Paris Olympics highlights: USA earns medals in gymnastics and swimming

Men’s gymnastics’ bronze medal was the highlight moment for Team USA on Monday. The historic medal sets the tone for what could be a very successful Olympics for American gymnastics.

USA women’s rugby created millions of new fans after its quarterfinal win over Great Britain and can make a greater impact on the sport’s popularity in the USA with a medal on Tuesday.

In the medal tally, USA has the most medals with 20 but are trailing in the gold medal count with just three thus far. They collected no golds on Monday.

We will be back Tuesday for a day filled with more Olympic action, including the highly-anticipated women’s gymnastics team final featuring Simone Biles.

Until then, enjoy your Monday!

-Orri Benatar

The American pair of Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth won its second beach volleyball match at the Paris Olympics. The two beat Australian pair Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy in straight sets 21-61, 21-16.

They are in good shape to advance to the knockout round but close out pool play on Thursday against China.

USA women’s basketball is back and once again demolishing opponents. The seven-time defending gold medalists began its Paris Olympics with a huge 102-76 victory over Japan, the silver medalists at the last Olympics.

A’ja Wilson led the USA with 24 points, 13 rebounds, and four blocks while Breanna Stewart added 22 points and eight rebounds in the opening win. Next up, Belgium on Thursday at 3 p.m.

Australia secured a one-two finish in the women’s 200m freestyle but it was a slightly unexpected victor in Paris. Mollie O’Callaghan just beat out her teammate Ariarne Titmus to the wall to win gold and set a new Olympic record.

Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey took bronze while the lone American Claire Weinstein finished last.

The USA women’s rugby team beat Great Britain 17-7 during the quarterfinal on Monday, now advancing to the semifinal on Tuesday where they will face New Zealand, who is the reigning Olympic champion.

If Team USA comes out on top, they will compete in the finals also on Tuesday.

The women’s 100m breaststroke final delivered in excitement but did not deliver an American medal. South Africa’s Tatjana Smith just beat China’s Qianting Tang to the wall to claim her second Olympic gold.

Ireland’s Mona McSharry completed the podium while Lilly King finished fourth.

Team USA added two more medals to its tally at the same time as Ryan Murphy took bronze in the 100m backstroke and Nick Itkin grabbed bronze in the individual foil event in fencing.

After three swimming finals on Monday, USA has earned four medals while Itkin’s bronze gives the Americans three medals in fencing.

The women’s 100m backstroke final on Tuesday will be a true USA vs. Australia battle. Regan Smith and Katharine Berkoff will represent USA while Kaylee McKeown and Iona Anderson will represent Australia in what should be a competitive final.

Canadian and French swimmers make up the rest of the final field.

The 200m freestyle ended with an exciting finish as Romania’s David Popovici took gold by the slimmest of margins. He beat Great Britain’s Matthew Richards to gold by 2/1000ths of a second while Team USA’s Luke Hobson took bronze.

The first swimming gold of day three was won by Canada’s Summer McIntosh, who earned her second medal in Paris. She cruised to the 400m individual medley gold while two Americans grabbed the rest of the medals.

Katie Grimes won silver while Emma Weyant took bronze.

After an exciting men’s gymnastics team final, we have got plenty more incoming with seven gold medals set to be awarded in two sports.

Swimming finals: Five finals will be taking place with plenty of Americans hoping to strike gold. The finals include the women’s 400m individual medley, men’s 200m freestyle, men’s 100m backstroke, women’s 100m breaststroke, and women’s 200m freestyle.

Fencing finals: The last two individual fencing finals will happen starting at 3:45 p.m. The women’s sabre and men’s foil will be decided at the Grand Palais.

USA women’s teams: Rugby is set to play in its quarterfinal at 3:30 p.m. against Great Britain while the superstar women’s basketball team will face Japan at 3 p.m.

Team USA men’s gymnastics is taking home an Olympic medal in the team competition for the first time since Beijing 2008.

The Americans earned bronze after a big pommel horse routine from Nedoroscik. Japan was able to take gold by half-a-point over China after the high bar.

USA pommel horse scores – Paul Juda (13.900), Brody Malone (13.700), Stephen Nedoroscik (14.866)

Final Scores

1. Japan (259.594)

2. China (-0.532)

3. USA (-1.801)

The Americans look poised for a medal but the color is still up for grabs. After a decent showing on floor exercise and a strong Japan showing on parallel bars, Team USA enters the last rotation in third.

