In a busy day on Saturday US athletes got their Olympics underway in a large range of sports. Medals were up for grabs in a few one-day events and the US didn’t wait long to win their first gold. The first medal of the Olympics for the US was gold and it belonged to Ginny Thrasher, a 19-year-old West Virginia sophomore who had won NCAA championships this spring and ended an incredible six month by winning Olympic gold in the women’s 10m air rifle on the first day of the Olympics. The US would have more chances at gold later in the day but would only take home silver in three swimming events as well as men’s team archery.
August 6th Recap:
Archery
Brady Ellison, Jake Kaminski, and Zach Garrett took part in the men’s team event on Saturday. Opening with a quarterfinal matchup against #10 Indonesia the #2 Americans were below 56 in just one of the four sets in a 6-2 win to move into the semifinals. They were strong again in the semifinals against #6 China as they scored 57-58-55 and caught China at the right time with the 55 in a three set sweep. The gold medal final was a tough matchup with #1 Korea. The US wasn’t bad, 57-57-56, but Korea was nearly unbeatable putting up 60-59-58 in an incredible performance where 15 of their 18 arrows were 10s. Silver was not bad for the US, their second straight Olympics taking silver.
Basketball
The US men ran way from China as expected posting between 28 and 32 in each quarter. The US took a 20 point lead in the first quarter and ended up going on to win 119-62. Kevin Durant led the US with 25 points and led them with six assists as well. The US leads their group on point differential though both Serbia and Australia put up big wins as well. The US next faces Venezuela, currently fifth, on Monday at 6 PM.
Beach Volleyball
It was a good start to the Olympics for the US beach volleyball teams. Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson opened with a sweep of Jefferson Pereira and Cherif Younousse 21-16, 21-16, and lead Pool F as the other match went to a third set. April Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings also got a sweep over Mariafe Artacho and Nicole Laird 21-14, 21-13 and lead Pool C as the other match in their pool also went three sets. Both will compete again on Monday.
Boxing
The Americans went 2-2 in the round of 32 on Saturday as they got their Rio Olympics off to a great start. Both matches were close and entertaining contests. Carlos Balderas started the lightweight division with a 3-0 win over Berik Abdrakhmanov. All the judges scored it 29-28 though one judge disagreed with the other two on which round was the one Balderas lost, showing how close it was to a loss. Balderas takes to the ring again on Tuesday at 10:15 AM against Daisuke Narimatsu. Nico Hernandez was a bit clearer winner against Manuel Cappai in the light flyweight division as his win was 3-0 with one judge scoring him a 30-27 winner. Hernandez fights Monday at 4:45 PM against Vasilii Egorov is a tantalizing American-Russian matchup.
Cycling
The only cycling on Saurday was the men’s road race. The treacherous course tested the field and only 63 of the 144 riders finished the race. Taylor Phinney was one forced to drop out while Brent Bookwalter finished 3:31 back in 15th, an excellent showing. These two will compete again in the time trial on Wednesday at 9 AM.
Equestrian
The start of the eventing competition was on Saturday with the first half of the dressage program. Clark Montgomery had the top US score on the day at 46.60 to place 12th while Boyd Martin is 19th after a 47.70. The team score can’t be ranked yet until the US has a third individual score.
Fencing
Things didn’t go great for the US on the first day of the fencing competitions. Saturday was the women’s individual epee competition and all three fencers from the US went out in the first round. Katharine Holmes lost to Erika Kirpu 5-4 after a very defensive match. No one scored in the first period while each scored twice in the second and third periods. It went to overtime where Kirpu got the decisive point. Courtney Hurley also went to overtime against Yana Shemyakina. Hurley trailed 6-5 after the first period but rallied to lead 9-8 going to the final period. Despite taking a 12-9 lead Hurley couldn’t hold off Shemyakina as she rallied to tie it at 13 and force the overtime where she got the 14-13 win. Finally Kelley Hurley faced Nathalie Moellhausen and fell behind 4-3 after the first period and then even further at 11-8 after the second. Hurley rallied in the third period and got it to 11-10 but still fell 15-12. These three will compete as a team on Thursday starting against Romania in the quarterfinals at 9:30 AM.
