US women win beach and indoor volleyball

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The U.S. ladies have been golden on heart stage Friday on the Tokyo Olympics.

It was a A+ effort for the “A Group” as Individuals April Ross and Alix Klineman cruised on their method to winning women’s beach volleyball gold in opposition to Australia’s Mariafe Artacho del Photo voltaic and Taliqua Clancy.

The U.S. pair entered the match but to lose a set of their three prior elimination matches, and Friday was no totally different as they received 21-15, 21-16 to grow to be the primary American ladies on the seashore to win gold since Misty Might-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings in 2012.

The dominance in volleyball wasn’t restricted to the seashore both; the ladies of Group USA received the indoor volleyball semifinal with a straight units victory over Serbia. The U.S. will play the winner of the Brazil-Korea match for the gold medal on Sunday.

The U.S. ladies’s basketball workforce is rolling in opposition to Serbia as they put its 53-game Olympic profitable streak on the road for a spot in the gold-medal game. The Individuals have not misplaced in ladies’s hoops for the reason that semifinals at the 1992 Video games in Barcelona. The gold medal sport is Sunday.

Lastly, the College of Minnesota’s Gable Steveson will wrestle for gold within the males’s freestyle 125kg division. If he wins, Steveson could be in for a huge payday, even when he decides to return to highschool.

THURSDAY’S RECAP: U.S. wins gold in shot put, pole vault, freestyle wrestling

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TOKYO — Keyshawn Davis could have an opportunity to finish the 17-year gold medal drought lingering over the U.S. males’s boxing workforce.

On Friday, Davis defeated Hovhannes Bachkov of Armenia within the light-weight semifinals by unanimous determination, 5-0, on the Tokyo Video games.

He’ll struggle within the ultimate Sunday at Kokugikan Area.

Fellow American Richard Torrez will struggle within the tremendous heavyweight ultimate Sunday within the ultimate bout of the event.

The final U.S. males’s boxer to win a gold medal was Andre Ward in 2004.

Davis, 23 and a local of Norfolk, Virginia, is one in every of three professionals on the U.S. workforce’s roster.

Davis is 3-0 since turning professional in February.

Within the spherical of 16 right here, Davis scored a TKO victory over France’s Sofiane Oumiha, who was the No. 1 seed and 2016 Olympic silver medalist.

Within the quarterfinals, Davis beat Russian Gabil Mamedov by break up determination, 4-1.

— Josh Peter

TOKYO — The U.S. ladies’s volleyball workforce will lastly have an opportunity to play for Olympic gold.

The Individuals superior to the ultimate, beating Serbia 25-19, 25-15, 25-23 within the semifinal on Friday. Andrea Drews and Jordan Larson led the U.S. ladies with 17 and 15 factors, respectively.

Setter Jordyn Poulter returned after rolling her ankle throughout pool play, whereas outdoors hitter Jordan Thompson was nonetheless out with an ankle damage.

5 years in the past in Rio, the USA fell to Serbia within the semifinal and went on to take the bronze medal. It would have the chance for the nation’s first gold after claiming bronze in 2012 and silver in 2008.

The Individuals will face both Brazil or Korea after these groups face off within the different semifinal later Friday.

— Rachel Axon

Regardless of being a bit caught within the mud of their semifinal in opposition to Serbia, the U.S. ladies’s basketball workforce has had little hassle thus far and leads 41-23 at halftime.

It wasn’t an excellent show of basketball for both aspect, however a lot of that is because of Serbia being unable to do a lot of something in opposition to Group USA’s protection. The Serbians made simply 10-of-36 area targets within the first half, together with a number of airballs, and sometimes regarded like they had been simply throwing up prayers on the rim and hoping for one thing good to occur.

The U.S. wasn’t notably sharp for lengthy stretches however picked it up towards the tip of the second quarter and went on an 11-2 run within the ultimate 2:25 of the half to create a ways.

Guard Sue Hen and heart Brittney Griner every have eight factors for the U.S. whereas A’ja Wilson has seven. At this level, Group USA seems effectively on observe to make the gold medal sport again right here at Saitama Tremendous Area on Sunday.