Team USA will end on the pommel horse where specialist Stephen Nedoroscik will close the meet on his only routine.

USA floor exercise scores – Paul Juda (14.200), Asher Hong (14.133), Fred Richard (14.466)

Standings thru rotation 5

1. China (219.296)

2. Japan (-3.267)

3. USA (-3.969)

Final Rotation

High Bar – Japan, China

Floor Exercise – Ukraine, Great Britain

Pommel Horse – USA, Italy

Rings – Canada, Switzerland

The first USA women’s volleyball match was a thriller as they nearly came back from two sets down to beat China. The Chinese team won the first two sets convincingly 25-20, 25-19 before Team USA won the next two sets 25-17, 25-20.

The fifth set was tight but ultimately, China got the win 15-13 in the final set to take the match. In total,, each team won 102 points. Andrea Drews led the Americans with 29 points on 26 kills.

USA plays Wednesday against Serbia at 11 a.m.

Team USA got big roars after two stellar routines on the high bar. Fred Richard scored an impressive 14.833 while Brody Malone, who fell twice during his routine in qualifying, redeemed himself with a stuck landing and a good routine.

USA sit in third place less than one point behind first place China.

USA high bar scores – Paul Juda (13.366), Fred Richard (14.833), Brody Malone (14.166)

Standings thru rotation 4

1. China (173.463)

2. Ukraine (-0.433)

3. USA (-0.935)

Rotation 5

Parallel Bars – Japan, China

High Bar – Ukraine, Great Britain

Floor Exercise – USA, Italy

Pommel Horse – Canada, Switzerland

Team USA was able to get consistent scores on the parallel bars as Malone, Richard, and Hong each got over 14.4 points on their routines. Halfway through, the Americans had over 130 points and maintained medal positioning, getting themselves into second place.

USA parallel bars scores – Brody Malone (14.433), Fred Richard (14.566), Asher Hong (14.400)

Standings thru rotation 3

1. China (131.364)

2. USA (-1.201)

3. Great Britain (-2.935)

Rotation 4

Vault – Japan, China

Parallel Bars – Ukraine, Great Britain

High Bar – USA, Italy

Floor Exercise – Canada, Switzerland

USA’s Jagger Eaton and Nyjah Huston weren’t able to capture the gold but earned second and third place in the men’s street skateboarding final on Monday. Eaton was awarded silver with a score of 281.04 while Nyjah got bronze with 279.38. Japanese skater Yuto Horigome got the gold with a score of 281.14. 

Japan also won the gold and silver in the women’s street skateboarding final the day before. Coco Yoshizawa earned the top spot with a score of 272.75, while Rizu Akama got second with 265.96.

The Americans put together an excellent performance on the vault. Juda and Malone had clean landings while Hong’s high difficulty level and execution gave him the top vault score for Team USA. They scored 44 points on vault, nearly two more than on rings, which put them in first place over China.

USA vault scores – Paul Juda (14.666), Brody Malone (14.533), Asher Hong (14.833)

Standings thru rotation 2

1. USA (86.764)

2. China (-0.666)

3. Japan (-1.166)

Rotation 3

Rings – Japan, China

Vault – Ukraine, Great Britain

Parallel Bars – USA, Italy

High Bar – Canada, Switzerland

It was a solid start for Team USA in the men’s gymnastics final with three good performances on the rings. Asher Hong scored the highest with a 14.533 ahead of Richard and Malone. Sitting just under 43 points, USA sits in fifth place after the first rotation.

USA rings scores – Fred Richard (14.033), Brody Malone (14.166), Asher Hong (14.533)

Standings thru rotation 1

1. Great Britain (43.332)

2. Japan (-0.066)

3. Canada (-0.166)

5. USA (-0.6)

Rotation 2

Pommel Horse – Japan, China

Rings – Ukraine, Great Britain

Vault – USA, Italy

Parallel Bars – Canada, Switzerland

We are about to begin the men’s gymnastics team final. Here is the first rotation that is about to begin over on NBC4. The Americans begin on the rings.