Field Hockey
The US opened their Rio Olympics with a massive win over Argentina. Hoping to advance from the six-team group by placing in the top four the Americans would score twice in the second half, once in the 35th minute on a goal from Katie Reinprecht and again in the 50th minute from Michelle Kasold. The Argentinians would strike back for one but the US held on for the win. With another four games coming the US might only need another win to advance. The US faces Australia next on Monday at 9 AM. The Ausies lost 1-0 to Great Britain and an upset in that match could put the US in great shape for the quarterfinals.
Gymnastics
The US men easily qualified for the team final as they placed tops in the qualifying round with a 270.405 total to lead the way while two US men placed into the all-around final, Sam Mikulak in 4th and Chris Brooks in 14th. Individual apparatus finalists were Mikulak on the floor (first) and high bar (sixth), Danell Leyva on the high bar (fourth) and parallel bars (seventh), Jake Dalton on the floor (second), and Alex Nadour on the pommel horse (seventh). The men’s team final is 3 PM Monday, the individual final on Wednesday at 3 PM. The floor and pommel horse will be next Sunday at 1 PM and 2:34 PM respectively while the parallel bars are at 1 PM Tuesday the 16th with the high bar on the 16th at 2:34 PM.
Rowing
Rowing on Saturday was about avoiding repechage events as no one was in danger of being eliminated yet. Two American boats did manage to avoid repechage events, Gevvie Stone in the women’s single sculls won her heat to go straight to the quarterfinals (there’s an extra round in the large field single sculls). The other crew to advance past the repechage was Anthony Fahden, Edward King, Tyler Nase, and Robin Prendes in the men’s lightweight four. They finished second in their heat to advance to the semifinals.
In the men’s pair Nareg Guregian and Anders Weiss finished fourth, Meghan O’Leary and Ellen Tomek were fourth in the second heat of the women’s double sculls, and in women’s quadruple sculls Tracy Eisser, Megan Kalmoe, Grace Latz, and Adrienne Martelli were third. All three will face repechage events were their medal chances will live or die.
Rugby Sevens
The US did not get off to a great start as Fiji handled them fairly easily in a 12-7 game the open the group stage. Alev Kelter had a try for the US in the loss. Things went a lot better though in the night cap with the US defeating Colombia 48-0 with Kelter scoring the opener and Lauren Doyle, Kathryn Johnson (twice), Jessica Javelet, Ryan Carlyle, and Joanne Fa’avesi all scoring tries. The US is in second in their group and faces Australia on Sunday at 12:30 PM. For more on the scenarios for advancement see the preview section.
Shooting
As mentioned at the top this is where the US won their first gold medal of Rio. Sarah Scherer and Virginia Thrasher both advanced from the women’s 10m air rifle qualification round with Scherer stronger in the opening and closing rounds but Thrasher stronger in the middle. Scherer was fifth in 416.8 and Thrasher sixth in 416.3. In the final Scherer got off to a slow start and with the new cascading elimination quickly was knocked out in eighth place. Thrasher was three points clear of Scherer within six shots and never really hit a bad patch en route to a 208-point final, a one point win, and an Olympic gold.
In the men’s 10m air pistol Will Brown and Jay Shi were knocked out in qualifying as they both finished with scores of 577. Brown was 12th and Shi 18th after tiebreakers were factored in. The minimum score to get into the final was 580 so they weren’t far off.
Soccer
The matchup between the #1 and #3 teams in the world was a tight matchup with only one goal in the match. Carli Lloyd scored yet another major goal for the US in the 64th minute to give the US the win. The US goes to six points in the group, three clear of France, and has already secured advancement to the group stage. They can win the group with just a draw in their final group stage match against Colombia on Tuesday at 6 PM. The tiebreaker is GD and with the US and France each on +3 right now if the US loses and France wins on Tuesday the US would finish second.
