieva landed the first quadruple jumps by a woman at the Olympics as the Russian team won gold in a dominant performance.

The decision not to award medals also affects Nathan Chen and the rest of the second-place American team, who will leave Beijing unsure if they won silver or gold. It would be Chen’s second gold of the Games. If Valieva and Russia are disqualified, Japan moves up to silver and Canada wins bronze.

“We are devastated that they will leave Beijing without their medals in hand, but we appreciate the intention of the IOC to ensure the right medals are awarded to the right individuals,” the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee said in a statement.

The IOC decision also means the fourth-place finisher in the women’s event will have a good chance to move into the bronze position.

Shortly after the CAS ruling, Valieva skated at practice, watched by her coach, Eteri Tutberidze. She completed her program without a fall, drawing a smattering of applause from the Russian media watching.

Reaction around the world ranged from support of the young skater to complaints that Russian doping had once again damaged a sporting event.

In addition to her status as a minor, the CAS ruling cited fundamental issues of fairness, the fact she tested clean in Beijing and that there were “serious issues of untimely notification” of her positive test.

Valieva tested positive for the heart drug trimetazidine on Dec. 25 at the Russian nationals, but the result from a Swedish lab didn’t come to light until a week ago, after she helped the Russian Olympic Committee win the team gold.

Reasons for the six-week wait for a result from Sweden are unclear. In a statement, WADA suggested RUSADA slipped up by not signaling to the Stockholm lab that Valieva’s sample was a priority to be analyzed so close to the Olympics.

Her case has caused havoc at the Olympics since last Tuesday when the team event medal ceremony was pulled from the schedule because of the positive test.

The Russian anti-doping agency (RUSADA) immediately suspended her, then lifted the ban a day later. The IOC and others appealed, and an expedited hearing was held Sunday night. Valieva testified via video.

Athletes under 16 like Valieva have more rights under anti-doping rules and typically aren’t held responsible for taking banned substances. The focus of any future investigation will be on her coaches, doctors, nutritionists, etc.

This ruling only addresses whether Valieva can keep skating before her case is resolved. It doesn’t decide the fate of the one gold medal she has already won.

Those issues will be dealt with in a separate, longer-term investigation led by RUSADA, which took the sample in St. Petersburg.

The World Anti-Doping Agency will have the right to appeal any ruling by RUSADA, and also said it wants to independently investigate Valieva’s entourage.

The Valieva case means Russian doping has been a major theme for a six straight Olympic Games.

“This appears to be another chapter in the systematic and pervasive disregard for clean sport by Russia,” US Olympic and Paralympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland said in a statement.

Hirshland said the USOPC was “disappointed by the message this decision sends” and suggested athletes were denied the confidence of knowing they competed on a level playing field.

At the rink Tuesday, the ice dance competition was decided as the CAS prepared its verdict.

Gold medalists Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France and American bronze medalists Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue offered, “No comment.”

Nikita Katsalapov, who along with Victoria Sinitsina won the silver medal for the Russians, said simply: “Go Kamila!”

Hubbell and Donohue could have their silver medals upgraded to gold in the team competition.

“There’s no done deal yet, but I know all the people in the team want to receive the medals here as a team’” Hubbell said. “If we miss that opportunity, it’s huge disappointment.”

The IOC now says it will “organize dignified medal ceremonies once the case of Ms Valieva has been concluded,” whenever that may be.

___ AP Sports Writer Dave Skretta in Beijing contributed to this report

___

More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports



Read original article here

Sports

Olympics Live: Germany’s Neise captures skeleton gold

Leave a comment

BEIJING (AP) — The Latest on the Beijing Winter Olympics:

___

Germany has a new sliding champion.

Hannah Neise has never won a World Cup medal. Or a medal at the world championships. Or a medal from the European championships.

She’s got an Olympic medal now. And it’s the one that everybody wants.

Neise is the Olympic skeleton women’s champion, a bit of a surprise winner. Neise, the 21-year-old who won the junior world title last year, became the first German woman to capture the gold medal in Olympic skeleton by rallying in the final two heats at the Beijing Games on Saturday night.

Jaclyn Narracott of Australia was second. Kimberley Bos of the Netherlands was third.

___

Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron broke their own world record in the rhythm dance, scoring 90.83 points to give the four-time world champions from France the lead heading into Monday’s free dance at the Beijing Games.

Papadakis and Cizeron finished second four years ago in Pyeongchang to Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who have since retired. And they appeared intent on making it to the top step this time around, earning Level 3 marks for their midline step and pattern dance but Level 4s everywhere else.

The current world champs, Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of Russia, were second with 88.84 points with two American teams also in the mix. Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue were third with 87.13 points, followed closely by teammates Madison Chock and Evan Bates with 84.14 points.

___

Marius Lindvik of Norway has won Olympic gold in ski jumping on the large hill by holding off Ryoyu Kobayashi of Japan.

Lindvik jumped 140 meters Saturday on his final jump and earned 296.1 points overall to become the first Norwegian to win the event since Toralf Engan in 1964.

Kobayashi earned silver after winning on the normal hill on Sunday. Karl Geiger of Germany finished third.

Two-time defending champion Kamil Stoch of Poland was fourth. He came up short on his shot to become the first to win three straight Olympic titles on the large hill.

Two-time gold medalist Andreas Wellinger is unable to compete in China because he tested positive for COVID-19.

The men will be back on the large hill on Monday for a team competition. Norway, Germany and Austria have won the last three Olympic team events. The trio of traditional powers will likely contend for medals again, trying to hold off Slovenia and Japan.

___

Russian ice dancers Gleb Smolkin and Diana Davis, the daughter of controversial figure skating coach Eteri Tutberidze, qualified for the free dance with a strong performance in the rhythm dance portion of the competition Saturday night.

Smolkin and Davis received a score of 71.66 points to their program, set to “Boom Boom Pow” by the Black Eyed Peas and “Bom Bidi Bom” by Nick Jonas and Nicki Minaj. That’s not enough to threaten for a spot on the podium, but it was easily enough to make the cutoff for the top 20 dancers to advance to Monday’s free dance.

Davis was born in Las Vegas and holds dual citizenship with the United States and Russia.

Tutberidze has come under fire during the Beijing Games for her work with 15-year-old Kamila Valieva, the favorite to win individual gold. Valieva tested positive for a banned medication in December and is now awaiting a decision from the Court of Arbitration for Spot on Monday to see whether she can continue competing in the Olympics.

___

The Court of Arbitration for Sport says it expects to announce Monday whether figure skater Kamila Valieva can compete in the women’s individual event at the Beijing Olympics.

CAS says a closed-door appeal hearing will start at 8:30 p.m. local time Sunday at a hotel in Beijing.

A three-judge panel will aim to notify all the parties of its verdict Monday afternoon. That’s less than 24 hours before Valieva is due back on the ice to start the individual event, where she’s the strong favorite.

Russia’s anti-doping agency provisionally banned Valieva on Tuesday because she failed a doping test in December. After an appeal, the agency lifted the ban Wednesday.

The IOC, World Anti-Doping Agency and International Skating Union have challenged the lifting of the ban.

The 15-year-old skater’s positive test was announced only after she helped the Russian Olympic Committee team win gold in the team event.

___

Johannes Thingnes Boe of Norway skied fast enough to win the gold medal in the biathlon sprint race despite missing one target.

Boe covered the 10-kilometer course in 24 minutes, 0.4 seconds. It’s his third medal of the Beijing Games. He also won gold in the mixed relay and bronze in the individual race.

Quentin Fillon Maillet of France also missed one target but couldn’t match Boe’s ski speed. He won silver, 25.5 seconds back. He won gold in the individual and silver in the mixed relay, where he was outsprinted by Boe. He’s also the overall World Cup leader.

Tarjei Boe, who had a single miss on the day, won bronze, 38.9 seconds behind his younger brother.

___

Estonia’s Kristjan Ilves has been released from isolation and cleared to train on the Beijing Games’ cross-country course.

Ilves, the world’s sixth-ranked Nordic combined skier, previously tested positive for COVID-19 and that knocked him out of the normal hill competition and 10K cross-country race on Wednesday night.

He was one of four Nordic combined stars to miss the first of three medal events in China.

Three-time world champion Jarl Magnus Riiber of Norway was still in isolation on Sunday.

Fifth-ranked and three-time Olympic champion Eric Frenzel of Germany and teammate Terence Weber, who is ranked seventh, were still in isolation as of Saturday night.

___

Gao Tingyu thrilled the home crowd in Beijing by becoming the first Chinese man to claim an Olympic gold medal in speedskating, winning the 500 meters.

Gao added to the bronze medal he took in the 500 at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

Zhang Hong had been the only Chinese gold medalist at the oval. She won the women’s 1,000 eight years ago in Sochi.

Now, she’s got company.

Gao skated in the seventh of 15 pairs, setting an Olympic record of 34.32 seconds. Then he waited nervously on the infield as 16 other skaters took aim at his time.

None could beat it. The silver went to South Korea’s Cha Min Kyu, whose time of 34.39 gave him a matching medal to the silver he won four years ago in Pyeongchang. Wataru Morishige of Japan took the bronze in 34.49.

___

Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin says there will be no hearing until Sunday on whether figure skater Kamila Valieva can keep competing at the Beijing Olympics.

In comments carried by the state news agency Tass, Matytsin says that the Court of Arbitration for Sport will hear the case Sunday.

