Ross and Klineman gold on beach; Saturday could be golden day for U.S.
April Ross completes her Olympics medal set with gold. Saturday has potential golds for US in baseball, basketball, golf, water polo and track.
Staff Video, USA TODAY
The U.S. men’s basketball team faced France for the second time at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday, only this time, there was gold on the line.
A historically dominant force in international basketball, the United States had struggled in Tokyo – and even before it. In July, it lost exhibition matches against Nigeria and Australia. Then in the opening game of Olympic pool play, it lost 83-76 to France.
After a semifinal win over the Aussies, though, something finally clicked for the American squad. Milwaukee Bucks star Jrue Holiday and Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker, who were busy with the NBA Finals during the U.S. exhibitions, have supplemented an offense that’s been carried by Olympic veteran Kevin Durant.
The U.S. defeated France in the rematch Saturday, 87-82, to win the gold medal.
The United States has now won 16 gold medals since men’s basketball was added to the Olympic slate in 1936 and five of the six this century. USA Basketball’s only blemish was a loss to Argentina in the 2004 semifinals in Athens before the team came back to beat Lithuania for bronze.
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SAITAMA, Japan — After all of the doubts and naysayers, the U.S. men’s basketball team has won its fourth straight gold medal at the Olympics, dating back to the Beijing Games.
The U.S. led France, which topped the Americans during group play in Japan, all game and won Saturday at Saitama Super Arena, 87-82.
Kevin Durant, without scoring in the fourth quarter until he hit free throws with 8.8 seconds to go, led all players with 29 points. Jayson Tatum racked up 19 points while guards Damian Lillard and Jrue Holiday carried the U.S. late and finished with 11 points apiece.
Rudy Gobert had 16 points for France, but only three of those came after halftime. Evan Fournier added 16 points of his own.
Including Nice Batum’s 3-pointer that ended the third quarter, France put together a 10-2 run that brought them within 73-67. The only U.S. basket of the fourth quarter is a Bam Adebayo jumper. U.S. coach Gregg Poopovich called timeout with 6:28 left in the game.
Frank Ntilkina’s 3-pointer, his first points of the game, made it 73-70 before Adebayo hit another short jumper. Jure Holiday stole a pass and went the length of the floor to make the lead five, and Damian Lillard nailed a jumper from the corner to suddenly make it a nine-point game. France cut it back to a six-point deficit with less than four minutes remaining.
— Chris Bumbaca
Outside of Kevin Durant (27 points), the guard play is picking up for the U.S. between Damian Lillard, who made another three and is up to seven points, and Jrue Holiday. Jayson Tatum brought the lead back to 10 with his second 3-pointer of the game. Meanwhile, Guerschon Yabusele converted his third 3-pointer of the quarter.
Four quick points came from Zach LaVine, one down low from a Draymond Green feed and another from Durant on a pass to the right corner on a fast break. Tatum’s fast-break dunk after another France turnover gave the U.S. its biggest lead at 71-57 with 1:18 left in the third.
France stopped the bleeding a bit and Nicolas Batum made a 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded to make it 71-63 USA going into the fourth quarter.
KAWAGOE, Japan – Play has been suspended at Kasumigaseki Country Club in the final round of the women’s golf competition due to a severe storm approaching.
American Nelly Korda is currently sitting in first place at 17-under in the tournament with two holes remaining in the final round. Japan’s Mone Inami is one stroke behind in silver position and India’s Aditi Ashok and New Zealand’s Lydia Ko are tied for bronze two shots behind Korda.
Officials said there will be an update on the status of play at 1 p.m. local time. Play was suspended at 12:26 p.m. local time.
It was decided that play would resume at 1:15 p.m. local time.
— Olivia Reiner
Kevin Durant is pumped up, and he has every reason to be. A jumper from the left elbow extended the U.S. lead over France to six before Jrue Holiday scored inside. Using a screen, Durant dribbled right and pulled up to make his third 3-pointer of the game, which stretched the lead to 11 (56-45) for the U.S.
Guerschon Yabusele drilled a 3-pointer in the opening seconds of the second half to make it a two-point game before Damian Lillard answered for the U.S. with his own to extend the lead back to five prior to Durant’s mini-run. Yabusele made another three with about six minutes left to cut it to an eight-point game.
— Chris Bumbaca
The U.S. is 20 minutes away from its fourth straight gold medal in men’s basketball, but France has hung around and trails just 44-39 at halftime.
Kevin Durant (21 points) and Jayson Tatum (11 points) have provided the bulk of the U.S. offense. Meanwhile, Rudy Gobert is up to 13 points for France. Tatum leads all players with a +/- of +10.
