Swimming underway; Team USA earns first-ever medal in women’s rugby sevens

Team USA won 3-0 against Guinea, advancing to the men’s quarterfinals in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

It’s the Americans’ first time in the Olympic quarterfinals since 2000 in Sydney.

Midfielder Djordje Mihailovic scored the opening goal in the 14th minute, followed by two goals from 21-year-old Virginia native Kevin Paredes.

Guinea created chances of their own and had possession more than Team USA, but couldn’t capitalize.

The Americans will play Morocco in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Australia’s Kaylee McKeown won gold in the women’s 100-meter backstroke Tuesday in an incredible finish.

McKeown and Americans Regan Smith and Katharine Berkoff were neck and neck after the turn, leaping off the wall at nearly the exact same time. Over the final 30 meters or so, McKeown finally pulled the slightest bit ahead, setting an Olympic record by finishing in 57.33 seconds.

Smith took silver with a 57.66-second race, while Berkoff was right behind her, ending up at 57.98 seconds.

American swimmers Jack Alexy and Chris Guiliano will head to a power-packed final for the men’s 100-meter free, after qualifying with the fifth and sixth fastest times in their respective semifinal heats.

Alexy and Guiliano have already won gold in Paris, after swimming legs of the 4×100 free relay for Team USA on Friday.

Tomorrow’s final is bound to see greatness from some of the fastest swimmers in history: China’s Zhanle Pan, who holds the world record; Romania’s David Popovici, who held the previous record; and 2023 world champion Kyle Chalmers of Australia.

Team USA has a scoring chance from a corner denied in the 59th minute. Jack McGlynn found Nathan Harriel for a header, but was blocked by Guinea’s goalkeeper. After 62 minutes, Team USA maintains a 2-0 lead.

The U.S. women’s gymnastics team is making their way to the top of the podium after a gold medal finish on the team event today.

It was a strong showing for these women today, who had consistent performances across all four apparatuses, save for one fall on the beam.

Italy followed in second place — their first Olympic team medal since 1928 — and Brazil took third.

Team USA will appear in all five of the individual event finals, which are up next. Biles and Lee will represent Team USA in the all-around, which is on Thursday.

USA’s Miles Partain and Andy Benesh bounced back from their first match loss to Cuba and won against Morocco in straight sets Tuesday.

After comfortably winning their first set, the pair found the second more challenging. Morocco tied it up at 21-21 after officials ruled that Benesh touched the net during a block, extending the match until the Americans won with their 28th point.

Partain, 22, and Benesh, 29, make up the youngest U.S. Olympic beach volleyball team ever. They will play their next preliminary match Thursday against Brazil.

It was another tough women’s rugby sevens game, but New Zealand ultimately conquered 19-12. Their opponent, Canada, will go home with the silver medal.

New Zealand, the defending champions from 2020, came back from behind early in the second half, squeaking ahead by 2 points and then securing their win with a second scoring try.

This is the team’s second consecutive Olympic gold medal in women’s rugby.

France has gotten off to a flying start at these Games, winning a total of 16 medals and lying second in the medal table behind the USA. After three full days of competition, that’s almost half the number of medals the country won during the whole of the Tokyo Games, and the same number it won in Seoul in 1988.

Olympic hosts usually increase their medal count when compared to previous Games.

Japan took home 41 medals in Rio before winning 58 in Tokyo. Brazil won 17 medals in London and 19 in Rio. Great Britain won 51 medals in Beijing and 65 in London. China won 63 medals in Athens before boosting their tally to 100 in Beijing.

The only recent exception was the U.S. in 1996. The U.S. led the medals table in Atlanta with 101 medals, but saw a decrease on Barcelona’s total of 112.

Home advantage and the kind of support we’ve seen in Paris for local heroes Antoine Dupont and Léon Marchand is one factor. 

So is the funding increase for elite sports programs by countries hosting the Games. British sports body UK Sport says its record investment helped the country win 65 Olympic and 120 Paralympic medals at London 2012.

President Macron has said he wants France to be among the top five Olympic nations. Since the Rio Games, state funding for elite sport has increased by 68%, with one objective: win medals at Paris 2024.

