Well the Tokyo games are complete! What a medal run for the USA, 113 total medals!. The USA has won more gold than China 39-38 after trailing China in golds won for most of these games. China finished with 88 total medals. Japan surprised by winning 27 gold medals and 58 medals. ROC did as well with 71 total medals but only 20 gold medals. Great Britain did well in the medal count as well with 22 gold and 65 total medals. The USA went on a medal run in the last 5 days of the games by winning men's and women's basketball golds, women's beach volleyball gold, women's indoor volleyball gold and several wrestling and boxing medals. I will be recapping the sports in the next few paragraphs.
USA swimming won 30 medals total with 11 gold, 10 silver and 9 bronze. Pretty good medal numbers but the medals were won by a great handful of USA athletes. USA swim stars Caeleb Dressel won 5 golds and Katie Ledecky won 2 gold medals and 2 silver medals and 4 medals total. Robert Finke won 2 golds in the long distance swim events. Zach Apple and Blake Pieroni each won 2 golds in the relays. Ryan Murphy won 1 gold in the relays and 1 silver and 1 bronze in the backstroke for a total of 3 medals. Lilly King won 3 total medals, 2 medals in the breaststroke, 1 silver and 1 bronze and a silver in the relays. Regan Smith did well, winning 3 total medals as well. 1 silver medal in the butterfly, 1 silver medal in the relays and 1 bronze medal in the backstroke. USA teenage swim star Lydia Jacoby won 1 gold in the breaststroke and a silver in the relays. Watching these swim races and having some of our swim stars coming up with silver and bronze instead of gold was a bit difficult to watch but the USA did win medals in these events. even if they weren't gold. Decent swim medal haul for the USA.
USA gymnastics did well, just not as well as 2012 and 2016, winning 6 total medals.The USA women's gymnastics team won a silver medal in the team competition behind the ROC (Russian Olympic Committee who won gold.. That is a good performance without the GOAT Simone Biles. USA gymnasts Grace McCallum, Sunisa Lee and Jordan Chiles did very well without Biles. In the first rotation, the USA was on vault. Biles competed on her vault, only completing 1 1/2 twists instead of the 2 1/2 rwists she was supposed to do and landed awkwardly. The vault scored a 13.766. Biles has scored over 15 on vaults before. After the vault Biles was seen talking to her coach and then walking away from her team mates. I thought she had a physical injury. I learned on Twitter that Biles withdrew from the team competition due to her mental health. I was watching on Peacock TV. Peacock's John Roethisberger first said he was unaware of the reason why Biles withdrew from the team competition. It turns out that Biles had the "twisties". This is where a gymnast loses their place in the air. It sure looked like Biles lost her place in the air on the vault landing. Biles also withdrew from the all around competition and the vault and uneven bars apparatus finals. Biles did win a bronze medal on the balance beam to tie Shannon Miller at 7 gymnastics medals for the most by a USA gymnast all time. The competition was highlighted by Sunisa Lee winning gold in the all around competition. Lee also won bronze on the uneven bars apparatus finals and a silver in the team final for a total of 3 medals. Jade Carey won gold on floor exercise. MyKayla Skinner who replaced Simone Biles on the vault apparatus finals won silver. The USA men's gymnastics team finished 5th in the team finals for the third straight Olympics and Jordan Malone finished 10th in the all around and Sam Mikulak finished 12th for Team USA.
USA diving faired well but China's divers were dominant. The USA diving team won 3 medals total. The USA 3M springboard synchro team of Michael Hixon/Andrew Capobianco won silver. Also 10M platform synchro divers Jessica Parratto/Delaney Schnell also won a silver medal. Krysta Palmer won bronze on 3M springboard. China's divers entered the water with no splash. Their scores were in the 9 to 10 range.
The USA women's volleyball team was dominant from start to finish and won a gold medal. The USA went 4-1 in pool play, beating Argentina, 3-0, China, 3-0, Turkey 3-2, lost to ROC 3-0 when USA volleyball star Jordan Thompson injured her ankle and was not able to return to the match or compete in any other matches during the Olympics. Annie Drews filled in for Jordan Thompson beautifully. The USA then beat Italy 3-2 where Jordyn Poulter also suffered a less severe ankle injury but returned in future matches. On their way to the gold medal match, the USA beat the Dominican Republic 3-0 in the quarterfinals, beat Serbia in the semifinals 3-0 and in the gold medal match beat Brazil 3-0 for their first ever gold medal in women's volleyball. Jordan Larson was spectacular for the USA. The USA men's volleyball team had a disappointing finish going 2-3 in pool play to not advance to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2004. The USA men's team beat a good team from France 3-0, then lost to the ROC 3-1, beat Tunisia 3-1, then lost to Brazil 3-1 and finished off pool play by losing to Argentina 3-0.
