The 555-member USA team headed to Rio is poised to make history and once again top the medals chart.
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The men will be attempting to win a third straight gold medal.
This is actually the second time the basketball teams have stayed on a boat. I always talk about my favorite memory of my Olympics is when you’re coming down that tunnel with all American athletes and you can’t wait to get back in that tunnel. “These Olympic Games will be no different in that regard as 555 Americans rise to their best and make our nation proud”. When one of our staff members told me last night that I was selected, I think I had the biggest smile on my face you could possibly find. “To lead our country into this Olympics is something that I honestly never thought I’d have an opportunity to do”. With Geno Auriemma coaching a roster that includes Breanna Stewart, Brittney Griner, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, Sue Bird and Tina Charles it is hard to imagine anything but another gold.
These issues have some comparing Rio to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, where media reports of poor housing and a lack of preparation cast a shadow over the games. Don’t stay in the Olympic Village. We want everybody to be on the same playing field.
As the US prepare for their Olympic opener against Senegal on Sunday, Auriemma said the current squad may be the best yet with nine of 12 players having already won gold medals.
What does the man who has won more Olympic medals than anybody else think of performance-enhancing drugs and the tainting effect they have had on the Games?
Phelps will have three more chances to add to his medal haul in Rio, where he’ll swim in the 100-meter and 200-meter butterfly, along with the 200-meter individualmedley. That’s four more than the next-most-decorated Olympian, Russian gymnast Larisa Latynina.
“It just feels so right”, she said. And in the women’s basketball universe, that’s a lot more basketball.
“The competition is going to get better. You miss it really quick”, 11-time Olympic medalist Lochte said. Joe Kovacs is a favorite in the shot put. In the quarter-finals the USA dismissed Canada 91-48 before seeing off biggest rivals Australia 86-73, then crushing an over matched France 86-50 in the final. On the men’s side, Kenron Clement and Michael Tinsley are contenders in the 400 hurdles. Also watch for 16-year-old hurdler Sydney McClaughlin of New Jersey.
And, after insisting all along this truly would be his final Olympics, Phelps dropped a tantalizing hint that he might not be done. He added, “Our teams are extremely active in supporting their USA teammates”.
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He has often skipped the Opening Ceremony to prepare for the swimming events that begin the following day.
