The Sports Report Olympics edition: Noah Lyles is the world’s fastest man
Welcome to our daily Olympics newsletter. I’m your tour guide John Cherwa and it’s great to have the world’s fastest man from the United States.
It doesn’t matter by how much — in this case 0.005 seconds — Noah Lyles of the U.S. is the world’s fastest man.
He won the 100 meters Sunday in a photo finish over Kishane Thompson of Jamaica. Fred Kerley of the U.S. was third. The winning time was 9.784 seconds. It was the first time the U.S. has won this event since Justin Gatlin in 2004.
In a major gaffe by NBC and the Olympic Broadcasting Services, which feeds NBC, the commentary and camera stayed with Thompson after the race for a while before realizing Lyles might have won. And then they switched.
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Lyles will be in the 200, his better event, later in the week.
Our David Wharton has more to tell you about this historic win, right here.
There were plenty of other highlights.
—Big night for the U.S. on the final night of swimming. Bobby Finke set a world record in the 1,500-meter freestyle and the women’s 400 medley relay also set a world record in its win. It gave the U.S. eight golds for the competition, one more than Australia. But it was also the lowest gold medal total for the U.S. since 1988 in Seoul. It had two fewer total medals (28) than it had in Tokyo three years ago.
In a major disappointment, the U.S. lost the men’s 400 medley relay to China. It’s the first time the U.S. hasn’t won the race since 1960 in Rome, with the exclusion of the boycotted 1980 Games in Moscow.
—Suni Lee of the U.S. won her third medal of the games when she finished third in the uneven bars. Our Thuc Nhi Nguyen tells you about it here.
—Kristen Faulkner of the U.S. won the women’s cycling road race becoming the first U.S. cyclist to win this race in 40 years.
—Scottie Scheffler of the U.S. set a course record 62 to win the men’s golf tournament. Our Kevin Baxter has the story of this comeback right here.
—Novak Djokovic, 37, of Serbia beat Carlos Alcaraz, 21, of Spain in two tiebreaker sets to win the Olympic tennis gold, his first.
A look at team competition
Let’s catch everyone up on the team play. Most are moving into the knockout rounds, where anything can happen.
3 X 3 basketball: (Men, because it’s alphabetical, the ultimate tiebreaker) The U.S. won only two of seven pool games and then lost the play-in game and were eliminated. Latvia will play France and Netherlands meets Lithuania in the semis.
(Women) The U.S. won four of its seven pool games and beat China in the play-in game. It plays Spain in the semi today with Germany-Canada in the other semi. All medal games are today.
Basketball: (Men) The U.S., along with Germany and Canada, finished group play 3-0. The U.S. plays Brazil on Tuesday in the quarters. The other games are Germany vs. Greece, France vs. Canada and Serbia vs. Australia.
(Women) The U.S. was undefeated, as usual, and plays Nigeria on Wednesday. In other quarterfinals it’s Serbia vs. Australia, Spain vs. Belgium and Germany vs. France.
Beach volleyball: (Men) The U.S. team of Andy Benesh and Miles Partain will play in the round of 16 today against an Italian team while the other U.S. team of Chase Budinger and Miles Evans will play a tough Norway duo in the same round. Losers go home.
(Women) Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes beat Italy on Sunday in the round of 16. Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss will play a duo from Canada today in the round of 16.
Field Hockey: (Women) The U.S. team was 1-3-1 in pool play and did not make the knockout round. The quarters start today with Australia vs. China, Argentina vs. Germany, Netherlands vs. Britain and Belgium vs. Spain. The U.S. men did not qualify for the tournament. The men’s semis are Germany vs. India and Netherlands vs. Spain.
Soccer: (Men) The U.S. was outclassed by Morocco, 4-0, in the quarters. The semis today are Morocco vs. Spain and France vs. Egypt. (Women) The U.S. beat Japan, 1-0, in extra time and plays Germany on Tuesday. Brazil plays Spain in the other semi.
Team Handball: (Men and women) The U.S. only makes this sport when it’s the host country, which gets an automatic entry to the tournament.
Volleyball: (Men) The U.S., Italy and Slovenia all were undefeated in three matches. Quarterfinals start today with U.S. playing Brazil, Italy vs. Japan, France vs. Germany and Slovenia vs. Poland.
(Women) Poland will be the U.S. opponent on Tuesday when the quarterfinals start. Others matches are Brazil and Dominican Republic, China vs. Turkey and Italy vs. Serbia.
Water Polo: (Men) The men conclude pool play on Monday and then the bracket will be known.
(Women) The U.S. finished 3-1 in pool play and will play Hungary on Tuesday. Other quarterfinal matches are Australia vs. Greece, Netherlands vs. Italy and Canada vs. Spain.
Your favorite Olympic sport
We asked you what your favorite Summer Olympic sports was and you told us. There were about 1,400 responses and the margin of error in this unscientific poll is about plus/minus 99%. Here are the results.
Track and Field, 39.7%
Gymnastics, 22.2%
Something else, 15.8%
Swimming, 9.3%
Beach volleyball, 6.6%
Basketball, 3.3%
Soccer, 2.4%
Skateboarding, 0.4%
Boxing, 0.3%
Sport climbing received one vote.
Trying for another poll tomorrow.
What to watch for today
—Simone Biles concludes her Paris Olympics experience with competition in the balance beam and floor exercise. It’s difficult to see her not winning the floor, but the balance beam is always fraught with peril. If you didn’t know about it in advance you’ll miss it live. The beam is at 3:38 a.m. PDT and the floor at 5:23 a.m. PDT.
—There are four finals in track and field: men’s pole vault, women’s discus, women’s 5,000 meters and women’s 800 meters. The first final is at 10 a.m.
--The U.S. women’s 3 X 3 basketball squad, after losing its first three games, is in the semifinals against Spain. You can check in on things at 8:30 a.m. PDT.
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Must-read links
Let’s catch up on some stories you might have missed but shouldn’t have:
- Paris Olympics TV schedule: Monday’s listings
- Noah Lyles explains how he won the Olympic men’s 100-meter final in a photo finish
- Scottie Scheffler moved by anthem, cries while receiving his Olympic golf gold medal
- Suni Lee adds to her Paris medal count, taking bronze on the uneven bars
- How a ‘light bulb moment’ in an Arkansas barn made Ryan Crouser a shot put juggernaut
- Olympic athletes have a new worry about the Seine, and it’s not the pollution
- How Suni Lee overcame kidney diseases to go from bedridden to Olympic medalist
- Inside the design of U.S. Olympic gymnastics team leotards
- Simone Biles says Olympic all-around gold ‘means the ...
- 2024 Paris Olympics live updates
- 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games: Complete coverage
- 2024 Paris Olympics: How to watch every event and the closing ceremony
Your TV guide
How can you watch the Games today? Check out Monday’s Olympic TV listings.
Until next time...
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at john.cherwa@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Go beyond the scoreboard
Get the latest on L.A.'s teams in the daily Sports Report newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.