Sunisa Lee became the fifth straight American woman to claim the Olympic title in the women’s all-around. She edged Rebeca Andrade of Brazil in an entertaining and hotly contested final while Simone Biles watched from the stands.
Lee’s total of 57.433 points was just enough to top Andrade. The Brazilian earned the first gymnastics all-around medal by a Latin American athlete but missed out on gold when she stepped out of bounds twice during her floor routine.
Russian gymnast Angelina Melnikova earned bronze two days after leading ROC to gold in the team final.
»»» Russian fencers won gold in the women’s team foil by beating France 45-34 in the final.
The Russians stayed on course for gold despite an early medical timeout when Marta Martyanova rolled her ankle. She stayed in the contest and contributed 14 of the team’s points.
The Russian Olympic Committee team has won five fencing medals in Tokyo in women’s events. France was on the podium in the women’s team foil for the first time since 1984.
Italy beat the United States 45-23 for the bronze medal to make the podium in the event for a record seventh consecutive Olympics.
»»» Aaron Wolf has won Japan’s eighth gold medal in judo at the Tokyo Olympics, defeating South Korea’s Cho Gu-ham 5:35 into golden score for his first Olympic title in the men’s 100-kilogram division.
Wolf, whose father is American, won the draining final bout by ippon with an o-uchi-gari throw. Wolf beat Georgian veteran Varlam Liparteliani in the semifinals to reach his first Olympic final.
Japan has won eight golds, one silver and one bronze from the first 12 judo weight classes, adding to their record total of gold medals and total medals in the nation’s homegrown martial art. Wolf and Shori Hamada (women’s 78 kilogram) swept both golds available Thursday at the Budokan.
Portugal’s two-time world champion Jorge Fonseca and Russian athlete Niiaz Iliasov won bronze. Cho upset Fonseca in the semifinals.
»»» Shori Hamada has won Japan’s seventh gold medal in judo at the Tokyo Olympics, beating French former world champion Madeleine Malonga by ippon just 1:08 into the women’s 78-kilogram final.
The result was a reversal of the two players’ bout in the 2019 world championship final, which was also held in Tokyo. Hamada pinned Malonga early and held on for the ippon to win her first Olympic medal at the Budokan.
Hamada, who won the 2018 world title, is the third Japanese woman to win gold in the past week. The home nation is dominating its homegrown martial art with nine medals from the first 11 weight classes.
Germany’s Anna-Maria Wagner -- the current world champion -- and Brazil’s Mayra Aguiar won bronze.
»»» Australia’s Jessica Fox has made Olympic history at the Tokyo Games as the first gold medalist in women’s canoe slalom.
Fox made the last run of the final and crushed it, beating rival and silver-medalist Mallory Franklin of Britain with a winning run of 105.04 seconds through the rapids of of the Kasai Canoe Slalom Center.
It was a clean run without the mistakes and penalty seconds that prevented her from winning gold in the kayak slalom two days earlier, when she won bronze.
The women’s canoe slalom is one of 18 new events introduced to the Olympics this year in a push for gender equity. It replaced the men’s double canoe slalom.
Andrea Herzog of Germany took bronze.
»»» Czech shooter Jiri Liptak has outlasted teammate David Kostelecky in a shoot-off to win men’s trap gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
Liptak and Kostelecky tied after 50 shots, hitting 43 targets to set an Olympic record. Both shooters hit the first six targets in the shoot-off before Kostelecky missed on the seventh.
Great Britain’s Matthew Coward-Holley took bronze.
Liptak finished 18th at the 2012 London Games, but did not compete in Rio five years ago. Kostelecky earned his second medal in his sixth Olympics with the gold he won at the 2008 Beijing Games.
»»» Slovakia’s Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova set an Olympic record in women’s trap to deny the United States a third-straight shotgun gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
Rehak Stefecekova hit 43 of 50 targets on a breezy day at Asaka Shooting Range, beating American Kayle Browning.
Alessandro Perilli took bronze to earn the first medal in San Marino’s 61-year Olympic history.
Americans Vincent Hancock and Amber English opened the shotgun events by sweeping skeet on Tuesday.
A 37-year-old police officer, Rehak Stefecekova took silver at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Games, and missed Rio in 2016 due to the birth of her son.
»»» American world-champion pole vaulter Sam Kendricks will miss the Olympics after testing positive for COVID-19.
Kendricks’ dad posted on social media that his son had no symptoms but was informed while in Tokyo that he tested positive and was out of the competition.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee confirmed the news and said Kendricks has been placed in isolation at a hotel. He is being supported by the USOPC and USA Track and Field.