The U.S. has done a much better job taking care of the ball, winning the turnover battle 10-2.
Of course, in the two teams’ meeting during group play, the U.S. led by eight at halftime before a disastrous third quarter in which France outscored them 25-11.
— Chris Bumbaca
Mike Tirico, NBC’s primary host for the Olympics, briefly took over play-by-play of the broadcast from the studio after the NBC feed of the men’s gold medal basketball game airing in the U.S. apparently lost audio.
A three-point play from Kevin Durant gave the U.S. its largest lead of the game at 35-26, and he then nailed a 3-pointer from the left corner to make the lead 12. Evan Fournier was then called for a technical and Durant made the free throw to give him 19 points with more than four minutes to go before half.
— Chris Bumbaca
Big baskets inside against a smaller U.S. lineup by Moustapha Fall (four points) has kept France close.
Jayson Tatum (3-of-4 from the field) is off to one of his best starts of the tournament with seven points and three rebounds in six-plus minutes.
France called timeout and the U.S. led 30-24 with 6:26 until halftime.
— Chris Bumbaca
Draymond Green and Zach Lavine were the Americans’ first substitutions for Damian Lillard and Bam Adebayo. The U.S. started hitting shots, but Kevin Durant is having a tougher time with Rudy Gobert in the paint.
Khris Middleton and Jayson Tatum were next off the bench and the first U.S. three, via Durant, tied the game at 15. Durant was fouled on his next attempt from behind the arc and nailed all three free throws. Beautiful ball movement on the ensuing French possession led to a Nic Batum three. Tatum followed with a three of his own and the U.S. led 22-18 after the first quarter. Durant already has 12 points.
— Chris Bumbaca
As a team, the U.S. started 2-for-8 from the field and missed their first seven 3-pointers. Things haven’t gone much better on the other side of the floor, as France worked inside for a couple of dunks. Evan Fournier nailed a three and coach Gregg Popovich called timeout with the U.S. trailing 10-4 and 5:28 left.
— Chris Bumbaca
SAITAMA, Japan – The gold medal game between the U.S. men’s basketball team and France has tipped.
The starting lineups for both teams for the game at Saitama Super Arena:
For the United States: Kevin Durant, Jrue Holiday, Devin Booker, Damian Lillard, Bam Adebayo.
For France: Nicolas Batum, Nando de Colo, Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier, Guerschon Yabusele.
TOKYO — Emily Sisson didn’t mind the heat at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in Eugene, Oregon in June when she cruised to a victory in the 10,000-meter event.
The Arizona native finished with a time of 31:03.81 in 80-degree heat at the trials in a race she said she wouldn’t have changed. Now, with high temperatures in Tokyo, she’s poised to finish top 10 against some of the world’s fastest distance runners.
Sisson will compete against the Netherland’s Sifan Hassan, who already won the gold in the 5,000-meters, and Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey. The two runners each reset the world record in the event within a three-day span. Gidey’s time of 29:01.03 is the record going into event finals in Tokyo.
The 29-year-old Sisson originally tried to make the U.S. marathon team in February 2020 but dropped out after running with the leaders for more than 20 miles.
The women’s 10,000-meter race will air at 6:45 a.m. ET on Saturday.
— Jeff Metcalfe
TOKYO —Time and again at the Tokyo Olympic Games, U.S. athletes have climbed onto the medal podium to be rewarded with gold, silver or bronze. In an historic first, nearly 60 percent of those U.S. medalists have been women.
If U.S. women were their own country, they would be fourth in the Olympic medal count, ahead of Great Britain, Germany, Italy, France and nearly 200 other countries, and behind only the entire U.S. team, China and the Russian Olympic Committee.
Of Team USA’s 99 medals heading into the final weekend of the Games, 59 have been won by women, nearly twice as many as the 35 won by men. (Five of the medals have been won in mixed events featuring male and female athletes.)
That means 59.6 percent of all U.S. medals have been won by women. If that number holds through the last events of these Olympics, it will easily surpass the previous best result for American women, which was winning 55.8 percent of the medals at the 2012 London Olympics.
The U.S. is guaranteed at least three more medals from American women, with U.S. women’s basketball, water polo and volleyball playing for gold in the next two days. On Saturday at 3:30 a.m. ET, the U.S. women’s water polo team faces Spain in the gold-medal match. Later Saturday night, the U.S. goes for its seventh consecutive gold medal in women’s basketball when it takes on Japan at 10:30 p.m. ET. The U.S. women’s volleyball team has a chance to win its first ever Olympic gold medal when it meets up with Brazil Sunday at 12:30 a.m. ET.
