Hurdler Grant Holloway triumphed in Paris, winning the gold he narrowly missed in Tokyo and becoming the first American in 12 years to win the men’s 110-meter hurdles. Sprinter Noah Lyles’s much-publicized attempt to win both the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints met some complications when the athlete came down with COVID-19 two days before the 200-meter race.
Here is the latest:
Team USA’s Grant Holloway was triumphant in the men’s 110-meter hurdles, winning the gold medal he has aimed for for three years.
Holloway missed the gold by .05 seconds in Tokyo, and said at the time it was the worst race he ran. This year, the three-time world champion has been undefeated. It’s also been 12 years since an American won the gold in this event.
Team USA’s Daniel Roberts won the silver, finishing three-thousandths of a second faster than Rasheed Broadbell of Jamaica who took home the bronze.
Team USA’s Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won gold in the 400-meter hurdles while setting a new world record with a time of 50.37—her sixth world record in this event. McLaughlin-Levrone has been dominant in the sport for the last five years and did not disappoint, becoming the first athlete to win back-to-back gold in the event.
Team USA won a second medal as Anna Cockrell took the silver.
Team USA’s Tara Davis-Woodhall, ranked no.1 in the world in the women’s long jump, is now also the Olympics champion of the event.
Defending champion Malaika Mihambo of Germany won the silver and Team USA’s Jasmine Moore won the bronze.
Noah Lyles spoke to NBC about his health and the 200-meter race after receiving medical treatment, revealing he may sit out upcoming events.
“I woke up early about 5 a.m. Tuesday morning and I was just feeling really horrible, I knew it was more than just being sore from the 100. Woke up the doctors, was tested, and unfortunately it came out that I was positive for COVID,” he said.
“My first thought was not to panic,” he said. “I’ve been in worse situations, I’ve run with worse conditions, I felt. We just took it day by day, tried to hydrate, quarantined off.”
Lyles had won the gold in the 100-meter race Aug. 4, before he came down with COVID-19, and was vocal about his goal to take the 200-meter gold even after the diagnosis. In his debut Olympics in 2021, he took the bronze in the 200-meter, his signature event, and he said it was a disappointment. But winning the bronze this time was different.
Lyles said it never crossed his mind to sit the 200-meter out, and his performances in the qualifying heats affirmed that decision.
However, he will likely sit out the upcoming relay.
Letsile Tebogo of Botswana won gold in the Olympic men’s 200-meter final.
Kenny Bednarek of the United States took the silver medal ahead of his compatriot Noah Lyles in third.
The reigning Olympic champion U.S. women’s volleyball team outlasted Brazil in the Paris semifinals on Aug. 8, winning in a five-set thriller.
Kathryn Plummer led the United States with 26 points, while Avery Skinner scored 19 and Andrea Drews added 18 points.
The Americans play the winner between Turkey and Italy for the gold medal.
Eleanor Aldridge of Great Britain won the gold medal in the women’s kiteboarding event, a new Olympic sailing sport.
The silver went to Lauriane Nolot of France, who took a fall into the water and lost her lead but had two wins from previous rounds.
Bronze went to Annelous Lammerts of the Netherlands.
Max Rendschmidt was among the four of Germany’s men’s kayak team to take the gold on Aug. 8 in a sprint that beat Australia by a hundredth of a second. This is his fourth kayaking gold medal in four Olympics.
The Germans won a second kayaking medal that day when the women’s team wook the silver in the 500-meter event. New Zealand won the gold and Hungary the bronze.
Decorated swimmer Michael Phelps said he got chills watching Bobby Finke swim the 1,500-meter freestyle, breaking both the world and Olympic records in taking the gold.
Finke was a breakout star during his debut Olympics in Tokyo, where he won gold in the 800-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle in a surprise upset. Finke had been in the middle of the pack in those early laps and not expected to make the podium, but he turned things around in the last laps in a memorable upset. This time, people—including his competitors—knew what to expect. Finke’s last-minute sprint in the 800-meter proved to not be enough, and he narrowly missed a medal. But in the 1,500-meter, he outswam the pack.
Phelps, a commentator of this Olympics, says there have been some standout moments in Paris he has to praise, and Finke’s was “one of the greatest swims” this Olympics.
