Another incredible night for the US in the pool capped off a Friday that featured a medal in fencing that hadn’t happened in 84 years, tennis bronze, a medal for the sixth straight Olympics by a shotgun athlete, and an equestrian bronze. The US also took home medals in archery and boxing on perhaps the most diverse and busiest day of the games for the US.
August 12th Recap:
Archery
Archery in Rio wrapped up on Friday. The two Americans left, Brady Ellison and Zach Garrett, had to meet in the round of 16 in the morning with only one able to contend for a medal. Ellison continued his hot shooting in Rio but Garrett was a worth adversary and this one went the distance before Ellison got the narrow win 6-4 (29-29, 29-28, 28-29, 28-21, 29-29). Ellison faced Takaharu Furukawa in the quarterfinals and finished him off more easily 27-27, 28-25, 28-27, 29-29).
The semifinal was an epic tussle between Ellison and Ku Bon-chan where they drew the first three sets and had to end up in a one arrow shoot-off. Ellison lost the shoot-off after hitting an eight and was sent to the gold medal match with a 5-6* loss (29-29, 28-28, 29-29, 26-27, 29-28). In the bronze medal final Ellison won bronze over Sjef van der Berg 6-2 (27-26, 26-27, 30-28, 28-25).
It was the first medal in men’s individual archery since Vic Wunderle won silver back in 2000.
Badminton
Howard Shu lost his opening badminton singles group stage match to Tommy Sugiarto 14-21, 14-10 on Friday. Shu plays again on Saturday at 10:20 AM in what is now a must-win to stay in Rio. He needs to sweep the match to stay alive in the tiebreaker and then would need to win a points differential tiebreaker so winning as easily as possible is hugely important. In the women’s single group stage Iris Wang defeated Telma Santos 18-21, 21-10, 21-12 in a fantastic performance to get to 2-0 in Rio. She’ll play a winner-take-all match to end the group stage on Sunday at 2:55 PM.
In doubles play two of the American teams lost their matches and have been eliminated with one group stage match left. Phillip Chew and Sattawat Pongnairat lost to Shem Goh V/Wee Kiong Tan in men’s doubles 12-21, 10-21 and end their Olympics at 8 AM on Saturday. Chew and Jamie Subandhi lost 6-12, 12-21 against Kenta Kazuno/Ayane Kurihara in mixed doubles and wrap up their Olympics at 2:55 PM on Saturday.
Still alive are Eva Lee and Paula Lynn Obanana after losing 9-21, 6-21 against Christinna Pedersen/Kamilla Rytter Juhl in women’s doubles. They need to sweep Ying Luo/Yu Luo at 6:30 PM on Saturday, have Pedersen/Rytter Juhl get swept, make sure they win their match while allowing less than 23 total points against, and overcome a 57 point gap with the Danish team in point differential… for example if the US team won 21-0, 21-0 the Danes could only score 27 total points. So the total of the Danish points the Chinese points can’t be greater than 27.
Obviously it’s not going to happen so they will be done after Saturday. It’ll even be official before they play with the other group match at 2:55 PM.
Basketball
The US women were only ahead by two at the end of the first quarter but pulled away for an 81-51 win over Canada on Friday. Diana Taurasi and Maya Moore each had 12 points with Moore having eight rebounds and Sue Bird notching nine assists. Head-to-head results are the top tiebreaker so the US has the #1 spot locked up before their matchup with China at 11:15 AM on Sunday. The US men had a much tougher time than expected with Serbia only winning 94-91 after never being able to put the game away. Kyrie Irving had 15 points, Paul George had nine rebounds, and DeMarcus Cousins had five assists. The US men have essentially locked up the top spot in their group, but not officially. If they lose to France in their final group stage match at 1:15 PM on Sunday and Australia beats Venezuela then the top team in point differential will advance. The US is clearly ahead of Australia right now at +114 compared to +51 in that category and France is at +48 but if the US lost by say 10 to France is a 54 point Australia win believable? No, not really…
Beach Volleyball
April Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings were absolutely dominant in the round of 16 on Friday night sweeping Laura Giombini/Marta Menegatti 21-10, 21-16. Ross and Walsh Jennings await their to be determined opponent in the quarterfinals on Sunday.
