The US nearly matched their five gold medals from the first three days of the Olympics on Tuesday as some of the biggest names on the team – Gabby Douglas, Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, Michael Phelps, and Ryan Lochte all added a gold medal to their resumes. There was the first silver medalist in men’s just since 1992 and the oldest member of the US team won a bronze medal in equestrian at the young age of 52.
Category Archives: Gymnastics
Rio 2016 Daily Update – August 8th
Sunday was another strong day for the US with US coming close to gold in both fencing and shotgun before picking up medals. Cycling teased the country with a US rider not even a quarter kilometer from gold, and then swimming brought the house down in the evening with four pairs of swimmers reaching tomorrow night’s finals and, two gold medals, and three other medal. The weather was not great in Rio affecting several events and cancelling the rowing entirely for the day. Catch up on it all and preview Monday in our daily update.
Rio 2016 Daily Update – August 7th
Sunday was another strong day for the US with US coming close to gold in both fencing and shotgun before picking up medals. Cycling teased the country with a US rider not even a quarter kilometer from gold, and then swimming brought the house down in the evening with four pairs of swimmers reaching tomorrow night’s finals and, two gold medals, and three other medal. The weather was not great in Rio affecting several events and cancelling the rowing entirely for the day. Catch up on it all and preview Monday in our daily update.
Rio 2016 Daily Update – August 6th
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. Continue reading Rio 2016 Daily Update – August 6th
Rio 2016 Daily Update – August 5th
Friday was the end of the three day lead-in to the Olympics where a couple of sports get underway but not very much is happening. From beginning to end the US action on Friday lasted only about six hours with a good break in there was well. On Saturday the action will be nearly nonstop from 7:30 AM to 8 PM with a bonus beach volleyball night cap three hours later.
August 5th Recap:
Archery
On the last day before the Olympics really swing into action there was just one event going on in Rio. The archery competitors all participated in a 72-arrow ranking round to set the seedings for the individual and team events to be held over the next week. The men went first and Brady Ellison was in top form posting a 690 that was second only to a world record 700 from Kim Woo-Jin of Korea. Finishing 15th with a 674 was Zach Garrett while Jake Kaminski ended up 31st with a 660.
Now if you focus on those seeds.. #2, #15, #31… you may quickly realize that they are closely bunched on the bracket. Indeed if Ellison and Kaminski both win their first matches they will face off in the second round. And the winner of that would face Garrett if he wins his first two matches. Unfortunately the US has three of the eight in one eighth of the bracket and thus only one will be able to reach the quarterfinals and try to medal. As far as matchups go it’s Kaminski vs. Marcus D’Almeida on Tuesday at 3:18 PM, Ellison vs. Ali Elghrari on Tuesday at 3:31 PM, and Garrett vs. Haziq Kamaruddin on Wednesday at 3:18 PM. I believe the round of 32 matches for all of them would be later on those days.
In the meantime the three will team up to try and secure a medal in the team event on Saturday. The US is seeded second after posting a score of 2024 and has a bye to the quarterfinals where they will face Chinese Taipei or Indonesia at 2:15 PM. The entire team competition is tomorrow so they will keep competing as the day progress if they advance.
On the women’s side the only one competing is Mackenzie Brown who was up and down at times in her ranking round but finished 19th with a 641 score. She’ll face Claudia Mandia in the first knockout round on Monday at 8:26 AM.
August 6th 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.
Archery
As mentioned previously, Brady Ellison, Jake Kaminski, and Zach Garrett will begin the men’s team event at 2:15 PM against Indonesia or Chinese Taipei. Semifinals and a bronze or gold medal final will follow if the US advances. The archery matches should be live as part of MSNBC’s coverage from 2:15-5 PM.
Basketball
The first of many beatdowns of the Olympics is expected on Saturday when the US men face China at 6 PM. This matchup doesn’t feature much intrigue as these two sides met twice in warmups for the Olympics with the US winning by 50 and 49 points. The game will be shown live on NBCSN.
Beach Volleyball
It won’t be until 3:30 PM before beach volleyball gets underway for any Americans when Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson take on Jefferson Pereira and Cherif Younousse to open up their pool play. The sport will keep us up late on several occasions though and Saturday is one of them as April Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings won’t hit the sand until 11 PM when they face Mariafe Artacho and Nicole Laird. The Gibb/Patterson match will air live on NBC as will Ross/Walsh Jennings later in the evening.
