Archery
The US had three archers going in the individual competitions on Wednesday. First up was Khatuna Lorig in the women’s round of 64 against Sherab Zam of Bhutan. Lorig defeated Zam in three sets 6-0 (28-22, 26-21, 26-22). The victory moved Lorig into the round of 32 where she met Louis Laursen of Denmark. This match was much tougher and it took a full five sets for Lorig to win 6-4 (27-24, 22-28, 24-24, 29-26, 27-27). She will now take part in the rest of the women’s competition on Thursday. Her day will start with Ming Cheng of China in the round of 16.
Next up for the US was Brady Ellison who started off against Mark Javier of the Philippines. Ellison started quickly and never looked back winning 7-1 (29-27, 28-25, 25-25, 29-22). That victory in the round of 64 moved him into a round of 32 match with Taylor Worth of Australia. Ellison never got into his groove as he dropped the match 7-1 (29-29, 27-25, 29-26, 27-26) and was eliminated from the tournament.
The final competitor for the US was their last hope in men’s individual archery, Jake Kaminski. In a round of 64 match with Dan Olaru of Molodova Kaminksi got out to an early 5-1 lead but then faltered and choked away the lead losing 6-5 (25-27, 26-29, 28-28, 28-24, 27-23, shootoff (9-7)). Why do I call it choked? He hit a 6 in set 4, a 4 in set 5 knowing an 8 would win him the match, and a 7 in the shootoff. Yikes. The loss meant no US man would reach the round of 16 in the individual event, yet alone medal.
Basketball
An 89-58 victory for the US over Turkey on Wednesday helped solidify the US’s position on top of the group. Their point differential has them ahead of China but the two will face off for the top spot directly if they both win their next games. The US next plays against the Czech Republic, who is in 4th, on Friday.
Beach Volleyball
Josh Gibb and Sean Rosenthal came up huge in their match Wednesday afternoon against Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Ruslans Sorokins of Latvia. Knowing that they would need to win, and win with a good margin, to advance to the knockout round the US came out with a great performance winning 21-10, 21-16. The win moved the US well into first with a point ratio of 1.337 compared to 2nd place’s 1.148. The US could have actually lost 14 more points and still had a better ratio! The US will next compete in the round of 16, probably on Friday.
To end the day Misty May-Treanor/Kerri Walsh took on Doris Schwaiger/Stefanie Schwaiger of Austria. After a slow start May-Treanor/Walsh got on track and rolled in sets 2 and 3 to a 17-21, 21-8, 15-10 victory. The win gave them the top spot in their group and they move on to the knockout round.
Boxing
The US lost in three different weight classes in men’s boxing on Wednesday as their boxers faced some tough competition. First up in the bantamweight division Joseph Diaz Jr. lost to Lazaro Alvarez of Cuba 21-15. The match was close and Diaz gave it a lot, as the 15 point shows.
In the heavyweight division Michael Hunter took on the Russian Artur Beterbiev and they had a real close bout. Hunter was up 8-7 after the 2nd round but couldn’t hold on in the final round and the match ended up tied at 10. Hunter lost the decision on a tiebreaker and saw his Olympics come to an end. Tough ending for the fighter who really did have a decent day.
Finally in the super heavyweight division Dominic Breazeale was just no match for the Russian Magomed Omarov who was up 5-0 after a round and went on to a dominant 19-8 win.
Cycling
The US was the strong competitor they were expected to be in the time trials on Wednesday morning. First in the women’s time trial Amber Neben came in a respectable 7th while Kristin Armstrong was dominant and won the gold. Armstrong was a full 25 seconds faster than any other rider on the course.
In the men’s time trial Taylor Phinney put up a very good time of 52:38.07. He led most all of the riders but was beaten by three, Bradley Wiggins winning the gold. That meant that for the 2nd time in London Phinney ended up in 4th. Hopefully the 22-year-old is back in Rio 2016 and can win a medal.
Diving
In an amazing continuing run at the Olympics the US won their 3rd diving medal in three events on Wednesday. I’ll keep repeating it because it’s amazing…. a total of one medal combined from 2000-2008 (that being in 2000) and now three so far in London! Incredible! This time it was Troy Dumais/Kristian Ipsen who won the bronze in the men’s 3m synchronized springboard final. They executed solid dives throughout the competition and their consistency was rewarded with the bronze. Dumais will compete in the 3m springboard competition starting on Monday.
Fencing
Fencing tells a sad tale on Wednesday. Two US fencers made the semifinals, but neither were able to medal. We’ll start in the men’s individual epee competition. In the round of 32 Seth Kelsey got things underway with a tight 8-7 victory over Li Guojie of China. Hard to believe that his run may never had happened if he hadn’t gotten the touch in overtime to win the match. His teammate Soren Thompson was not at fortunate and lost 15-4 to Joerg Fiedler of Germany.