Boxing
Both the US men’s boxers lost on Saturday. Nico Hernandez already had a bronze at worst but will still be disappointed with a 3-0 loss to Hasanboy Dusmatov in the light flyweight semifinals with the three judges scoring it 27-30, 28-29, 28-29. A rougher loss was in the lightweight division where Carlos Balderas was swept by Lazaro Alvarez 27-30 according to all three judges, meaning he will not be able to win an Olympic medal.
On the women’s side it was a good start for the US as Mikaela Mayer won her round of 16 match 4-0 (40-35, 40-35, 39-37) against Jennifer Chieng in the lightweight division. Mayer fights again on Monday at 4 PM against Anastasiia Beliakova in the quarterfinals with a medal on the line.
Diving
After a day with no diving Kassidy Cook and Abby Johnston showed real potential in the women’s 3m springboard preliminaries. Cook finished with 327.75 in eight place while Johnston was sixth with 333.60. Cook and Johnston are both in the semifinals on Saturday at 3 PM hoping to reach Sunday’s final.
Equestrian
The US won a team bronze in dressage on Friday after a somewhat shaky performance nearly cost them the medal. Allison Brock posted a better score than the first round with a 73.824 to start, placing 19th overall and advancing to the individual final. Kasey Perry-Glass though struggled to a 73.235 that left her out of the individual final in 22nd and really hurt the US average. Steffen Peters was next and scored a 74.622 that was 14th best and well below his first round score. That left it up to Laura Graves who delivered a fantastic 80.644, fourth best in the field, and enough to vault the US back into third to take the bronze. It was the first medal for the US since a bronze in 2004. Brock, Peters, and Graves will compete in the Grand Prix Freestyle at 9 AM on Monday.
Fencing
On Friday the US men’s foil team of Miles Chamley-Watson, Alexander Massialas, Race Imboden and Gerek Meinhardt won bronze in the team foil event. The only US fencing team competing in Rio they beat Egypt in their opener in the quarterfinals 45-37. In the semifinals they had a great bout with Russia but lost 41-45 to drop into the bronze final. They were impressive in the bronze medal match pulling away from Italy for a 45-31 win. It was the first US team foil medal since a bronze in 1932!
Golf
Things are not going all that much better for the US halfway through the men’s golf tournament. Matt Kuchar was -1 on Friday to get to -3 overall and tied for 14th. Bubba Watson had by far the best US day as he was -4 to get back under par to -2 and tied for 18th. If Watson can post another day like that he might play himself into medal contention as the top three are all at least -8. Patrick Reed was also below par on the day at -2 as he reached -1 for the tournament and a tie for 22nd. The only American not under pat was Rickie Fowler who was even par for the day and is now +4 overall and alone in 50th.
Gymnastics
Nicole Ahsinger failed to advance from the trampoline qualifying round on Friday. She posted scores of 45.250 and 50.205 and ended up placing 15th of 16 and missing the top eight spots moving to the final.
Rowing
No medals on Friday in rowing for the US though the one real positive development was a semifinalist moving on to the final on the last day of competition Saturday. Andrew Campbell and Joshua Konieczny in the men’s lightweight double sculls finished fifth in the final while Grace Luczak and Felice Mueller in the women’s pair finished fourth in their final. Neither were in a close race for a medal. The positive news was Gevvie Stone in the women’s single sculls semifinals was second in her semifinal heat and advanced to the final on Saturday at 9:44 AM.
Finishing the Olympics in a final B were Kate Bertko and Devery Karz in the women’s lightweight double sculls where they finished fourth in the final B and tenth overall. Finally the men’s four team of Charlie Cole, Henrik Rummel, Matt Miller, and Seth Weil won their final B to finish seventh overall in Rio.