Boxing
Two Americans will enter the ring for round of 32 matches on Saturday. Carlos Balderas starts the lightweight division with a match against Berik Abdrakhmanov at 11:15 AM while Nico Hernandez has a late afternoon 4:30 PM matchup with Manuel Cappai in the light flyweight division. You might be able to catch the Balderas fight live on Telemundo while NBCSN will have them tape delayed as part of their coverage from 9 PM-12 AM.
Cycling
Cycling will begin on Saurday with the men’s road race, only 150.1 miles. Brent Bookwalter and Taylor Phinney will be racing for the US and the race will include Tour de France winner Chris Froome of Great Britain. It begins at 8:30 AM. The road race will be covered live by NBC during their coverage from 8-10:30 AM and by NBCSN in their coverage between 10:30 AM and 3 PM.
Equestrian
The start of the eventing competition will take two days to get through all of the dressage programs but two Americans are in the ring tomorrow. Boyd Martin is the first American out at 10:36 AM while Clark Montgomery goes at 3:14 PM. You’ll be able to catch the equestrian coverage on USA between 3 and 4 PM. One would think they might get Montgomery’s on live, but that’s not certain.
Fencing
The first gold of Rio in fencing will be handed out on Saturday in the women’s individual epee event and two American sisters are in contention. Courtney Hurley will start in the round of 32 at 9:45 AM against Yana Shemyakina while Kelley Hurley faces Nathalie Moellhausen at 10:15 AM in the same round. The other American is Katharine Holmes and she takes on Erika Kirpu at 9:45 AM as well. The round of 16 and quarterfinals proceed pretty quickly after the round of 32 before the semifinals and finals come later in the day. You won’t get much fencing coverage on TV tomorrow as the only scheduled coverage is the final on tape delay during CNBC’s coverage from 5-8 PM.
Field Hockey
Competing in the third straight Olympics for the first time the US hopes to build on a competitive showing in London as they open up with a must win matchup against Argentina at 4 PM. The US has defeated them in the Olympics four years ago as well as in the Pan American games so it’s a winnable matchup and with the top four in the group of six advancing a win in this one could be a difference maker in the quest for the quarterfinals where anything could happen. This one will be shown live on USA.
Gymnastics
While there isn’t really and drama about how the US team will do in qualifying for the men’s event (hint – they’ll make it) the real question on Saturday is how individuals do overall and in each event because Saturday’s qualifying round is what will determine who gets to compete for individual all-around titles as well as individual event titles. The US competes in the second group to take to the apparatus at 1:30 PM. Chris Brooks, Jake Dalton, Danell Leyva, Sam Mikulak, and Alex Naddour make up the team this year. Looking to watch it live? Your only chance will be online as NBC will delay their coverage until the evening telecast from 8 PM-12 AM.
Rowing
No medals at stake in rowing tomorrow as all we will see is the opening heats of several events. Gevvie Stone is in the second heat of the women’s single sculls which begins at 8:30 AM. In the men’s pair at 9:30 AM Nareg Guregian and Anders Weiss are in the first heat. Meghan O’Leary and Ellen Tomek will be in the second heat of the women’s double sculls at 10 AM while Anthony Fahden, Edward King, Tyler Nase, and Robin Prendes in the men’s lightweight four will have to wait to the third and final heat of the 11 AM event. Finally in the 11:50 AM women’s quadruple sculls Tracy Eisser, Megan Kalmoe, Grace Latz, and Adrienne Martelli will be in the second heat. Rowing will be covered in two places tomorrow, live on NBC between 8 and 10:30 AM and delayed on NBC between 3 and 4:15 PM.
Rugby Sevens
Rugby makes its return to the Olympics on Saturday with the beginning of the women’s event. The US will compete twice on Saturday, opening at 12 PM against Fiji and closing the day against Colombia at 5 PM. The Fiji match will be shown live on NBCSN while the Colombia match will be live on CNBC.
Shooting
The shooting events get underway with two events beginning and being decided on Saturday. Sarah Scherer and Virginia Thrasher will take part in the women’s 10m air rifle qualification round at 7:30 AM with hopes of advancing to the final at 9:30 AM. The other event being held is the men’s 10m air pistol with the qualification round at 12 PM featuring Will Brown and Jay Shi and that event’s final at 2:30 PM. The women’s rifle final will be live on NBCSN but there is no planned TV coverage of the men’s pistol event.