— Dan Wolken

KAWAGOE, Japan — Nelly Korda didn’t have her greatest sport, no less than not in comparison with Thursday’s Olympic-record rating of 62 (9-under-par) within the second spherical, however that didn’t matter a lot.

She’ll carry a three-shot lead into the ultimate spherical of the ladies’s stroke play event Saturday at Kasumigaseki Nation Membership, with Aditi Ashok of India three strokes again, after capturing a 69 on Friday.

Teams will tee off at 6:30 a.m. native day without work tees one and 10 in an effort to complete the ultimate spherical earlier than an anticipated tropical storm strikes into the world. Earlier than the event began, gamers had been warned the event might final solely 54 gap or that the ultimate spherical could possibly be moved to Sunday.

Had the 54-hole actuality panned out, Korda would already be Olympic champion. As an alternative the 22-year-old should maintain off Ashok and 4 others tied for third at 10-under for the event. A kind of golfers is defending silver-medalist Lydia Ko (New Zealand), who fired the second-best rating of the day with a 66.

The opposite gamers at 10-under are Hannah Greene (Australia), Emily Petersen (Denmark) and Japan’s Mone Inami.

— Chris Bumbaca

TOKYO – The U.S. seashore volleyball “A Group” of April Ross and Alix Klineman took Olympic gold in their 2-0 finals victory over Australia’s Mariafe Artacho del Photo voltaic and Taliqua Clancy.

Ross and Klineman received 2-0 (21-15, 21-16). Ross contributed 9 complete assault factors and Klineman completed with ten assault factors and two block factors. They went on an early 5-0 run to go up 7-2 within the first set and Australia was by no means in a position to take a lead by means of 20 minutes of playtime.

After taking place two factors to start out the second set, Ross and Klineman went on a resurgent 10-0 run. Martacho del Photo voltaic and Clancy tried to overhaul the lead, closing the hole to 16-13, however the U.S. workforce prevailed.

That is the primary Olympic gold for Ross, who has two extra medals to her identify – silver from the 2012 London Olympics with Jennifer Kessy and bronze from the 2016 Rio Olympics with Kerri Walsh Jennings. Klineman, a first-time Olympian, and Ross teamed up at the beginning of 2018 and had been ranked No. 2 on the planet coming into the Tokyo Olympics. Kessy at the moment coaches Ross and Klineman.

In 2019, the duo was named joint 2019 Ladies’s Participant of the Yr by USA Volleyball. Going into the Olympics, Ross and Klineman received as soon as and took third twice on the abbreviated world tour in 2021. They’ve six FIVB wins complete.

The duo solely dropped one set within the preliminary spherical on the Tokyo Olympics and went undefeated within the spherical of 16, quarterfinal, semifinal and ultimate.

— Olivia Reiner

Two U.S. wrestlers will compete for medals after Kyle Dake and Jacarra Winchester received their semifinal repechage matches in freestyle wrestling.

Dake, within the males’s 74kg, received by technical superiority over Cuba’s Jeandry Garzon Caballero along with his 10-0 win. Winchester received within the ladies’s 53 kg by shutting out Laura Herin Avila of Cuba in a 5-0 victory.

The Individuals might be again in motion later immediately as Dake will tackle Italy’s Frank Chamizo at 6:30 a.m. ET, whereas Winchester will face Vanesa Kaladzinskaya of Belarus at 7:55 a.m. ET.

— Jordan Mendoza

TOKYO – The Worldwide Olympic Committee revoked the credentials of two Belarussian coaches who had been concerned in taking sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya to the airport to return her to their nation.

The IOC introduced that it’s investigating the incident and Artur Shimak and Yury Maisevish “within the curiosity and wellbeing of the athletes… of Belarus who’re nonetheless in Tokyo.”

The 2 coaches have left the Olympic Village.

Tsimanouskaya criticized workforce coaches for placing her on a 4×400 meter relay she had not educated for, and he or she mentioned Belarussian officers took her to the airport.

She informed the Related press that the officers “made it clear that, upon return residence, I’d positively face some type of punishment,” Tsimanouskaya informed the AP in a videocall from Tokyo on Tuesday.