Valieva tested positive for the heart drug trimetazidine in a sample taken at the Russian national championships on Dec. 25.

The CAS hearing will not decide whether she doped, only whether she can keep competing until there is a full disciplinary hearing later on. The women’s competition starts Tuesday and Valieva is the heavy favorite for gold.

Russia’s gold medal in the team competition, where Valieva competed, could also be at risk, but that won’t be decided until later.

___

Snowboarding icon Shaun White ’s next big contest is the Super Bowl. He was bound for the airport less than 24 hours after he took his final competitive halfpipe ride at the Olympics.

He’s headed from Beijing to Los Angeles to watch his first Super Bowl in person.

White said his girlfriend, actress Nina Dobrev, has been suggesting he make a list of things he wants to do in retirement “so I’m not sitting around twiddling my thumbs.”

“I’ve been to the house parties and stuff. Never been to the game, so I’m excited to check that off the list,” White said in a phone interview with The Associated Press, as he rode to Beijing on Saturday to catch a late-night flight.

After that, he’ll take some time to relax.

The build-up to his last contest, then the tear-stained aftermath of his fourth-place finish, have been an emotional roller coaster for the three-time champion.

“I woke up this morning and I just felt this peacefulness,” White said. “It was amazing to know I have so much ahead of me.”

___

The Russian team started strong and finished strong Saturday in the women’s four-person relay, winning another Olympic gold medal in cross-country skiing.

Yulia Stupak broke away early with nine women chasing. On the next leg, Natalia Nepryaeva was chased down by Katharina Hennig of Germany.

The Germans briefly took the lead on the last lap, with Russian skier Veronika Stepanova just behind Sofie Krehl. But Stepanova pulled away on the final climb and won in 53 minutes, 41 seconds. Germany took silver, 18.2 seconds behind. Sweden edged Finland for bronze.

Tatiana Sorina skied the third lap for the Russian team, which is competing at the Beijing Games under the acronym ROC — short for Russian Olympic Committee.

The four-person relay began as a mass-start with 18 racers. Each woman skied two laps on a 2.5-kilometer (1.5-mile) course. The first two skiers raced in the classic style and the last two in freestyle.

___

The start of the men’s 500 meters is being delayed at the Olympic speedskating oval.

The ice was all set for the sprint race when workers came out to remove some of the lane markers and repair a section of the outer lane in the corner. One of the Zambonis was reappeared and made two trips around to smooth over that area.

Fifteen pairs are competing in the race.

___

Japan has set an Olympic record in the quarterfinals of the women’s speedskating team pursuit at the Beijing Olympics.

Japan broke its own Olympic mark Saturday with a time of 2 minutes, 53.61 seconds, advancing to the semifinals as the top qualifier.

The Japanese will face the fourth-fastest qualifier, the Russian Olympic Committee (2:57.66). Canada (2:53.97) and the Netherlands (2:57.26) also advanced and will meet in the other semifinal.

China and Norway were relegated to the C final. Belarus and Poland will meet in the D final.

___

The United States men’s hockey team beat Canada, its biggest rival, 4-2 in a preliminary round game at the Beijing Olympics.

Andy Miele responded to Canada’s early goal by tying it 70 seconds later and Brendan Brisson scored his second of the Olympics.

The Americans are now in the driver’s seat to earn a spot in the quarterfinals of the men’s hockey tournament.

Sean Farrell also set up Ben Meyers to give him three assists and six points and goaltender Strauss Mann made 35 saves to help the U.S. improve to 2-0 in the preliminary round. Beating Germany on Sunday would put the U.S. first in the group and could made it the top seed in the knockout round.

The boom or bust potential of the youngest team in the tournament was on full display against Canada, a bigger, stronger and more experienced opponent.

The U.S. — with 12 college players on the ice — went hit for hit with Canada and used a combination of offensive skill and bad opposing goaltending to take control of the game.

___

Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was in tears after a shaky practice Saturday at the Beijing Olympics that included a fall on a triple axel — a jump she typically executes without a problem.

Valieva was doing a run-through of her short program when she fell. She later landed two combos, a triple flip-triple toe loop and a triple lutz-triple toe loop, before skating to the boards and giving her coach, Eteri Tutberidze, an emotional hug.

Valieva has continued to practice while the Court of Arbitration for Sport considers whether a failed doping test will keep the 15-year-old sensation out of the women’s competition. The event begins Tuesday in Beijing.

Valieva helped Russia win team gold last weekend. Then on Monday, a test taken in December was flagged for traces of the banned heart drug trimetazidine, putting the medal won by her entire team in possible jeopardy.

___

The inaugural Olympic monobob starts Sunday at the Beijing Games. In monobob, there’s only one woman in the bobsled.

Americans Kaillie Humphries and Elana Meyers Taylor are expected to be among the top contenders in the new event. Medals will be awarded Monday and the traditional two-woman competition starts Friday night.

Humphries is the reigning world champion in the event and Meyers Taylor is this season’s monobob World Series overall champion.

Humphries and Meyers Taylor were both fighting COVID-19 in recent weeks, yet recovered just in time to keep their Olympic hopes going.

Men compete in the four-man bobsled and Humphries and Meyers Taylor hoped the Olympics would add a women’s event, but most countries besides the U.S. and Canada don’t have enough female bobsledders to compete. So monobob was added instead.

___

Defending Olympic champion Sofia Goggia of Italy appeared content after completing the opening downhill training session at the Beijing Games less than three weeks after injuring her left leg and knee in a crash.

Goggia finished 1.55 seconds behind leader Priska Nufer of Switzerland.

Mikaela Shiffrin was slightly quicker in ninth and 1.33 back.

Two more training sessions are scheduled before Tuesday’s race.

Goggia did not enter the super-G and arrived late in China to get in some extra rehab at home in Italy. She sprained her left knee, partially tore a cruciate ligament, had a “minor fracture” of the fibula bone in her leg, plus some tendon damage, after the crash in a super-G in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, on Jan. 23.

There was light snowfall and fog on the top of the course.

___

Lindsey Jacobellis has won her second gold medal of the Olympics, teaming with 40-year-old Nick Baumgartner for the title in the new event of mixed snowboardcross.

The 36-year-old Jacobellis took gold earlier this week in the women’s event; it came 16 years after a late showboat move as she was cruising in for an apparent win cost her the title at the Turin Games.

After a slow start, the U.S. now has five gold medals and 11 overall at the Games. Jacobellis accounts for two, while snowboarder Chloe Kim has another.

The Italian team of Omar Visintin and Michela Moioli came in second and the Canadian duo of Eliot Grondin and Meryeta O’Dine finished third.

___

Finally, a real sign of winter at the Winter Olympics: real snow in the mountains used for Alpine skiing.

Just a light flurry, mind you.

Still, actual flakes are dropping on the hills of the Yanqing Alpine Skiing Center, about 55 miles northwest of Beijing’s city center.

It is the first precipitation since ski racing competition began last week — the absence of snow is not much of a surprise, given how dry the season usually is in these parts.

All of the snow that American star Mikaela Shiffrin and others have been skiing on is manufactured.

There are no Alpine medals at stake Saturday, just a chance for Shiffrin and other women to take training runs for the downhill along the course known as The Rock. The race is scheduled for Tuesday.

More snow is in the forecast for Sunday, when the men are supposed to contest the giant slalom — and even continuing through Monday morning. A total of about 3 1/2 inches (9 centimeters) is expected at the Alpine skiing venue.

___

German pairs skaters Nolan Seegert and Minerva Fabienne Hase practiced for the first time Saturday, 10 days after Seegert tested positive for COVID-19 upon his arrival in Beijing and was put into quarantine.

Seegert and Hase were forced to withdraw from the team competition, which meant Germany received no points for the pairs short program. That made it impossible for the longshots to advance to the medal round of the event.

The individual pairs competition begins Friday night, so they still have nearly a week to prepare.

The women’s session is later Saturday at the same practice rink near Capital Indoor Stadium. It’s unclear whether Kamila Valieva, who is at the center of a Russian doping controversy, will be on the ice again. She is awaiting a ruling from the Court of Arbitration for Sport on whether she can continue in Beijing with the women’s event beginning Tuesday.

___

More AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports



Read original article here

World

White says Olympics will be his final contest

Leave a comment

ZHANGJIAKOU, China (AP) — This really is it for Shaun White.

The three-time gold medalist made it clear that not only will the Beijing Games be his last Olympics, they’ll mark his final contest, too.

During a reflective, sometimes emotional news conference Saturday, not far from the halfpipe where he’ll take his last competitive ride, the 35-year-old said that, yes, he’ll be hanging ’em up for good after the medal round next week.

“In my mind, I’ve decided this will be my last competition,” he said.

It’s a decision that’s been building since a rough-and-tumble training stop in Austria in November. He was dealing with nagging remnants from injuries to his knee … and back … and ankle. He got lost on the mountain with the sun going down. It was one of those rare times when snowboarding didn’t feel fun anymore.

“A sad and surreal moment,” he called it. “But joyous, as well. I kind of reflected on things I’ve done and looked at the sun going down and went, ‘Wow, next time I’m here, I won’t be stressed about learning tricks or worried about some competition thing.’”