Soccer
Having already secured a win over New Zealand on Wednesday the US could more or less lock up the group by beating France on Saturday in their 4 PM game. The matchup of the #1 and #3 teams in the world according to the FIFA rankings could be a final four preview and was a great contest in 2012 when the US went down 2-0 early but rallied for a 4-2 win. NBCSN will be your destination for this game.
Swimming
Six events begin on Saturday with four of those ending later in the day and two more moving into evening semifinals. Things start off at 12:02 PM with Chase Kalisz and Jay Litherland in the fourth and final heat of the men’s 400m individual medley. Next up is Dana Vollmer in the fourth heat and Kelsi Worrell in the fifth heat of the women’s 100m butterfly at 12:28 PM. Starting at 12:48 PM Connor Jaeger takes part in the sixth heat with Conor Dwyer in the seventh heat of the men’s 400m freestlye. That’ll take a little while and it’s not until 1:32 PM that we’ll see Maya DiRado in the fourth heat and Elizabeth Beisel in the fifth heat of the the women’s 400m individual medley. The final individual event to start is the 2:04 PM men’s 100m breaststroke where Kevin Cordes and Cody Miller are together at the center of the fourth heat. The afternoon will wrap up with the US 4x100m freestyle relay team competing in the second heat of that 2:15 PM event.
In the evening we’ll see finals of men’s and women’s individual medley events as well as the men’s 400m freestyle and the women’s 4x100m freestyle. With no semifinals in those events swimmers will need a top eight time in the heats. In the other events it’ll be an evening semifinal so the heats in the afternoon only require a top 16 time to advance. The swimming events will all be live for ET and CT with afternoon heat coverage on NBC as well as the evening coverage.
Table Tennis
One of the more interesting potential storylines on Saturday will be that of 16-year-old Kanak Jha in the table tennis event. He starts the men’s singles competition with a matchup against Nima Alamian at 9:30 AM and would expect to have one more match later in the day if he wins. Jha is supposed to be a potential star but this is certainly not the Olympics where he will be in his prime. Lily Zhang opens her women’s singles competition by taking on Gremlis Arvelo at 10:15 AM while Jennifer Wu faces Eva Odorova at 11 AM. Much later in the day Yijun Feng is the last of the individuals to start as he faces Zhiwen He in the first round of the men’s singles event. NBCSN is planning to show the Zhang match on delay during their coverage from 1-4 PM while Jha’s and Wu’s matches will be on delay on MSNBC’s coverage from 2:15-5 PM. Any second round matches the US athletes would compete in would be shown on delay on NBCSN between 9 PM and 12 AM.
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, but we do know that Madison Keys will lead off the day with her singles match against Danka Kovinic. It’s a busy day for the US on the tennis court as in addition to Keys we’ll see Jack Sock take on Taro Daniel around 11:30 AM, Sloane Stephens take on Eugenie Bouchard in a tantalizing North American matchup around 2:30 PM, and three men’s matches around 1 PM: Brian Baker against Yuichi Sugita, Steve Johnson against Darian King, and Denis Kudla against Andrej Martin. Later in the day, not before 5:45 PM, Venus Williams will face Kirsten Flipkens. If it’s tennis you want it’s all live and on Bravo, though you’ll only get a single match at a time of course.
Volleyball
The US will start their quest to take home gold for the first time by battling potential 51st state Puerto Rico in their Olympic opener at 4:05 PM. Puerto Rico has never been to the Olympics so this will be a big moment for them. Telemundo will have coverage from the start while NBC will have most of it live but won’t have the very start.
Water Polo
Water polo will get underway with the US men taking on defending gold medalists Croatia at 9:20 AM. With four of the six teams in the group moving to the knockout round it’s certainly no must win for the US but it would be a great way to start their Olympics. The match will be live on NBC.
Weightlifting
The US only has four athletes competing in weightlifting in Rio and one of them will get it over with on the very first day. Morghan King will take part in the women’s 48kg competition at 6 PM. There is only one group of competitors in that weight class. Coverage of the event will be delayed on NBCSN between 8 and 9 PM.
