The Sports Report Olympics edition: Katie Ledecky goes gold to tie record

Welcome to your daily Olympic newsletter. I’m you tour guide John Cherwa and I can’t believe Canada advanced in the women’s soccer tournament despite a six-point penalty.

Wednesday’s play was a little on the predictable side with Katie Ledecky smoking the field in the women’s 1,500-meter freestyle and the U.S. men’s gymnasts getting shut out from the medal stand in the all-around.

So, we thought we would start today’s adventure with some vignettes not about athletes but venues. (Thanks to the Associated Press for some of the reporting.)

Seine River: To no one’s surprise the Seine River was deemed safe to swim in for the start of the women’s and men’s triathlon. The men’s was scheduled for Tuesday but was postponed to Wednesday. Miraculously, the water was cleaned up by the next day. Move along. Nothing to make you sick here.

Now, we’re not into conspiracy theories, but this harks back to the Beijing Winter Games two years ago. After a one-day hiccup for one of The Times’ team because the COVID measuring levels were too low, we, and everybody else, were subjected to planned gag-inducing throat swabs every day. Always best done before breakfast. The one thing we all knew was that there was no way China was going to have more COVID positives than Tokyo a year earlier. No matter what it took to make that happen.

And guess what, there were 788 cases through the Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo and 437 in Beijing. Of course, the number of participants, volunteers, staff and media were much higher in Japan.

Just sayin’.

Olympic pool: Plain and simple, there have been no world records in swimming at these Games. And some are blaming the depth of the pool. It seems as if the portable pool — a concept with which I still struggle — in Paris is 7.2 feet deep, which was approved before the Games. Well, the speculation is that the shallow pool is creating more waves and turbulence that works its way to the surface. (Don’t even want to think about what’s working its way up to the surface in the Seine.)

It seems as if this has the attention of World Aquatics, which has now mandated a minimum 8.2-foot depth. By comparison, the pool at the U.S. trials at Lucas Stadium in Indianapolis was 9.1 feet.

Unclear what the depth will be at SoFi Stadium when swimming is in L.A. in 2028, but it will be more than 8.2 feet.

Fan of the movie “Poltergeist”? If so, you’ll get this. (Might be too intense for young children.) Suppose they never removed the remains of all the famous dead horses buried at Hollywood Park, on whose land SoFi was built. Now that would make the swimming memorable.

Clay courts at Roland Garros: Apparently, there is a sock crisis on the clay tennis courts at Roland Garros. If you are wearing white socks, it’s a bear to get them clean. “After the clay-court season, everything goes into the [trash], and you need fresh ones,” said Elina Svitolina, Ukrainian bronze medalist from Ukraine in Tokyo.

Svitolina has a trick: “You … put them in the water with baking soda and vinegar and let them soak for an hour — and then you wash them regularly.”

Legend Chris Evert, who played before tennis was an Olympic sport, said this: “I probably was the type that brought, like, 14 pair of socks to a tournament. All I know is that it was a mess.”

Wednesday’s memories

Fans in the stands cheer after Katie Ledecky receives a gold medal.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Katie Ledecky had no problem winning her seventh Olympic gold medal by winning the 1,500-meter freestyle by half a lap. It was her 12^th overall swimming medal, and counting, tying her with Natalie Coughlin, Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres for most by a female swimmer. The safest bet at the Games is she’ll break that mark.

The only other U.S. medal in the pool was a silver in the women’s 100 freestyle by Tori Huske. Sweden’s Sarah Sjoestroem won the gold. Leon Marchand upped his status in his home country by winning the men’s 200 breaststroke and the 200 butterfly in a span of about two hours. Josh Matheny of the U.S. was seventh in the breaststroke. Our Kevin Baxter tells you all about it here.

Here’s a summary of the highs and lows of Wednesday’s competition.

—The attention to the U.S. men’s gymnastics team was predictably one and done as Paul Ruda (14^th) and Frederick Richard (15^th) were not factors in the competition won by Shinnosuke Oka of Japan. Gymnasts from China took second and third.

