This writer, and readers, needed a break, so this recap will cover the highlights I picked out for Wednesday and Thursday! Here we go with some major news in several of the events! (I'm looking at you, tennis!) Wednesday's notable action:
Gymnastics-Men's All-Around: Two gymnasts from each team and country (12x2) compete for medals in this part of gymnastics.
Shinnosuke Oka of Japan pulls off the major upset by snagging the gold from expected winners Zhang Boheng , who took the silver, and Xaio Ruoteng the bronze, for China.
The American representatives, Frederick Richard and Paul Juda had problems on the apparatus's, and placed outside the top ten. Of note, the two Ukraine gymnasts were getting a boost from the audience cheering the guys on during each apparatus; they placed 5th and 8th!
That closes out men's team events, with just one left on Saturday, the individual apparatus competition, and only one American is competing; on the pommel horse....<grin> #SupermanEnergy
Congrats Shinno!
Love Fred and the joy he brings to the gym! Rising star, indeed!
Checks all my boxes for a perfect Daddy's boy!(and he can dance as well!)
US Men's Basketball: Having nearly been defeated in early qualifications by South Sudan ( a wake-up call for USA coach Steve Kerr), USA was in better shape this game and didn't underestimate their opponent, winning 103-86!
Tennis: American Taylor Fritz had A DAY...meaning a LONG day...due to how the match schedules fell out as the days went on, Fritz had not one, not two but THREE matches Wednesday in the hot Paris sun at Roland-Garros. How did 7th ranked in singles Taylor fare? He lost his mixed-doubles match with teammate Coco Gauff, won his doubles match with fellow American Tommy Paul, and then lost his singles match to Italy's Lorenzo Musetti in straight sets! Send Fritzie to an ice bath, STAT!
Speaking of doubles, the Spanish tennis version of "Batman & Robin, Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz has come to an end, as they fell to one of the other American teams in straight sets. This "might" be the last match for Nadal, who is considering retiring, but it definitely his last Olympics. From the Express UK, here is Carlos comments on playing with his idol, Rafa:
Carlos Alcaraz says he enjoyed every second he got to play doubles with Rafa Nadal, ‘We were able to spend more time together & talk so much about life, that’s what I’m gonna keep for me’ “Well it was an unbelievable experience for me. Something I'll never forget, for sure, playing on the same side of the net as Rafa and learning from him.” “It has been great for me. I enjoyed it and I tried to enjoy every single second that we played together. I think we've played great points, great rallies, great matches. But I'm a little bit disappointed right now..” "I mean we had the chance to spend time together outside the court here in this tournament. We could spend more time and talk so much about life. That's what I'm gonna keep for me.” "Yeah we're gonna keep this relationship. I think it grew a lot. I learned a lot from him. Speaking of men's singles, the upset of the day was fourth ranked Danii Medevev (repping himself, not his country Russia) fell to France' 13th ranked Felix Auger-Aliassime. Fritizies doubles partner American Tommy Paul, ranked 9th, beat his unranked opponent to move on. What SEEMS to be waiting for the US mens players is the double buzz-saw that is Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokivic, who both won their singles matches today.
Tennis eye candy alert- Tommy Paul of the USA team!
On the women's side, upset of the day was Barbora Krejcikova lost to an unranked Slovakian player. In women's doubles, the #1 ranked doubles team of Americans Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula lost to the team from Chezia.
Men's Swimming: Leon Merchand has now unofficially become the hero of these Paris Olympics as now he has gone out and swam himself into the Olympic history books. All Merchand did was win both the 200m breaststroke AND the 200m Butterfly, the first man ever to accomplish that in Olympic history! Oh, and he did it while setting Olympic record times, just to add some creme on top of his historic evening!
Dude (22 years old) of the French People, Leon Marchand!
Women's swimming: Katie Ledecky has tied Jenny Thompson for the most gold medals by a female in Olympic history, defending and winning the gold for the second time in the 1500m freestyle! Ledecky has two more race to go to hit the magic eight and be in sole place in medal history! Women's Synchro 10M Diving: Same ole, same ole...China wins again for te like 8th for like the eighth out of nine Summer Olympics.
Time for a mid-blog eye candy! I present to you openly gay and out and proud and smoking hot Brazilian gymnast Arthur Nory! A collage no less, and I have one more to drop at a later post!
Thursday's action: Some firsts, and some major upsets, and a bonus video!