After receiving safety by Japanese authorities, Tsimanouskaya acquired a humanitarian visa and arrived in Poland on Wednesday.

— Rachel Axon

KAWAGOE, Japan – On Day 3 of the ladies’s golf stroke play event, American Nelly Korda maintained her four-stroke lead over Aditi Ashok of India, as each gamers went 2-under-par on the entrance 9.

An Olympic file 62 (9-under) from Korda throughout Thursday’s second spherical created a ways between her and the remainder of the sphere. Each gamers completed the primary day of play in a tie for second with scores of 67.

There’s nonetheless a stage of uncertainty relating to the event at Kasumigaseki Nation Membership. Excessive warmth has been an element, and tee occasions had been pushed up with teams of three going off from holes 1 and 10 concurrently to complete earlier within the day. Moreover, officers are monitoring a tropical storm threatening the world that would affect play throughout Saturday’s scheduled ultimate spherical.

The present plan is for all 72 holes to be performed, however there’s a probability the ultimate spherical could possibly be pushed to Sunday, or that the standings after Spherical 3 would decide the medals.

— Chris Bumbaca

After heartwarming, triumphant moments and regardless of heartbreaking ones, the Tokyo Olympics are quickly coming to an in depth.

The last day of the Tokyo Olympics will characteristic extra than simply the closing ceremony. Finals for ladies’s volleyball, males’s water polo and boxing will all see winners on the rostrum forward of the Olympic nearer.

Just like the opening ceremony, little is thought about what precisely the closing ceremony will entail apart from a theme: “Worlds We Share.” In line with a press launch, the theme is supposed to make athletes and viewers “take into consideration what the long run holds” and “expresses the concept every of us inhabits their very own world.”

The Tokyo Olympics closing ceremony will happen at 7 a.m. ET on Sunday and might be broadcast reside on Peacock. What is going to the athletes be carrying? Who will carry the U.S. flag? This is everything you need to know about the closing ceremony.

— Emily Leiker

TOKYO – For athletes from some nations, an Olympic medal brings greater than glory and success for years of arduous work. It’s a pay day – and occasionally a big one.

Weightlifter Hsing-Chun Kuo of Chinese language Taipei will obtain roughly $716,000 for her gold within the 59 kg class. However go up one weight class and it’s clear how different this may be.

Canada’s Maude Charron received at 64 kg, however that solely earns her roughly $16,000. Italy’s Giorgia Bordignon will obtain almost $107,000, because of her silver medal. And Chinese language Taipei’s bronze from Wen-Huei Chen will earn her greater than $179,000.

Why does it work out that approach?

A pair causes. Usually, nations with bigger delegations and extra projected medals give much less in bonuses. The USA, as an example, is difficult for the highest of the medal rely and tops out at $37,500 for gold medals.

Many nations fund their sports activities recurrently by means of their Olympic committees or ministry of sport, so reasonably than getting an enormous payday after an occasion, athletes obtain common funding.

That doesn’t imply Individuals can’t make cash right here.

Caeleb Dressel earned $187,500 simply from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee for his 5 golds. Two gold and two silver earned Katie Ledecky $125,000, and each will obtain bonuses from USA Swimming on prime of that.

Each might be handsomely rewarded for main the USA within the pool. With one medal, although, athletes from Singapore may surpass them.

The nation has probably the most beneficiant medal bonus of any surveyed. A gold for any of its 23 athletes will earn them $1 million.

TOKYO – For Sakura Kokumai to step onto the mat on the famed Nippon Budokan with an opportunity for a bronze medal in karate’s Olympic debut is a storybook ending of its own.

Kokumai is Japanese-American, born in Hawaii, and lived most of her highschool and school years within the very metropolis the place she competed Thursday for the U.S. in kata, an illustration occasion corresponding to ground train in gymnastics. Her dad and mom reside in Okayama, an eight-hour drive west of Tokyo.

For Kokumai, ranked No. 7 on the planet, to achieve the ultimate six on the Olympics – there are two bronze medal matches in kata – wasn’t surprising. Somewhat it’s fulfilling for a 28-year-old whose dad and mom are Japanese nationals but identifies with a sport born in Japan (through the indigenous Ryukyu Kingdom, annexed in 1879) by means of her American heritage.