The NBA player-led Canadian team defeated Australia 93-83 on Tuesday in their second group-phase game. RJ Barrett’s 24 points and seven rebounds led the way, with 16 points from both Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dillon Brooks.

Josh Giddey, guard for the Chicago Bulls, put up 19 points for Australia.

After 45 minutes of play in the first half, Team USA has a 2-0 lead over Guinea courtesy of goals from Djordje Mihailovic in the 14th minute and Kevin Paredes in the 31st.

The Americans have so far dominated possession and have more shots on target, including two missed shots that hit the goal post.

If Team USA maintains their lead in the second half, they’re in line to advance to the quarterfinals of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Guinea’s first shot on target from Ilaix Moriba is saved comfortably by USA keeper Patrick Schulte in the 41st minute. Team USA maintains a 2-0 lead in the last few minutes of the first half.

The easiest skill in Biles’ routine almost brought her off the 4-inch apparatus. On a side aerial, she landed on the tips of her toes and saved it like the all-star she is.

The U.S. will breathe a sigh of relief now that beam is behind them. Biles’ score of 14.366 will keep the team comfortably in first.

Just the floor exercise stands between Team USA and a gold medal.

Team USA takes a 2-0 lead after a through ball from Paxten Aaronson in midfield finds a sprinting Kevin Paredes to beat the keeper in the 31st minute.

It was a historic moment for Team USA today as the women’s rugby sevens squad came back from behind twice in order to win its first-ever medal at the Olympics.

This also marks the first rugby medal for the U.S. since 1924, when the men won gold. Those Games were also hosted in Paris.

Guinea makes a substitution for injured player Bengaly Cisse. Coming into the game is defender Naby Oulare. After 29 minutes of controlling possession, Team USA maintains a 1-0 lead.

Two rotations down, two to go and Team USA is in a comfortable first place. Italy trails the U.S. by 3 points in second place, followed by China in third.

Team USA won its first bronze in women’s rugby sevens in a 14-12 match against Australia.

The American women fought hard against an aggressive Australian offensive but scored in the final minute of the game. Australia failed to convert its final try for the additional 2 points, and Team USA was able to break away to score in the final few seconds of regulation.

A two-point conversion won the game for the U.S. women.

The American men last won a medal in rugby in the 1924 Olympics, which were also held in Paris.

The women’s gymnastics final is halfway done and Team USA is in a comfortable first place.

After nearly-perfect routines on both vault and bars, the U.S. has a score of 87.432 — 3 points ahead of second-place Italy.

The women now move on to the trickiest of the events: beam. If they can get through that, floor will surely be a victory lap for this all-star team.

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France barely escaped with their second win of men’s basketball group play, beating Japan in overtime 94-90.

Japan is going to be sick after this one. Up 82-80, Japan got a huge defensive stop, as Victor Wembanyama missed a potential go-ahead 3-pointer with 25 seconds to go. Japan was then leading 84-80 after two Yuki Kawamura free throws with about 16 seconds left, only for France to improbably tie the game on the next possession.

Matthew Strazel hit a frantic 3-pointer from the left wing off an offensive rebound scramble and was sent to the free-throw line after a foul call on Kawamura. Frankly, it was a bad call. Multiple replays failed to show any serious contact on the shot, but Strazel was nonetheless able to tie the game at the line.

In overtime, France overwhelmed. Wembanyama scored 8 straight points by himself — an and-1, a 3 from the top of the key, and then two more from the stripe. Japan hit a couple 3s in the waning seconds, but it was too little, too late.

France is now 2-0 in Group B play. Japan fell to 0-2 with the loss.

After battling back from losing the first set, USA’s Taylor Fritz defeated Britain’s Jack Draper 2-1 in the second round of men’s singles. Watch his match highlights here.

Team USA’s Djordje Mihailovic scores a perfect free kick into the top corner and past the keeper in the 14th minute. Team USA is off to a quick 1-0 lead.

In a fight for bronze, Team USA’s women’s rugby sevens team managed to score in the final moments of the first half to tie the game 7-7.

The team ended the first with a scoring try by Alev Kelter, a necessary run to keep them alive as they struggle to fend off the Australian women. A win in this match would give the women’s team their very first medal in rugby.

There are seven minutes left in the game as the women retake the field for the second half.