White traditionally has taken a break for a season, sometimes two seasons, in the aftermath of an Olympics, so to hear him say he’d be checking out for good after Beijing was not a big shock. Still, it’s not uncommon for some of the greats to make a curtain call. Usain Bolt, for example, competed in the 2017 world championships the year after going 3 for 3 in the Olympic sprints for the third straight time.

But White won’t be going that route.

He is soaking in every moment on this fifth trip to the Games, and over his 45-minute session with the media, he fielded an equal number of questions about his past as about what’s to come over the next seven days and beyond.

“I have some runs in my head that I’d like to do,” he said. “And it’s all about visualizing and making that happen the ‘day of.’”

Though he refused to take it off the table, those runs probably will not include a triple cork — the three-flip trick that Ayumu Hirano of Japan has landed twice in competition this season, but has not won with, because he could not link another trick to it.

Back in 2013, White worked on that trick for a time. Then, a different jump — the double cork 1440 — became the hottest thing in the halfpipe, so he abandoned the triple to work on that. The rest is history: The 1440 was not enough for him to win in Sochi, but four years ago in Pyeongchang, he linked two of them back to back and took his third gold medal.

“I’d never done that combination of tricks before and just put it down to win,” White said. “I mean, it’s a legacy performance.”

His legacy goes well beyond that.

By making a choice that was unpopular in many circles — embracing competition, and embracing the Olympics — he took the entire sport with him and made the whole endeavor more mass-marketable, in large part because every sport needs a star.

He also set the bar in a game that treasures progression above all else. In 2006, he was the first man to land back-to-back 1080s in a contest. In 2010, he landed his patented Double McTwist 1260 — “The Tomahawk,” he calls it — in a victory lap in Vancouver; it’s a trick that’s still relevant today.

Though others started landing the 1440 and linking two together before him, White did it best — and did it when the stakes were the highest.

But when asked what would suffice as a “good” Olympics this time around, he wasn’t talking about 1440s or triple corks or gold medals.

This has been a rough season for him — including an ankle injury, a bout with COVID-19, a late unscheduled trip to Switzerland to secure his Olympic spot and, most recently, a training plan that got thrown off schedule during his stay in Colorado in January.

“I approach every competition as, you’ve got to be content with your own riding,” White said. “And as long as you can go out there and put down your best, and lay it out there, then you can walk away, and in your mind, be good with that.”

White says he’s toggling between trying to enjoy every moment of the last big contest week of his life and knowing there is work to do when the halfpipe opens for training Sunday.

“I’m sort of pinching myself, with how lucky I am to still be here at this age,” he said.

But it’s hard not to look back. He told about how when he was a kid, everything he did, day in and day out, was wrapped around snowboarding. “I don’t know how many kids out there aspire to be a cowboy and then really get to be a cowboy,” he said.

Asked what headline he would stamp on his career, he said he looks back at the kid he once was and thinks the perfect thing to say to him would be: “We did it!’”

___

More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports



Read original article here

Sports

US rolls to women’s hoops gold medal in Bird’s last Olympics

Leave a comment

SAITAMA, Japan (AP) — Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi walked off the basketball court together, arm-in-arm, one last time at the Tokyo Games.

They started their journey together five Olympics ago and ended it in the same fashion as always — with gold medals hanging around their necks.

“All of what we’ve done for USA Basketball, we’ve done together. It’s fitting,” Bird said after the 90-75 win over Japan on Sunday.

And now it’s over — at least for the 40-year-old Bird.

“The best comparison is college since you know it’s the end,” Bird said. “Now I always have a wonderful feeling and a great taste in my mouth my senior year. That’s how it is with USA Basketball.”

All she and Taurasi have done on the international stage is win and now the pair stands alone with five gold medals — the first basketball players ever to accomplish that feat.

“It’s 20 years and people only get to see these moments,” Taurasi said. “We’re on these trips every day together. every conversation. this means a lot to us.”

While Bird is retiring from international basketball, Taurasi left the door open after the game in her on-court interview that she’ll play in Paris in 2024.

She isn’t actually certain she’ll play, saying: “We’ll see.”

But, Bird threw a quick jab at her 39-year-old friend for even considering it.

“Hahaha, idiot,” Bird said laughing while standing next to Taurasi and talking with The Associated Press.

The U.S. has now won the last seven Olympic gold medals matching the country’s men’s program for the most ever in a row. The men did it from 1936-68.

With Bird orchestrating the flow of games and Taurasi’s scoring, they have been a constant force for the U.S., providing stability for the women’s program since the 2004 Athens Games. They have won all 38 of the games at the Olympics they’ve competed in.

The names have changed around the pair, including greats Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, Tina Thompson, Tamika Catchings and Sylvia Fowles, but the results haven’t.

The Americans are on a 55-game Olympic winning streak dating back to the bronze medal game of the 1992 Barcelona Games.

The U.S. let Japan know that wasn’t going to change on Sunday.

The Americans jumped out to a 18-5 lead behind a dominant first quarter by Brittney Griner. The team lead 23-14 after one as Griner had 10 points, taking advantage of the undersized Japanese team. Japan was able to get within six in the second quarter before the Americans went up 11 at the half and never looked back.

As the final buzzer sounded, Bird and Taurasi embraced and then proceeded to hug all of their teammates and the coaching staff.

Griner finished with 30 points, making 14 of her 18 shots. It was the most points ever by a U.S. player in a gold medal game, surpassing the 29 by Leslie in 1996.

While Bird has said she is moving on, the future is bright for the U.S. behind Griner, Breanna Stewart and the six newcomers on this year’s team. That included A’ja Wilson, who will be counted on to keep the streak going three years from now at the 2024 Paris Games. Wilson, who celebrated her 25th birthday on Sunday, made her presence felt in her Olympic debut, scoring 19 points in the gold medal game.

But there were other milestones of note Sunday besides Bird’s farewell.

The victory also made Dawn Staley, the first Black women’s basketball coach for the U.S., the second woman to win a gold medal as a player, assistant and head coach joining Anne Donovan. Staley said after the game that she won’t come back to coach in Paris.

Staley said being part of six Olympics is enough for her, “I’m full.”

The game also marked the end of Carol Callan’s run as the national team director. She started right before the Americans won the first gold of this streak in 1996 and has been the architect for this unprecedented run.

Japan, which was the only one of the 11 other teams to ever have beaten the U.S. in an Olympics, won a medal for the first time in the country’s history. The team’s best finish before Sunday was fifth.

The host nation has been on the rise since it hired coach Tom Hovasse. He said when he got the job 4 1/2 years ago that his team would be playing against the U.S. for the gold at the Tokyo Games — and would beat them.

He was half right.

The teams met in preliminary pool play and the U.S. won by 17 points after trailing by two after the first quarter. Just like that game, the Americans used their dominant post advantage to control the title game. Japan’s biggest player was 6-foot-1 — no match for the imposing front line led by Griner, who is 6-9.

While the general public and family members couldn’t attend the games because of the coronavirus pandemic, Bird did have fiancee Megan Rapinoe in the stands cheering her on. Bird came over and embraced Rapinoe after the game. She helped the U.S. women’s soccer team win a bronze medal earlier this week, scoring two goals in that game.

A large contingent of Japanese volunteers, who had been in the Saitama Super Arena for the entire tournament sat and applauded their team. No actual cheering was allowed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

___

More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2020-tokyo-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports



Read original article here

Sports

At 46, African skateboarder finally wows mom at Tokyo Games

Leave a comment

TOKYO (AP) — At age 46, the second-oldest skateboarder at the Tokyo Games is hoping to not have a heart attack and have mounds of fun. Should be no problem. Fun has been a life’s work for Dallas Oberholzer.

“I have never had a real job. I have never applied for a job,” he says. “My whole life has just been skateboarding. I am just hooked.”

Skateboarding’s young guns, with their endorsements and boards bearing their names, have bigger tricks and bigger Instagram followings than the grizzled South African with a salt-and-pepper beard. Oberholzer isn’t expecting to beat them when they go wheel-to-wheel this week in Tokyo’s huge purpose-built Olympic skate bowl.

But Oberholzer has big tales, woven from a nomadic existence on four squeaky polyurethane wheels. If skateboarding is the punk rock sport of the Games, disruptive and not taking itself too seriously, then Oberholzer is its Iggy Pop — raw, wild and worn, someone who can talk and talk and talk.

About, say, when he worked as a concert chauffeur, ferrying around Janet Jackson’s dancers. Or his 16-month road trip, from Canada all the way to Argentina, after he graduated from university with a degree in marketing that he quickly realized he had no use for.

“Just a collection of experiences” is how he describes himself. Another description could be: A mascot for middle-aged people everywhere, flying the flag for Generation X against Gens Y and Z.

”I’m not going to win. I am not going to get a medal,” he says. “But, like, I am legitimately the best guy in Africa. By default, the best guy in Africa goes to the Olympics.”

“It’s just unbelievably epic,” he adds. “It’s all expenses paid and it’s going to be the best course I would have ever skated in my life.”

Only Rune Glifberg, a.k.a “the Danish Destroyer” and also 46, is older (by eight months) than Oberholzer among the 80 men and women competing in skateboarding’s Olympic debut in Tokyo.

In the men’s park competition on Thursday, Oberholzer and Glifberg — with their spiky shocks of grey-flecked hair — will face skaters less than half their age.

The women’s event on Wednesday has even younger skaters: Kokona Hiraki of Japan is just 12. In the women’s street event in Week 1, three young teens — 13, 13 and 16 — won gold, silver and bronze.