Kokumai misplaced her bronze medal match, however she was happy with her efficiency. “I’d not change something about it,” she mentioned. “I’m joyful to be again right here in Japan. I spent a number of time right here as a child and a school pupil. It was a really particular Olympics. Sadly, I received’t be again with the {hardware}.”

— Jeff Metcalfe

Simone Biles’ boyfriend, Jonathan Owens, is aware of a factor or two concerning the strain that comes with being an elite athlete. Owens is a security for the Houston Texans, however he acknowledges he doesn’t perceive the strain Biles felt.

“It was arduous for me to actually perceive what she was going by means of as a result of I’m not on that stage and coping with these pressures and all the pieces, however I simply attempt to be as understanding as attainable,” Owens informed reporters Thursday.

When Owens noticed Biles walk off a rough first vault in the gymnastics team final on July 27 and instantly speak to her coach, he mentioned he felt sick to his abdomen.

“I used to be sick for her, simply because I can see her face, I form of know her facial expressions, I can form of learn her lips and form of know what was occurring and form of what she was telling her coach,” Owens mentioned.

“I form of knew what was occurring beforehand so I used to be simply actually hoping she was going to recover from it and be capable of go on the market and carry out,” Owens continued. “So I used to be sick to my abdomen as a result of she wasn’t in a position to go on the market.”

A part of Biles’ legacy will also include how she stepped away from the game on its greatest stage to protect her psychological and bodily well being. That’s one thing Owens, like many of the gymnastics world, is happy with.

“I used to be happy with her,” Owens mentioned. “Simply to have the ability to overcome what was occurring. She form of altered her beam routine, however I used to be simply joyful for her.”

— Alyssa Hertel

TOKYO – We’ve by no means actually recognized what makes Kevin Durant joyful, what he actually needs his legacy on this sport to be. Maybe that’s the way in which he prefers it. However from the surface trying in, his 13 years within the NBA have marked by the ennui of a millennial who’s seduced by the promise of success, solely to find actual life doesn’t precisely work that approach.

The trail Durant has chosen for his profession made him a goal of fixed derision. He was known as a frontrunner for leaving Oklahoma Metropolis to affix Steph Curry’s workforce in Golden State. When he left basketball nirvana to affix up with Kyrie Irving in Brooklyn, the one rationalization that made sense was annoyance with how little credit score he acquired for delivering two titles.

However Durant is one sport away at these Olympics from doing one thing that can hopefully ship the satisfaction and the distinctive place in historical past that appears so elusive for him. If he wins the gold medal on Saturday, Durant could have a declare as the greatest American men’s basketball player of all time on the worldwide stage.

— Dan Wolken

British diver Tom Daley, who won a gold medal last week in synchronized 10-meter platform diving, has taken social media by storm along with his crafting projects during the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Daley on Wednesday revealed a cardigan he made and embroidered with symbols to represent the Tokyo Games and Team Great Britain. The sweater options the phrase “Tokyo” on the entrance, a Union Jack flag, and a “Group GB” brand with Olympic rings.

Daley confirmed off the cardigan in a video posted to social media.

“After I acquired to Tokyo, I needed to make one thing that may remind me of those video games. One thing that I may say I had made in Tokyo, in the course of the Olympics!” Daley wrote within the caption of his video.

Daley in a video final week revealed a pouch he made to retailer his gold medal. He shared with followers that “the one factor that has stored me like sane all through this complete course of is my love for knitting and crocheting, all issues stitching.”

His movies have shortly gone viral, garnering hundreds of thousands of views on Instagram and TikTok.

Daley’s knitting and crocheting at Olympic occasions in Tokyo have additionally caught the attention of followers at residence, who’ve celebrated his crafting on social media.

Daley has additionally used his knitting and crocheting abilities to raise money for the Brain Tumor Charity in the U.K., organising a raffle final month that followers may enter for the prospect to win a colourful sweater.

Robert Daley, Tom Daley’s father, died of mind most cancers in 2011.

The diver is about to raffle off Tokyo-inspired sweaters to boost cash for the group, in accordance with a number of experiences.