— Christine Brennan
Left outside a Cambodian orphanage as a child, Jordan Windle was adopted at 18 months old by his Jerry Windle and grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Jerry Windle put Jordan in his first aquatics class at 7-years-old. The campers had a chance to jump off the one meter diving board, and even at a young age, Jordan caught people’s attention. The head of the aquatics program, Tim O’Brien, son of former Team USA diving coach Dr. Ron O’Brien, said Jordan needed to be put in a diving program.
Jordan would move multiple times to train under different coaches, who were all delighted when their former protégé made the U.S. Olympic team. Now, he’s competing for a chance at an Olympic medal in Tokyo.
Men’s 10-meter platform diving semifinals began at 9 p.m. ET, and the finals are scheduled for Saturday at 2 a.m. ET.
Molly Seidel continues to impress. After a stunning performance to qualify for Team USA, Seidel ran another gutsy race Saturday, hanging with the lead pack and holding on to win bronze in the Olympic marathon. It was just the third marathon Seidel, 27, has ever run.
Seidel crossed the finish line third in 2:27:46 on a muggy morning in Sapporo. Kenyans Peres Jepchirchir and Brigid Kosgei finished first and second, respectively. Seidel becomes just the third American woman to ever medal in the women’s marathon. Joan Benoit won gold in the event in 1984, and Deena Kastor took bronze in 2004.
It’s an incredible accomplishment for a four-time NCAA champion in cross country in track, for whom the marathon is still a relatively unfamiliar distance.
Fellow American Sally Kipyego finished 17th. Aliphine Tuliamuk, who won Olympic trials, dropped out of the race about halfway through, with her team citing an injury in a post on social media.
— Tom Schad
Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band may have resumed their residency on Broadway, but all eyes are on the daughter of “The Boss,” Jessica, as she competes in the Olympics. She’ll have one last chance to medal alongside teammates McClain Ward and Laura Kraut in the equestrian team jumping finals on Saturday at 6 a.m. ET.
Ward and Kraut already have four career medals between the two of them but they are looking for another with Springsteen. The team qualified after a trio of nearly perfect runs around the course in qualifiers, good enough for fifth out of the 10 teams that advanced.
Aliphine Tuliamuk dropped out of the women’s marathon Saturday due to injury, according to a post on social media from her team.
Tuliamuk, 32, won the U.S. Olympic marathon trials in early 2020. She dropped out of Saturday’s race a little before the halfway point, roughly 12 miles into the 26.2-mile race. Her running team, HOKA Northern Arizona Elite, wrote on Twitter that her hip “has been bothering her these last two weeks.”
“She tried her best to get it right but couldn’t fix it,” the club wrote. “More to come when we have details.”
Fellow American Molly Seidel was still with the leaders at the 15-mile mark, while Sally Kipyego was slightly behind, in 9th.
— Tom Schad
Besides being the country’s first Olympic or World Cup title, Canada’s win over Sweden in the women’s soccer gold-medal game cemented a more important piece of history.
Quinn, a Canadian midfielder and one of the first openly transgender athletes to compete at the Olympics, is now a gold medalist. Their win is a momentous one for trans representation and acceptance.
“That’s such a huge thing for me, just making sure kids know that they have a place in this sport,” Quinn said after the game. “Sports bring me so much joy, so hopefully I can pass that message along and be a role model for younger folks, seeing that they can be themselves and they can also have a place here and they can be Olympic champions.”
While the International Olympic Committee has long had rules allowing for the participation of transgender athletes at the Games, the Tokyo Olympics are the first at which any have competed. New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard also competed in Tokyo.
— Nancy Armour
The women’s marathon, originally scheduled to start at 7 a.m. Saturday in Tokyo, was pushed up to 6 a.m. due to high temperatures creating dangerous running conditions.
The race will be broadcast live at 5 p.m. ET Friday on USA.
Climate change is becoming an increasing issue in sports. Competition times at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in Eugene, Oregon were altered as temperatures soared above 100 degrees. In Tokyo, a caddy for U.S. golfer Lexi Thompson had to relinquish his duties because of heat exhaustion.
Aliphine Tuliamuk, the U.S. marathon champion, Sally Jepkosgei Kipyego and Molly Seidel will all race for the United States. Tuliamuk was one of the Olympic athletes who fought for breastfeeding mothers to be able to bring their children with them to Tokyo after originally not being allowed to.
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