“I have got nothing to lose, nothing to prove. I know I am 46 and all I need to do is keep my cardio up so I can stay on my skateboard for 45 seconds,” Oberholzer says. “I’m going to be the one smiling, bro. I hope. Or I will be having a mild heart attack.”

Skating’s age range is remarkably broad for an Olympic event and testifies to the sport’s inclusivity. In July, skating pioneer Tony Hawk competed at the X Games at age 53, and was beaten by a 12-year-old, Gui Khury. The sport’s coffee mug could read: “Skaters don’t grow old, they just get new wheels.”

“Skateboarding definitely makes you feel younger,” says Glifberg. “It’s not just a physical thing. It’s a lot to do with style and grace and just the way that you present yourself on the board.”

Whereas Gens Y and Z have had “how-to” videos on YouTube and Instagram to teach them tricks, Oberholzer and Glifberg had to find their own way.

Glifberg started right around the time that “Back to the Future” turned kids onto skating in 1985. For Oberholzer, it was a rented VHS copy of the 1986 movie “Thrashin,’” about skateboarding gangs, that “made all our eyeballs pop out.”

Until then, his sport had been tennis.

“I remember just thinking to myself, ’I could play tennis and let the ball have all the fun or I could be the ball,’” he recalled. “And I’m like, ‘I want to be the ball. I want to be the one flying around.’”

Anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela was still in jail when Oberholzer started riding buses into central Johannesburg in search of places to skate. Schooled, like other white South Africans, separately from Black kids, it was on his board that Oberholzer first started to meet and mingle with Black peers who also skated.

“It really helped me get over my apartheid upbringing,” he says.

In turn, Oberholzer is giving back. He uses skateboarding to reach out to kids in tough neighborhoods, to keep them from drugs and gangs and help them develop skills. The Indigo Youth Movement he founded has built multiple skate parks and ramps.

But none of that has impressed his mum, Linda, quite like qualifying for the Olympics.

“My mom is finally happy with my life choices, bro. You know what a good feeling that is? It’s taken that long for my mom to acknowledge what I do with my life,” he says. “That’s probably the best thing I’m taking out of this, is that my mom finally goes, ‘Wow.’”

___

Paris-based AP multimedia journalist John Leicester is covering his eighth Olympics. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/johnleicester. More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2020-tokyo-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports



Read original article here

Sports

Dutch windsurfer Badloe wins gold in Tokyo

Leave a comment

TOKYO (AP) — The Latest on the Tokyo Olympics, which are taking place under heavy restrictions after a year’s delay because of the coronavirus pandemic:

___

MEDAL ALERT

Kiran Badloe won the Netherlands’ third straight gold medal in windsurfing RS:X. Thomas Goyard of France earned silver and Bi Kun of China was third, becoming the first male athlete from China to medal in sailing.

Dorian van Rijsselberghe won the previous two golds in the events. The Netherlands also won three straight golds in equestrian’s eventing (1924-1932) and dressage (2000-2008).

___

MEDAL ALERT

China won its 20th gold medal of the Tokyo Summer Olympics when Lu Yunxiu edged Charline Picon of France in women’s windsurfing RS:X. Lu finished the competition with 36 points to Picon’s 38. Emma Wilson of Britain took the bronze in sailing’s first medal of these Games.

China leads all countries with the 20 golds, followed by Japan with 17 and the United States with 16. The United States has the most medals with 45. China has 42 and ROC, 34.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Nina Christen of Switzerland has won women’s 50-meter three-position rifle for her second medal of the Tokyo Olympics.

Christen pumped her fist after a 10.2 on her final shot and had an Olympic-record 463.9 points to beat Russian Yulia Zykova by 2.0.

The 27-year-old member of the Swiss armed forces also took bronze in 10-meter air rifle in her second Olympics.

Russian Yulia Karimova earned bronze for her second medal in Tokyo. She also took bronze with Sergey Kamenskiy in the 10-meter air rifle mixed team event.

___

China had another dominating day at the diving pool, taking the top two spots in the semifinals of the women’s 3-meter springboard.

In a repeat of the preliminaries, defending Olympic champion Shi Tingmao posted the highest score over five dives and teammate Wang Han ranked second. The pair already teamed up to win the 3-meter synchronized event.

Shi led the way with 371.45 points. Wang (346.85) and Canadian Jennifer Abel (341.40) were the only ones even close to the leader, stamping China as a huge favorite to earn its fourth diving gold in five events at these games.

Americans Krysta Palmer and Hailey Hernandez also finished in the top 12 to advance to Sunday’s final, where the scores will be wiped clean and the final standings settled with another five more dives.

___

Japan will compete for its 10th judo gold medal in at the Tokyo Olympics when it faces France on Saturday night in the final of the first-ever Olympic mixed team event at the Budokan.

Japan got off to a shocking start in its opening match when gold medalists Uta Abe and Shohei Ono both lost their bouts to Germany’s Theresa Stoll and Igor Wandtke, respectively. The powerhouse home team then rattled off eight consecutive victories over Germany and the Russian team to reach the final.

France barely survived its opening-round match with underdog Israel, winning only on Margaux Pinot’s golden-score victory in the tiebreaking seventh bout. France then rolled past the Netherlands in the semifinal.

Israel rebounded with a 4-2 victory over Brazil to secure a shot at a bronze medal against the Russian team in the evening. Israel has won just 10 medals in its entire Olympic history, with half of those in judo.

Germany will meet the Netherlands in the other bronze medal match.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Ivan Litvinovich has given Belarus a second straight gold in men’s trampoline.

The 20-year-old Litvinovich put together a spectacular routine during the finals on Saturday, posting a score of 61.715 to edge 2012 Olympic champion Dong Dong of China.

Dylan Schmidt of New Zealand earned the bronze.

Dong earned his fourth Olympic medal in the competition in which athletes put together 10 consecutive jumps while incorporating an intricate series of flips and twists. He took silver in Rio de Janeiro 2016 and bronze in 2008 in Beijing to go along with his gold from London.

Dong qualified fifth for the eight-man final. He raised his hands after drilling his set and watched as the next three competitors failed to match his 61.235. Litvinovich, however, was just a bit better and he broke into tears when his score was flashed.

Litvinovich’s teammate, defending Olympic champion Uladzislau Hancharou, finished fourth.

Gao Lei of China, a four-time world champion and a bronze medalist in Rio de Janeiro, did not make it through his second routine during qualifying and failed to make it to the finals.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Spain’s Alberto Fernandez and Fatima Galvez have won gold in mixed team trap shooting at the Tokyo Olympics.

They defeated San Marino’s Gian Marco Berti and Alessandra Perilli 41-40 in the gold medal match.

San Marino went into its final two shots with a chance to tie and send the match to a shoot-off, but Berti missed his to give the gold to the Spaniards.

The medal is San Marino’s highest in the Olympics and just its second in 61 years of competition after Perilli won bronze in women’s individual trap.

The gold was the first Olympic medal for Fernandez, a three-time world champion who’s been one of the world’s most decorated shooters.

Brian Burrows and Madelynn Ann Bernau of the United States won the bronze medal match in a shoot-off 3-2 after tying Slovakia Erik Varga and Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova with 42 targets each.

___

Hannah Roberts will have the top seed when BMX freestyle makes its Olympic finals debut.

The 19-year-old from Indiana had a two-run seeding average of 87.70 to lead American teammate Perris Benegas by 1.2 heading into Sunday’s finals.

Roberts has already won three world championships.

Gold medal favorite Logan Martin of Australia led the men’s qualifying with a 90.97 average. Rim Nakamura of Japan was second at 87.67.

Riders will get two one-minute runs in the final and scoring will be the average of the two.

___

American BMX racer Connor Fields has been moved out of critical care unit at St. Luke’s International hospital a day after suffering a brain hemorrhage during a horrific qualifying crash at the Tokyo Olympics.

Fields was injured during his third qualifying run when he slammed into the first turn and was hit by two other riders. The 28-year-old from Las Vegas was taken by stretcher to an ambulance.

USA Cycling says Fields spent the night in the ICU and doctors reported no additional bleeding or injuries.

USA Cycling staff have been in contact with his family to navigate his care options. Fields will remain in the hospital until cleared.

___

Japanese judo gold medalist Shohei Ono has lost his first bout since 2015 in the quarterfinals of the Olympic debut of the mixed team competition.

Ono was stunned by Germany’s Igor Wandtke in the second bout of the six-match quarterfinal. Wandtke fought very defensively and incurred two penalties, but then threw Ono for a stunning waza ari with 16 seconds left.

Ono’s loss occurred immediately after fellow gold medalist Uta Abe lost her own opening bout to Theresa Stoll, putting Japan down 2-0 in the best-of-six mixed team round.

But Japan’s lineup contained five gold medalists, and the next four players won their bouts to send Japan into the semifinals. Aaron Wolf finished Johannes Frey early in golden score for the clinching fourth victory.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Britain has claimed swimming gold in the new 4x100m mixed medley relay with a world record of 3 minutes, 37.58 seconds.

The silver went to China in 3:38.86, while Australia took the bronze in 3:38.95.

The relay is a new event where men and women compete together and it can be hard to tell who’s winning.

The American swimmers were fifth, ending Caeleb Dressel’s bid to win six gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics.