In round of 16 he was a big underdog against Nikola Novosjolov of Estonia and came away with the upset 15-11 to move into the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals he dispatched the Venezuelan Silvio Fernandez 15-9 to reach the semifinals. In the semifinals he and Ruben Limardo Gascon of Venezuela were tied at 5 and headed to overtime. This time Kelsey didn’t get the touch and Gascon moved on to the gold medal final 6-5. In the bronze medal final Seth Kelsey took on Jinsun Jung of Korea. In a higher scoring version of the semifinals Kelsey had the match tied at 11 and went to overtime. Jung got a touch on his foot in the 2nd half of the minute to win the bronze and leave Kelsey medaless in 4th.
In the round of 32 two-time defending gold medalist Mariel Zagunis started her tournament off with a solid 15-7 win over Diah Permata Sari of Indoneisa. Her teammate, Dagmara Wozniak, also advance from the round of 32 when she beat Salma Mahran of Egypt 15-6. Both fencers were victorious again the round of 16 and the US was looking good. Zagunis won her match against Seira Nakayama of Japan 15-9 while Wozniak won her match with Azza Besbes of Tunisia 15-13 after being down 12-10 late. In the quarterfinals Zagunis continued to cruise and defeated Min Zhu of China 15-6. Wozniak ran into trouble however and despite rallying from down 14-11 to get within one point, lost 15-13 to Sofya Velikaya of Russia.
In the semifinals Mariel Zagunis faced Jiyeon Kim of Korea. Zagunis led 8-2 after round 1 and 12-6. Then Kim got hot and started winning point after point after point. She cut it to 12-10, lost a point, but then won 5 more to win the match 15-13 on a 10-1 run. It was a crushing defeat for Zagunis who was so close to going for her 3rd straight Olympic gold. In the bronze medal match Zagunis faced Olga Kharlan of the Ukraine. Zagunis was ahead 8-6 after the 1st round, but Kharlan won 9 of the next 11, including the final five straight. to win the match 15-10. It’s matches like this that are hard to watch as competitors try so hard only to end up JUST off the medal stand.
Gymnastics
Much like the team final the early story in the men’s gymnastics individual all around was mistakes. John Orozco had an awful one on the pommel horse and scored at 12.566, eliminating him from medal contention in the 2nd apparatus. Danell Leyva made a similar bad mistake, though his was only a 13.5. The two stood 19th and 24th after the pommel horse. After that they put their problems behind them and performed incredibly well the rest of the way. Orozco was 3rd on the rings (15.2), 8th on the vault (15.9), 8th on the parallel bars (15.266) and 8th on the horizontal bar (14.966). He wasn’t spectacular but he didn’t make more big mistakes and his consistency earned him an 8th place finish.
Two things kept Danell Leyva in medal contention despite that score on the pommel horse. First of all his score wasn’t quite as bad. That extra point higher than Orozco is huge. In the end he would have been there places further back in the end if he was without that point. But the biggest reason Orozco could rally was that his last event was the horizontal bar where he has a routine that can knock it out of the gym. Although he was only 14th on rings and 10th on vault, neither one of those scores were bad enough to send him down the rankings. Then on parallel bars Danell Leyva performed a magnificent routine that scored a 15.833, best on the apparatus of the evening. He moved on to the horizontal bar where he needed just a 15.434 and scored a 15.7, again best on the apparatus, to win him a bronze medal. It was a testament to why you don’t quit!
Rowing
A lot of close calls in rowing on Wednesday, most of which were the US coming up just short. In the first event of the day, men’s single sculls, Ken Jurkowski finished 6th in Semifinal C/D heat 2 and moved into Final D on Friday.
In men’s pair rowing the team of Thomas Peszek/Silas Stafford were the first to have close disappointment as they finished 4th in the 1st heat of Semifinal A/B. They missed out on a spot in Final A by .09 seconds and instead will be in Final B on Friday.
Next up was the women’s pair rowing final. Sara Hendershot/Sarah Zelenka were the ones to experience disappointment as they finished 4th and missed the bronze meal by .2 seconds.
Finally the US found some success in the women’s quadruple sculls final as the crew finished in 3rd and won the bronze medal!
The final disappointment of the day belonged to the men’s eight crew who finished… 4th, by .3 seconds. Another crew that just missed out on medaling, the story of the day in rowing for the US.
Sailing
In the 49er event Erick Storck/Trevor Moore finished 7th in race 5 and 13th in race 6. They are now 7th overall with 37 points and trail 3rd place by just 7 points. Races 7 and 8 are on Thursday.