Rio 2016 – Gymnastics Preview
Gymnastics is one of the original Olympic events and has been contested at every modern Olympics. Artistic gymnastics was the original form and women started competing in 1928. Rhythmic gymnastics was added in 1984 and trampoline was added in 2000. The Men’s program took on it’s current form in 1932 and remains unchanged since then. The women’s form reached it’s current look in 1960. The competitions will be held in the HSBC Arena, built in 2007. The US qualified their artistic teams at the world championships as did the rhythmic group and individual members. The trampoline spots were qualified at the Olympic test event in Rio earlier this year.
The Team:
This year’s team is made up of six men and 12 women. Of the 18 team members only five have been to the Olympics before with all of those on the men and women’s artistic teams. Chris Brooks is the oldest team member at 29 while Laurie Hernandez is just 16.
Links are to twitter accounts for the athletes.
USA Gymnastics
USA Gymnastics Trampoline and Tumbling
Men:
Chris Brooks – Artistic
Jake Dalton* – Artistic
Danell Leyva* – Artistic
Sam Mikulak* – Artistic
Alex Naddour – Artistic
Logan Dooley – Trampoline
Women:
Simone Biles – Artistic
Gabby Douglas* – Artistic
Laurie Hernandez – Artistic
Madison Kocian – Artistic
Aly Raisman* – Artistic
Kiana Eide – Group Rhythmic
Alisa Kano – Group Rhythmic
Natalie McGiffert – Group Rhythmic
Monica Rokhman – Group Rhythmic
Kristen Shaldybin – Group Rhythmic
Laura Zeng – Individual Rhythmic
Nicole Ahsinger – Trampoline
* – Was part of team in 2012 – London
Format:
Artistic gymnastics will start with a qualification round where the team’s individuals will compete on all the apparatus. This will qualify eight teams for the team final, 24 gymnasts for the individual all-around final, and eight athletes per apparatus for the individual apparatus finals. The team final will see only three members per team compete on each apparatus. The qualification day is obviously most important for individuals trying to get into the finals for their events, while the top teams should be fairly safe to make the team final.
Rhythmic gymnastics starts with all individuals competing in a qualification round each taking their turn on the four apparatus. After this round only the top 10 move on the final. In the final they will compete on each apparatus again and the best combined score wins. In the group event the top eight move on from qualifying to the final. Each round in the group event is two routines, one with all five using balls and the other with three using ribbons and two using hoops.
Trampoline gymnastics starts with a qualification round with two routines. The first routine is restricted in difficulty and aims for execution. The second routine is where the competitors can show off the most difficult moves. The top eight combined scores from the two routines will advance to the final. In the final there is a routine of ten skills that will provide the final scores.
Schedule:
All Times ET
Saturday, August 6th
1:30 PM – Men’s Artistic – Qualification – Subdivision 2
Sunday, August 7th
4:30 PM – Women’s Artistic – Qualification – Subdivision 4
Monday, August 8th
3 PM – Men’s Artistic – Team – Final
Tuesday, August 9th
3 PM – Women’s Artistic – Team – Final
Wednesday, August 10th
3 PM – Men’s Artistic – Individual All-Around – Final
Thursday, August 11th
3 PM – Women’s Artistic – Individual All-Around – Final
Friday, August 12th
1:03 PM – Women’s Trampoline – Qualification
2:42 PM – Women’s Trampoline – Final
Saturday, August 13th
1:03 PM – Men’s Trampoline – Qualification
2:42 PM – Men’s Trampoline – Final
Sunday, August 14th
1 PM – Men’s Artistic – Floor Exercise – Final
1:47 PM – Women’s Artistic – Vault – Final
2:34 PM – Men’s Artistic – Pommel Horse – Final
3:21 PM – Women’s Artistic – Uneven Bars – Final
Monday, August 15th
1 PM – Men’s Artistic – Rings – Final
1:54 PM – Men’s Artistic – Vault – Final
2:46 PM – Women’s Artistic – Balance Beam – Final
Tuesday, August 16th
1 PM – Men’s Artistic – Parallel Bars – Final
1:47 PM – Women’s Artistic – Floor Exercise – Final
2:34 PM – Men’s Artistic – High Bar – Final
Friday, August 19th
9:20 AM – Women’s Rhythmic – Individual All-Around – Qualification – Rotation 1 & 2
1:50 PM – Women’s Rhythmic – Individual All-Around – Qualification – Rotation 3 & 4
Saturday, August 20th
9 AM – Women’s Rhythmic – Group All-Around – Qualification – Rotation 1
11:40 AM – Women’s Rhythmic – Group All-Around – Qualification – Rotation 2
2:20 PM – Women’s Rhythmic – Individual All-Around – Final
Sunday, August 21st
10 AM – Women’s Rhythmic – Group All-Around – Final
Past Results:
The US trails only the Soviet Union in medals in artistic gymnastics having won 101 medals and 33 golds. The US has never medaled in rhythmic gymnastics or trampoline. Danell Levya won a bronze in London while Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas each won two golds with Raisman adding a bronze as well.
