Day 14 Olympic roundup: Beach gold, two-way medalist, Paris plans
There's a whole lot going on every day at the Tokyo Olympics. Here, we'll keep you up-to-date with everything you need to know.
Olympic story of the day: Astounding Allyson Felix
Allyson Felix won her first Olympic medal in 2004 in Athens. She now has 10, counting the bronze she won Friday in the 400m in Tokyo. That makes her the winningest female track and field athlete in American history, tied with Carl Lewis for most overall. It's the culmination of a dramatic few years that included an emergency C-section, the challenge of motherhood, and a battle with her sponsor. Shalise Manza Young has the full story here.
The A-Team comes through
April Ross and Alix Klineman partnered to win gold in beach volleyball Friday. The roots of their partnership are fascinating: Ross had won silver and gold before with two other partners, while Klineman was an indoor volleyball star but largely unproven on sand. And yet, as Hannah Keyser writes, their pairing seemed not just indomitable, but inevitable.
"They said it wasn’t easy, but it never looked out of control," Keyser writes. "They entered the day assured that America would medal in every single Olympics so far to feature beach volleyball — seven straight now — and ended up taking home the fourth gold for the program."
How many Americans have Summer and Winter medals?
Team USA Opening Ceremony flag bearer Eddy Alvarez can claim a rare honor: he's one of only three Americans to win medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics. Alvarez, a second baseman, clinched that distinction when the Team USA baseball team played its way into the gold medal game. No matter what, Alvarez will go home with a Tokyo medal to accompany his silver medal from Sochi on the men's 5,000-meter speed skating relay team. Quite the distinction.
Time's running out for Team USA men's track
Other dynasties and streaks have gotten more notice, but as the Games wind down, Team USA's men's track squad is nearing an ugly distinction. "An American man has won gold in an individual running event at least once at every Olympics in which the U.S. has participated," Jeff Eisenberg writes. "Since 1896, the only exception is the 1980 Moscow Games that the U.S. famously boycotted. That streak is on life support in Tokyo with nine of 10 men’s individual running events already complete. The underachieving Americans have claimed four second-place finishes and a pair of third places so far in those races but have yet to produce a gold medalist." America's last hope: Cole Hocker, a University of Oregon sophomore entered in Saturday's 1,500 meter race. The reasons for the blanking range from young competitors to a lack of training camps due to COVID, but the blame will come later. For now, it's all on Hocker.
More Aussie party drama
You may remember that members of the Australian delegation got into a bit of trouble for trashing the Olympic village with a going-away party. Well, seems the party didn't stay on the ground; rugby players are getting the blame for massive shenanigans that resulted in vomit all over the Australians' flight home. The rugby players are protesting in just such a way that makes you want to party with them when they regain consciousness. “Well, if you look at where the vomit was, it wasn’t near our seating plan," said one. Another indicated the team wasn't responsible for the vomit, saying "we were rubbish on the field, but we can hold our alcohol.”
Next up: Paris
Yes, the next Summer Olympics are three years away, but officials with the Paris Games are already making plans to reimagine a Games with (hopefully) fans at the center. Ideas include an open-air Opening Ceremony that covers the entire city, with athletes proceeding down the Seine River on boats as crowds line the riverbank. Imagine beach volleyball in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, or a public marathon that follows the Olympic marathon course ... just hours after the Olympic runners have passed through.
"After all," Dan Wetzel writes, "if you have Paris as a backdrop then you should use Paris as your backdrop."
Photo of the day
Great Britain celebrates during the women's bronze medal field hockey match against India. Imagine how much better it could have been with fans in the stands.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jaybusbee or contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com.
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