The USA beach volleyball team of Alix Klineman/April Ross won a gold medal! Incredible play from the first match until the end with the toughest match being against Keizer/Mepplelink of Switerland, which they won 2-1. Klineman/Ross started out their first match against Xue/Wang of China and won 2-0, then defeated Liliana/Elsa of Spain 2-0, then beat Switzerland 2-1, then beat Lidy/Leila of Cuba 2-0 in the round of 16, beat Ludwig/Kozuch of Germany 2-0 in the quarterfinals, then defeated Verge-Depre/Heidrich of Switzerland 2-0 and then beat Australia's Artacho/Clancy in the gold medal match 2-0.
The second women's beach volleyball team of Kelly Claes/Sarah Sponcil was eliminated in the round of 16 by losing to Canada's Wilkerson/Bansley 2-1 after going 3-0 in pool play. Both of the USA men's beach volleyball teams - Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena and Jake Gibb/Tri Bourne were eliminated in the round of 16. Dalhausser/Lucena won a great match against Alison/Alvaro of Brazil 2-1, winning the first set 24-22, losing the second set 19-21 then in a thriller, winning the 3rd set 15-13. Dalhausser/Lucena finished pool play 2-1 but lost to Cherif/Ahmed of Qatar 2-1 in the round of 16. Jake Gibb qualified for the Tokyo games with partner Taylor Crabb. Crabb tested positive for COVID before the games started and Tri Bourne came in to take Crabb's place. Gibb/Bourne finished pool play 2-1 but lost in the round of 16 to Germany's Thole/Wicker 2-1.
The USA women's soccer team redeemed itself from 2016 but did not reach the gold medal match for the second straight Olympics. The USA women's soccer team won a bronze medal. Canada beat Sweden to win gold on penalty kicks. Some of the matches were on at 4 am and some were on at 7 am. I had to tape 2 matches. The USA suffered a humbling loss to Sweden 3-0. The USA was out hustled and outplayed. The USA women's soccer team regrouped against New Zealand winning 6-1 as Rose Lavelle, Lindsey Horan, Christen Press and Alex Morgan scored goals. The next match was a 0-0 draw against Australia but that draw qualified the USA for the knockout round. The next match was so exciting to watch, it had me on pins and needles. After a 2-2 draw in regular time and two 15 minute extra scoreless periods the match went to penalty kicks. USA goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher was the star, saving the first and last penalty kicks to advance the USA to the semifinals. Lavelle scored the first penalty kick after a Naeher save to make it 1-0 USA, then the Netherlands next two penalty kicks were good and the USA led 3-2 after successful penalty kicks by Morgan and Press. After the last Naeher save, Megan Rapinoe scored the last penalty kick goal to give the USA a 4-2 penalty kick win for the right to play Canada in the semifinals. The Canada match was depressing to watch. Canada dominated the match and won 1-0. The USA was forced play in the bronze medal match against Australia. This match was more exciting as the USA won 4-3. Megan Rapinoe put the USA up 1-0 before Canada evened it at 1 goal each, then Rapinoe scored another goal to make it 2-1, then at the end of the first half Carli Lloyd scored a goal to make it 3-1 at halftime. Early in the second half Lloyd scored again to give the USA a 4-1 lead. Australia scored the next 2 goals to make it 4-3 and secure the bronze medal for the USA.