Sailing
David Hughes and Stuart McNay in the men’s 470 finished fourth in the only race held on Friday, the fifth in the event, and moved up two spots to eighth overall. They’ll have races #6, #7, and #8 on Sunday at 12:15 PM. In the women’s 470 Annie Haeger and Briana Provancha finished fifth in race #5 and moved up two spots to fourth overall. They have races #6, #7, and #8 on Sunday at 12:05 PM.
Wrapping up the Olympics on Friday was Pedro Pascual in the men’s RS:X. Pascual was 23rd, 20th, and 32nd in races #10, #11, and #12 as he moved up two spots to finish 28th overall in Rio. Marion Lepert in the women’s RS:X had a false start before finishing 19th and 22nd in races #10, #11 and #12 on Friday. She dropped back four spots to finish Rio in 16th overall.
In the women’s laser radial Paige Railey was 25th in race #7 and 24th in race #8 as her medal hopes took a major blow and she dropped from seventh to tenth overall. Races #9 and #10 are on Saturday at 12:05 PM and Railey needs to stay in the top ten to move into the medal race. The men’s laser had races #7 and #8 with Charlie Buckingham finishing 15th and 10th and staying in 15th overall. Barring a major move up the standings in races #9 and #10 on Saturday at 12:05 PM Buckingham will not make the medal race and end his Olympics on Saturday.
Friday was the beginning for the men’s 49er with Thomas Barrows III and Joseph Morria. They finished 18th and 19th in the first two races of the event and are in last, 20th overall, going into races #3, #4, #5, and #6 on Saturday at 12:05 PM. The women’s 49er FX also began with Paris Henken and Helena Scutt finishing 13th and 16th in their two races. They are 14th overall with races #3, #4, #5, and #6 on Saturday at 12:20 PM.
Shooting
Things began on Saturday with the men’s 50m rifle, prone qualification. David Higgins shot a 617.7 and finished 40th while Michael McPhail shot a 622.0 and finished 19th. Things went better for Morgan Craft and Kim Rhode in the women’s skeet qualifications. Rhode hit 72/75 to qualify in second while Craft hit 69/75 to tie for 6th. She won a shoot-off for a spot in the semifinals. In the semifinals Rhode and Craft each went 14/16 and got into a tie for the two spots in the bronze final. Another shoot-off occurred with Rhode advancing and Craft being eliminated. In the bronze final both competitors went 15/16 and a third shoot-off occurred for the bronze medal. Rhode missed one of her opening two shots but her opponent did as well as she eventually would win the shoot-off and win bronze. It was the sixth straight Olympics with a medal for Rhode who won gold in skeet in London.
Starting their qualifying events but not finishing them on Friday were Vincent Hancock and Frank Thompson in men’s skeet. Hancock hit 71/75 with Thompson hitting 69/75. The top six all hit at least 73/75 so even with a perfect final 50 on Saturday they will both need help. In 2012 the top six all hit at least 120 and in 2008 the cutoff was 118. That suggests both of them have a chance on Saturday IF they can be perfect or very close to that mark. Their qualifying event will resume at 8:30 AM.
In the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol first stage of qualification Emil Milev scored 284 and is in 20th while Keith Sanderson is in ninth after scoring a 290. The top six advance to the final after the second round at 8 AM.
Soccer
A stunning quarterfinal loss for the three time defending champion Americans to Sweden on Friday. It was the first time the US has not reached the gold medal match in soccer and their first knockout round loss in 16 years. The US fell behind in the 61st minute but equalized through Alex Morgan in the 77th. The US had several great chances to go ahead but couldn’t find a winner and ending up going through extra time to a shootout. Morgan had her opening attempt saved but Hope Solo saved the third attempt from Sweden to bring it back even. The US tournament ended with Christen Press missing the goal entirely and Sweden making their fifth to eliminate the US.
It’ll be a long three years until the Women’s World Cup in 2019 and the next chance for the US to win a major tournament. There is not a lot of drama for the women in the off years because CONCACAF competition is not a major factor. If the US hosts the SheBelieves Cup again next year that could be a good chance for the US to face some of the best in the world though the stakes are nowhere near the prestige of the Olympics or World Cup.