Floor Exercise – China, Japan

Pommel Horse – Great Britain, Ukraine

Rings – USA, Italy

Vault – Switzerland, Canada

We are 30 minutes away from the men’s gymnastics team final, the first medal event in Paris for gymnastics. The American team is hoping they can capture its first medal in 16 years in the event but will be facing stiff competition.

USA Gymnasts: All-around final qualifiers Frederick Richard and Paul Juda lead the team while three-time national all-around champion Brody Malone is hoping to score bigger on the high bar after a tough qualifying session. Pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik will compete in just that apparatus while Asher Hong completes the lineup.

USA rotations: Rings (Richard, Malone, Hong) – Vault (Juda, Malone, Hong) – Parallel Bars (Malone, Richard, Hong) – High Bar (Juda, Richard, Malone) – Floor Exercise (Juda, Hong, Richard) – Pommel Horse (Juda, Malone, Nedoroscik)

Teams to watch: The likes of China and Japan are the favorites for gold while the Americans will battle with Great Britain and Ukraine to get on the podium. China and Japan have won five of the last six Olympic golds in this event.

The four women’s rugby quarterfinal matchups are now finalized. The US will play Great Britain at 3:30 p.m. in the second match. That match and all the others can be seen live on E!

3 p.m. – New Zealand v China

3:30 p.m. – USA v Great Britain

4 p.m. – France v Canada

4:30 p.m. – Australia v Ireland

The Spanish women’s water polo team got some revenge as they beat the Americans 13-11 in group play. Spain fell to the USA in the gold medal match and Tokyo and have gotten themselves a statement win against the three-time defending gold medalists.

Bea Ortiz led the team with five goals while the USA only scored 11 of its 27 shots in the match. The Americans have won one and lost one thus far and next face Italy on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m.

The American beach volleyball pair of Miles Evans and former NBA player Chase Budinger won its first match at the Eiffel Tower Stadium. They defeated French pair Youssef Krou and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat in straight sets 21-14, 21-11.

The two will be back at it on Tuesday at 2 p.m. when they face the Netherlands.

This afternoon will have medal events in five different sports while we see USA teams continue to look for wins in team sports group play.

Medal events: After six morning medal events, we will get six more during midday. The men’s street skateboarding final is set to take place after being delayed on Saturday and will feature Americans Nyjah Huston and Jagger Eaton. The men’s team archery final, men’s canoe slalom, and two Judo finals are also taking place. We will have a full look at the men’s gymnastics final soon.

USA teams in action: USA women’s water polo is currently in a tight battle against Spain while men’s beach volleyball pair Chase Budinger and Miles Evans is playing its first match now. US women’s volleyball will also play its first match at 11 a.m.

What else to watch: There is plenty of tennis, table tennis, badminton, handball, field hockey, and more continuing today across Paris.

USA women’s rugby will still play a quarterfinal match later on Monday but could not close out group play with three wins. France beat Team USA 31-14 to win Pool C and advance as one of the medal favorites.

The quarterfinals are set to begin around 3 p.m. on E!

Novak Djokovic held off a Nadal comeback at Roland Garros to beat the Spaniard 6-1, 6-4 in the second round of men’s singles tennis. This could very well be the last time we see Nadal play on the famous clay courts in Paris.

Djokovic moves on to the round of 16 where he will play either Dominik Koepfer of Germany or Matteo Arnaldi of Italy. Nadal is still alive in the men’s doubles tournament playing with Carlos Alcaraz.

No. 2 tennis seed Coco Gauff is through to the round of 16 of the women’s singles tournament. She defeated Argentina’s Maria Lourdes Carle 6-1, 6-1 in the second round at Court Suzanne Lenglen.

She will play No. 13 seed Donna Vekic of Croatia in the round of 16.

The American women’s field hockey team got itself a 1-1 tie against Spain after a scoreless second half. Despite the fact Spain outshot Team USA 19-7, the Americans were able to hold on for the draw. Goalkeeper Kelsey Bing made nine saves.

The US is back in action on Wednesday at 7:15 a.m. against Australia. They have one point through two matches in pool play.

Novak Djokovic is one set away from beating Rafael Nadal in the Olympics after a commanding 6-1 first set win over the 2008 tennis men’s singles gold medalist. Elsewhere at Roland Garros, American Coco Gauff is approaching a first set win over Argentina’s Maria Lourdes Carle in her second round match.