Bam Adebayo dunks in front of Carlik Jones, left, and Peter Jok of South Sudan.

(Brian Snyder / Associated Press)

—The U.S. men’s basketball team barely beat South Sudan in an exhibition game before the Olympics but when it counted it was no contest. The U.S. won 103-86 behind 18 points from Bam Adebayo and 14 from Kevin Durant. The U.S. has qualified for the quarterfinals but plays Puerto Rico on Saturday in its final group-stage game.

—The U.S. women’s soccer team qualified for a spot in the quarterfinals when it beat Australia 2-1. It will play Japan on Saturday. The cheating Canadian team, which had six points deducted for spying on an opponent with a drone, was still able to qualify for the quarters with a 1-0 win over Colombia. It will play Germany.

Crimes against pizza

Hong Kong’s Ka-long Cheung, winner of the gold medal in the men’s individual foil competition, celebrates on the podium with silver medal winner Filippo Macchi, left, of Italy and bronze medal winner Nick Itkin of the U.S.

(Andrew Medichini / Associated Press)

It seems as if there is a budding dispute involving Hong Kong and Italy in the world of fencing. Now, it might not be the Sharks and Jets, but they do have weapons and know how to use them.

Hong Kong fencer Ka-long Cheung beat Italy’s Filippo Macchi in fencing 15-14. There were a lot of video reviews including on the match point. The Italian Fencing Federation filed a complaint over “unacceptable refereeing.”

There was a social media firestorm — as if there is any other kind — from the Italians. But the Hong Kongers (is that a word?) put a dagger in the heart of all Italians and said they would have a lot of pineapple pizzas to commemorate the win.

Pizza Hut in Hong Kong and Macao then offered free pineapple toppings to any of their pizzas.

Taco Bell was unavailable for comment.

If I could turn back time

In some versions of the newsletter, we had the wrong score of the U.S. women’s rugby-sevens win over Australia. It was 14-12. But Kevin Baxter had it correct in his story.

What to watch for today

Here’s what you should be paying attention to on Thursday.

—The big one is women’s all-around in gymnastics where Simone Biles will compete after skipping it in Tokyo. One of her biggest threats to winning is teammate Suni Lee, the gold medalist in Tokyo. Oh, who are we kidding. Start time is 9:15 a.m. PDT.

—Swimming will have four finals with the U.S.’s top shot in the women’s 200 butterfly when Regan Smith competes. There is, of course, a medal chance in the women’s 800 freestyle relay. The other races are the men’s 200 backstroke and women’s 200 breaststroke. Splash-off is 11:30 a.m. PDT.

—Golf starts Thursday with the first round of four in the men’s competition. (Shhhh, be quiet, someone’s about to putt.) All eyes will be on Scottie Scheffler of the U.S. making his Olympic debut. He has won the Masters and British Open so far this year. He tees off at 7:11 a.m. PDT.

Must-read links

Let’s catch up on some stories you might have missed, but shouldn’t have:

• Paris Olympics TV schedule: Thursday’s listings
  
• 2024 Paris Olympics: How to watch every event and the opening ceremony
• Katie Ledecky shatters Olympic record, winning gold by an absurd margin
• For U.S. soccer, a winning hand thus far in both Olympic tournaments. What comes next?
• U.S. lacked talent and was lazy? No, Simone Biles trolls MyKayla Skinner after team won gold
• Commentary: NBC’s Olympic obsession with celebrities is a little cringe
• Paris Olympics set record for number of openly LGBTQ+ athletes
• Olympic breakout star Ilona Maher aims to shatter stereotypes about women athletes
• Last U.S. Olympic 10,000-meter winner believes Grant Fisher can win the race in Paris
• LA Times Today: Amid calls for an Olympic ban, Israeli athletes are determined to succeed in Paris

Your TV guide

How can you watch the Games today? Check out Thursday’s Olympic TV listings.