In the laser radial event Paige Railey finished race 5 in 4th and race 6 in 9th. She is now 7th overall with 38 points and trails 3rd by 19 points. Races 7 and 8 are on Friday.
In the men’s RS-X event Robert Willis finished 11th in race 3 and 25th in race 4. He’s now in 13th overall with 53 points and trails 3rd by 35 points. Races 5 and 6 are on Thursday.
In the laser event Rob Crane finished 16th in race 5 and 26th in race 6. He is now in 32nd overall with 135 points. races 7 and 8 are on Friday.
In the women’s RS-X event Farrah Hall finished 18th in race 3 and 18th in race 4. She is now in 18th overall with 76 points. Races 5 and 6 are on Thursday.
In the women’s elliott 6m event the US defeated New Zealand by 15 seconds in their first race of the day before losing to Russia by 4 seconds in their 2nd race of the day. The Us is now 5-3 and in 4th place. They face 9th place Netherlands team (3-5) on Thursday.
Shooting
Sandra Uptagrafft finished in 28th place with a qualifying score of 576. Only the top 8 qualified so Uptagrafft was 7 points behind the score of 583 needed.
Swimming
In the men’s 200m breaststroke final on Wednesday the US competitors of Scott Weltz and Clark Burckle finished 5th and 6th in a race that saw the world record broken.
In the women’s 100m freestyle Jessica Hardy and Missy Franklin both advanced safely from the heats. Then in the semifinals Missy Franklin finished 3rd (+.54) and Jessica Hardy finished 8th (+.81). Both will be in the final on Thursday.
In the men’s 200m backstroke Ryan Lochte and Tyler Clary both advanced from the heats and then won their semifinals. Clary has the top time heading into the final on Thursday and Lochte was (+.69).
In the women’s 200m butterfly final Kathleen Hersey finished 4th (+1.72) and Cammile Adams finished 5th (+2.72) missing out on medals. Hersey was only .3 seconds behind 3rd place.
In the men’s 100m freestyle final Nathan Adrian finally won the US a gold medal in the event after a 24 year drought! His winning time of 47.52 was only .01 seconds ahead of 2nd place James Magnussen of Australia.
In the women’s 200m breaststroke Micah Lawrence and Rebecca Soni were both easily into the semifinals where Rebecca Soni set a world record with a time of 2:20 flat. Micah Lawrence was 6th in the semifinals, 3.39 seconds behind Soni! They will go for medals in the final tomorrow where Soni is expected to win gold and maybe be the first woman to ever break 2:20.
In the men’s 200m individual medley Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps both qualified easily from the heats. In the semifinals Lochte finished with the top time of 1:56.13. Phelps was 3rd, .98 seconds behind him. They will race in the final tomorrow.
In the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay to end the day the US set an Olympic record and won a gold medal as the team of Missy Franklin, Dana Vollmer, Shannon Vreeland and Allison Schmitt beat Russia by 1.49 seconds.
Tennis
First of all there were two matches that didn’t get to happen on Wednesday Bob Byan/Liezel Huber vs. Christopher Kas/Sabine Lisicki of Germany and Venus Williams/Serena Williams vs. Sara Errani/Roberta Vinci of Italy.
In women’s singles Serena Williams was dominant against Vera Zvonareva of Russia as she destroyed her 6-1, 6-0 in the round of 16. Serena now faces Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in the quarterfinals. Venus Williams saw her tournament come to end as she lost 7-6, 7-6 to Angelique Kerber of Germany in the round of 16.
In men’s singles John Isner defeated Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia in the round of 16 7-5, 7-6. He will now face Roger Federer of Switzerland in the quarterfinals.
In women’s doubles Liezel Huber/Lisa Raymond beat Ekaterina Makarova/Elena Vesnina of Russia in a quarterfinal match 6-3, 6-3 to move into the semifinals.
In mixed doubles Mike Bryan/Lisa Raymond beat Sara Errani/Andreas Seppi of Italy in a round of 16 match 7-5, 6-3 to move on to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals they will meet Gisela Dulko/Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina.
Volleyball
In women’s volleyball the US took on co-group leader China and made it clear who the top team in the group is. The US won in straight sets, defeating the Chinese 26-24, 25-16, 31-29. The US is now alone atop the group at 3-0 and faces last place Serbia, 0-3, on Friday.
Water Polo
In women’s water polo the US took on co-group leader Spain and gave up a late 9-6 lead to finish in a 9-9 draw. That means that the group winner will be determined by goal differential if the US and Spain each win their remaining match. The US faces last place China, 0-2, on Friday.