— Marina Pitofsky

U.S. wrestler Gable Steveson will take part within the males’s freestyle 125kg ultimate Friday on the Tokyo Olympics, the place he’ll compete with pleasure and honor in representing his nation.

He’ll be competing for 250,000 other reasons, too.

Steveson, additionally a wrestler for the College of Minnesota, stands to money in huge with a gold medal, because of award packages in place that pay out stipends to athletes who make it to the rostrum.

It begins with the USA Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC). By means of its program Operation Gold, any U.S. athlete who wins a medal in any sport will even obtain a monetary reward: $37,500 for gold, $22,500 for silver, $15,000 for bronze.

However that is just the start.

A number of of the nationwide governing our bodies of the sports activities have extra incentive reward packages, based mostly on efficiency. However for the reason that nationwide governing our bodies are organized as personal, non-profit organizations, they aren’t required to publicly disclose the financial quantities of the awards.

The governing physique of wrestling, nonetheless, USA Wrestling, has particulars about its reward program known as the Living The Dream Medal Fund on its official web site.

Below this system, any wrestler who will get a gold medal will money in $250,000. A silver nets $50,000 and a bronze $25,000.

USA Wrestling spokesman Gary Abbott confirmed to USA TODAY Sports activities’ Steve Berkowitz that USA Wrestling had the Residing The Dream Medal Fund in place for the Tokyo Video games.

So when Steveson faces Geno Petriashvili, the 2016 bronze medalist and three-time world champion (2017-19) of Georgia within the ultimate on Friday, he may take residence the quarter of 1,000,000 {dollars}.

— Lorenzo Reyes

TOKYO – For finals-bound U.S. seashore volleyball duo April Ross and Alix Klineman, the dream of an Olympic gold medal began with a threat.

In 2017, 31-year-old Klineman deserted a lifetime of enjoying indoor volleyball and switched her focus solely to seashore. The 6-foot-5 Stanford alumna had her sights set on the Olympics regardless of having no worldwide seashore volleyball expertise.

Ross, 39, had a legacy on the sand. After profitable silver on the 2012 London Olympics with Jennifer Kessy and taking bronze on the 2016 Rio Video games with Kerri Walsh Jennings, Ross sought a brand new accomplice. Then, after parting methods with Lauren Fendrick — her teammate in 2017 — Ross took the plunge and joined up with Klineman later that yr.

Of their 2-0 semifinal victory over the Swiss pair of Anouk Verge-Depre and Joana Heidric, Ross and Klineman confirmed what makes their partnership particular. Each displayed their offensive prowess, as Ross completed with 15 assault factors and Klineman added 9. Klineman, who was named AVP’s greatest blocker in 2018 and 2019, contributed 4 block factors.

Though Ross knew what to anticipate heading into her third Olympics, she admitted the event doesn’t get any simpler with time. That’s why the prospect of incomes a medal remains to be simply as thrilling because it was when Ross first set out on her Olympic journey. They’ll have that chance within the ultimate on Friday (10:30 p.m. ET Thursday) once they play Australia’s Mariafe Artacho del Photo voltaic and Taliqua Clancy.

To win gold with Klineman could be the proper payoff on a serious funding.

“She has labored so arduous to get the place she is,” Ross mentioned. “I did not wish to let her down. I feel the truth that we’re within the gold medal match is simply what we each needed for one another.”

— Olivia Reiner

They might be used to hurdling over obstacles in entrance of crowds, however horses are still skittish by nature.

It takes years of coaching to wean them of their pure conduct and channel their energy into equestrian leaping, however when a life-sized sumo statue is added subsequent to an impediment, it could compound their jumpy nature.

“As you come round, you see an enormous man’s (butt),” British rider Harry Charles mentioned.

“It is extremely real looking,” Israel’s Teddy Vlock added.

The sumo wrestler, whose arms are aside whereas the physique is hunched over in a squat, is positioned on the tenth impediment within the 14-jump Olympic course and riders imagine its presence might have distracted some horses in qualifying for the person leaping ultimate Tuesday evening. Some pairings accrued penalty factors when their horses pulled up wanting the barrier, stopping pairs from coming into Wednesday’s finals.

— Christian Ortega