Morocco is the first to advance into the quarterfinals after defeating Iraq 3-0 in a fight for survival as the entire men’s Group B went into their matches today in a four-way tie.

At the same time, Argentina played a difficult match against Ukraine, winning 2-0 after struggling to score the entire first half. Argentina managed to finally score a goal three minutes into the second half and then again to secure the match in the final minute of regulation time.

While Ukraine had several opportunities, no one on the squad was able to sink the ball into the back of the net.

Morocco’s high-scoring game has secured them the top spot in the group, with Argentina coming in second.

Team USA has its first chance denied after a misplaced pass from Guinea’s goalkeeper allows a shot on target for Griffin Yow.

French fans gave their women’s rugby sevens side a rousing cheer following its 21-7 victory over China to capture fifth place. French players lingered in the field to give their own applause to fans who filled Stade de France throughout this tournament.

The men’s soccer team kicks off at 1 p.m. ET against Guinea.

They’re looking to capitalize off a 4-1 victory against New Zealand in their previous match.

Team USA’s youngest boxer, Alyssa Mendoza, defeated Tajikistan’s Mijgona Samadova, 3-2, in her Olympic debut in the women’s 57 kg preliminaries.

The fight was too close to call until the very end, when the announcement of Mendoza’s win shocked Samadova into tears. Mendoza will go on to face Brazil’s Jucielen Cerqueira Romeu in the Round of 16 on Friday.

The American men’s team faces off against Guinea at 1 p.m. ET today and is hoping to move on to the knockout phase.

If they do, it’ll only be the second time the men advance out of group phase and the first since 2000 in Sydney.

The easiest way for the Americans to guarantee moving on is with a win. If they draw or lose, they’ll need help from other games breaking their way.

Whoa!

Germany pulled off an impressive win to tip off women’s 3×3 basketball Tuesday, besting USA 17-13.

The U.S. raced out to a quick 5-0 lead and looked dominant in every facet, scoring with ease while stifling the German offense. The States are the reigning gold medalists in the relatively new format and looked to have a stranglehold on the game early.

But Germany’s thumping bricks soon turned into swishes from 2-point range, and that completely tipped the scales in their favor. The Germans got scorching hot from outside, and the U.S. — made up of WNBAers Rhyne Howard, Dearica Hamby, Cierra Burdick and Hailey Van Lith — couldn’t keep up.

USA lost only one group match in Tokyo before winning gold. Pool play continues for them tomorrow vs. Azerbaijan.

The men’s water polo team was victorious for the first time in Paris.

Alex Bowen and Hannes Daube each scored three goals to lead the United States to a 14-8 victory over Romania in water polo.

Bowen scored the winning goal with 19 seconds left on the clock in the fourth period.

The USA will play Greece tomorrow.

The next round of the Paris Olympics surfing competition has been postponed in Tahiti due to strong wind and rain.

When the event will resume has not been decided. The next update is expected Tuesday at 11:45 p.m. ET.

USA’s Hannah Roberts and Perris Benegas showed off masterful cycling stunts to advance to the BMX freestyle final. Roberts had the highest qualifying score, while Benegas had the fourth highest.

In Tokyo, Roberts won silver and Benegas placed fourth. Both will aim for medals in the final tomorrow.

It’s a vital few hours for Group B in the men’s soccer tournament as all four of the squads go into the last day before knockouts in a tie.

Only the top two teams of each group will advance to knockouts. Argentina, Ukraine, Morocco and Iraq are tied in the standings with 3 points each.

Ukraine is currently playing Argentina, though neither team has scored in the first 30 minutes. Morocco has edged ahead of Iraq with two goals, one by Amir Richardson and another by Soufiane Rahimi.

Coco Gauff’s campaign for Olympic gold ended today after she lost to Croatia’s Donna Vekic.

During the match, a line judge called a ball that landed near the baseline out and Gauff did not keep the ball in play. A chair umpire later ruled the ball had been in, awarding the point to Vekic. Gauff said the timing of the call affected her ability to return, initiating a spat with the umpire.

The scene was a déjà vu. Gauff had an almost identical dispute on the same court months earlier during the French Open, in a semifinal match with Iga Swiatek.

