Team USA took medals in several events it hadn’t featured in decades, including Hampton Morris’s bronze in weightlifting, a first in 40 years, and the artistic swimming team’s silver, a first in 20 years.
Team USA’s figure skaters from the 2022 Beijing Games also received medals in Paris after a doping scandal disqualified Russian medalists.
Team USA has 94 total medals, leading the count far and away. The gold medal count is also on the rise at 27, including wins in wrestling, men’s 400-meter, and women’s cycling today.
Here is the latest:
USA’s Hildebrandt Wins Wrestling Gold
American wrestler Sarah Hildebrandt won 3-0 over Yusneylis Guzman of Cuba, taking the gold in the women’s 50kg freestyle wrestling event.
Earlier, Indian athlete Vinesh Phogat was disqualified for failing her weigh-in, opening up the replacement match between Hildebrandt and Guzman.
USA’s Takes Steeplechase Silver
Team USA’s Kenneth Rooks took the lead near the end of the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, winning the silver in the end.
Soufiane El Bakkali of Morroco defended his gold as he overtook Rooks in the end. Abraham Kibiwot of Kenya took the bronze.
USA Takes Pole Vault Silver
Team USA’s Katie Moon won silver in the women’s pole vault event with a 4.9 score, toppling the bar on her last attempt to score higher.
Nina Kennedy won the gold medal with a 4.95 score, making Australian history by winning the nation’s 18th medal in the Paris Games.
Quincy Hall Takes Men’s 400-Meter Gold in Epic Comeback
American sprinter Quincy Hall dug deep in the last leg of the men’s 400-meter race, pushing past the favorite, Great Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith, to take the gold.
All four of the top finishers set personal bests: Hall at 43.40 seconds, Hudson-Smith setting a European record with 43.44, Muzala Samukonga of Zambia winning the bronze with 43.74, and Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago setting his own national record with 43.78.
Lin Yu-ting Advances to Gold-Medal Bout
Boxer Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan advanced to the gold-medal bout in the women’s featherweight division. .
One day after welterweight Imane Khelif of Algeria reached her weight division’s final with a third straight victory in Paris, Lin defeated Esra Yildiz Kahraman of Turkey 5:0.
Lin will fight for gold on Saturday.
Lin and Khelif have been in the spotlight at the Olympics over a gender row that has dominated headlines and been the subject of much discussion on social media platforms.
Lin and Khelif were disqualified by the International Boxing Association (IBA) from the 2023 World Championships in New Delhi, with the body saying in a press conference on Monday that a gender test had ruled both of them ineligible.
USA Triumphs in Women’s Team Cycling
Team USA won gold in the women’s team cycling. A formidable team featuring road race champion Kristen Faulkner and time trial medalist Chloe Dygert, the Americans quickly established a lead against New Zealand.
Despite a late surge from New Zealand, the Americans held on and secured victory. Their time of 4:04.306 fell just short of the world record, but it was enough to cinch the gold medal.
The silver medal went to New Zealand, while Great Britain earned the bronze.
Hampton Morris Ends US Weightlifting Dry Spell With Bronze
Hampton Morris became the first American man to win an Olympic weightlifting medal in 40 years, winning bronze in the men’s 61-kg division.
After a challenging snatch round that left him in fifth place, Morris’ hopes for a medal hinged on a strong clean-and-jerk performance. He lifted 172kg on his second attempt, propelling him into third place. A bid for a world record of 178kg fell short, but Morris’ earlier success secured his historic bronze.
The gold medal went to China’s Li Fabin, who already had a big lead and secured his medal with a 167kg clean-and-jerk. Theerapong Silachi of Thailand nabbed the silver medal.
Team USA Figure Skaters Receive 2022 Beijing Gold Medals
A touch of winter came to the Summer Games when the U.S. figure skating team finally got their gold medals as 2022 Olympic champions.
The special medal ceremony allowed the nine Americans to receive the medals exactly 2.5 years after the figure skating team event ended at the Beijing Olympics. A doping saga from the winning Russian team led to the Americans being declared the winner.
All nine American skaters came to Paris: Karen Chen, Evan Bates, Nathan Chen, Madison Chock, Zachary Donohue, Brandon Frazier, Madison Hubbell, Alexa Knierim, and Vincent Zhou. Seven of the eight members of the Japan team came to get their silver medals—an upgrade from their third-place result in Beijing.
A Russian appeal trying to win back the Olympic team title was dismissed at the Court of Arbitration for Sport just before the Paris Games opened. The title had been stripped in January when a different CAS panel disqualified Russian teenager Kamila Valieva for doping with a banned heart medication. She also was banned for four years.
USA Wins First Artistic Swimming Medal in 20 Years
Team USA took silver in the artistic swimming (previously synchronized swimming) event, its first medal in 20 years. This is the USA’s 90th medal in the Paris Olympics.
The team placed fourth with their technical score but made up for it in the free and acrobatic scores with an underwater “moonwalk” routine to Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” and won the silver.
51-Year-Old Skateboarder Has ‘The Most Fun’
Great Britain’s Andy Macdonald, 51, is a father of three and making his Olympics debut.
Macdonald is no stranger to competition, having won eight X Games gold medals beginning in 1996. But the Olympics skateboarding event only began with the last Games in Tokyo.
