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Day 15 of the Paris Olympics was big for Team USA with women’s soccer, men’s basketball and track and field winning several gold medals. Team USA also earned silver in the men’s high jump and bronze in breaking (which might be a one-time occurrence). A bronze in women’s gymnastics may also be taken away from the U.S. in a surprising ruling.
Here are the top five stories of the day:
USWNT wins first gold medal since 2012 with 1-0 win over Brazil
The Emma Hayes era of the USWNT is getting off to a brilliant start, with the team getting a 1-0 victory over Brazil to earn an Olympic gold medal for the first time since 2012.
After going scoreless in a physical, fast-paced first half, the United States broke the drought with a beautiful goal from Mallory Swanson in the 57th minute. Some incredible saves from Alyssa Naeher helped the U.S. hold the score through the rest of the game.
The win caps off a grueling Olympic tournament, where the U.S. played six games — including multiple that went into extra time — in just over two weeks.
Brazil’s loss earned them the silver medal with Marta, Brazil’s captain and an iconic figure in the world of women’s soccer, earning a medal in what is likely her final major international match.
The gold medal win gives the USWNT a confidence boost after the early World Cup exit last summer. More importantly, it points to a very bright future for this young, talented American team as the next generation finds their own in the world of international soccer.
U.S. men’s basketball wins gold again
The U.S. men’s basketball team won gold for the fifth consecutive Olympic Games with a 98–87 victory over France on Saturday.
Stephen Curry again came to the rescue for Team USA, hitting three consecutive 3-pointers in the game’s closing two minutes. He finished with 24 points overall on 8-for 13 shooting from 3.
Victor Wembanyama scored a game-high 26 points for the host country with seven rebounds. Guerschon Yabusele followed with 20 and Nando De Colo added 12. Nicolas Batum grabbed eight rebounds.
Kevin Durant won his fourth gold medal, the most in Olympics men’s basketball history. LeBron James also earns his fourth Olympic medal, with three golds and a bronze.
James was also named FIBA’s Olympics men’s basketball MVP. He averaged 14.2 points, 6.8 rebounds and 8.5 assists during Team USA’s six-game run to gold.
U.S. closes out track and field with several big wins
The final day of track and field events was a big one for the United States, as Team USA’s dominance continued.
It started with the 100m hurdles, where Masai Russell earned gold in a photo finish with France’s Cyrena Samba-Mayela. Samba-Mayela ended up getting silver, while Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn — the defending gold medalist in the event — took bronze.
In the 5,000m, Grant Fisher continued to make American long distance running history with a come-from-behind bronze medal. It was a perfect bookend for Fisher, who also took an unexpected bronze in the 10,000m to open the track events, and earned his second bronze on the last day of track competition.
Shelby McEwan took silver in the high jump for Team USA after New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr won a tiebreak jump-off. Kerr and McEwan failed to pass the same height, and could have opted for a co-gold medal. But the two jumpers are competitors, and opted to keep jumping to decide the winner. It was a gamble for McEwan, but he ends up with a silver medal to show for it regardless.
The final two races of the day were the men’s and women’s 4x400m, with Team USA taking both in a straight sweep. The men’s relay team of Christopher Bailey, Vernon Norwood, Bryce Deadmon and Rai Benjamin just edged out Botswana for the gold, with Benjamin just outrunning Botswana’s Letslie Tebogo.
The women’s team, however, completely blew out the competition: The relay team finished in 3:15.27, scoring a new American record and beating the next two teams (the Netherlands and Great Britain) by more than four seconds.
Shamier Little got things started for the U.S., but Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone built a massive lead in the second leg and Gabby Thomas and Alexis Holmes brought it home from there. Team USA has now won the past eight straight women’s 4x400m relays — and continued that dominance in Paris.
B-boy Victor takes Olympic bronze in first — and maybe last — breaking competition
On the second day of breaking competition during the sport’s first — and maybe last — run at the Olympics, B-boy Victor, AKA Victor Montalvo, took home the bronze medal for Team USA.
Although neither of the two Team USA B-girls advanced out of the round robin, both American B-boys qualified for the quarterfinals. American B-boy Jeffro was defeated in the quarterfinals by French B-boy Dany Dann, who would go on to the final. Victor defeated Kazakhstan’s Amir in the quarterfinals but lost to Dany Dann in the semis.
The Florida native competed for bronze against Shigekix of Japan, who he faced during the round robin stage. Although Victor split 1-1 during that round against Shigekix and fell 12 points to 6, Victor got the better of Shigekix in the third-place match, winning unanimously with 20 points to Shigekix’s 7.
Jordan Chiles’ bronze medal in jeopardy
The U.S. women’s gymnastics team could lose one of its medals from the Paris Games, which could be heartbreaking news for Jordan Chiles.
Chiles could be stripped of the individual bronze she won in the floor exercise with the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling that the appeal of Chiles’ score by her coach, Cecile Landi, was filed after the one-minute time limit.
With the appeal being disallowed, Chiles’ score dropped from 13.766 to her original 13.666, putting her below Romania’s Ana Barbosa and her 13.700. USA Gymnastics objected to the CAS ruling, asserting that the timing of the inquiry is far less important than getting the actual score correct.
Chiles is back in the United States and waiting to learn if she has to return her bronze medal while the appeal process works out.
Team USA medals
Highlight of the day
As mentioned above, the United States won the men’s basketball gold medal game and LeBron James was awarded MVP for the Olympics tournament. However, France did put up a fight behind Victor Wembanyama and Guerschon Yabusele.
Yabusele arguably had the highlight of the game with a poster dunk over James in the second quarter that ignited the crowd at Bercy Arena.
One more thing …
South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley and her former player, Kamila Cardoso, apparently had a friendly bet over Saturday’s gold medal women’s soccer game between the U.S. and Brazil. And with the U.S. winning, it’s time for Cardoso, a native Brazilian, to pay up.
As Staley explained, if Brazil won, the coach would have to wear a Team Brazil jersey on the sideline during a Gamecocks game. But if the U.S. won, Cardoso had to wear a USWNT jersey during the tunnel walk before an upcoming Chicago Sky game and on an Instagram Live video.
A size large USA jersey is presumably on its way to Cardoso, as she begrudgingly acknowledged on social media.
