Paris Olympics highlights: Richardson’s anchor relay leg highlights Day 14

The gold medal race looks like it might come down to the final day as the USA and China end 14 days thru these Olympics each with 33 gold medals. The Americans had a missed opportunity to take gold with the men’s 4x100m relay but recovered by taking a historic weightlifting gold medal, the first since 2000.

Tomorrow will likely see both countries each more gold but the USA has a good edge on Saturday with women’s soccer and men’s basketball in finals and the last big night of track where the Americans can win both 4x400m relays.

The most memorable moment of Friday would surely be the crazy men’s soccer final that saw Spain beat France 5-3 in extra time continuing a trend of incredible team sports games these Olympics.

Just two more days to go so sit back and enjoy it this weekend before having to wait four more years for the Los Angeles games. Enjoy your weekends!

Both basketball finals in Paris will be between the United States and France as the French women punched its ticket to the final with an 81-75 overtime win over Belgium. This is the first time since 2012 France will play in the Olympic women’s basketball final.

Many would say the France-Belgium semifinal was a retroactive silver medal game with the USA women riding a 60-game Olympic winning streak. The women’s basketball final begins at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday as the final event of the Paris Olympics.

The last spot in the women’s basketball final has still not been claimed as France and Belgium are heading to overtime. France was leading 66-60 with a little more than 40 seconds left before Belgium was able to score six straight points to force overtime.

France has not made the women’s basketball gold medal game since London 2012 while Belgium has never made an Olympic final.

Amidst the rush of gold medals came a rare one for Team USA in women’s weightlifting. Olivia Reeves was able to win the 71kg division lifting a total weight of 262kg after setting an Olympic record with a 117kg lift in the snatch.

This is the first time since 2000 that USA has won a gold medal in Olympic weightlifting. Joining Reeves on the podium was Colombia’s Mari Sanchez who took silver and taking bronze was Ecuador’s Angie Palacios.

After his tight loss in Tokyo, Rai Benjamin has got his revenge and his gold medal in the 400m hurdles over Norway’s Karsten Warholm. The two dueled in Tokyo to the finish line but in Paris, Benjamin was able to beat out his rival in convincing fashion by 0.6 seconds.

Warholm takes silver while Brazil’s Alison dos Santos takes bronze in the last track final of Day 14.

The Netherlands have claimed a double gold in field hockey as the women followed up the men’s shoot-out gold medal victory on Thursday with its own on Friday. The Dutch were trailing China throughout the game 1-0 but were able to score a fourth period equalizer to force a shoot-out.

The Dutch were able to win the shoot-out 3-1 to win its fourth women’s field hockey gold at the last five Olympics.

History has been made as B-Girl Ami representing Japan has won the first gold medal in breaking at the Olympics. Ami battled Lithuania’s Nicka, who’s taking home the silver. This comes after a full day of several rounds of battling against the best B-Girls in the world.

Ami, 25, has also won several World Championships and World Games in breaking on top of taking home today’s gold medal. Winning the first ever bronze medal is B-Girl 671 from China after battling India from the Netherlands.

Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet has written herself into Olympic history as she adds the 10,000m gold medal to the 5,000m gold medal she already one. Chebet was able to cross the finish line after a grueling 30-minute race to win her second gold of these Olympics.

Italy’s Nadia Battocletti had the race of her life to take silver while Sifan Hassan finished third for her second bronze medal of these Olympics.

The women’s shot put final had an epic conclusion as Germany’s Yemisi Ogunleye had a chance to claim gold on the final throw. She was able to best New Zealand’s Maddison-Lee Wesche’s throw of 19.86 meters with a huge 20 meter throw for gold. Both were joined on the podium with China’s Song Jiayuan who took bronze.

The men’s soccer competition concluded with a crazy, extra time thriller as Spain took gold over hosts France 5-3 in extra time. After Spain blew a 3-1 lead in stoppage time of regulation, the gold medal game went to extra time where Spain turned it back on.

Sergio Camello scored the gold medal winning goal in the 100th minute before putting away the fifth for Spain at the end of extra time. This is the first time Spain has won soccer gold since 1992, also the last time a European nation won Olympic gold in men’s soccer.

Spain have completed a rare double having won the men’s Euros in July and the Olympic gold in August. France was the last team to complete that double in 1984.

Belgian heptathlete Nafissatou Thiam has accomplished something no man or woman has before – win three Olympic heptathlons or decathlons. The greatest female athlete on the planet in 2016 and 2021 has claimed the title again in 2024 after completing the seven events over two days and earning 6880 points.

Joining Thiam on the podium is Great Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson with silver and Belgian Noor Vidts with bronze.

While the drama is continuing on the track, we have even bigger drama on the soccer pitch. France and Spain are currently playing in the men’s soccer final with the Spanish going up 3-1 at halftime.

After the hosts brought themselves back to within a goal in the 79th minute, France earned a penalty kick in stoppage time. France’s top scorer Jean-Philippe Mateta converted the spot kick to make it 3-3 and force extra time in the gold medal game.

Soccer had 30 minutes of extra time. If it stays ties, the gold medal will be decided on penalties.

After finishing second in Tokyo, Dominican Republic runner Marileidy Paulino got her gold medal moment in the 400m and in record fashion. Paulino was able to take the gold medal with a time of 48.17 seconds, a new Olympic record.

Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser took silver and Poland’s Natalia Kaczmarek claimed bronze. USA’s Alexis Holmes finished sixth.

The men’s 4x100m relay had a surprising winner but an unsurprising moment for the USA team. Once again, the American men had issues with the baton hand-off as Christian Coleman and Ken Bednarek had a shaky exchange on the first leg, leaving the USA way in the back the rest of the way.