His hopes were snuffed out before he even dove in the pool.

The Americans tried a different strategy than everyone else, going with Dressel on the freestyle while the other seven teams all closed with a woman.

When 18-year-old Torri Huske passed off to Dressel after the butterfly leg, the Americans were more than 7 seconds behind the leaders in last place.

Dressel turned in the fastest time, but it wasn’t nearly enough to chase down all the teams ahead of him.

___

Simone Manuel’s Olympics are over.

The American swimmer failed to advance from the semifinals of the 50-meter freestyle. Her time of 24.63 seconds was 11th-fastest, eliminating her from Sunday’s final. Only the top eight advance.

At the 2016 Rio Games, Manuel became the first Black American woman to win an individual swimming gold medal in the 100 freestyle. She also claimed a silver in the 50 free.

This time, her preparations were hampered by overtraining syndrome. She failed to make the U.S. team in the 100 free, leaving the 50 as her only individual event. She did claim a bronze medal in the 4×100 free relay.

Australia’s Emma McKeon was the top qualifier, setting an Olympic record for the second day in a row with a time of 24.00.

___

DRESSEL ALERT

Caeleb Dressel’s busy morning continues.

Just minutes after collecting his gold medal for a world-record victory in the 100 butterfly, Dressel returned to the deck for the semifinals of the 50 freestyle.

He posted the top qualifying time of 21.42 seconds, sending him to Sunday’s final with a chance to win another gold.

And Dressel still has one more race to go on the next-to-last day of swimming. He’ll anchor the United States in the 4×100 mixed medley relay, a new Olympic event featuring two men and two women.

He’ll be the only man to swim the anchor freestyle leg, which means he’ll surely dive into the pool with a hefty deficit to make up on the women anchoring for the other seven teams.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Katie Ledecky has closed out her Tokyo Olympics with another gold medal.

Ledecky became the first female swimmer to capture six individual gold medals in her career with a victory in the 800-meter freestyle.

Ledecky led all the way in a race she hasn’t lost since 2010. But she was pushed hard by Australian rival Ariarne Titmus, who claimed the silver in 8:13.83.

The bronze went to Italy’s Simona Quadarella in 8:18.35.

Ledecky finished the Tokyo Games with two golds, two silvers and a fifth-place finish in the 200 free. She lost her first two individual matchups with Titmus, but finally beat her in the 800.

___

USA Gymnastics says Simone Biles has decided to withdraw from the Olympic event finals in the vault and uneven bars.

She continues to be evaluated daily to determine whether she’ll compete in the finals for floor exercise and balance beam.

Biles said she was putting her mental health first when she withdrew from the gymnastics team event after one rotation. The U.S. women won silver there. She also decided not to compete in the all-around. American Sunisa Lee won gold in that event.

MyKayla Skinner, who had the fourth highest score in vault during qualifications, will compete in vault finals for the U.S. alongside Jade Carey, who finished with the second highest score. Biles was the defending Olympic champion in the vault.

___

MEDAL ALERT

The Australian women have claimed another gold at the Olympic pool.

Kaylee McKeown completed a sweep of the backstroke events with a victory in the 200-meter butterfly. Her winning time was 2 minutes, 4.68 seconds.

The silver went to Canada’s Kylie Masse in 2:05.42, with another Australian, Emily Seebohm, claiming the bronze in 2:06.17.

Americans Rhyan White and Phoebe Bacon finished fourth and fifth.

The Australians have won six women’s swimming gold medals in Tokyo and seven golds overall.

___

MEDAL ALERT

American Caeleb Dressel has won his third gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics with a world record in the 100-meter butterfly.

Dressel led right from the start and held off Hungary’s Kristof Milak to win in 49.45 seconds, breaking the mark of 49.50 that he set two years ago at the 2019 world championships.

Milak, winner of the 200-meter butterfly, earned the silver with a blistering 49.68. The bronze went to Switzerland’s Noe Ponti.

Dressel’s victory came in the first of three races on his morning schedule. He’ll also compete in the semifinals of the 50 freestyle before returning to the deck one more time to anchor the 4×100 mixed medley relay, a new Olympic event that features two men and two women.

He’ll likely dive into the pool with a big deficit since he’s the only man in the field to swim the freestyle leg.

___

American Caeleb Dressel will be the lone male anchor on the freestyle leg in the 4×100-meter mixed medley relay final. The event is making its Olympic debut in Tokyo.

The U.S. team will consist of Ryan Murphy, Lydia Jacoby, Torri Huske and Dressel, with the Americans swapping out all of their swimmers who competed in the preliminaries.

As the only team with a man swimming the final leg, the Americans will be facing a deficit going into the last 100 meters. They’ll leave it to Dressel to overhaul the field in a bid for gold.

ROC, Italy and China are going with the traditional order of two men and then two women. Britain, Australia, the Netherlands and Israel are going with a woman, two men swimming the middle legs and a woman on the anchor leg.

___

Great Britain has won gold in the triathlon mixed relay, making it the winningest national team in the history of the sport.

The U.S. took silver and France claimed bronze in the mixed relay at Odaiba Marine Park.

Georgia Taylor-Brown, Jessica Learmonth, Alex Yee and Jonathan Brownlee made up the team that gave Great Britain its third triathlon gold and eighth overall medal, besting Switzerland’s record.

Taylor-Brown and Yee both also medaled in the individual contests earlier in the week, bringing home silver in the women’s and men’s events, respectively.

___

Hong Kong’s rising star Siobhán Haughey has withdrawn from the semifinals of the 50-meter freestyle at the Olympics because of a hip injury.

The 23-year-old swimmer earned a silver medal in the 100-meter freestyle on Friday, to go with the silver she won in the 200 free two days earlier. They are the first swimming medals won by Hong Kong.

Her coach, Rick Bishop, said the injury first bothered her during the 100 free, but she kept going. She finished 15th in the 50 free preliminaries.

Hong Kong was cheering her on, excited to see success for the first time at the Olympic pool. Her two silvers are among six medals won by the country since it first competed in the Summer Games in 1952.

___

Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbare has been provisionally suspended after a positive test for human growth hormone. She was due to run in the semifinals of the women’s 100 meters at the Olympics on Saturday.

The Athletics Integrity Unit said Okagbare tested positive in an out-of-competition test on July 19. The AIU says it was only informed of the finding on Friday, after Okagbare had already run in the 100-meter heats at the Tokyo Games.

The AIU informed Okagbare of the finding and her provisional suspension on Saturday morning.

Okagbare won her heat in 11.05 seconds at the Olympic Stadium to progress to the semis.

__

— More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2020-tokyo-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports



Read original article here

Sports

China wins 3rd diving medal of Tokyo Games

Leave a comment

TOKYO (AP) — The Latest on the Tokyo Olympics, which are taking place under heavy restrictions after a year’s delay because of the coronavirus pandemic:

___

MEDAL ALERT

China has won its third gold medal in diving at the Tokyo Olympics.

Wang Zongyuan and Xie Siyi won men’s 3-meter synchronized springboard. They finished with 467.82 points after leading throughout the six-dive contest.

Andrew Capobianco and Michael Hixon of the U.S. earned silver at 444.36. It’s the same color medal that Hixon won five years ago in Rio with a different partner.

Germany’s Patrick Hausding and Lars Rudiger rallied from sixth to take bronze at 404.73.

China earlier won gold in women’s 10-meter synchro and women’s 3-meter synchro. The Chinese took silver in men’s 10-meter synchro.

___

The U.S. women’s water polo team lost at the Olympics for the first time since 2008, falling 10-9 to Rebecca Parkes and Hungary in group play.

The U.S. was a big favorite to win its third straight gold medal coming into Tokyo, but it was pushed hard by China during a rugged 12-7 victory Monday and then it struggled against Hungary. Even with the loss, it still should be able to advance to the knockout round.

Hungary trailed 9-8 with 2:28 left, but captain Rita Keszthelyi scored from deep and Parkes got the game-winner when she connected on a no-look goal with 45 seconds left. Parkes finished with a team-high three goals.

The U.S. had the ball in the final seconds but turned it over.

It was the United States’ first loss at the Olympics since the 2008 final against the Netherlands. It had a draw in London, but it went 6-0 on the way to the title in Rio.

___

Simone Biles will not defend her Olympic title.

The American gymnastics superstar withdrew from Thursday’s all-around competition to focus on her mental well-being.

USA Gymnastics said in a statement that the 24-year-old is opting to not compete. The decision comes a day after Biles removed herself from the team final following one rotation because she felt she wasn’t mentally ready.

Jade Carey, who finished ninth in qualifying, will take Biles’ place in the all-around. Carey initially did not qualify because she was the third-ranking American behind Biles and Sunisa Lee. International Gymnastics Federation rules limit countries to two athletes per event in the finals.

The organization said Biles will be evaluated daily before deciding if she will participate in next week’s individual events. Biles qualified for the finals on all four apparatuses.

___

Quarantined Olympic skateboarder Candy Jacobs says she’s had to take action to be allowed to get fresh air in an isolation hotel in Japan.

The Dutch athlete was removed from the Olympic Village after testing positive for COVID-19 a week ago.

Jacobs says in a video message posted on Instagram that “not having any outside air is so inhuman.”

She says she refused to move on her seventh day of quarantine in a room where the window doesn’t open.

After more than seven hours, she says, officials agreed she could stand at an open window under supervision for 15 minutes a day.

