The Sports Report Olympics edition: Harvard tops USC in athletics?

Welcome to your daily Olympics newsletter. I’m your tour guide, John Cherwa, as we wonder why Harvard is doing better than USC at the Olympics.

Changing of the (Crimson) guard? A few days ago, our Hall of Fame columnist Bill Plaschke asked if USC football coach Lincoln Riley actually can coach. The school’s basketball coach voluntarily left for SMU, yes, Southern Methodist University. And then there is its fencing program … what, no Division I fencing program?

Well, we hate to tell you this USC, but as far as the Olympics this year, Harvard is kicking your rear end. We know how the two universities stack up academically, but now athletics too?

Gabby Thomas leads the field in the women’s 200-meters final.

(Mark Baker / Associated Press)

The latest Harvard standout is Gabby Thomas, who won the women’s 200 meters. She was the first Harvard grad to win a gold in track and field. James Brendan Connolly won the triple jump in 1896 but he never graduated. Thomas won by such a large margin that even NBC’s Leigh Diffey couldn’t screw it up.

Thomas was the fourth U.S. athlete who went to Harvard to win a gold these Games, joining Liam Corrigan (rowing), Kristen Faulkner (cycling) and Lauren Scruggs (fencing). There also was one silver and three bronze winners, in addition to two athletes who won medals for other countries, rower David Ambler of Britain (bronze) and triathlete Lisa Tertsch (gold) of Germany.

As for USC, it has one bronze by Nicole Yeargin, and she was running for Britain. USC should pick up a bunch more when the team competition finishes in various sports.

Now, don’t be laughing you UCLA Bruins, you’ve got only Jordan Chiles, who won a gold and bronze in gymnastics.

The U.S. also won gold when Cole Hockers pulled a surprise, came through on the inside and won the men’s 1,500 meters. But he’s an Oregon Duck.

On to more highlights:

Amit Elor, left, and Kyrgyzstan’s Meerim Zhumanazarova compete for the gold medal.

(Eugene Hoshiko / Associated Press)

• The U.S. women’s soccer team is in the gold-medal match against Brazil after beating Germany, 1-0, in extra time. Read all about it from our Kevin Baxter, right here.
  
• As expected, the U.S. men’s basketball team had little trouble with Brazil, especially after a 21-2 run in the second quarter, and advanced to the semifinals with a 122-87 win. It will play Serbia on Thursday to make the gold-medal game. Our Thuc Nhi Nguyen was there and here is her report.
  
• The U.S., once dominant in beach volleyball, is down to its final team after Sara Hughes and Kelly Chang lost to a Swiss duo to close out the Americans on the women’s side. The remaining men’s team of Miles Partain and Andrew Benesh play Wednesday in the quarterfinals.
  
• Amit Elor, 20, became the youngest U.S. wrestler to win gold when she defeated her Kyrgystan opponent in the 68-kilogram women’s final.
  
• Imane Khelif of Algeria, at the center of unfounded gender charges, advanced to the gold medal bout with a win over her Thai opponent.
  
• It should be quite a match Thursday when the U.S. women’s volleyball team plays Brazil in the semifinals. The U.S. beat Poland in straight sets Tuesday.
  
• It’s on to the semifinals for the U.S. women’s water polo team, which beat Hungry, 5-4, in a physical quarterfinal. The three-time defending champion will play Australia on Thursday.

The medals game

Cole Hocker celebrates after winning the gold medal in the men’s 1,500 meters.

(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)

The race to be the country declared the medal winner is a matter of interpretation. Most countries, and even the host organizing committees and International Olympic Committee, list the gold medal as the standard for ranking countries. But not the U.S. No, sir. Check NBC. Heck, check The Times and pretty much every publication in the U.S., and we use the total medal count, not just golds.

The U.S. should win the most medals because it usually has the largest number of athletes with the exception of the host country. These Olympics, after a slow U.S. start on golds, looks like a race between the U.S. and China. Overall, though, the U.S. has a likely insurmountable lead in total medals.

So, in the spirit of statistical manipulation, we decided to turn the Olympic medal race into something similar to the electoral college, here in an election year. The electoral college, a system of 50 winner-take-all mini-elections, is one of the more puzzling parts of American politics to decide the president. (Views are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect anyone important.)

Here’s what we did. We made each sport a winner-take-all with the number of golds equal to the number of medal points you get. If the number was tied, we went to total medals as the tiebreaker. If it remained tied, we gave both countries the same total. Only happened, so far, in 3x3 basketball and tennis.

Here are the results of the top countries:

United States, 49

Japan, 30

Netherlands, 16

France, 8

Britain, 8

Germany, 8

China, 7

Australia, 6

Obviously winning the big sports, such as track and field (results still out) and swimming, are the California and Texas of the Games. Gymnastics and any of the weight sports (judo, wrestling, boxing, taekwondo) are like Florida, New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois. Most of the two-gold team sports are like Wyoming, the Dakotas and Vermont.

The U.S. got all its points from swimming and gymnastics. Japan hit big with fencing and judo.

An exercise in silliness? Not if your country wins.

Which sports do you want to get rid of?

This is Day 2 of our poll on which Olympics sports to get rid of. You are allowed to vote for two sports. The early results show a surprise sport our readers are willing to say goodbye to.

You can vote here.

What to watch for today

• Until we get to team gold medals, most of the attention will be on track and field, voted in a Times poll the most popular Olympic sport. The marquee event Wednesday is the men’s 400 meters, in which Michael Norman and Quincy Hall should be the best U.S. hopes. Other finals of note are the women’s pole vault, men’s discus and men’s 3,000 steeplechase. The 400 will be at 12:30 p.m. PDT.
  
• The U.S. women’s basketball team continues its march toward a gold medal with a 12:30 p.m. PDT game against Nigeria. A win would be its 59^th in a row.
  
• The U.S. men’s volleyball team plays Poland at 7 a.m. PDT in the semifinals.
  
• The U.S. men’s water polo team plays Australia at 10 a.m. PDT in the quarterfinals.

Must-read links

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

• Paris Olympics TV schedule: Wednesday’s listings
• LeBron James and the U.S. power past Brazil to reach Olympic men’s basketball semifinals
• Sophia Smith goal propels U.S. past Germany, Americans clinch spot in Olympic final
• Why medal ceremonies might be the biggest high-stakes event of the Olympic Games
• Amid mixed Olympic results, U.S. men’s soccer did achieve one important goal
• American Gabby Thomas wins 200-meter gold medal by a wide margin at Paris Olympics
• Gold-worthy memes from the Paris Olympics
• How timekeepers determined Noah Lyles won 100 meters by slimmest of margins
• Calabasas jeweler shares story behind Simone Biles’ iconic goat diamond necklace
• Meet the UCLA softball legend influencing U.S. women’s volleyball’s success
• Olympic athletes have a new worry about the Seine, and it’s not the pollution
• Simone Biles says bow to Rebeca Andrade was ‘all about sportsmanship.’ It bothered an NFL star
• 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 Wednesday’s Olympic TV listings.