Women's Gymnastics: The proverbial writing on the wall, and the ink has dried, as Simone Biles has cemented her status as the GOAT of female gymnastics by securing the gold in the all-arounds! Rebeka Andrade of Brazil did her thing, and secured the silver, so the only suspense was who would secure the bronze, with Italy's Anni D'Amato and USA's Suni Lee vying for that medal. After D'Amato's final floor exercise put her on the lead, Suni needed a score of 13.3 to beat out D'Amato with a 13.6 on floor and secure the bronze. Now four Olympics where the American women have place two gymnasts on the podium! Congrats, ladies for a great competition! Simone now has six gold medals and nine gold medals overall, making her the best of Olympic women's gymnastics of all time!
American Suni Lee snagging more hardware for her Olympics collection!
Tennis: And so it starts, the big ones are starting to fall, as they are now (mostly) playing each other in the quarterfinals moving forward.
On the women's side, the #1 ranked player, Iga Swiatek lost her match to China's Zheng Qinwen in straight sets, 6-2, 7-5. Zheng will face off against Donna Vekic for the gold! On the men's side, Spain's Carlos Alcaraz defeated American Tommy Paul, 6-3, 7-6 and advances to the semi-finals. Novak Djokivic also won his quarters match, while two underdogs, Felix Auger-Aliassime, who becomes the first male tennis Canadien player to make the Olympics semifinals, and Italy's Lozenzo Musetti both advance, and each one plays either Carlos or Novak in those semis...good luck guys!
In Men's Doubles, it is the end of the road for Great Britain's Sir Andy Murray, as he and his partner lost to the American duo of Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz (just one match today!), 6-2, 6-4. This ends a long storied career for Sir Andy, 19 years with two Olympic golds, and several Grand Slams, and is just loved by all in the tennis community. I snagged a comment after the match from Sir Andy reflecting on the end of his career:
"I'm proud of my career," Murray told reporters afterward. "I worked really, really hard to achieve the results I did at a really difficult time to win the major titles. I'm proud. I gave it a good go. How my body has finished up shows I've put it through a lot. So I'm looking forward to a rest now."
Women's Basketball: The USA women's team continued their streak, beating Japan, 102-76, with A'ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart leading the scoring with 22 and 24 points, respectively. The ladies move on in their next group play before we enter the knockouts. Btw, teammate Britney Griner stated she was very happy for the release of the hostages today.
Golf: Some of the best pro golfers in the world kicked off round one, and the USA, who are repped by Wyndam Clark, Collin Morikama, Scottie Scheffler, and Xander Schaufle teed off. at the end of play, it was Xander who played the best in the first round, only 3 shotsback from the leader.
Fencing-Foil: In group match of four, Team USA shocked the Olympics by winning in this category for the first time ever, beating Italy to take the gold! After 64 years of not medaling in this sport, Team USA now has two!
Rowing-Mens: In the men's four meet, a major upset occurred, as the four-man team of Team USA won the gold, ending a 64 year drought in this meet, as the USA hadn't medaled in this sport since Rome Olympics in 1960. Just discovered the team is from the Oakland Rowing Club here in the Bay Area- street cred!
Women's outdoor volleyball: USA vs China in group play, both teams won games, and start of 3rd game game, there was a an hour plus rain delay before play resumed. Some back and forth, but the American ladies tightened up their play and won, 15-12, to move to the knockouts in volleyball!
Before we get into swimming, I'm going to drop the Eye Candy pic that has had the Internet reaching for their smelling salts! Introducing French diver Jules Bouyer and the mighty struggle of a pair of Speedos:
You can't handle this, but i bet some of you want to take a dive at Jules! Oui, Oui!
Eyes down here, people !
Swimming: The USA team is on a bit of a roll! Katie Douglass won the women's 200m breaststroke for her first ever gold medal!
Herstory! American Katie Ledecky competed in the women's 4x200 freestyle relay, and Team USA placed second for the silver....but...since Katie was part of this relay, she has now set the record as the most medals won by an American female swimmer, now with NINE medals, and she has one more final to add to that! Congrats Katie!
Katie Ledecky- the GOAT of women's swimming!
That's a wrap for this two day session recap! I'll add a couple of pics to close this post out:
He started it just before heading to Paris, and here is the finished product by the worlds most famous crochet knitter, Great Britain's all-time medalist in diving, Tom Daley!
And since you made it this far, Nice to see that Jules cleans up nicely for date night! I like the ....lapels a lot!
PSST: If you want to see more of Jules doing his thing, check out the video below! He actually is a pretty good diver!
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