August 11: PARIS 2024
The Summer Olympics are back and literally bigger than ever before!
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 August 10:
Sadly, the US women’s water polo team lost the bronze medal match to Netherlands 11-10.
Brooke Raboutou became the first US woman to medal in sport climbing when she secured silver in the Women’s boulder & lead event.
Jordan Chiles’s bronze in the floor of the women’s gymnastics events is in question because her coach filed a score inquiry 1 minute and 4 seconds after the event ended and the technical deadline is 1 minute after the event.
Nevin Harrison also secured silver for Team USA women in the Women’s Canoe Single 200M spring event.
Kyle Douglas Dake got bronze in the Men’s freestyle 74kg wrestling event.
Shelby McEwen narrowly lost a jump off in the men’s high jump to Hamish Kerr but still walked away with silver.
B-Boys made their debut and Victor for Team USA took bronze in the inaugural men’s breaking event.
The USWNT won gold in the soccer finals vs Brazil 1-0. The front three, Mallory Swanson, Sophia Smith, and Trinity Rodman, have self-dubbed themselves the triple espresso and they’re clearly the shot of energy this team needs.
Masai Russell got gold in the Women’s 100M Hurdles. The US women stayed golden with an easy win, and American record, in the 4x400m race. The men also took the gold in the 4x400m race, but it was a nail biter! Last but not least, Grant Fisher took bronze in the 5KM men’s race.
USA men’s basketball shut down the home team and beat France 98-87 to win gold!
Today is the last day of the Paris Olympics. What’s happening? There are a few events wrapping up with 13 gold medals left to award, with women’s basketball being the final event. Then, there’s the Closing Ceremony. Closing Ceremonies are much less exciting than the Opening Ceremonies, but they are still an opportunity for nations to parade with flagbearers, France to show off, and stuff to do with the Olympic Cauldron. In this case, the Cauldron will be extinguished and the official Olympic flag will be handed over to LA, the next host. The artistic director for the Paris Closing Ceremony is the same as the Opening Ceremony, so we likely can expect a spectacle. There will be acrobats, dancers, performers, and “world-renowned singers” like H.E.R. who will be performing the US national anthem.
What to expect from this newsletter going forward?
Full medal recap and analysis of winners
Paralympic Games! I won’t be able to maintain the daily updates, but I don’t want to pass up highlighting Team USA’s impressive Paralympians! The Paralympics take place August 28th - September 8th.
…And then a bit of a hibernation until we get to the various Olympic Trials and news before the 2026 Milan/Cortina Winter Games!
The very last athletes representing Team USA to compete for the USBWNT. They have not lost an Olympic game since 1992. In 11 Olympic Games, they’ve won 9 golds, 1 silver, 1 bronze. They’re led by Diana Taurasi who first joined the team in 2004 and has seen legends like Sue Bird leave and new players like Breanna Stewart and A’ja Wilson join the team. Taurasi has played the most games of any athlete, male or female, representing USA basketball. She has already won 5 gold medals. If she wins against France, she will tie Isabell Werth in equestrian team dressage and Aladar Gerevich in team Sabre fencing for six or more gold medals in the same event.
As of the end of August 10th 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.
Water Polo: 3:35AM Men’s Bronze USA vs Hungary 🏅
Wrestling: After 4AM Men’s Freestyle 97kg bronze match 🏅, women’s freestyle 76kg finals 🏅
Volleyball: 6AM Women’s Gold USA vs Italy 🏅
Basketball: 8:30AM Women’s Gold USA vs France 🏅
Closing Ceremony: 2PM
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 CDT.