Swimming
Four events handed out medal on Saturday and the US won three silvers and nearly a medal in the fourth event. In the men’s 400m individual medley both Chase Kalisz and Jay Litherland advanced from the heats with Kalisz posting the top time and Litherland fourth. In the final Kalisz won silver with a second place finish while Litherland was fifth. In the men’s 400m freestyle Conor Dwyer qualified for the final with the top time in the heats while Connor Jaeger finished seventh. In the final both were right in it going to the final 50m but they finished fourth and fifth respectively with Dwyer 0.52 out of bronze.
The women’s 400m individual medley was also held on Saturday with Maya DiRado and Elizabeth Beisel both making the final after placing third and sixth in the heats. In the final DiRado swam a great race but was still 4.79 seconds behind first as Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu just destroyed the world record by two seconds. DiRado grabbed silver while Beisel was sixth. The US 4x100m women’s freestyle relay team advanced in second from the heats with a team of Amanda Weir, Lia Neal, Allison Schmitt, and Katie Ledecky. In the final Simone Manuel, Abbey Weitzeil, and Dana Vollmer joined Ledecky and placed second behind the Australians.
The other two events on Saturday set the fields for the final. In the women’s 100m butterfly both Dana Vollmer and Kelsi Worrell advanced from the heats with the second and fourth best times and while Vollmer easily made Sunday’s 9:03 PM final with fourth best time semifinal Worrell came up 0.03 seconds short and was eliminated in ninth. In the men’s 100m breaststroke Kevin Cordes and Cody Miller placed fourth and fifth in the heats and then Miller was better in the semifinals in second with Cordes in fifth as both made the final, Sunday night at 9:53 PM.
Table Tennis
The US exceeded in one day their wins from London as one US competitor for the US is still in the running going to the third round. The men’s side didn’t go as well with 16-year-old Kanak Jha dropping his opener in the preliminary round to Nima Alamian 1-4 and Yijun Feng lost his opener in the first round to Zhiwen He 2-4.
But on the women’s side things went better with Jennifer Wu beating Eva Odorova in the first round 4-1 before losing 2-4 to Matilda Ekholm in the second round. Winning twice was Lily Zhang who won her first round match against Gremlis Arvelo in a 4-0 sweep and repeated that feet against Jieni Shao. She’ll face a tough opponent, Hyo-Won Seo in the third round on Tuesday morning at 9 AM.
Tennis
While there were some bright spots it was overwhelmingly a bad day for the US tennis players as only two of the seven who competed advanced and several lost to opponents that were not of high quality. The two winners were Madison Keys over Danka Kovinic 6-3, 6-3 and Steve Johnson against Darian King 6-3, 6-2. Perhaps DK was lucky letters for the US yesterday. The five losing for the US though were Jack Sock to Taro Daniel 4-6, 4-6, Sloane Stephens to a good opponent, Eugenie Bouchard, 3-6, 3-6, Brian Baker in three sets to Yuichi Sugita 7-5, 5-7, 4-6, and Denis Kudla against Andrej Martin 0-6, 3-6. Later in the day, Venus Williams lost a phenomenal tough match to Kirsten Flipkens in three sets in a tiebreaker, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7.
Volleyball
The US women opened their Olympics by sweeping Puerto Rico 25-17, 25-22, 25-17 to go to the top of the group standings as one of two teams that went 3-0 along side Serbia. The US faces the Netherlands next on Monday at 2 PM. The Dutch beat China in 5 sets in their opener.
Water Polo
While the US men lost their opener to defending gold medalists Croatia it wasn’t all bad news for the you. A competitive 7-5 loss as Tony Azevedo scored twice. Facing another winless team in Spain on Monday at 10:40 AM the US will face a much more important game where a loss would really start seeing them feel some pressure.
Weightlifting
Morghan King pushed the limits of both what she and any American woman has ever done in the women’s 48kg as she snatched 83kg (fifth) and clean and jerked 100kg (sixth). Her combined score of 183kg was sixth best but she really reached about as high as should could have and a medal was out of reach realistically.