Swimming
Swimming is rapidly coming to a close in Rio with the final afternoon session happening on Friday. In the women’s 50m freestyle heats Abbey Weitzeil came home fifth but posted a worse time in the semifinals as she finished 12th and was eliminated. Newly crowned 100m champion Simone Manuel was 11th in the heats but moved up to sixth in the semifinals as she made the final on Saturday night at 9:03 PM. The other individual event on Friday afternoon was the grueling men’s 1500m freestyle. Jordan Wilimovsky was second with Connor Jaeger third. Both of them easily made the final on Saturday night at 9:11 PM. The two 4x100m medley relays easily qualified for the US. The women had Olivia Smoliga, Katie Meili, Kelsi Worrell, and Abbey Weitzeil go in the heats. They won their heat and the final will be on Saturday night at 9:49 PM. The men had David Plummer, Kevin Cordes, Tom Shields, and Caeleb Dressel go and won their heat. They are in the final on Saturday night that will wrap up pool swimming in Rio at 10:04 PM.
The evening session had four individual finals in addition to the women’s 50m semifinals. Maya DiRado opened with a surprise gold in the women’s 200m backstroke final. She’s scheduled to retire at age 23 having just won bronze, silver, and gold in individual events in Rio. It was the second straight gold by the US in the event after Missy Franklin won it in London. The last individual final of Michael Phelps’ career resulted in a silver as he was second in the men’s 100m butterfly. Phelps shared the silver with two others, a first ever three-way tie for a medal in swimming. Phelps’ had won gold in the event in London. Tom Shields was seventh in the final.
Katie Ledecky won back-to-back golds in the women’s 800m freestyle as she beat the world record by almost two seconds and won by over 11. Ledecky would have beaten her own time from four years ago by almost ten seconds and she won that race by over four seconds. Crazy impressive. Leah Smith was sixth in the 800m freestyle. The evening wrapped up with 35-year-old Anthony Ervin winning gold in the 50m freestyle. He became the oldest Olympic swimmer to win a gold and repeated his own gold medal performance from Sydney in 2000. Nathan Adrian took bronze in the 50m freestyle. Cullen Jones had taken silver in the event in London but Gary Hall, Jr. was the last American to win the event in 2004.
Table Tennis
Table tennis ended for the US with the men’s and women’s teams each losing their first round matches 3-0. The women lost to Germany with Zheng Jiaqi losing to Ying Han 3-0, Lily Zhang losing to Xiaona Shan 3-0, and Jennifer Wu/Zheng Jiaqi losing to Petrissa Solja/Xiaona Shan 3-2.
The men lost to Sweden with Yijun Feng losing to Par Gerell 3-0, Kanak Jha losing to Kristian Karlsson 3-0, and Timothy Wang/Kanak Jha losing to Mattias Karlsson/Par Gerell 3-0.
Tennis
The US won their first medal in Rio on Friday as Steve Johnson and Jack Sock won bronze in the men’s doubles against Daniel Nestor/Vasek Popisil with a 6-2, 6-4 win in the bronze final. Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan won gold in the event in London and this was the third straight Olympics the US won a medal in men’s doubles. Madison Keys missed a chance to win a medal losing 3-6, 5-7 to Angelique Kerber in the women’s singles semifinals but does face Petra Kvitova in the bronze final on Saturday. Steve Johnson was eliminated by Andy Murray in the men’s singles quarterfinals in an interesting match where he lost the first six games but eventually was in a third set tiebreak, dropping the match 0-6, 6-4, 6-7(2).
Both American teams moved into the semifinals in mixed doubles. Rajeev Ram and Venus Williams beat Roberta Vinci/Fabio Fognini 6-3, 7-5 while Sock and Bethanie Mattek-Sands beat Teliana Pereira/Marcelo Melo 6-4, 6-4. Ram and Williams face Sania Mirza/Rohan Bopanna next while Mattek-Sands and Sock face Lucie Hradecka/Radek Stepanek.
