The US took home nine medal on Sunday in Rio including the first ever gold and silver for one country in the same tennis event, Simone Biles’ 3rd gold of Rio, a medal in the first ever Olympic golf event, and the first US medal in 16 years in weightlifting.
The US wrapped up a remarkable Olympics in the pool where the US won HALF of the events and 33 medals in 32 events. In addition on Saturday there was a gold in rowing and a gold in the long jump. Swimming is done but track and field is kicking into full speed going into a Sunday that features two marquee events in the 100m and the 400m.
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. Continue reading Rio 2016 Daily Update – August 12th
Thursday may be remembered as the day that three Americans who are the greatest Americans ever in their sport, had their signature moment. Kayla Harrison on the judo mat is now not only the only American to ever win gold, she’s won it twice in a row. Simone Biles became the first American woman to win the Olympics all-around and the World Championships all-around (and she has three of those!). And finally in the pool Michael Phelps became the first swimmer ever to win the same event in four straight Olympics and has *22* gold medals now.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Weightlifting has been a part of the Olympics since 1920, but women’s weightlifting didn’t start until 2000. The weight classes have evolved from five men’s events at the start to eight today along with the seven women’s events. Weightlifting will be held at the Riocentro, a convention center built in the 70’s. The US qualified one man at the Pan American Championship while three women qualified at the World Championships. Continue reading Rio 2016 – Weightlifting Preview
The highlight of the final day of the USA Weightlifting National Championships was the competition for the final two Olympic spots. Sarah Robles had been in place for an Olympic spot based on her 2015 World Championship performance and that held up and qualified her for the Olympics. The second spot had belonged to Mattie Rogers with Morghan King right behind her in the quest to qualifying. King’s 170kg total from the world championships was 5kg too low to pass Rogers. She reached a combined 175kg after an 80kg snatch and a 95kg clean and jerk on her first attempt to move into Olympic qualifying position. Rogers had a chance to pass her and Robles by completing a 141kg clean and jerk on her final attempt but couldn’t complete it and her 238kg total was not enough to beat either for the Olympic spot. King added to her total as well on her final attempt with an 100kg clean and jerk for a final score of 180kg. That score was the best by any of the three American Olympic qualifiers over the last year.
King obviously won the national championship pretty easily with that score and Rogers did as well. Robles didn’t complete any of her three snatch attempts at 118kg so despite a competition best 150kg clean and jerk the national championship went to Marissa Klingseis with a 257kg total. Holley Mangold was in second with a 100kg snatch but missed on all three of her clean and jerk attempts so second place ended up going to Vanessa Frost with only a 211kg total. It was a nice situation for Frost who would have finished off the medal stand if Mangold and Robles had completed both lifts.
Interesting stories developed in both the 53kg and 63kg divisions. In the 63kg division Mary Peck scored a big 93kg in the snatch to open up a seven point margin over Cecily Basques‘ score from Saturday and then locked up the national championship when she lifted 108kg on her first clean and jerk lift. She eventually upped her total to 208kg to win by 10kg. In the 53kg division Cortney Bachelor kicked things off with an 86kg snatch and Melanie Roach threw herself into the mix with a 75kg snatch. Caitlin Hogan’s 77kg score from Friday was right in contention. Batchelor tried three times to hit 105kg in the clean and jerk but was unsuccessful each time and that left Roach to try and catch Hogan. She couldn’t complete anything higher than 98kg and finished nine back of Hogan’s winning total of 182kg.
Jenny Arthur, already qualified for the Olympics, scored a 239kg total in the 75kg division with Jessica Phillips in second with a 215kg total. In the 58kg division Jessica Lucero won the competition by 12kg after posting a 208kg total.
On the men’s side competition for the eight spots to go the Pan American Championships and stay in contention for Olympic spots was fierce. In the 69kg division Alex Lee missed his final attempt in both lifts but a total of 312kg easily won him the national championship. It wasn’t enough to top his 316kg total at the world championships but that score was also high enough to win him a spot in the Pan American Championships. Caleb Williams ended up finishing second with his 295kg score from Friday.
Good competition in the 77kg division had Angelo Bianco eliminated from the running after he failed to complete 145kg or two attempts at 148kg in the snatch. Bianco had been in the top 10 but third in his weight class going into this competition so he needed to improve his score to get into a Pan American spot. That left Travis Cooper and Leonardo Hernandez competing for the top spots. Both posted 145kg snatches and opened up with 175kg clean and jerks. Separation finally occurred when Cooper completed and Hernandez missed on their attempts at 181kg. Hernandez tried to get back in front with a 183kg attempt but failed as Cooper won the national championship. Neither improved on their scores from the world championship but that was more damaging for Hernandez who was passed and fell out of the top eight and missed out on a chance to move on to the Pan American Championships.