“People come at me like: Is it weird? You’re the old guy at the skate park, you’re 50 and there are all these teenagers. No, it’s not weird because I was there first and I never left,” Macdonald told the Financial Times. “I’m like a sponge, just taking it all in. Just the experience of being an Olympian. If they have a medal for who has the most fun, I got the gold locked up for sure.”
Macdonald competed in the preliminaries, but did not qualify for the Aug. 7 finals.
Cycling Speed Record Broken Twice
Matt Richardson of Australia rode a 9.091 in the men’s cycling speed qualifiers, setting a world record that was broken just moments later when Dutch cyclist Harrie Lavreysen scored a time of 9.088, just three-thousandths faster than the Australian. Both will compete in the finals.
Netherland Claims Gold in Women’s Dinghy Final
Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands won the gold medal in the women’s dinghy, with Anne-Marie Rindom of Denmark securing silver.
Line Flem Hoest of Norway did enough in the medal race to win bronze on overall points.
Poland Wins Gold in Women’s Speed Climbing
Poland’s world-record holder Aleksandra Miroslaw clinched the gold medal in women’s speed climbing, in the sport’s Olympic debut as a stand-alone event.
The 30-year-old had been the clear favorite after breaking her own world record twice in the lead-up to the finals, climbing the 15-meter wall in 6.06 seconds two days ago.
At the Le Bourget venue on Wednesday, she did the vertical run in 6.10 seconds, beating China’s Deng Lijuan in a photo finish. The silver medallist set her personal best in the race, with 6.18s.
Poland’s Aleksandra Kalucka won the bronze medal with a time of 6.53s.
Marathon Swimming Training Session to Go Ahead
The familiarization session for the Paris Olympics marathon swimming event in the Seine River will go ahead as scheduled on Wednesday after water quality tests met the required thresholds, organizers said.
A similar session planned for Tuesday was canceled due to concerns over water pollution.
A meeting on water quality was held early Wednesday and attended by representatives from World Aquatics, Paris Games organizers, and other stakeholders involved in conducting the tests.
“The results … reviewed during the meeting at 4 a.m. have been assessed as compliant by World Aquatics, allowing for the familiarisation session for the marathon swimming to take place,” World Aquatics said in a statement.
Spain Wins Gold in Race Walk Relay
Spain’s two-time world champions, Alvaro Martin and Maria Perez, won the gold medal in the mixed marathon race walk relay by nearly a minute as the event made its Olympic Games debut.
The Spaniards, who each collected gold in both the 20km and 35km races at last year’s World Championships in Budapest, finished in two hours, 50 minutes, and 31 seconds, with Perez pulling away over the final lap.
Ecuador’s Brian Pintado and Glenda Morejon took silver in 2:51:22, while Australia’s Rhydian Cowley and Jemima Montag claimed bronze with a time of 2:51:38.
What to Watch: August 7
Women’s Basketball Reaches Knockout Stage
Led by two-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson, the seven-time defending champion U.S. extended its impressive Olympic winning streak to 58 games Sunday. The U.S. women will take on Nigeria in the quarterfinals at 9:30 p.m. CEST/3:30 p.m. EDT at Bercy Arena.
Nigeria is the first African country to make the men’s or women’s elimination round at the Olympics.
The winner of that game advances to the semifinals to face the winner of Serbia’s quarterfinal matchup against Australia, tipping off at 11 a.m. CEST/5 a.m. EDT.
The other quarterfinal matchups are Spain versus Belgium at 2:30 p.m. CEST/8:30 a.m. EDT and Germany facing France at 6 p.m. CEST/12 p.m. EDT.
The winners of Spain-Belgium and France-Germany will meet in the semifinals Friday.
Men’s 400-Meter Final
The excitement in track and field continues with the men’s 400-meter final at 9:20 p.m. CEST/3:20 p.m. EDT at the Stade de France.
Kirani James of Grenada had the fastest time in Tuesday’s semifinals, finishing his heat in a season-best 43.78 seconds. Muzala Samukonga sprinted to the final in 43.81 seconds and set a Zambia national record. American Quincy Hall qualified at 43.95.
Additionally, the men’s discus final will start at 8:25 p.m. CEST/2:25 p.m. EDT, and the men’s steeplechase final will round out the day’s action at 9:43 p.m. CEST/3:43 p.m. EDT.
Lin Yu-ting’s Semifinal Bout
Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan fights Esra Yildiz Kahraman of Turkey in a women’s 57-kilogram semifinal at 9:30 p.m. CEST/3:30 p.m. EDT at Roland Garros.
Lin and fellow boxer Imane Khelif of Algeria have been at the center of a gender row and regulations in sports, as critics have brought up their disqualification from the world championships last year after the banned International Boxing Association claimed they failed unspecified eligibility tests for women’s competition.
Lin won her opening Olympic boxing bout, beating Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan 5-0. She then defeated Svetlana Kamenova Staneva of Bulgaria 5–0 to advance to the semis and ensure she will win at least a bronze medal.
Khelif also clinched a medal when she won an emotional bout against Anna Luca Hamori of Hungary.
Olympic boxing does not stage bronze-medal bouts, so the losers of both semifinal fights receive bronze.
Lin is a two-time Olympian who did not medal in Tokyo in 2021. She has not spoken about the controversy during her Paris run but said after the quarterfinals that she is focused on winning a gold medal.
Catherine Yang, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.