The USA track and field team won 26 medals at Tokyo 2020, winning 7 gold, 12 silver and 7 bronze. There were so many memorable moments and some disappointing ones as well. USA women's 400 hurdler Sydney McLaughlin was a star, winning gold in the 400 hurdles in world record time of 51.46 seconds while another USA women's hurdler Dalilah Muhammad won silver in 51.58 seconds beating her own world record of 52.16 seconds. McLaughlin and Muhammad each won gold in the women's 4 by 400 relay to finish with 2 medals each. Another great race was the men''s 400 hurdle race between Norway's Karsten Warholm and the USA's Rai Benjamin. Warholm shattered his own world record by almost an entire second, from 46.70 seconds to 45.94 seconds beating Rai Benjamin by 2 tenths of a second. Benjamin won silver in beating Warholm's old world record in 46.17 seconds. Warholm got out to a lead, Benjamin closed on Warholm and in the final hurdle pulled slighly ahead of Benjamin to win. An Amazing race. Benjamin won gold in the men's 4 by 400 relay to finish with 2 total medals. Both men's and women's 400 hurdle races were the highlight of this track and field competition for me. Another memorable moment was watching USA shot putter's Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs go head to head. Two of the best shot putters of all time. Crouser won gold with a throw of over 76 feet (an Olympic record) and Kovacs best throw was over 74 feet! Another great moment was watching track legend Allyson Felix win bronze in the women's 400 in 49.46 seconds with the gold won by Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas. Felix won another gold in the women's 4 by 400 relay to pass Carl Lewis as the most decorated USA track and field medalist of all time with 11 total medals. Amazing athlete! A new women's 800 star has been born. Athing Mu of the USA won gold in the women's 800 meters and won another gold in the women's 4 by 400 relay to total 2 gold medals. American Raevyn Rogers wins bronze in the 800 for a multi medal race for the USA. Katie Nageotte of the USA winning gold in the pole vault competition was something great to watch as she vaulted over 16 feet! Another great moment was watching Armond Duplantis of Sweden win gold over Chris Nilsen of the USA in the men's pole vault. Nilsen won silver. There were several multi medalists in track and field for the USA. Kendall Ellis, Lynna Irby, Vernon Norwood, Bryce Deadmon and Trevor Stewart each won 2 medals in the mixed 4 by 400 relay and or men's/women's 4 by 400 relays. The USA won bronze in the first mixed gender relay at the Olympics. The women's sprints were dominated by Jamaica. Jamaica swept the podium in the women's 100 with Jamaica's Elaine Thompson Herah winning gold in 10.61 seconds in the second fastest 100 time ever. Thompson Herah won gold in the women's 200 in the second fastest time ever of 21.53 seconds. Jamaica won gold in the women's 4 by 100 relay as well. Gabby Thomas of the USA won bronze in 21.87 seconds. On the men's side, American Fred Kerley surprised in the men's 100 final winning silver in 9.84 seconds but the winner of the men's 100 in the absence of track legend Usain Bolt is Italy's Marcell Jacobs winning gold in 9.80 seconds. Americans Kenny Bednarek/Noah Lyles went 2-3 ( silver-bronze)in the men's 200 while Canada's Andre de Grasse won gold. Keni Harrison had her Olympic dreams fulfilled winning silver in the women's 100 hurdles. Harrison was beaten by Jasmine Camacho Quinn of Puerto Rico by 15 hundredths of a second. Harrison did not qualify for the 2016 Rio games.Also 2 more great moments was American Paul Chelimo winning bronze in the men's 5000 and American Molly Seidel winning bronze in the women's marathon.
Some disappointing track and field moments were Americans not winning any medals in the men's 400, Clayton Murphy finishing last in the men's 800, American Matthew Centrowitz not making the final of the men's 1500 and American Sandi Morris's pole breaking in the women's pole vault competition causing her to be injured and not qualify for the finals. It was a bit disappointing to see Grant Holloway lose to Hansle Parchment of Jamaica in the men's 110 hurdles. Holloway won a silver medal but was the gold medal favorite. The biggest disappointment for me in the track and field competition was the failure of the USA men's 4 by 100 relay team finishing 6th in the heats after bobbling a hand off. The USA lost out on 5th place in the heat to Ghana by .02 of a second and did not make the finals. American track legend Carl Lewis tweeted his displeasure of the men's 4 by 100 relay team.
The USA men's basketball team won the gold medal after a shaky start. The USA started out by losing to France 83-76, then defeated Iran 120-66 and the Czech Republic 119-84 to finish pool play 2-1. The Americans beat Spain 95-81 in the quarterfinals, beat Australia 97-78 in the semifinals and then again played but this time beat France 87-82 to win the gold medal! The USA men's team found their 3 point shot and Kevin Durant and Damian Lillard led team USA to the gold!