Track and Field
Travis Bailey and Andrew Evans were unable to advance in the men’s discus throw qualification round after finishing 26th and 16th respectively with distances of 59.81m and 61.87. Mason Finley did advance with a 63.68m throw and will be in the final at 9:50 AM on Saturday.
In the women’s shot put Felisha Jackson had a shot put best of 17.69m but wasn’t able to advance to the final in 14th. Michelle Carter advanced in third at 19.01m while Raven Saunders advanced in fourth at 18.83m. The final was Friday evening and Carter won gold with a dramatic American record 20.63m throw on her final attempt. Raven Saunders hit a personal best of 19.35m to finish fifth.
Kicking off the heptathlon on Friday were Barbara Nwaba, Heather Miller-Koch, and Kendell Williams. Nwaba scored 1005 in the 100m hurdles with a time of 13.81, 1016 in the high jump with a 1.83m jump, 848 in the shot put with a 14.81m throw, and 908 in the 200m with a time of 24.77. After the first day Nwaba is in 11th with 3777 points. Williams scored 1118 in the 100m hurdles with a time of 13.04, 1016 in the high jump with a 1.83m jump, 609 in the shot put with a 11.21m throw, and 972 in the 200m with a time of 24.09. After the first day Williams is in 14th with 3715 points. Miller-Koch scored 1041 in the 100m hurdles with a time of 13.56, 978 in the high jump with a 1.80m jump, 721 in the shot put with a 12.91m throw, and 890 in the 200m with a time of 24.97. After the first day Miller-Koch is in 19th with 3630 points. The heptathlon continues Saturday with the long jump at 10:45 AM, the javelin throw at 7 PM, and wrap up with the 800m at 9:53 PM.
The men’s 800m began on Friday with the first round. Boris Berian was third in his heat to advance and Clayton Murphy was fourth in his heat but had one of the three best non-automatic qualifying times to advance as both reached the semifinals at 9:08 PM on Saturday night. Charles Jock was sixth in his heat and eliminated.
In the women’s 1500m Brenda Martinez was third in her heat, Jennifer Simpson was fourth in her heat, and Shannon Rowbury was second in her heat as all three advanced to the semifinals Sunday night at 8:30/8:41 PM. In the women’s 100m first round Tianna Bartoletta, Tori Bowie, and English Gardner all won their heats and will compete in the semifinals Saturday night at 8 PM.
The first final was on Friday morning in the women’s 10,000m. Molly Huddle set a new American record of 30:13.17 as she finished sixth while Emily Infeld was 11th and Marielle Hall was 33rd.
Volleyball
The US women moved to 4-0 in Rio with a 25–22, 25–22, 23–25, 25–20 win over Italy. The Americans have not locked up the top spot in their group and with a three or four set loss to China could finish second still. They face China on Sunday at 4:05 PM.
Water Polo
The US men were eliminated with an 8-5 loss to Montenegro on Friday with Josh Samuels leading the US with two goals. The Americans haven’t been dreadful in Rio but they haven’t been able to win close games and now they’ll have just one remaining against 3-1 Italy at 2:30 PM on Sunday. It’s the first time not advancing from the group stage for the US since 2004 when only three from each group advanced. This will be their worst Olympic appearance since at least 1976 (when they were not part of it).
Weightlifting
Jenny Arthur competing at 75kg on Friday. Posting a sixth best 107kg snatch and a fifth best clean and jerk of 135kg she finished 6th with a 242kg total.
August 12th 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. Schedules of competition and of course TV coverage subject to change, especially if the US competitors unexpectedly advance in a competition.
Badminton
There will be four American teams/individuals competing, likely for the final time, in Rio on Saturday. Phillip Chew and Sattawat Pongnairat face Michael Fuchs/Johannes Schoettler in men’s doubles to end their Olympics at 8 AM on Saturday. Howard Shu has his second singles group stage match against Osleni Guerrero on Saturday at 10:20 AM in what is now a must-win to stay in Rio. If he does win it’ll need to be in straight sets to stay in the running for the tiebreaker.