“It isn’t fair,” Gauff said to the official. “It always happens to me on this court. I have to advocate for myself every time.”

Vekic won the first set 7-6 in a tiebreaker and the second set (during which the argument occurred) 6-2.

Egypt beat Spain’s national soccer team in Bordeaux this afternoon in a game between the top two countries in men’s Group C at the Olympics.

Though both teams were headed to knockouts regardless of the match’s results, Spain and Egypt played aggressively down to the last minute of added stoppage time. Egypt led 2-0 toward the end of regular time, but Spanish forward Samu Omorodion scored at the 90-minute mark to put them on the scoreboard.

The Egyptians didn’t just want to win; the team played like it wanted to overtake Spain in the standings. They made several attempts at the goal even while in the lead, including an offside by Atef Ahmed, but failed to make it count.

Group C’s other matchup for the day, Dominican Republic and Uzbekistan, finished at 1-1. Neither team has enough points to make it to the quarterfinal.

Spain defeated Greece 84-77 in an intense group play game earlier today. Giannis led the charge in the second half to erase Spain’s 16-point lead, but it was not enough to overtake Spain’s strong shooting, led by Memphis Grizzlies player Santi Aldama.

Greece now sits in last place in its group before playing their final group play game on Friday.

Katie Ledecky comfortably advanced to the 1500-meter free final after reminding us why she is the GOAT in this race.

Finishing nearly 18 seconds ahead of the nearest swimmer, Ledecky was swimming a race of her own. Her time of 15:47.43, however, was measured — she has the world record nearly 40 seconds under that.

In tomorrow’s final, we expect another dazzling swim for Ledecky’s eighth Olympic gold medal.

China has taken gold for table tennis mixed doubles. The team of Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin avenged the country, which had failed to take gold in this event in Tokyo. It was the only table tennis event in which China hadn’t come out victorious, so heavy expectations were sitting on Sun and Wang’s shoulders.

The team defeated North Korea in the final four games to two. This is the first five of table tennis events in Paris. China is the favorite for gold on all five.

Wang walks away with his first Olympic medal. Sun is adding a third to her collection. They will both be competing in the singles and team competitions, too.

China has won 61 of 118 available Olympic medals in table tennis, including 33 gold medals.

This silver is North Korea’s first medal at the Paris Games — and their first Olympic medal since Rio after missing the Tokyo Games due to Covid.

South Korea won bronze, narrowly defeating Hong Kong’s team to walk away with its first table tennis medal in 12 years.

What’s better than skateboarding in Paris? How about skateboarding in Paris with a bronze medal you just won at the Olympics.

That’s what Laguna Beach’s Nyjah Huston did Monday after winning bronze in a highly competitive men’s street final in the French capital. Huston posted a video to Instagram of his skate down a Parisian street, bronze medal in hand, in a moment of solitude after being in the spotlight.

“That was a good moment for me,” Huston said. “After all the media, getting done, getting tested, I was just skating down the street and really just taking in the moment. That video was really the true street skateboarder in me.

“I’m meant to be a skateboarder, and I’m so thankful to be a skateboarder. Obviously, getting stuff like this is great, but just being able to make a living off of what we absolutely love the most is the best part.”

Read the full story here.

The underdog Americans, following a competitive loss to mighty New Zealand in the rugby sevens semifinal, will play Australia for bronze at 7 p.m. local time (1 p.m. ET).

Before defeating the United States 24-12, the Black Ferns Sevens had scored 119 points in three pool wins before walloping China 55-5 in the quarterfinals.

“New Zealand’s not an easy team to score on, so we look at the silver linings,” U.S. captain Naya Tapper told NBC News following America’s loss to the defending Olympic champions. “We kept them down pretty low compared to the numbers they’ve been able to put on other teams, and we also put some tries on them. So we’re hoping to learn from those and bring that into the bronze medal game.”

The Australians won gold in 2016 Rio. Canada will play the Black Ferns for gold.

After Coco Gauff fell in the third round of women’s singles, Emma Navarro followed suit, losing to China’s Qinwen Zheng 2-1. Like Gauff, this was Navarro’s first Olympics.

Danielle Collins will be the only American heading into the quarterfinals of women’s singles, after defeating Colombia’s Camila Osorio 2-1 earlier today.

