Americans April Ross and Alix Klineman won the women’s beach volleyball gold medal Thursday night (Friday morning on Tokyo).
The U.S. pair beat Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy of Australia 21-15, 21-16 for the championship on Friday. It’s Ross’ third medal in as many Olympics, to go with the silver she won in London and a bronze from Brazil. Klineman is a first-time Olympian.
Lloyd, Rapinoe score twice in US bronze medal win
Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd each scored a pair of goals and the United States won the bronze medal in women’s soccer at the Tokyo Olympics with a 4-3 victory over Australia.
It was arguably the best the Americans had looked during the course of a rocky tournament that opened with an uncharacteristic 3-0 loss to Sweden. Rapinoe set the tone early with a goal scored directly from a corner kick.
US wins pole vault gold, but struggle on track again
Katie Nageotte won an unexpected gold for the United States in the pole vault at the Olympics ahead of world champion Anzhelika Sidorova of Russia. Nageotte failed on her first two attempts of the competition at 4.50 meters but improved from there to clinch her first major medal.
Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas won the men’s Olympic 400-meters gold medal. Americans Michael Cherry and Michael Norman finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
More US medals
The United States’ Nevin Harrison won the women’s canoe sprint 200 in the event’s Olympic debut, overtaking Canada’s Laurence Vincent Lapointe at the halfway mark and powering across the finish line.
American David Taylor scored a double-leg takedown with 17 seconds remaining to beat Iran’s Hassan Yazdani 4-3 and claim wrestling gold in the men’s freestyle 86-kilogram class in freestyle wrestling.
The Russian Olympic Committee’s Zavur Uguev defeated India’s Ravi Kumar 7-4 to claim wrestling gold in the men’s 57-kilogram freestyle class. American Thomas Gilman earned bronze.
Japan’s Risako Kawai won her second Olympic wrestling gold, defeating Belarus’ Iryna Kurachkina 5-0 in the women’s 57-kilogram freestyle final. American Helen Maroulis defeated Mongolia’s Khongorzul Boldsaikhan 11-0 in a bronze medal match.
Spanish teenager Alberto Gines Lopez has won the first Olympic gold medal in men’s sport climbing, edging American Nathaniel Coleman who won silver.
Australia’s Keegan Palmer won the men’s park skateboarding event. The silver went to Pedro Barros of Brazil. Cory Juneau took bronze, the second skateboarding medal for the United States.
America’s Alvarez earns summer and winter medals
Eddy Alvarez became only the third American to earn medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics when the United States baseball team beat defending-champion South Korea 7-2 to gain a berth into this weekend’s gold medal game against host Japan.
After earning a silver in 2014 at Sochi as part of the U.S. four-man short track team, he’ll get at least a silver in baseball. The other Americans with summer and winter medals are Eddie Eagen (boxing in 1920, bobsled in 1932) and Lauryn Williams (track and field in 2004 and 2012, bobsled in 2014).
Additional results
The U.S. men’s basketball team defeated Australia to advance to the men’s gold medal game Friday night. They will face France, which defeated them in the opening game of the Olympics.
The U.S. beat the Russian Olympic Committee 15-11 to advance to the women’s water polo final, continuing the team’s bid for a third consecutive gold medal.
Damian Warner of Canada won the decathlon after two grueling days of competition in the Tokyo heat and humidity. Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium successfully defended her Olympic title in the heptathlon.
Chinese teenagers Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi swept the top two spots in women’s 10-meter platform diving. The 14-year-old Quan took gold with 466.20 points — that included two dives in which she received perfect 10s from all seven judges.