August 7th Preview:
All times ET!! All events should be available online via NBC’s Olympic website and apps (assuming a cable package that gives you access). What is live in ET/CT is often tape delayed in MT/PT. Yell at NBC for their ridiculous decision to tape delay an Olympics happening one hour east of ET, it’s insane.
Basketball
The US Women will open their Olympics with a matchup against Senegal at 11 AM. This is only Senegal’s second Olympics after finishing last in 2000 and they lost all five games that year by at least 21… so this one won’t be close. The game will be LIVE on NBCSN.
Beach Volleyball
The final two American beach volleyball teams start their tournaments on Sunday. Lauren Fendrick and Brooke Sweat face Monika Brzostek and Kinga Kolosinska at 10 AM while Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena face Mohamed Arafet Naceur and Choaib Belhaj Salah at 3:30 PM. Both beach volleyball matches are scheduled to be shown LIVE on NBC.
Canoe
The slalom canoe competition begins in Rio on Sunday with the heats of the men’s C1 and men’s K1. Casey Eichfeld will compete in the first run of the C1 at 11:57 AM with his second run scheduled for two hours later at 1:57 PM. In the men’s K1 Michal Smolen will take his first run at 12:58 PM and his second run at 2:58 PM…. so basically tune into the live stream five minutes before the hour each hour from noon to 3 PM to catch the Americans. NBC will carry some of the competition LIVE in the coverage between 3 and 4:15 PM which means they may not catch the Americans at all.
Cycling
The women’s road race will be on Sunday as they cover much of the same territory as the men did but only 87.6 miles total. The US has a loaded field with Mara Abbott, Kristin Armstrong, Megan Guarnier, and Evelyn Stevens and could have the race winner. The race beings at 11:15 AM and will start LIVE on NBC and end LIVE on NBC as well with sporadic coverage in between.
Equestrian
The rest of the dressage portion of the eventing competition is on Sunday with two more Americans competing. Lauren Kieffer is scheduled for 11 AM while Phillip Dutton won’t go until 2:38 PM. The equestrian competition will be shown on delay on MSNBC as part of their coverage from 2-5 PM.
Fencing
Sunday’s fencing will be of the men’s foil variety. The US has three competing starting with Gerek Meinhardt against Maximilien Van Haaster at 9 AM. Miles Chamley-Watson faces Artur Akhmatkhuzin at 10 AM while at 10:30 AM Alexander Massialas takes on Mohamed Essam. All three are round of 32 matches. If Chamley-Watson and Massialas both win they would meet in the round of 16 at 12 PM. Meinhardt’s round of 16 match would be at 11:30 AM. Quarterfinals are at 12:45 PM with the semifinals at 3 PM and 3:30 PM. The bronze medal match is at 4:15 PM and the gold medal match at 4:45 PM. Some fencing will be shown LIVE on NBCSN in their coverage from 9-11 AM with the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals being LIVE on MSNBC as well.
Gymnastics
The US team of Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez, Madison Kocian, and Aly Raisman will compete in the qualifying round today. This round will determine the qualifiers for the team event as well as the individual all-around and the individual event finals. Looking to watch it live? Your only chance will be online as NBC will delay their coverage until the evening telecast from 7 PM-12 AM.
Judo
Judo will get underway Sunday for the US with Angelica Delgado taking on Tsolomon Adiyasambuu in the women’s 52kg round of 32 to open things at 9:21 AM ET. If Delgado advances the rest of the competition continues throughout the day with the round of 16 and quarterfinals right after the round of 32 before a break in the action before the repechage and semifinals lead into the medal finals. You must make the quarterfinals to get into the repechage. The finals will be shown on delay during NBCSN’s coverage from 11 PM-12 AM
Rowing
Rowing was supposed to be part of the schedule today but weather conditions have forced the cancellation of all of today’s races. We’ll see how this affects the future schedule when it is released.