However, Team USA’s performance in the swimming events hasn’t been at the level it once was. While it’s still in the lead with 28 medals, most of them are not gold, and some favorites even failed to make the podium.
“For me as a whole, I was pretty disappointed to see the U.S. swimming results,” Phelps said.
Meanwhile, young swimmers from Canada, Australia, Romania, and even Ireland, in a first, gave breakout performances this year, with gold medals spread out across a large number of countries.
“For me, one of the things that I’ve always said over the last couple of years is the rest of the world is catching up,” Phelps said. “I think a lot of the things that we’ve done as a country for so long, the other people are catching up. They’re doing the same thing … So hopefully, we’re able to make that transition heading into 2028.”
Team USA athletes have voted swimmer Katie Ledecky and rower Nick Mead to lead the team in the Aug. 11 closing ceremony as the flag bearers.
“Congratulations to our Closing Ceremony flag bearers, Katie Ledecky and Nick Mead, who exemplify the spirit of sport and the pride of Team USA,” said USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland. “Katie and Nick have significantly contributed to the joyous and celebratory atmosphere. We are thrilled and proud to follow them into Sunday’s closing festivities.”
Ledecky posted on social media, “Honored to lead @TeamUSA at the Closing Ceremony with Nick! Proud of my teammates here in Paris, and excited to celebrate with all of them on Sunday.”
Climber Sam Watson set a world record in speed in April, broke it in the qualifiers, and then again in the final round, taking the bronze medal.
The men’s speed climbing event has seen the record broken by climbers one after another by tenths or hundredths of seconds.
Leonardo Veddriq of Indonesia took the gold at 4.75 seconds.
New Zealand’s Lisa Carrington led her women’s kayak four crew to the gold medal at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, increasing her personal Olympic tally to six golds and one bronze.
Germany came in second and Hungary third but it was the Kiwis who were triumphant, with Carrington, her nation’s most successful Olympian of all time, slapping the hull after they crossed the finish line in first place after a tough battle.
Double world champion Chase Jackson of the United States failed to qualify for the Olympic shot put final on Thursday after a miserable performance in the heats.
Jackson had two fouls and then managed only 17.60 meters with her third throw, almost two meters short of the automatic qualifying mark of 19.15, to finish 17th, with 12 advancing to Friday’s final.
It was a rotten end to an Olympics that also started badly for the 2022 and 2023 world champions after the 30-year-old posted a social media video of herself crying because her team kit did not fit.
“I do not really know what happened,” she said. “I guess the pressure got to me. I don’t really have a lot to say about it. I just want to get to my family.”
In a low-quality session, only three athletes made the automatic mark, with Sarah Mitton of Canada (19.77) leading the way ahead of Maddison-Lee Wesche of New Zealand (19.25) and Yemisi Ogunleye of Germany (19.34).
“It’s three meters further than I threw in Tokyo, and I’m just feeling really relaxed and really confident,” said Mitton, who needed only one throw.
“So happy with the one-and-done, and I’m ready to come back,” she said. “You don’t need to throw far today. You just need to throw far enough, so that was a nice, easy throw, and I think that I can really build on that.”
Casting aside concerns about the safety of swimming in the Seine River, Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands used a late pass to win the women’s 10-kilometer open water swimming.
After Moesha Johnson of Australia led most of the way, van Rouwendaal cut into the strong current of the Seine as the lead pack came around the final bridge support. Johnson stayed closer to the shore, allowing the 30-year-old Dutch swimmer to claim the gold.
Van Rouwendaal reached up to slap the finishing pad in 2 hours, 3:34 seconds, while Johnson settled for silver in 2:03:39.7. The bronze went to Ginevra Taddeucci of Italy, the only other swimmer who had a shot at the end in 2:03:42.8.
The race went ahead on schedule after organizers said the water quality in the Seine River had met acceptable thresholds.
The newly minted world’s fastest man, Noah Lyles, takes to the track again aiming to complete the prestigious sprint double by adding the 200 metres title to his 100m victory last week.
If he succeeds, Lyles will be the first American to achieve the sprint double since Carl Lewis in 1984.
In what could be a good night for the United States, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is the hot favorite to win a 400m hurdles final that is also expected to be lightning fast.
A world record is not unlikely for the Olympic champion who has already broken her own record three times.
Catherine Yang, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