USA Qualifies for Olympics in Men’s and Women’s Trampoline Gymnastics at Rio Test Event
While qualification for the US in men’s trampoline gymnastics was without too much sweat on the women’s side the US made it.. but just barely. With the top seven qualifying Charlotte Drury finished 11th. That wasn’t the end of the road though because the top three were already qualified and Russia went fourth and fifth and only one spot could be awarded to any country. That meant the final spot came down to a battle between Drury and Marine Jurbert of France. Drury was behind Jurbert on her first routine after poorer execution but the difference maker ended up being the difficult and a 1.5 point harder routine for Drury led to her finishing 1.025 points ahead. Drury may have missed the final but the US being in the Olympics was a more important accomplishment.
On the men’s side the US had both Jeffrey Gluckstein and Logan Dooley finish high enough to qualify for Rio though the US was limited to qualifying just one slot. Gluckstein and Dooley were sixth and seventh to make the eight-man final. In the final Gluckstein was fifth with a 57.435 and Dooley was sixth with a 55.955.
The US doesn’t have anyone competing in the rhythmic gymnastics events so this is the end of the event for the US with the important Olympic qualification locked up. The next big event for the US is June 3rd-5th in Hartford, Connecticut.
Previous Gymnastics Coverage:
Rio Test Event Preview
Day 1 Update
Day 3 Update
John Orozco on Pommel Horse and Jacob Dalton on Vault, Both Second at Rio Test Event
John Orozco may have been eighth in qualifying on Saturday for the pommel horse but he stepped up when it mattered. A 15.066 from Orozco was enough to get him second place in the Rio Test Event on Monday. His second place finish was matched later in the day when Jacob Dalton placed second in the vault after averaging a 14.853.
Orozco was back in competition later in the day on the parallel bars but only scored a 15.433 and finished fifth, 0.3 back of the second place finisher. He then bounced back with his second top-three of the day as he finished third in the horizontal bar with a 15.366.
The artistic gymnastics competition might be finished but the trampoline competition is about to begin. Logan Dooley and Jeffrey Gluckstein will be competing for the US on the men’s side while Charlotte Drury is in the women’s field. All will be trying to get the US a spot in the Olympics as they have yet to qualify. On the men’s side the top six qualify while it’s the top seven for the women. The entire trampoline event is held on Tuesday.
Previous Gymnastics Coverage:
Rio Test Event Preview
Day 1 Update
John Orozco Third in All-Around at Rio Test Event
John Orozco and Colombian Jossimar Calvo both had strong days on Saturday in the men’s qualification round. Orozco qualified for three individual event finals while Calvo reached two himself. Their overall scores were quite similar with Calvo just topping Orozco 88.765 to 88.640. But neither were any match for Ukranian Oleg Verniaiev who put up a massive 92.107 and qualified for the final in five of the six individual events.
Jacob Dalton didn’t participate on every apparatus but did qualify for the final on the vault with the second highest score of the day. Orozco will be in the final for pommel horse (eighth highest), parallel bars (seventh highest), and horizontal bar (fourth highest).
The US doesn’t have any women competing in the artistic events this weekend in Rio so the next competition will be when Orozco and Dalton are in the individual finals on Monday.
Previous Gymnastics Coverage:
Rio Test Event Preview
John Orozco and Jacob Dalton To Compete at Rio Test Event
Some teams are heading to Rio for the Test Event that begins tomorrow with the goal to qualify for the Olympics. That’s not necessary for the US who are already in the field so instead this is just another good competition to compete in for John Orozco and Jacob Dalton. The two will compete in qualification on Saturday for Monday’s event finals as well as for all-around honors.
Not everyone is qualified for the Olympics so the US will be attempting to get a spot in both the men’s and women’s trampoline events later on in the test event.
Previous Gymnastics Coverage:
Pacific Rim Championships Recap