Rugby Sevens
So the US sits in second with one game left in their group against Australia. The problem is Australia got 53-0 and 36-0 wins yesterday and the US has little shot of winning. So what must they do to advance? It’s simple and they know.. avoid losing by 90. They have a +43 GD record and unless it drops below -48 they’ll advance. So it’s very likely they will be in the quarterfinals at 5:30 PM against New Zealand. Huge underdogs to medal at this point unfortunately with Australia and probably New Zealand standing in their way. USA will have the Australia match LIVE while CNBC will have a quarterfinal match LIVE.
Shooting
Two events on Sunday. Lydia Paterson and Enkelejda Shehu will compete in the women’s 10m air pistol qualification round at 8 AM. If they can finish in the top eight of the qualification round they’ll move into the final at 11 AM. The other event is the women’s trap where Corey Cogdell will be competing at 8 AM as well. If she advances she’ll take part in the semifinals at 2 PM with the bronze medal final at 2:30 PM and the gold medal final at 2:45 PM.
No live stream of the shooting qualification rounds (it’d be difficult to cover). The trap finals are going to be on tape delay on CNBC as part of their coverage from 4-7 PM while there is no planned coverage of the air pistol final.
Swimming
Six events begin on Sunday with just two of those ending later in the day with finals while the other four will contest semifinals. The two events beginning and ending on Sunday will be the women’s 400m freestyle and the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay. In the women’s 400m freestyle gold-medal favorite Katie Ledecky will be the in the fourth qualifying heat at 1:46 PM while Leah Smith will be in the third heat at 1:40 PM. Top eight finishes overall will move them into the evening final scheduled for 10:01 PM. In the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay we don’t know who will make up the team with Nathan Adrian, Caeleb Dressel, Anthony Ervin, Jimmy Feigen, Ryan Held, and Blake Pieroni in contention. We do know they’ll take part in the second heat at 2:02 PM with a top eight overall finish moving them into the 10:52 PM final later in the day.
In the women’s 100m backstroke Olivia Smoliga will be in the third heat at 12:08 PM and Kathleen Baker will be in the fourth heat at 12:11 PM. Top 16 overall finishes will move them into the semifinals which start at 10:36 PM Sunday evening. The men’s 200m freestyle heats will have Townley Haas in the fourth heat at 12:34 PM and Conor Dwyer in the sixth heat at 12:44 PM. Top 16 overall finishers move into the evening semifinals which kickoff at 9:11 PM.
The women will tackle the 100m breaststroke with Katie Meili in the fourth heat at 1 PM and Lilly King in the sixth heat at 1:06 PM. The top 16 overall finishers will advance to the semifinals that take place on Sunday evening starting at 9:29 PM. The final event beginning is the men’s 100m backstroke where Ryan Murphy is in the third heat at 1:17 PM and David Plummer is in the fourth heat at 1:20 PM. The semifinals on Sunday evening for the top 16 overall begin at 10:12 PM. All the swimming will be LIVE on NBC in CT/ET.
Tennis
It’s hard to talk about exact start times in tennis since matches do vary in length quite a bit and they don’t make any promises that you won’t be on an hour after the match before you started if it goes quickly… early in the day though Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Coco Vandeweghe face Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra-Santonja in the women’s doubles round of 32 and Serena Williams faces Daria Gavrilova in the women’s round of 64. Around 2:30 PM we anticipate Serena Williams, and Venus Wiliams facing Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova in the women’s doubles round of 32 while Steve Johnson and Jack Sock take on Julio Peralta and Hans Podlipnik-Castillo in the men’s doubles round of 32. The final match of the day around 4 PM is Brian Baker and Rajeev Ram vs. Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the men’s doubles round of 32. Bravo is the home for all of your Olympic tennis coverage as they’ll be live all day.
Volleyball
The US men, two-time defending silver medalists, start the Olympics on Sunday taking on Canada in their opener at 4:05 PM. Canada has not been to the Olympics since 1996 so getting this one done in three sets is the goal for the US. NBC will carry this match LIVE.