Collins, 30, hadn’t qualified for the Olympic team until Paris and is set to retire at the end of the year.

A heat wave has descended over the Olympic Games, with temperatures in Paris expected to hit 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) or higher on Tuesday.

Paris and its surrounding areas remain under a “yellow alert” for extreme heat, the second of four alert levels. Heat index values (which represent what conditions “feel like” with humidity) of 110 degrees F (43 degrees C) are possible in some places.

The heat wave is expected to be more intense in Southern France, including in spots where Olympic soccer and sailing events are happening.

France’s meteorological service also put in place an alert for major thunderstorms, which are expected to bring heavy rain and lightning to Paris on Tuesday evening.

The combination of soaring heat and evening thunderstorms may throw a wrench in several of the day’s events, including beach volleyball, soccer and equestrian.

After Tuesday, temperatures are expected to hover in the mid-80s (around 30 degrees C) for the remainder of the week.

Kiefer, who won back-to-back gold medals in foil fencing on Sunday, chats with NBC News Now’s Steven Romo about how she feels post-win, and how she’s prepping for the team foil event that begins Thursday.

The U.S. men’s volleyball team defeated Germany 3-2 in its second of three pool play matches.

After losing the first two sets, the Germans fought back with two of their own, before the Americans prevailed in a suspenseful final set. With nine of its 12 players returning Olympians, the U.S. showed its upper hand in aces.

The team is looking to redeem its early knockout in Tokyo, where it was eliminated in pool play for the first time since 2000. Its two previous medals were bronze in 2016 and gold in 2008.

The team remains first in its pool and will play Japan in its final pool play match Friday.

French fans filled Stade de France on a blistering Tuesday afternoon, even if their rugby sevens team was out of medal contention and only playing in the consolation bracket.

With that full voice behind them, the French women rallied for a 19-7 victory over Ireland and will play tonight for fifth place.

The United States plays New Zealand in the semifinals shortly, with the winner going to the gold medal match.

Brody Malone, Asher Hong and Stephen Nedoroscik spoke to Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb after winning bronze yesterday, the first U.S. men’s gymnastics team medal in 16 years.

“This is something we’ve worked for our entire careers” Malone said.

Asked about the team’s obvious camaraderie, Hong credited the National Collegiate Athletic Association and its team ethos. “We just wanted to compete for each other, and have a lot of fun with each other.”

The team makes a point of not watching the other teams perform and not following the scores so that they can completely focus on their own performance, Malone told the “TODAY” anchors.

Nedoroscik, who wears glasses, said he had seen the memes on social media that compare him with Superman’s Clark Kent. “I think they’re awesome — I’m representing people that wear glasses!”

The 25-year-old removes his glasses just before he competes, and says that when he goes up on the pommel horse “it’s all about feeling the equipment. I don’t even really see when I’m doing my gymnastics. It’s all in the hands, I can feel everything.”

Nedoroscik also revealed that he likes to solve a Rubik’s cube to relieve the pressure of competition, solving it in 9½ seconds ahead of yesterday’s medal-winning performances.

Paul Juda and Frederick Richard were also part of the team that secured bronze last night.

After getting a huge wave at the surfing competition in Tahiti, Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina looks like he’s having a bit of a transcendent moment.

Medina was in the 5th heat of the men’s surfing round 3 yesterday.

In the men’s singles competition, USA’s Taylor Fritz defeated Britain’s Jack Draper, 2-1, to advance to the third round. After Draper took the first set in a tight back-and-forth, Fritz dominated the next two and won the match with an ace.

Fritz will partner with Coco Gauff for the first round of mixed doubles later today.

Coco Gauff lost in a stunning upset to Croatian Donna Vekic in straight sets in the third round.

While she is still set for doubles competition, the world No. 2 lost a closely fought match that was delayed as Gauff argued what she said was an erroneous call.

We just arrived at the Aquatics Centre and they sell swimsuits — from a vending machine. For those curious, women’s suits are 16 euros and men’s 14 euros. 

American tennis star Coco Gauff couldn’t catch a break as she trails Croatian Donna Vekic 2 games to 4 in the second set.

Gauff, the No. 2 player in the world, already lost the first set in a fiercely fought round of games that saw her give up a breakpoint.