In the afternoon at 2:55 PM Chew and Jamie Subandhi face Jacco Arends/Selena Piek in mixed doubles to wrap up their Olympics. Finally at 6:30 PM Eva Lee and Paula Lynn Obanana need to sweep Ying Luo/Yu Luo in women’s doubles. They also need Christinna Pedersen/Kamilla Rytter Juhl to get swept, need to make sure they win their match while allowing less than 23 total points against, and overcome a 57 point gap with the Danish team in point differential… for example if the US team won 21-0, 21-0 the Danes could only score 27 total points. So the total of the Danish points the Chinese points can’t be greater than 27. The other group match is at 2:55 PM so we should have confirmation they are out before they even start their final match.
NBCSN will be covering the two men’s matches on tape delay between 12 and 3 PM.
Beach Volleyball
The knockout tournaments finish the round of 16 on Saturday. For the US that means the men’s team of Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena beginning against Alexander Huber/Robin Seidl at 10:59 PM. Huber/Seidl went 1-2 in their pool but did have a positive points ratio winning five more than they lost.
NBC plans to carry the match LIVE tonight.
Boxing
The only US boxer to go on Saturday will be Antonio Vargas against Juliao Neto in the men’s flyweight round of 32. Vargas fights at 10:30 AM and will attempt to become the fifth American to open with a win in Rio against the home country favorite.
NBCSN will have tape delayed coverage between 6 and 9 PM.
Cycling
The US team of Kelly Catlin, Chloe Dygert, Sarah Hammer, Jennifer Valente, and Ruth Winder compete in the women’s team pursuit first round on Saturday at 10:28 AM. The US is faced off with Australia and the faster team in the matchup will advance to the final at 4:14 PM. The US was almost five seconds faster than Australia in the qualifying round and with how close the race to make the top four and stay in gold contention was you know the Australians were not holding anything back. If the US should lose to Australia but finish with one of the two best times of the six teams in the first round not advancing to the gold medal match they’ll go for bronze at 4:07 PM. There is also a 5th place and a 7th place match but if the US missed out on the top four it would be a real stunner.
MSNBC will have some delayed coverage between 9 AM and 1:30 PM with NBCSN having delayed coverage between 3 PM and 9 PM.
Diving
After a good showing in the preliminaries Kassidy Cook and Abby Johnston will compete in the women’s 3m springboard semifinals on Saturday at 3 PM. With five dives in the semifinals the top 12 will advance to the final on Sunday.
NBC will have delayed coverage of the semifinals in their primetime window.
Fencing
On Saturday we’ll see the final US team compete in fencing with the women’s sabre team of Ibtihaj Muhammad, Dagmara Wozniak, and Mariel Zagunis starting off with a quarterfinal matchup with Poland at 8 AM. If they win the semifinals would be at 10:30 AM with the bronze final at 4 PM and the gold final at 5:15 PM. If they lose they’d face a 5th-8th place semifinal at 9:15 AM followed by a 7th or 5th place match at 11:45 AM.
Supposedly NBCSN will have LIVE coverage between 8 AM and 12 PM with the quarterfinals on MSNBC LIVE and the bronze and gold finals will be LIVE on MSNBC.
Field Hockey
The final group stage match of Rio is Great Britain for the US on Saturday at 6:30 PM. Both teams have already locked up advancement to the quarterfinals after 4-0 starts and will finish 1-2 in the group. The first tiebreaker is point differential and the US is ahead in that category +10 to +7 so a draw is all the US needs to win the group.
CNBC will have LIVE coverage of the match.
Golf
With Rickie Fowler now +4 overall and alone in 50th he’ll tee off first for the US on Saturday at 7:03 AM. With the other three pretty close together they will tee off in consecutive groups with Patrick Reed at -1 teeing off at 8:47 AM, Bubba Watson at -2 teeing off at 9:03 AM, and Matt Kuchar at -3 teeing off at 9:14 AM. If any of the Americans are going to contend for a medal they need a big day to make up ground on the top three all -8 or better.
Where else would you go but the Golf Channel for coverage of this LIVE all day.
