This is Olympic GAMES. Everyone’s favorite daily digest for all-things Olympics.
Grab bag of facts and trivia
Athlete spotlights
Medal count updates
Events to watch
Schedule for the day
The big stories from July 31:
While the triathlons were initially postponed, they finally occurred and momentously- we had Olympic swimmers in the Seine. No word yet on any E. Coli impacts.
Perris Benegas got silver for Team USA in the Cycling BMX Freestyle final.
Evy Leibfarth got bronze in the Canoe Singles final.
Maggie Steffens, Flava Flav and the rest of the US Women’s water polo team are likely celebrating after beating Italy in the group round.
USWNT soccer continues to beat their opponents in the group round with a 2-1 win over Australia.
US swimming keeps racking up medals. Torri Huske got silver in the 100M free, Katie Ledecky easily cruised to gold in the 1500m free setting the 7th best 1500M time in history and a new Olympic Record. She is now the holder of the top 20 times for the 1500M and is tied for most Olympic medals for a female US athlete (12). She also ties the record for most gold medals for a female US athlete (8).
Let’s talk about sports. Specifically, what sports get to be in the Olympics?
There are 32 sports in the Summer Olympics in Paris. If that seems smaller than expected, that’s because some events we think of during the Olympics are part of disciplines, or sub categories, of a sport. Sports are governed by an international federation and the inclusion of sports in an Olympics game can vary over time. The bolded sports below have always been part of the Summer Olympics. Of these sports, 31 are considered core sports to be at future Olympics.
Aquatics (Swimming, Marathon Swimming, Diving, Water Polo, Artistic Swimming)
Archery
Athletics
Badminton
Basketball (3x3, Basketball)
Boxing
Breaking* (will just be for Paris Olympics)
Canoe (Canoe Sprint, Canoe Slalom)
Cycling (BMX Freestyle, BMX Racing, Road Cycling, Track Cycling)
Equestrian (Equestrian Eventing, Equestrian Dressage, Equestrian Jumping)
Fencing
Football
Golf
Gymnastics (Artistic Gymnastics, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Trampoline Gymnastics)
Handball
Hockey
Judo
Modern Pentathlon
Rowing
Rugby (Rugby Sevens)
Sailing
Shooting
Skateboarding
Sport Climbing
Surfing
Table Tennis
Taekwondo
Tennis
Triathlon
Volleyball (Beach Volleyball, Volleyball)
Weightlifting
Wrestling (Greco-Roman Wrestling, Freestyle Wrestling)
In addition to the core sports above, host cities can propose up to 5 new sports be added to the games. For 2028, the following sports are being added:
Baseball/Softball (last appeared in 2020)
Cricket (only appeared in 1900)
Flag football
Lacrosse (last appeared in 1908)
Squash
Discontinued sports include:
Basque pelota (a court sport played with a racket and ball against a wall, 1900 Olympics)
Croquet (1900 Olympics)
Jeu de paume (akin to an indoor tennis from the 1908 Olympics)
Karate 🥋(2020 Olympics)
Polo (last at the 1936 Games)
Rackets (similar to squash at the 1908 Olympics)
Roque (a variant of croque at the 1904 Olympics)
Tug of War 🪢 (from 1900-1920)
Water motorboats 🚤 (1900, 1908)
Imagine not having graduated college yet and you can already add 2x Olympian, 1x Bronze medalist to your resume? That’s the position Evy Leibfarth is in. She went to the 2020 Olympics for kayak and canoe singles and this year is the first US woman to qualify for 3 white water events at a single Olympics. She placed 15th in Kayak Singles semis, got bronze in Canoe Singles, and still has Kayak Cross racing on Friday to look forward to.
As of the end of July 31st Olympic Day:
Events I find interesting, not necessarily all medal events or even medal events at all. If the event has already occurred, expect a potential reference during tonight’s prime time coverage.
Athletics: 1:30AM 20KM Men’s Race Walking 🏅
Golf: 3AM Men’s
Rowing: 4:30AM Double Sculls Women’s 🏅, 5:30AM Men’s 🏅
Gymnastics: 12:15PM Women’s AA 🏅
Tennis: 6AM Quarter and Semi-Finals
Cycling: 2PM BMX Racing
Surfing: 8PM Men’s & Women’s finals 🏅
The full schedule with event times can be found here. This gets a little complicated with time zone changes, so I’m leaving this as a full schedule and will focus on fun to watch favorites in the Events section with times listed in EDT.