She now risks crashing out in the third round.

As she fell behind, she delayed the match for almost 10 minutes as she went to argue a close call.

“I feel like I’m getting cheated on constantly in this game,” she said.

When the U.S. women beat Great Britain yesterday, it guaranteed the Americans a chance to play for a medal today.

The last time the United States won a medal in rugby was when the men’s team won gold at the 1924 Paris Games. Women’s rugby made its Olympic debut at the 2016 Rio Games.

The U.S. is set for semifinal showdown today vs. New Zealand at 9:30 a.m. ET.

The American has lost the first set 7-6 to Croatia’s Donna Vekic in the third round of the women’s singles.

Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez has revealed that she competed at the Paris Olympics while she is seven months pregnant.

“What appears to you as two players on the podium, they were actually three! It was me, my competitor, & my yet-to-come to our world, little baby!” The 26-year-old fencer said in an Instagram post yesterday, calling the Olympics different as “carrying a little Olympian one.”

The three-time Olympian lost 15-7 to South Korea’s Jeon Hayoung in the Round of 16 at the Grand Palais yesterday, on the same day she beat Elizabeth Tartakovsky of the U.S., 15-13.

“The rollercoaster of pregnancy is tough on its own, but having to fight to keep the balance of life & sports was nothing short of strenuous, however worth it,” she said. “I’m writing this post to say that pride fills my being for securing my place in the round of 16!”

How many medals can the Frenchman win at these games? That’s the question the host country is asking.

Marchand faces a huge challenge today, swimming in the prelims of two separate individual races on the same day: the 200-meter butterfly and the 200-meter breaststroke.

The heats in those two events have wrapped, and the 22-year-old has qualified for both semifinals later today. They will be held just 75 minutes apart.

The finals for both events are tomorrow.

On Sunday, Marchand broke the Olympic record to take gold in his favorite event, the 400-meter individual medley.

The U.S. women’s team opened play with a 26-point win over Japan yesterday (102-76), with Las Vegas Aces’ star A’ja Wilson leading the team with 24 points and the New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart adding 22 points. 

The U.S. women have now won 56 straight Olympic Games since their last Olympic loss at the 1992 Barcelona Games. In Paris, they’re looking to become the first team in any sport to win eight straight Olympic golds.

The U.S. is currently tied with the U.S. men’s basketball team, which won seven straight gold medals from 1936-1968.

The U.S. women’s next game is Thursday against Belgium at 3 p.m. ET.

America’s Regan Smith and Australia’s Kaylee McKeown will renew one of the biggest rivalries in swimming when they meet in the 100-meter backstroke the pool at the Olympics Aquatics Centre near Paris tonight.

The race between world record holder Smith, a native of Lakeville, Minnesota, and Olympic record holder McKeown is slated for 3 p.m. ET (9 p.m. local time).

Three more sets of Olympic medals will also be awarded at Paris La Défense Arena with Bobby Finke, from Clearwater, Florida, swimming in the 800 freestyle at 3:07 p.m. ET.

And at 4:15 p.m. ET, Team USA’s men hope to bounce back from a fourth-place finish in the 4×200 freestyle relay in Tokyo.

For American swimmer Ryan Murphy, it was a life-affirming two-in-one: He had just won bronze in the men’s 100-meter backstroke when he found out his pregnant wife was having a girl.

While he was walking to the podium yesterday, Murphy’s wife, Bridget, held up a sign saying, “Ryan it’s a girl!”

“That’s a great way to find out,” he said. “That really lit me up and brought this night to a whole other level. It’s really exciting to learn that I’m going to be a girl dad.”

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Cancellations because of poor water conditions are not unusual, Team USA triathlete Kristin Kasper told NBC News after the men’s competition was postponed because of concerns about pollution in the Seine. 

“I’m just trying to focus on what I can control,” the 32-year-old from Boulder, Colorado, said before the women’s triathlon, which starts tomorrow. “And I think me and my teammates are just trying to hope for the best and line up on race day and hopefully we have a swim.”

Kasper added that she was “definitely not afraid to swim in the river.”  