Gymnastics
In gymnastics on Saturday it will be the men’s trampoline event. Logan Dooley will be eleventh to go in the 1:03 PM qualification round. If he scores high enough to place in the top eight he’ll advance to the final at 2:42 PM.
No planned TV coverage.
Rowing
Three last chances for a medal in rowing on Saturday. Things start off with Gevvie Stone in the women’s single sculls final at 9:44 AM. She’s a contender but certainly not the favorite, unlike the women’s eight team at 10:04 AM. The team of Amanda Elmore, Tessa Gobbo, Eleanor Logan, Meghan Musnicki, Amanda Polk, Emily Regan, Lauren Schmetterling, Kerry Simmonds, and Katelin Snyder are heavy favorites in the event. The men’s eight team is a contender for a medal as well when they race in the final at 10:24 AM. The US team is Mike DiSanto, Sam Dommer, Austin Hack, Alex Karwoski, Stephen Kasprzyk, Rob Munn, Glenn Ochal, Hans Struzyna, and Sam Ojserkis.
NBC is scheduled to have LIVE coverage between 10 AM and 12 PM and delayed coverage between 2 PM and 4 PM.
Sailing
In the women’s Laser Radial Paige Railey is tenth overall with races #9 and #10 on Saturday at 12:05 PM. Railey needs to stay in the top ten to move into the medal race on Monday. The men’s Laser has Charlie Buckingham in 15th overall. Barring a major move up the standings in races #9 and #10 on Saturday at 12:05 PM Buckingham will not make Monday’s medal race and end his Olympics on Saturday.
In the men’s 49er Thomas Barrows III and Joseph Morria are in last, 20th overall, going into races #3, #4, #5, and #6 on Saturday at 12:05 PM. The women’s 49er FX has Paris Henken and Helena Scutt in 14th overall with races #3, #4, #5, and #6 on Saturday at 12:20 PM.
Resuming on Saturday will be the men’s Finn with Caleb Paine in 15th overall ahead of races #7 and #8 at 12:05 PM. Also resuming is the mixed Nacra 17 with Bora Gulari and Louisa Chafee sitting in 16th overall ahead of races #7, #8, and #9 on Saturday at 12:05 PM.
Sailing will be covered on delay on MSNBC in their 4-6:15 PM window.
Shooting
Continuing their qualifying events on Saturday are Vincent Hancock and Frank Thompson in men’s skeet. Hancock has a 71 so far with Thompson at 69. The top six are all at 73 or better so even with a perfect final 50 on Saturday they will both need help. In 2012 the top six all hit at least 120 and in 2008 the cutoff was 118. That suggests both of them have a chance on Saturday IF they can be perfect or very close to that mark. Their qualifying event will resume at 8:30 AM. Semifinals for the top six are at 2 PM with the bronze match at 2:15 PM and the gold at 2:25 PM.
In the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol first stage of qualification Emil Milev scored 284 and is in 20th while Keith Sanderson is in ninth after scoring a 290. The top six advance to the final after the second round at 8 AM. The final will be held at 11:30 AM.
NBCSN is planning to show the skeet final LIVE and delayed coverage of the pistol final between 9 PM and 12 AM.
Swimming
Swimming in the pool wraps up in Rio on Saturday night. Newly crowned 100m champion Simone Manuel starts things off with the 50m freestyle final at 9:03 PM. The other individual event final is the men’s 1500m freestyle. Jordan Wilimovsky and Connor Jaeger will both contend for medal for the US in the final at 9:11 PM. The final two events to wrap up are the two 4x100m medley relays easily qualified for the US. The women go at 9:49 PM. While the men go at 10:04 PM.
NBC will have full LIVE coverage of the swimming during the evening session.
Tennis
The US could win three medals on Saturday in tennis. The first comes when Madison Keys faces Petra Kvitova in the women’s singles bronze final on Saturday at 11 AM. The other two come in the semifinals of mixed doubles. Rajeev Ram and Venus Williams face Sania Mirza/Rohan Bopanna around 2:30 PM while Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jack Sock face Lucie Hradecka/Radek Stepanek around 4 PM.
