Olympics Live: Swimming and Athletics Begin Tokyo Day

TOKYO – Until then it never feels like the Olympics athletics begins. The match starts on Friday morning in Tokyo with the women’s 100m qualifiers and continues all day until the men’s 10,000s single final in the evening.

After a loss, a win and a draw, the USA women’s soccer team faces a life-or-death final against an impressive Dutch team that beat their opponents 21-8 in the preliminary round. We expect a goal here too. 8 a.m. Tokyo time, 7 p.m. East.

The marquee events of any rowing race are eights, and the men’s and women’s races will be contested on Friday morning (Thursday evening in the US). On the women’s side, the USA team will go for their fourth consecutive Olympic gold, but New Zealand may have underdogs.

Four more swimming finals begin Thursday at 10:41 p.m. in Tokyo and 21:41 in the East. USA’s Michael Andrew is a strong contender for gold in the 200m individual medley.

And it’s time to leap. The women’s trampoline competition begins.

TOKYO — Sunisa Lee, a Minnesota teenager who became Olympic gymnastics champion Thursday night, hasn’t trained just for herself in years.

A Hmong American, Lee hit the gym every day for all first-generation Americans seeking success when their parents came to the United States with nothing. He trained through strenuous practices and painful injuries for his father, John, who suffered a spinal cord injury in 2019 and is now a wheelchair user.

18-year-old Lee came to the Olympics to win a gold medal for his father, who is his biggest fan, and for all the Hmong Americans he thought were unseen in the United States. However, four-time Olympic medal-winning teammate Simone Biles has made it clear that her goal is to win silver all-around, as this is considered the key to winning the title.

But after chasing Biles everywhere for a lifetime as Biles hasn’t lost that marquee effectiveness since 2013, Lee took his chance to do it in Tokyo. Considered the greatest gymnast of all time, Biles withdrew from team activity and everything else due to mental stress, leaving Lee in a position to win it all.

“I didn’t even think I’d come here,” Lee said. “I don’t even feel like I’m in real life.”

On Thursday, Lee hit routine after routine as if he were in training and not the most important competition of his life. He even managed a floor exercise in the final rotation of the night, with new choreography and elements modified by his coach Jess Graba that morning.

The change worked. Lee had the best floor exercise score at these Olympics.

Brazil Rebeca Andrade silver and Russia’s Angelina Melnikova won bronze.

Simone Biles was not entered, but still someone had to win the women’s gymnastics all-around. and it was Sunny Lee.

The USA won two freestyle golds in swimming: Caeleb Dressel won the 100 meters and Bobby Finke the 800. China surprised the court in the women’s 4×200 relay.

The USA women’s sevens rugby team kicked off with two wins: 28-14 against China and 17-7 against Japan to clinch progress.

American pole vault world champion Sam Kendricks exited the Games after testing. positive for covid.

Here are some highlights of US broadcast coverage on Thursday evening and throughout the night. All times are East.

GYMNASTICS Sunny LeeThe 18-year-old Hmong American, primarily known as a specialist in uneven bars, pursues gold for women. versatile finalewill air at 8 p.m. on NBC Primetime.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL April Ross and Alix Klineman an American power duo in beach volleyball, take on the Netherlands at 8pm on CNBC.

rowing Men’s and women’s eights will compete for gold at 9 p.m. on CNBC.

RUGBY Ilona Maher creating TikTok videos that attract followers to the Olympic Village, and the USA sevens will play Australia at 9:30 PM on CNBC.

SWIMMING Caeleb Dressel The semi-finals in the 100m butterfly will begin at 9:30 p.m. on NBC Primetime. He holds both the world record and the Olympic record. But there are also medals in the men’s 200m backstroke and women’s 100m finals, where Team USA’s Lilly King and Annie Lazor competed in the 200m breaststroke final at 9:40pm on NBC. freestyle and men’s 200m individual medley.

BMX RACING CNBC will cover the men’s and women’s finals at Ariake Urban Sports Park from 10:40 pm.

TENNIS The semi-finals in men’s singles and mixed doubles and the gold medal match for men’s doubles start at 23:00 on the Olympic Channel.

BASKETBALL Sue Bird, Tina Charles and Diana Taurasi will face Japan at 12:40 PM on USA Network.

Number.

What a small and simple word.

What a transformative power.

Simone Biles used it to ultimate effect at the Tokyo Olympics this week.

“Today, you know, no,” he said to reporters, explaining his decision to withdraw from the team gymnastics competition to protect his mental and physical health.

It was a “no” that shook the Olympics and alerted the sports world. It also showed that athlete empowerment, a hallmark of this era in sports, continues to evolve and grow. Athletes are now more than ready to stand up not only for social justice but also for themselves.

bile She is the greatest, most decorated gymnast of all time. He won four gold medals in Rio five years ago and was expected to take home at least three more in Tokyo. But he’s outperforming all these important achievements this week by bowing to “no” and defending his well-being in a sports world that commodifies athletes and wins awards at all costs.

Biles threw a wrench in the system. What this “no” is actually saying is: Enough is enough.

It was an act of individual resistance that built a solid wall between himself and the glaring burden of competition.