“We swim in a lot of city locations, and it’s common for water quality to be a question. But I just have to trust that the race organizers are doing the testing and what they need to do to make sure it’s safe,” she said. “It’s the Olympics, so I’m going all in.”

Relentless drug testing “seven times a day” is hurting the performance of Chinese swimmers in Paris, one of the country’s top divers said.

“There must be something wrong with the pre-competition training of the athletes,” Gao Min, a gold medalist in the springboard event at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics, wrote yesterday on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform. “I personally think that the doping test seven times a day has successfully interfered with our Chinese swimming team.”

A day earlier, Zhang Yufei, a silver medalist in the women’s 100-meter butterfly in Tokyo in 2021, won bronze in the same event in Paris. Another Chinese swimmer seen as a top contender for gold, Qin Haiyang, came seventh in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke, an event he won at the world championships last year.

Both are among 11 Chinese swimmers competing in Paris who tested positive for a banned heart drug before the Tokyo Games in 2021. Though they were not sanctioned at the time, the revelation of the positive tests earlier this year has cast suspicion on Chinese swimmers, who have been subject to more frequent drug tests.

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Team USA’s Lily Zhang got past Brazil’s Bruna Takashi in table tennis late yesterday to move into the last 16. Zhang won 4-2 in a contest which had the crowd screaming at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles.

American women play two rugby sevens matches today. A pair of victories will bring gold and just one will win the team its first medal.

Team USA’s contest against New Zealand is slated for 9:30 a.m. ET (3:30 p.m. local time) at the Stade de France. The winners will play either Canada or Australia for gold at 1:45 p.m. ET (7:45 p.m. local). The losing teams will play for bronze at 1:00 p.m. ET (7:00 p.m. local).

Burlington, Vermont, native Ilona Maher has scored three tries this tournament, which has already been a historic run for the Americans who were beaten in the quarterfinals of Rio and Tokyo.

“She got it: mind set, running strong and hard, not trying to go down, get to the end zone by any means,” Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry said yesterday after watching video of Maher running through and past overpowered defenders. “I love it, makes me want to get out there too.” 

Trap shooting Americans Derrick Mein and Will Hinton have some ground to make up if they want a chance at a medal down in down in Chateauroux.

The second day of qualifying has just begun at the venue in central France. And Mein and Hinton are ranked 8th and 27th respectively out of the 30 competitors. Only the top 6 go into the final at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Swimming superstar David Popovici sealed the gold in race for the ages late yesterday. Great Britain’s Matthew Richards missed out on the top spot by 0.02 seconds while Team USA’s Luke Hobson bagged himself a podium spot and a personal best time. Check it out below.

Megumi Field was a toddler the last time the U.S. qualified for the Olympic artistic swimming team event. Now, Field, 18, is part of the team preparing for its big return.

“I’ll be excited for college once the Olympics [are] over. But right now, all I can think about is the Olympics,” Field told NBC News’ “Stay Tuned.” “I just can’t wait to be in that moment, ready to show the world what we’ve been working on.”

When Field was a child, she didn’t have a need for speed. She had a need for water. 

“I’ve always loved the water. I’ve always loved chlorine,” she said. “The moment I was born, I think I was just in the water.”

Read the full story here.

Watch Team USA’s men’s gymnastics team react as Brody Malone sticks the landing. Three different surgeries and a 16-month setback didn’t stop Malone from standing up to the pressure at Bercy Arena to help the U.S. men secure bronze — their first Olympic team medal since 2008.

Olympic organizers have postponed the men’s triathlon race originally scheduled for this morning, conceding that the Seine remains unsafe for swimming. 

Organizers bumped the men’s event to tomorrow, and it’s now scheduled to take place after end of the women’s triathlon, scheduled for the same day. 

“Despite the improvement on the water quality levels in the last hours, the readings at some points of the swim course are above acceptable levels,” World Triathlon, the international governing body for the sport at the Olympics, said in a statement on X.

The statement said the organizers could move the race to Friday as a contingency, if needed. 

“Paris 2024 and World Triathlon reiterate that their priority is the health of the athletes,” the statement said, referring to the organizers of the Games. 

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Snoop Dogg put his wingspan and “lung power” to good use when he hit the water with Michael Phelps at the Paris Olympics. Who handled the pool better, though? Wrong answers only.