Jacobs says “having that first breath of outside air was the saddest and best moment in my life.”

The 31-year-old skateboarder missed the street event in the sport’s Olympic debut.

Jacobs says watching the event on television was “a super-cool distraction” from quarantine.

___

Two world champions have been knocked out of the Tokyo Olympic boxing tournament in the round of 16. That blows open the brackets at men’s featherweight and men’s light heavyweight.

Irish featherweight Kurt Walker pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the tournament with a 4:1 win over Uzbek world champion Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov.

Two hours later, Russian light heavyweight Imam Khataev surprised Kazakh world champ Bekzad Nurdauletov with a 4:1 victory. The 26-year-old Khataev has nearly a decade of high-level amateur experience, but no victories to compare to this upset.

Walker controlled the first round and hung on at the end to get a 29-28 decision on four of the five judges’ cards. Walker wouldn’t have been at the Olympics if they had been held on time: His daughter, Layla, was born three months prematurely in May 2020 and required months of hospital care before she emerged healthy.

Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines and Italy’s Irma Testa also clinched their nations’ first Olympic women’s boxing medals by advancing to the semifinals at featherweight.

___

The U.S. men’s volleyball team has improved to 2-1 in pool play at the Olympics by beating Tunisia 3-1.

The Americans bounced back from a loss to the Russians on Wednesday. They knocked off the lowest-ranked team in their group 25-14, 23-25, 25-14, 25-23.

The victory keeps the U.S. in good position to advance to the quarterfinals as one of the top four teams in Pool B. Tunisia has lost all three matches so far in Tokyo.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Annemiek van Vleuten has roared to an emphatic victory in the women’s time trial at the Tokyo Olympics. That gave her a measure of revenge for some miscommunication that may have cost her gold in the road race last weekend.

The Dutch rider led by more than six seconds at the first time check, then pushed it to an astonishing 28 seconds before she put the hammer down to finish in 30 minutes, 13.49 seconds at Fuji International Speedway.

The sixth-from-last rider on the course, van Vleuten was forced to sit on the hot seat for several minutes while those who started after her finished. None of them really had a chance. Marlen Reusser of Switzerland finished more than 56 seconds back to earn the silver medal and van Vleuten’s teammate Anna van der Breggen earned bronze.

___

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and Japanese baseball great Sadaharu Oh are attending the opener of the Olympic baseball tournament and were on the field for the ceremonial first pitch in Fukushima.

They were joined by Tokyo Organizing Committee President Seiko Hashimoto and World Baseball Softball Confederation President Riccardo Fraccari as a high school baseball player from the region threw out the first pitch — a full windup from atop the rubber.

Bach, wearing bright white gloves on both hands, fist bumped the 14-year-old before Team Japan took the field for its game against the Dominican Republic.

It’s the only Olympic baseball game being held in Fukushima, which was devastated by an earthquake and an ensuing tsunami and nuclear accident in 2011. The rest of the tournament will be held at Yokohama Baseball Stadium in Tokyo.

Baseball was restored to the Olympic slate this year for the first time since 2008. The sport will be dropped again for the 2024 Games in Paris but is expected to again be played in Los Angeles in 2028.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Britain has won the men’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay at the Olympics for the first time since 1908, but just missed a world record.

With a powerhouse group that included the 1-2 finishers in the 200 freestyle, Britain blew away the field in 6 minutes, 58.58 seconds. That was just off the world record set by the Americans (6:58.55) at the 2009 world championships.

The 200-meter gold medalist, Tom Dean, led off for the British. James Guy and Matthew Richards took the middle legs before 200-meter silver medalist Duncan Scott swam the anchor leg. It was the first British gold in the event since it made its debut at the first London Games.

Russia claimed the silver in 7:01.81, while Australia took the bronze in 7:01.84.

The four-time defending champion Americans finished fourth — the first time they’ve failed to win a medal in the event other than the boycotted 1980 Moscow Games.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Katie Ledecky has finally collected her first gold medal of the Tokyo Games.

Ledecky has won the 1,500-meter freestyle, which made its Olympic debut for women this year. That helped the American star make up for what has so far been the worst showing of her Olympic career.

About an hour after finishing fifth in the 200-meter freestyle, Ledecky held off teammate Erica Sullivan to win the metric mile in 15 minutes, 37.34 seconds.

Sullivan claimed the silver in 15:41.41, while Germany’s Sarah Kohler grabbed the bronze in 15:42.91.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Japanese swimmer Yui Ohashi has swept the women’s individual medley at the Tokyo Olympics.

Ohashi rallied to win the 200-meter medley, beating Americans Alex Walsh and Kate Douglass. Ohashi had previously won the 400-meter individual medley.

The winning time was 2 minutes, 8.52 seconds. Walsh took the silver in 2:08.65, while the bronze went to Douglass in 2:09.04.

Defending Olympic champion and world record-holder Katinka Hosszu of Hungary finished seventh. She was the oldest swimmer in the final at age 32.

___

MEDAL ALERT

China has wrapped a record-setting first day of rowing finals by smashing the world record in women’s quadruple sculls and winning gold.

The Chinese boat finished in 6 minutes, 0.13 seconds and shaved nearly two seconds off the previous mark set by the Netherlands in 2014. The race was never close. Poland won silver more than 6 seconds behind the Chinese. Australia won bronze for that country’s fourth medal of the day.

Windy conditions produced a strong tailwind for the rowers at Tokyo’s Sea Forest Waterway, and new world or Olympic records were set in each of Wednesday’s six medal races.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Kristof Milak of Hungary has romped to a dominating victory in the men’s 200-meter butterfly at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

Milak won the the gold by about two body lengths, backing up his status as one of the biggest favorites at the Olympic pool. He touched in 1 minute, 51.25 seconds — some 2 1/2 seconds ahead of the silver medalist, Japan’s Tomoru Honda, who finished in 1:53.73.

The bronze went to Italy’s Federico Burdisso in 1:54.45.

South African star Chad le Clos finished fifth. He won the 200 fly at the 2012 London Olympics, upsetting Michael Phelps, but was no match for the Hungarian star.

___

MEDAL ALERT

The Netherlands have set a new world record in men’s quadruple sculls with a sprint over the final 500 meters to win the gold medal.

Their time of 5 minutes, 32.03 seconds beat the previous mark of 5:32.26 set by Ukraine at the 2014 world championships.

The Dutch boat was fourth after the first 500 meters but had closed to second by the next marker. A late push overtook Great Britain for the lead.

Great Britain then held off a late charge by Australia to win silver. Australia’s bronze was the country’s third medal of the day after winning gold in men’s and women’s four.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Ariarne Titmus has beaten Katie Ledecky again at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. Ledecky didn’t even win a medal — the first time that’s ever happened to her at the Olympics.

Titmus gave the Australian women their third individual swimming gold with a victory in the 200-meter freestyle. Titmus set an Olympic record of 1 minute, 53.50 seconds to make it 2-for-2 against the American star, following up a thrilling victory in the 400m freestyle.

In the longer race, Titmus conserved her energy over the first half of the race, then rallied to pass Ledecky with the second-fastest performance in history. Ledecky wasn’t even close in the 200, making the first flip in seventh place and never getting higher than her fifth-place showing at the end. She finished in 1:55.21 — nearly 2 seconds behind the winner.

Ledecky is facing a grueling morning that also includes the final of the 1,500 free. She’s a big favorite for gold in that race, which is new to the women’s program this year.

Italy’s Federica Pellegrini of Italy finished seventh in her fifth and final Olympics. She won the gold in 2008 and is still the world-record holder.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Australia has doubled its haul of Olympic rowing gold medals as the men’s four charged to victory moments after the Aussie women claimed their gold.

Australia had bolted to the front by the 500-meter mark and never were challenged for the lead to reach in the finish line as Romania fought a late surge by Italy to claim the silver medal. Australia’s time of 5 minutes, 42.76 set a new Olympic record.

Italy won bronze.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Australia’s women’s four set a new Olympic-best time to win the gold medal in windy conditions at Tokyo’s Sea Forest Waterway.

The Australian boat led at each marker but had to fight off the Netherlands over the last 50 meters to win in 6 minutes, 15.37 seconds, just .34 seconds ahead of the Dutch boat.

Ireland took bronze more than 5 seconds back.

The windy conditions pushing rowers at the waterpark saw Olympic best times quickly fall as the first three races all saw new standards set.

___

MEDAL ALERT

The French team of Hugo Boucheron and Matthieu Androdias has held off a late charge from the Netherlands over the final 50 meters to win the men’s double sculls by 0.2 seconds in Olympic record time of 6 minutes, 33 seconds.

China made a strong move out of the start before falling back even with the French and the Netherlands. The Dutch boat of Melvin Twellarr and Stef Broenink briefly held the lead at 1,500 meters.

Boucheron and Androdias quickly reeled in the Dutch with a powerful push that was good enough to hold off a late charge at the finish line.

China Zhiyu Liu and Liang Zhang finished third for bronze.

___

New U.S. beach volleyball partners Jake Gibb and Tri Bourne will have some more time at the Olympics to get to know one another.

The Americans had never played together before their first match in Tokyo on Sunday. They beat Switzerland 21-19, 23-21 on Wednesday to improve to 2-0 in the round-robin. They have one more match remaining, against Qatar on Friday night.