USA came seventh while Canada won gold, South Africa took silver, and Great Britain grabbed bronze. The Americans have not won this event since 2000.

Team USA was able to take gold in the women’s 4x100m relay in the midst of pouring rain in Paris. After a couple of shaky exchanges in the first two legs with Melissa Jefferson and Twanisha Terry, Gabby Thomas was able to close the gap but than Sha’Carri Richardson sprinted to the finish line to beat our Great Britain.

After missing out on gold in the 100m, Richardson gets her first Olympic gold medal. Great Britain takes silver and Germany got the bronze.

For the eighth straight Olympics, USA women’s basketball will play for a gold medal. The Americans had a wire-to-wire victory over Australia 85-64 in the semifinal for its 60th straight win at the Olympics.

Breanna Stewart led the team with 16 points while Jackie Young added another 14. 11 of the 12 USA players scored in the 21-point victory. USA will face either France or Belgium in the gold medal game on Sunday at 9:30 a.m., the last event at the Paris Olympics.

For the first time in Olympic history, breaking has made its way into the games. Unfortunately, Team USA B-Girls Logistx and Sunny are not moving on to the quarterfinals.

Logistx was in Group B and won battles against Australia’s Raygun, but lost to Lithuania’s Nicka. Logistx did win her battle against France’s Syssy, but Syssy is moving on to the quarterfinal round.

Meanwhile in Group A, U.S. B-Girl Sunny lost two battles to China’s 671 and Netherlands’ India, but did beat B-Girl Vanessa from Portugal in her final battle in the competition.

The breaking quarterfinals start at 2 p.m. with semifinals to follow.

The final round is expected to begin at 3 p.m.

A 5-under 67 vaulted U.S. golfer Rose Zhang into a three-way tie for third place and she finds herself two strokes off a potential gold medal in the women’s individual stroke play at the Paris Olympics.

The 21-year-old Zhang began the front nine with three birdies to climb into the top 10 before an eagle on the par-5 14th hole. A double bogey on 15 stunted the ground gained, but only briefly. Zhang eagled the par-5 18th hole to return to 7-under after three rounds.

Zhang trails New Zealand’s Lydia Ko and Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux by two strokes.

The number one ranked golfer in the world Nelly Korda of the U.S. struggled out of the gate with two bogeys through the first three holes, but she rallied to post five birdies to get within striking distance of the leaders. A three-putt bogey on 17, however, dropped her to a seventh-place tie at -4.

Among those tied with Korda is hometown favorite Celine Boutier, who got a rise out of the partisan crowd with three consecutive birdies to close with a 1-under 71.

Nine players within the top 10 shot under par and remain within five strokes of each other heading into the final round in the race for gold.

After its narrow semifinal loss to Poland, USA men’s volleyball will return home with its heads held high and with a medal around its necks. The Americans beat Italy in straight sets to claim the bronze medal in Paris. It is the first men’s volleyball medal for Team USA since taking bronze at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

This is also the sixth medal USA has won in men’s volleyball after the dominant win with Torey Defalco leading the team with 12 kills against the Italians.

Germany’s women’s soccer team is leaving Paris with a bronze medal after a 1-0 win over Spain in Lyon that came down to the last minute. In the 65th minute, Giulia Gwinn converted a penalty to give Germany the lead but the World Cup champions Spain had a chance to take the game into extra time.

Spain was awarded a penalty in the 90+9′ minute but Alexia Putellas’ shot was saved by Germany keeper Ann-Katrin Berger to clinch the bronze. This is the fifth medal Germany has won in women’s soccer and is a big turnaround after its group stage exit at the 2023 FIFA World Cup.

The United States men’s water polo team has fallen short of making the gold medal game after losing to the two-time defending Olympic champions Serbia 10-6 in the semifinals. After an even first period, Serbia was able to take a lead in the second period and never looked back to get the victory.

USA will face the loser of the semifinal between Hungary and Croatia at 4:35 a.m. on Sunday for the bronze medal. The gold medal game will played on Sunday at 8 a.m.

The USA men’s water polo team is vying for its first spot in the men’s Olympic water polo final since 2008 and enter halftime trailing Serbia 6-4.

After an even first period where each team scored twice, Serbia was able to pull away slightly in the second period, outscoring the United States 4-2. Nikola Dedovic and Nikola Jaksic have each scored twice for the reigning gold medalists.

Friday is the second-to-last packed day of Olympic action and when we say packed we mean, Packed! Here is all that has happened this morning and what is coming up.

Morning medalists: We saw plenty of medals handed out in sprint canoeing as well as the men’s 10km open water swim and the sport climbing boulder & lead event.

4x400m relays: Team USA has got both of its teams into Saturday’s 4x400m relay finals. Amongst the runners we expect to race in the finals include 400m gold medalist Quincy Hall for the men and 400m hurdles gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone for the women.

Heptathlon standings: The heptathletes completed its fifth and sixth events this morning with the long jump and javelin throw. Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam will go into the 800m with the lead over Katarina Johnson-Thompson. Thiam is bidding to become the first man or woman to win three Olympic heptathlons or decathlons.

Women’s golf round three: It is still early on in the penultimate day of women’s golf and Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux remains in the lead. Rose Zhang of Team USA is off to a good start sitting at four-under for the tournament. Nelly Korda remains at even-par thru eight holes, leaving her at -2 for the tournament.

Coming up this morning: We will see the individual all-around final in rhythmic gymnastics at 8:30 a.m. along with the women’s 3m springboard diving final at 9 a.m. USA has three teams playing high stakes games this morning. They include:

Men’s water polo semifinal vs. Serbia at 8:35 a.m., men’s volleyball bronze medal match vs. Italy at 10 a.m., women’s basketball semifinal vs. Australia at 11:30 a.m.