At 85kg both James Tatum and Anthony Pomponio entered in position to reach the Pan American Championships and Tatum had the edge, 156kg to 150kg, after the snatch. Tatum got in front on the clean and jerk as well and an attempt by Pomponio to pass him on his final attempt was unsuccessful as Tatum won the national championship with a 341kg total. Neither improved their previous scores and that was just fine for Tatum who stayed in the top eight while Pomponio fell out of the top eight and didn’t qualify to go to the Pan American Championships. Had Pomponio completed his final lift of the day, a 187kg clean and jerk attempt, he would have jumped into the top eight.
The best competition of the day was in the 94kg division. Kendrick Farris and Colin Burns were second and third in the rankings coming into the national championships while Norik Vardanian, a former Armenian Olympian, wasn’t in those rankings but had a higher qualifying score than either of them. Vardanian led after the snatch lifts by 4kg. All three completed their first clean and jerks but Burns quickly ran into trouble as he couldn’t complete 202kg and finished third with Vardanian having already passed his previous best and eliminating him from Pan American Championships contention. Farris stepped up big time on his final lift posting a 209kg score to win the national championship. Vardanian and Farris have the top two scores regardless of weight class, so this was a significant win for Farris.
105kg also featured great competition as Wesley Kitts opened with a 170kg snatch and Donovan Ford and D’Angelo Osorio both in contention after 162kg scores. Totals around 368kg would get them into contention for the Pan American team and Kitts more or less locked up a spot after opening with a 200kg clean and jerk. That score would also prove to be enough to win a national title combined with his strong snatch mark. Ford and Osorio ended up competing for a score high enough to make the Pan American team and both attempted a 206kg clean and jerk to wrap things up. Ford made his and made the team in the final spot while Osorio finished third.
Finally in the +105kg division Caine Wilkes had already posted a really good mark at the world championship and easily won the national championship after his best competition, Cameron Swart, failed to post a score higher than 160kg in the snatch and did not take part in the clean and jerk competition. Wilkes went on to post a total of 404kg and finished a whopping 48kg in front of second place TJ Greenstone. Wilkes will be part of the Pan American team.
The eight men competing on the Pan American team will compete in Colombia on June 5th. That will be a team based competition with the top seven countries earning one berth, and one berth only, in the Olympics. Who that berth belongs to will be determined by whomever has the best score relative to average finishes in their weight class. Right now that honor belongs to Farris but as we saw this weekend he’ll face stiff competition from Vardanian in his own weight class and Lee as the other real contender.
Previous USA Weightlifting National Championship Coverage:
Preview
Day 1 Update
Day 2 Update
In four of the five divisions competing on the second day of the USA Weightlifting National Championships the top score doesn’t appear to be high enough to stand through the competitors in Sunday’s Olympic Trials. The women’s 63kg division just might be the exception. Cecily Basques posted an 86kg snatch and a 112kg clean and jerk for a total of 198kg. That’s one shy of Mary Peck‘s 199kg total that got her into the Olympic Trials on Sunday and high enough that she may have a chance to win it. Basques score would have been even better had she completed the 115kg or 118kg clean and jerk attempts she missed to end her competition.
In the women’s 69kg division Danielle Hudes is the clubhouse leader after posting a 206kg total while Tanner Reichardt leads the men’s 77kg division with a 295kg total. John Downey leads the men’s 85kg division with a 306kg total and Phil Sabatini leads the men’s 94kg division with a 335kg total.
Things wrap up on Sunday with the men’s 105kg and +105kg divisions as well as the women’s 75kg and +75kg divisions. Then of course the Olympic trials for both the men and the women.
Previous USA Weightlifting National Championship Coverage:
Preview
Day 1 Update
On the first day of the USA Weightlifting National Championships two divisions decided their national champions. In the men’s 56kg division Darren Barnes was the national champion fairly easily lifting 110kg in the snatch and 130kg in the clean and jerk to total 240kg and win by 25kg over Brey Kobashigawa and Andrew Cheung. Jacob Horst was the winner in the men’s 62kg division leading the field by 4kg after a 106kg snatch and then lifting 132kg in the clean and jerk to finish with a 238kg score and defeat Dillon Casillas by 9kg.
Caleb Williams was the top competitor in the men’s 69kg division with a total score of 295kg though he’s not expected to stay atop the standings once the Olympic trials happen on Sunday. The same story is true in the women’s 48kg division where Hayley Reichardt and Megan Seegert both scored 157kg and in the women’s 58kg division where Sarabeth Phillips scored a 196kg total.
There could be some intrigue on Sunday in the women’s 53kg division as Caitlin Hogan hit every lift she attempted topping out at 77kg on the snatch and 105kg on the clean and jerk to post a big score of 182kg. That score matches the top qualifying score that has Cortney Batchelor competing in the trials on Sunday so if she struggles some Hogan has a real shot at the national championship.
Saturday will feature the men’s 77kg, 85kg, and 94kg divisions, along with the women’s 63kg and 69kg divisions. All these divisions have competitors in the Olympic trials on Sunday so national champions will not be decided on Saturday.
Previous USA Weightlifting National Championship Coverage:
Preview