Gibb qualified for the Tokyo Games with Taylor Crabb as his partner. But Crabb tested positive for COVID-19 and withdrew, allowing Gibb to replace him. Bourne was on the third-place U.S. team in the qualifying race; each country is limited to a maximum of two spots.

Two wins should be enough to put the Americans in the knockout round. At worst, it would put leave them in a three-way tie for first and give them a tiebreaker match.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Romania’s Ancuta Bodnar and Simona Radis have won the first rowing gold medal of the Tokyo Games, in women’s double sculls.

They bolted from the start and never let up in a dominating performance.

The rowing medal events had been delayed for a day because of bad weather forecasts amid a tropical storm.

Once back on the water, the Romanians were never challenged and led by two boat lengths with just 500 meters to go. Bodnar and Radis are both just 22. Their sprint to victory left the only fight for the silver medal, where New Zealand’s Brooke Donohue and Hannah Osborne edged the Dutch boat of Roos de Jong and Lisa Scheenaard.

___

— More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/olympic-games and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports



Read original article here

Sports

Hancock wins gold for US in skeet shooting

Leave a comment

TOKYO (AP) — The Latest on the Tokyo Olympics, which are taking place under heavy restrictions after a year’s delay because of the coronavirus pandemic:

___

MEDAL ALERT

Vincent Hancock has become the first skeet shooter to win three Olympic gold medals, giving the Americans a sweep after Amber English won the women’s event.

Hancock repeated as gold medalist in 2008 and 2012, but had a disappointing finish at the 2016 Rio Games.

The 38-year-old from Fort Worth, Texas, hit his first 26 targets in the Tokyo final and set an Olympic record with 59 of 60 overall. He beat Denmark’s Jesper Hanen by four.

Kuwait’s Abdullah Al-Rashidi won bronze after taking bronze at the Rio Games as an Independent Olympic Athlete.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Slovenia’s Benjamin Savsek has won the men’s canoe slalom ahead of the Czech Republic’s Lukas Rohan and Germany’s Sideris Tasiadis.

Savsek is ranked No. 7 in the world. He knew he had the time to beat after a clean run with no time penalties, and pumped his first as he crossed the finish line. He didn’t have long to wait to see his time of 98.25 seconds hold up as the winner.

Rohan’s run included a gate touch and 2-second penalty and he finished 3.71 seconds off the lead. Tasiadis, who came in ranked No. 1 in the world and won silver in 2012, was a distant 5.45 seconds slower than Savsek.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Britain’s Tom Daley and Matty Lee have won gold in men’s 10-meter synchronized diving, ending any chance of a sweep by China at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

Daley and Lee sealed their victory with a brilliant final dive and received one perfect 10 from the judges. Every other mark but one was a 9.0 or 9.5.

Daley and Lee finished with a total score of 471.81 points, edging China’s Cao Yuan and Chen Aisen by a mere 1.23. It was the first Olympic gold for Daley, long the star of British diving. He had previously claimed a pair of bronze medals.

The Chinese team had a strong final dive, waiting at the edge of the pool for their scores to be posted. When the marks went up, the British contingent in the mostly empty stands erupted in cheers. Daley and Lee, watching nervously from the pool deck, pumped their fists and embraced when they realized the gold was theirs.

The bronze went to Russia’s Aleksandr Bondar and Viktor Minibaev with 439.92.

___

MEDAL ALERT

American shooter Amber English has set an Olympic record to knock off reigning women’s skeet champion Diana Bacosi of Italy.

English, ranked No. 1 in the world, hit 56 of 60 targets to bounce back from just missing the U.S. Olympic team for the 2012 and 2016 Games.

Bacosi matched English by hitting 47 of 50 shots to reach the final, but missed on her third attempt and a chance to repeat as Olympic champion.

China’s Wei Meng took bronze after tying a world record in qualifying.

___

Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics say 153 people accredited for the Games have tested positive for COVID-19 in Japan since July 1.

The total includes 19 athletes who tested positive in Japan from July 1 through Sunday. Some of those athletes are residents of the Olympic Village, where 16 people have tested positive.

Those people left the apartment blocks overlooking Tokyo Bay to stay in quarantine hotels.

___

The International Tennis Federation says Dutch player Jean-Julien Rojer has tested positive for COVID-19 and been withdrawn from the doubles tournament with partner Wesley Koolhof.

The eighth-seeded pair were scheduled to play Marcus Daniell and Michael Venus of New Zealand. Daniell and Venus received a walkover into the quarterfinals.

Rojer has been placed in isolation.

___

A second judo athlete has dropped out of the Olympics before facing Israel’s Tohar Butbul in the 73-kilogram division.

Olympic officials say Sudan’s Mohamed Abdalrasool didn’t show up to face Butbul in their round of 32 bout Monday despite weighing in for the bout earlier.

The International Judo Foundation didn’t immediately announce a reason why Abdalrasool didn’t compete, and the governing body didn’t respond to requests for comment. Sudanese Olympic officials also didn’t immediately comment.

Algeria’s Fethi Nourine was sent home from the Tokyo Games and suspended by the IJF on Saturday after he withdrew to avoid a potential round of 32 matchup with Butbul. Nourine was supposed to face Abdalrasool for the right to meet Butbul.

Abdalrasool is the world’s 469th-ranked judoka in his weight class, while the accomplished Butbul is seventh.

Nourine also quit the World Judo Championships in 2019 right before he was scheduled to face Butbul.

___

Momiji Nishiya of Japan has won the first ever Olympic skateboard competition for women.

The 13-year-old gave the host nation a sweep of golds in the street event a day after after Yuto Horigome won the men’s event.

Rayssa Leal, a 13-year-old from Brazil, won the silver. That’s her country’s second in skateboarding after Brazilian Kelvin Hoefler took silver on Sunday in the men’s event.

The women’s bronze went to Funa Nakayama, also from Japan.

___

The men’s volleyball team from Russia has beaten the United States in pool-play action.

The Russians took control when they held off two match points before taking the second set 27-25 to go up 2-0. The Americans rallied to win the third set before falling 25-23 in the final set for their first loss of the tournament.

The U.S. had swept France in its opening pool play match. The ROC team is now 2-0 after beating Argentina in their first match.

In an earlier pool play match Monday, Iran beat Venezuela 3-0 for its second straight win.

___

Naomi Osaka is into the third round of the Tokyo tennis tournament.

The host country’s superstar stepped up her game when she needed to in a 6-3, 6-2 win over 49th-ranked Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland to reach the last 16 at Ariake Tennis Park.

The second-ranked Osaka will next face either 2019 French Open runner-up Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic or Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania.

___

The men’s surfing contest at the Olympics has been delayed 90 minutes due to low tide at Tsurigasaki beach, about 90 miles east of Tokyo.

The International Surfing Association, the sport’s Olympic governing body, said low tide combined with the shifting weather has destabilized the quality of the surf conditions for the sport’s big debut.

The call came at the end of the eight 1-on-1 heats for the women’s competition, and now the men’s game is pushed back to start at 1:18 p.m. local time.

Such delays are not unusual in competitive surfing, as it is perhaps the only organized sport that is both dependent on an uncontrollable variable — the weather — and defined by a literal uneven playing field — the ocean.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Caeleb Dressel is off on his quest for six swimming gold medals at the Tokyo Games, leading off an American victory in the men’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay.

Dressel gave the U.S. a lead it never relinquished, swimming the first leg in a blistering 47.26 seconds.

Blake Pieroni and Bowe Becker kept the Americans out front before Zach Apple turned in an anchor leg of 46.69 to leave no doubt at the end.

The U.S. won in 3 minutes, 08.97 seconds, the third-fastest relay in history. Italy took the silver in 3:10.11, with the bronze going to Australia in 3:10.22.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Australia’s Ariarne Titmus has defeated American Katie Ledecky in the 400-meter freestyle at the Tokyo Olympics.

Titmus won one of the most anticipated races of the games, capturing the gold medal with the second-fastest time in history.

Titmus, who trailed by nearly a full body-length at the halfway mark of the eight-lap race, turned on the speed to touch in 3 minutes, 56.69 seconds.

Defending Olympic champion and world-record holder Ledecky settled for the silver this time in 3:57.36 — the fourth-fastest time ever recorded.

No one else was even close. The bronze went to China’s Li Bingjie in 4:01.08.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Britain’s Adam Peaty has repeated as Olympic champion in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

Peaty was perhaps the surest best at the Olympic pool, being the first man to break both 58 and 57 seconds in his signature event. He posted the fifth-fastest time in history (57.37 seconds) to blow away the field.

Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands claimed the silver in 58.00, while the bronze went to Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi in 58.33. American Michael Andrew was next in 58.84 — the second straight final in which a U.S. swimmer finished fourth and was denied a medal.

___

The Olympic archery schedule has been altered for Tuesday due to expected high wind and rain from a forecasted typhoon.

The morning sessions involving first- and second-round matches are officially delayed until noon local time at the Yumenoshima Park Archery Field. But the afternoon session has been postponed.

The plan is to make up the matches Wednesday and Thursday. The individual finals for the men and women at the Tokyo Games are still scheduled for Friday and Saturday.

It’s the first time the Olympic archery scheduled has been majorly influenced by weather, according to World Archery. At the 2008 Beijing Games, there was an hour delay.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Maggie MacNeil has captured Canada’s first gold medal at the pool with a victory in the women’s 100-meter butterfly.