Kendricks won the bronze medal at the 2016 Olympics and took gold at the last two world championships. He holds the American record at 19 feet, 10 ½ inches (6.06 meters).
»»» China has surprised the U.S. and Australia with a world-record performance in the women’s 4x200-meter freestyle relay.
Katie Ledecky took the anchor leg for the Americans in third place, nearly 2 seconds behind the Chinese and also trailing the Aussies.
Ledecky passed Australia’s Leah Neale and closed the gap significant on China’s Li Bingjie, but couldn’t quite catch her at the end.
Li touched in 7 minutes, 40.33 seconds, denying both Ledecky and Ariarne Titmus another gold medal. After winning both the 200 and 400 free individual titles, Titmus led off for Australia in the relay.
The Americans claimed silver in 7:40.73, while Australia took the bronze in 7:41.29. It was the second swimming world record of the Tokyo Games -- in fact, all three medalists broke the previous mark of 7:41.50 set by the Aussies at the 2019 world championships.
»»» USA Climbing head coach Josh Larsen has returned to the United States due to the death of his father.
Meg Coyne, national teams manager and assistant coach, will temporarily step into Larson’s role.
Sport climbing is making its Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games. Qualification rounds begin on Aug. 3 with the men. The women qualifying the following day.
»»» China has claimed its first gold medal at the Olympic pool.
Zhang Yufei turned in a dominating performance to win the women’s 200-meter butterfly with an Olympic-record time of 2 minutes, 3.86 seconds. She was more than a body length ahead of the pair of Americans, Regan Smith and Hali Flickinger.
The U.S. swimmers dueled back and forth for the silver, with Smith pulling ahead at the end to touch in 2:05.30. Flickinger earned the bronze in 2:05.65.
»»» Bobby Finke of the United States has captured gold in the debut of the men’s 800-meter swimming freestyle event at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri grabbed the silver after leading most of the race, while the bronze went to Mykhailo Romachuk of Ukraine.
It was a thrilling finish. Germany’s Florian Wellbrock grabbed the lead from Paltrinieri on the final flip, with Finke lurking back in fourth. But the American turned on a dazzling burst of speed at the end of the 16-lap race, passing all three swimmers ahead of him to take the gold.
Finke’s winning time was 7 minutes, 41.87 seconds, just 0.24 ahead of Paltrinieri. Romachuk finished in 7:42.33, knocking Wellbrock back to fourth.
The men’s 800 freestyle was added to the Olympic program for the Tokyo Games, marking the first time that approximate distance was contested by the men since there was an 880-yard race at the 1904 St. Louis Games.
»»» Italy’s Valentina Rodini and Federica Cesarini have surged over the final 50 meters to snatch the gold medal in the women’s lightweight double sculls.
The Dutch team of Marieke Keiser and Ilse Paulis had led nearly the entire race but collapsed to the bronze medal in the final 20 meters as the French team of Laura Tarantola and Claire Bove won silver.
The Dutch team nearly slipped out of the medals entirely, and only took the podium by 0.01 seconds ahead of Great Britain.
»»» Ireland’s duo of Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan held off a late charge from Germany’s Jonathan Rommelmann and Jason Osborne to win the gold medal in men’s lightweight double sculls.
The Irish boat looked secure through the first 1,000 meters before the Germans closed the gap with 500 to go and threatened to pull even.
A late surge over the final 200 meters sent the Irish to the win by 0.86 seconds.
Italy’s Stefano Oppo and Pietro Ruta won bronze.
»»» New Zealand’s Grace Pendergrast and Kerri Gowler have won gold in the rowing women’s pair.
The Kiwi duo won the world championship in 2019 and were favored to grab victory in Tokyo. They are just the third non-European team to win the Olympic event and the first since 1996.
Russia’s Vasilisia Stepanova and Elena Oriabinskaia surged past Canada’s Caileigh Filmer and Hillary Janssens over the final 300 meters to take the silver medal. Canada won bronze.
»»» Croatian brothers Martin and Valent Sinkovic have dominated the men’s pair in Olympic rowing, cruising to victory in a race they led from the start.
The Croatians were the heavy favorites. They won double sculls in 2016, then switched boat disciplines and won two world championships before claiming another Olympic gold medal. They are the first men to win Olympic gold in both double sculls and the sweep pairs.
Romania’s duo of Marius Cozmiuc and Ciprian Tudosas won silver. Denmark’s Frederic Vystavel and Joachim Sutton won bronze.
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