Bravo has full LIVE coverage on TV for tennis while streams of individual matches are available online.
Track and Field
Second day of track and field begins with the women’s triple jump qualification round with Andrea Geubelle in group A and Christina Epps and Keturah Orji in group B all at 8:40 AM. They’ll be hoping to finish top 12 or jump 14.30m to advance to Sunday night’s final. In the women’s 3000m steeplechase Colleen Quigley at 9:05 AM, Emma Coburn at 9:21 AM, and Courtney Frerichs at 9:27 AM will run in the first round. They need a top three finish in their heat or a top six at-large time to reach the final on Monday morning.
At 9:50 AM Mason Finley will compete in the men’s discus throw final. Everyone gets three attempts but the top eight at that point get three more. At that time on that track Allyson Felix at 10:07 AM, Phyllis Francis at 10:14 AM, and Natasha Hastings at 10:21 AM will be in the women’s 400m first round. They’ll need to finish first or second in their or grab one of the eight at-large spots into Sunday night’s semifinals.
The women’s heptathlon resumes at 10:45 AM with the long jump. Heather Miller-Koch and Kendell Williams will be in group A with Barbara Nwaba in group B. Nwaba is currently in 11th, Williams is in 14th, and Miller-Koch is in 19th. The competition wraps up with the javelin throw at 7 PM and the 800m at 9:53 PM. The field will be divided for those events but they’ll wait until they have the standings after the previous event to do so.
The morning wraps up in track with the men’s 100m first round. Marvin Bracy, Trayvon Bromell, and Justin Gatlin will be trying to advance to the semifinals on Sunday night but their heat assignments won’t be set until after the preliminary round earlier in the morning that they don’t have to participate in.
In the evening the pole vault will have the qualification round at 7:20 PM with Sam Kendricks in group A and Logan Cunningham and Cale Simmons in group B. The top 12 and anyone over 5.75m will reach the final on Monday night. The men’s 400m semifinals will take place with LeShawn Merritt at 7:30 PM, David Verburg at 7:37 PM, and Gil Roberts at 7:44 PM. If they finish first or second in their heat or grab one of two at-large spots they will reach the final on Sunday night.
The men’s long jump final will be at 7:53 PM with Jeff Henderson and Jarrion Lawson in the 12-man field. The top eight after three attempts get three more attempts in the final. The 10,000m men’s final is at 8:25 PM with Shadrack Kipchirchir, Leonard Korir, and Galen Rupp going for the US.
The semifinals will be held for the women’s 100m with Tori Bowie at 8 PM, Tianna Bartoletta at 8:07 PM, and English Gardner at 8:14 PM. If they finish in the top two in their heat or in one of two at-large spots the final will be later in the evening at 9:37 PM. The men’s 800m semifinals is the other track event in the evening. Boris Berian goes at 9:15 PM and Clayton Murphy goes at 9:22 PM. It’ll take a top two finish in their heat or one of the two at-large spots to reach the final on Monday night.
NBCSN kicks in with LIVE coverage of the discus final while NBC has LIVE coverage of track and some of the discus in the 10 AM-2 PM window. NBC will have LIVE coverage in primetime from 8 PM-12 AM and some delayed late night coverage from 12:30-1:30 AM.
Volleyball
The 1-2 US men face an important match against 2-1 France on Saturday. With 0-3 Mexico in the group final if the Americans can get a win today they’ll feel very good about their chances of advancing. They face France at 4:05 PM.
You can catch this one LIVE on NBC.
Water Polo
The US women are in the quarterfinals regardless of what happens today but facing 1-1 Hungary they’d love to finish the group stage undefeated in the top spot. Scheduled for 12 PM the US will know exactly what they need to do to win the group when it starts.
As you would expect, NBC will have LIVE coverage of the water polo.
Weightlifting
The US has their only male weightlifter on Saturday with Kendrick Farris competing at 94kg. Farris will be part of the B group of competitors and competes at 2:30 PM.
Delayed coverage will be available on NBCSN between 9 PM and 12 AM.