The reigning world champion touched first in 55.59 seconds, edging out China’s Zhang Yufei (55.64) for the top spot. Australia’s Emma McKeon took the bronze in 55.72, beating American teenager Torri Huske by one-hundredth of a second.

Huske went out fast, as is her style, and appeared to be close to the front with about 10 meters to go. But she faded on her final strokes and just missed a spot on the podium.

The U.S. team was denied a medal for the first time in the swimming competition.

Defending champion and world-record holder Sarah Sjöström of Sweden was seventh.

___

NBC says an estimated 17 million people in the United States watched the opening ceremony for the Tokyo Olympics, down 36% from the kickoff to the Rio de Janeiro Games five years ago.

Nielsen says the 17 million includes people who watched the ceremony live on NBC or online when it aired Friday morning and those who saw an edited version on NBC in prime time that night.

NBC was unable to break down how many people watched live and how many saw the prime-time version. The 26.7 million who saw the Rio opening ceremony included both television and online viewership.

Nine years ago, when the Summer Olympics were held in London, the opening ceremony drew a record-setting U.S. audience of 40.7 million people.

It’s difficult to tell how much the sluggish start to the Tokyo Games reflects decreased interest in the Olympics, which were delayed a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, or profound changes in how Americans watch television. With the explosion of streaming as an alternative, ratings for live television have dropped sharply over the past five years.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt has won the men’s triathlon in a time of one hour, 45 minutes and four seconds, 11 seconds ahead of Britain’s Alex Yee.

New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde was third.

Blummenfelt is the first Norwegian to medal in triathlon, which combines swimming, cycling and running. He finished 13th in the Rio Games in 2016.

Blummenfelt was in fifth after the 1,500-meter swim and 40-kilometer cycling legs of the race before surging to the win in the final stage.

Britain’s Jonathan Brownlee, who won silver in Rio and bronze in London in 2012, finished sixth.

___

Defending champion Fiji has opened the men’s Olympic rugby sevens competition with a 24-19 comeback win over Japan.

The highly favored Fijians scored in the opening 30 seconds of the tournament, with Jiuta Wainiqolo posting the first points after Japan failed to control the ball from the kickoff.

The Fijians went close to doubling the lead but Wainiqolo’s attempted one-handed pickup off the ground resulted in Japan captain Chihito Matsui running three-quarters of the field to equalize for the hosts.

The Fijians regained the lead but, after the half-time siren sounded, Japan’s Fiji-born Lote Tuqiri crossed to give the hosts a surprising 14-12 lead at the break.

Japan, a surprise semifinalist when rugby sevens made its Olympic debut in 2016, extended the margin to seven points early in the second half before Fiji responded with two tries and had one disallowed after the full-time siren to clinch the win.

Read original article here

Sports

Iranian refugee shocks taekwondo champ

Leave a comment

The Latest on the Tokyo Olympics, which are taking place under heavy restrictions after a year’s delay because of the coronavirus pandemic:

___

Iranian defector Kimia Alizadeh has shocked two-time Olympic gold medalist Jade Jones at the Tokyo Games, beating the British champion 16-12 in the round of 16.

Alizadeh, a bronze medalist in Rio de Janeiro, won twice for the Refugee Olympic Team to advance to the Tokyo quarterfinals.

She beat Iranian opponent Nahid Kiyani Chandeh in her opening bout before her massive upset of Jones, who was attempting to become the first three-time Olympic taekwondo gold medalist.

Alizadeh is competing for the Refugee Team after defecting to Germany shortly after becoming the first Iranian women to win an Olympic medal in 2016.

___

MORE ON THE TOKYO GAMES:

— Katie Ledecky makes first Tokyo Games appearance in the 400-meter freestyle

— Simone Biles makes her first appearance for Team USA

— Surfing and skateboarding, two of four new Olympic sports, get underway

— An Iranian defector beat an Iranian opponent in taekwondo, then upset a two-time gold medalist

___

UPSET ALERT

Top-ranked Ash Barty has been upset by 48th-ranked Spanish opponent Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of the Tokyo tennis tournament.

It was Barty’s Olympic singles debut. She won a doubles match with Australian teammate Storm Sanders on Saturday.

The defeat comes 15 days after Barty won Wimbledon for her second Grand Slam title.

___

The U.S. women’s volleyball team’s quest for its first gold medal ever is off to a fast start.

The Americans swept Argentina in their opening match, winning 25-20, 25-19, 25-20.

The U.S. won silver medals in 2008 and 2012 and then bronze five years ago in Rio de Janeiro.

But they are still aiming for that elusive first gold medal in the sport and figure to be one of the top contenders in Tokyo along with China.

Jordan Thompson led the way in the opener with 20 points as she dominated at the net.

___

Two-time defending champion Andy Murray has withdrawn from the singles tennis tournament in Tokyo.

Organizers did not immediately say why the British player pulled out shortly ahead of his scheduled opener against ninth-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada on Center Court.

Max Purcell of Australia will play Auger-Aliassime instead.

Organizers said Murray remained in the doubles tournament with partner Joe Salisbury. Murray and Salisbury beat the second-seeded French team of Pierre-Hughes Herbert and Nicolas Mahut 6-3, 6-2 on Saturday.

Murray has a total of three Olympic medals. He also won a silver in mixed doubles at the 2012 London Games with Laura Robson.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Australia has set the first swimming world record of the Tokyo Games in the women’s 4x-100-meter freestyle relay.

The Aussies touched in 3 minutes, 29.69 seconds, breaking the mark 3:30.05 that they set in 2018.

The winning team included sisters Bronte and Cate Campbell, who took the lead and anchor legs.

They were joined by Meg Harris and Emma McKeon.

Canada was second in 3:32.78, while the American took their sixth medal of the night with a bronze in 3:32.81. Simone Manuel swam the anchor leg for the U.S.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Russian shooter Vitalina Batsarashkina has won gold in women’s 10-meter air pistol at the Tokyo Olympics, five years after taking silver at the Rio Games

Batsarashkina shot an Olympic-record 240.3 points, finishing 0.9 ahead of Bulgaria’s Antoaneta Kostadinova.

China’s Jian Ranxin took bronze after matching Greece’s Anna Korakaki’s three-year-old record of 587 points to lead qualifying.

Georgia’s Nina Salukvadze made history by becoming the first athlete to compete in nine Olympics and announced her retirement to Russian media after failing to qualify for the finals.

___

Bryson DeChambeau has tested positive for COVID-19 before leaving the United States for Tokyo and will miss the Olympics. He’ll be replaced by Patrick Reed.

DeChambeau, last year’s U.S. Open champion, becomes the highest-profile athlete to test positive for the virus. He says he is “deeply disappointed not to be able to compete in the Olympics for Team USA.”

Reed was scheduled to undergo testing Sunday and Monday to clear himself to compete in Tokyo. The the first round at the Kasumigaseki Country Club is set for Thursday. Reed, the 2018 Masters champion, is now the only two-time Olympian in the sport, which was reintroduced to the program in 2016.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Yui Ohashi has given Japan its first swimming gold medal at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

With a dazzling breaststroke leg, Ohashi romped to victory in the women’s 400-meter individual medley, touching first in 4 minutes, 32.08 seconds.

Her performance made up for the disappointment of the previous night, when gold medal favorite Daiya Seto didn’t advance to the final of the men’s 400 individual medley.

The United States continued to pile up medals, with Emma Weyant taking silver and Hali Flickinger the bronze. The Americans have earned five of a possible nine medals from the first three swimming finals, including a gold by Chase Kalisz in the men’s 400 individual medley.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Swimmer Ahmed Hafnaoui of Tunisia was the surprise winner in the men’s 400-meter freestyle at the Tokyo Games.

Australia’s Jack McLoughlin settled for silver after leading much of the race, and Kieran Smith grabbed another Olympic medal for the Americans.

It is the third swimming medal for the U.S. after Chase Kalisz won the first American medal of the Tokyo Games, taking gold Sunday in the men’s 400-meter individual medley.

Jay Litherland won the silver on the same race, rallying on the freestyle leg to take the silver.

___

MEDAL ALERT

Chase Kalisz has won the first American medal of the Tokyo Games, taking gold Sunday in the men’s 400-meter individual medley.

Jay Litherland made it a 1-2 finish for the powerhouse U.S. team, rallying on the freestyle leg to take the silver. Brendon Smith of Australia claimed the bronze.

Kalisz, a protege and former training partner of Olympic great Michael Phelps, touched first in 4 minutes, 9.42 seconds.

Litherland was next in 4:10.28, just ahead of Smith (4:10.38).

___

Americans April Ross and Alix Klineman have cruised to a straight-set victory over China in their Olympic beach volleyball opener.

Ross is making her third appearance in the Summer Games with her third different partner. She’s already won a silver medal and a bronze. Klineman is making her Olympic debut. They’re among the favorites for the gold medal in Tokyo.

The Americans won the first set 21-17 and then took the second 21-19 over Xue Chen and Wang Xinxin.

Ross and Klineman play Spain on Tuesday.

The American men’s team of Jake Gibb and Tri Bourne play their first match on Sunday night. Bourne was a late substitute after Gibb’s original partner, Taylor Crabb, tested positive for COVID-19 when he arrived in Japan. They’ll face Italy.

___

— More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/olympic-games and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

___



Read original article here