The Japanese men’s gymnastics team is back on top at the Olympics after a crushing US fall.
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Japan won the Olympic team final at Rio Olympics Arena on Monday, scoring 274.094 to win by more than 2.6 points over Russian Federation in second. The seven medals tied him with teammate Willis Lee as an Olympic record that would stand for 60 years. Australia plays the top-ranked USA team on Wednesday.
The fifth-place finish matched the American men’s placement at the 2012 Olympics and at the 2015 World Championships.
Medals will be awarded in the women’s and men’s 100 meter backstroke, at 10:30 p.m. and 10:38 p.m., respectively. Despite debuting at a young age, she didn’t swim in another Olympics, as she retired from swimming in 1970. “I was the one who messed it up at the end”. Days 1 and 2 of Olympic activity provided plenty of dramatic and memorable moments and this first full week of the games promises to be even better with marquee athletes from a wide range of different sports will be competing for everlasting Olympic glory.
It was a day that illustrated the rapidly increasing gap between the USA men’s and women’s teams. She nearly never made it, however. At times, it left her unable to walk and considering amputation, but she fought through and recovered to have a brilliant career. She didn’t stop there, though, and served as coxswain in 2008 and 2012, with the team winning gold medals both times.
Sue Bird: Already one of the most decorated Olympians in Washington history, Sue Bird isn’t done yet. She’s simply brilliant in the water and should – barring a major upset – repeat as the gold-medal victor in this event for the second Olympics in a row. The three-time Olympic gold medalist is part of the US women’s basketball team that will go for gold in 2016.
Tomorrow night, the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janero, Brazil, officially begin with the opening ceremony. The victory was the 43rd consecutive for the US women in the Olympics. The U.S. beat France 1-0 on Saturday as Hope Solo became the first goalkeeper, male or female, to reach the 200th-cap mark in global play.
Nathan Adrian: Adrian has the second-most medals of any Washington athlete, and he’ll look to add more in 2016. Phelps bested Lochte in U.S. Olympic Trials before the games by just over three-tenths of a second (1:55:91 to Lochte’s 1:56:22), so this one should be fascinating to watch. He added a silver medal on the 4×100-meter freestyle relay, and swam the freestyle leg of the USA 4×100-meter medley relay team to lead them to gold.
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With a positive result against Colombia, the women’s team will be in prime position to repeat as gold medal winners for the fourth consecutive summer games and become the first women’s team to win a World Cup and Olympic gold in back-to-back years.