The USA women's team also won a gold medal and after a few slow first quarters won games in the second half. The USA started by beating Nigeria 81-72 but was losing 25-22 in the first quarter. The USA next beat Japan 86-69 but also was losing after the first quarter 30-28. The USA beat France next 93-82 but again was losing 22-19 after the first quarter to finish 3-0 in pool play. In the quarterfinals the USA beat Australia 79-55 in a dominant win, followed up with a 79-59 complete game win against Serbia in the semifinals and won the gold medal by beating Japan again 90-75. Sue Bird, Brittney Griner and A'ja Wilson were the stars for team USA.
Also big surprises for the USA was winning 9 freestyle wrestling medals. For the men, David Taylor and Gable Steveson won gold, Kyle Snyder won silver, Kyle Dake won bronze and Thomas Gilman won bronze for a total of 5 medals. The USA women's freestyle wrestlers won 4 medals. Tamyra Mensah Stock won gold, Adeline Gray won silver, Helen Maroulis and Sarah Hildebrandt each won silver.
The biggest controversy of these games was Simone Biles withdrawing from the team final gymnastics competition, all around and apparatus finals except for balance beam. For several minutes no one knew why Biles wasn't competing. Then when it was determined that Biles wasn't physically injured the social media war ensued. People were calling Biles a quitter, but most Americans rallied to Biles side, including myself and put mental health at the forefront of athletes well being going forward. A second controversy is a German coach named Kim Raisner was thrown out of the Olympics for punching a horse that wouldn't perform a jump in the modern pentathlon and faced heavy criticism for doing so. A newly developing controversy is that Great Britain's 4 by 100 silver medal winning relay team may be disqualified and stripped of their medals because British sprinter CJ Ujah has tested positive for illegal substances and is provisionally suspended.
As far as predictions go, I came very close on the total medals won by the USA. The USA won 113 total medals and I had predicted 111 total medals for the USA. I was 4 gold medals off 39 actual vs 43 gold predicted. I was exactly correct on China's gold medal total of 38! I overestimated China's total medals by 4, 92 predicted vs. 88 total. The ROC exceeded my total medal predictions by 17 medals.. 71 actual vs, 54 predicted. Same goes for Great Britain, I underestimated the total medal count by 20 medals. 65 actual vs. 45 predicted. I was 4 total medals off on Australia's total medal count, 46 actual vs. 42 predicted. I was off by 8 medals in Japan's total medal count, 66 predicted vs 58 actual.
I was correct on predicting gold for USA women's basketball, USA beach volleyball team of Klineman/Ross winning gold, USA women's water polo team winning gold, and USA women's indoor volleyball team winning gold. I was correct on Joe Kovacs winning silver in shot put, and Ryan Crouser gold in shot put, Simone Biles winning bronze on balance beam, Allyson Felix winning bronze in women's 400 with Shaunae Miller-Uibo winning gold. I was correct in predicting Karsten Warholm winning gold in men's 400 hurdles and Rai Benjamin winning silver in men's 400 hurdles. I was correct in predicting that Sydney McLaughlin would win gold in the women's 400 hurdles and I was correct in predicting that Dalilah Muhammad would win silver in the women's 400 hurdles. I was correct in predicting that Krysta Palmer would win bronze in women's 3M springboard. I was correct in predicting Caeleb Dressel winning 5 medals(3 individual gold, 2 relay gold). I was correct in predicting that Katie Ledecky would win gold medals in the women's 800 freestyle and women's 1500 freestyle. I was correct in predicting that USA swimmers Ryan Murphy, Michael Andrew, Hali Flickinger, Allison Schmitt, Chase Kalisz, Olivia Smoliga, Abbey Weitzeil, Annie Lazor, Regan Smith, Sinone Manuel and Kieran Smith would win a medal. All did! Lastly, I was correct in predicting that USA women freestyle wrestlers Helen Maroulis and Adeline Gray would medal!
I was not correct in predicting a gold medal for USA basketball, I predicted a silver medal because of how the USA men's team struggled against Nigeria in Las Vegas and several other teams played before the Olympics in pre-Olympics exhibitions. I was not correct on predictions for USA winning 33 medals each in swimming and in track and field. The USA won 30 swimming medals and 26 track and field medals. I was not correct on USA women's gymnastics winning a team gold medal, they won silver. I was not correct in predicting nearly all of Simone Biles results including gold in all around. Sunisa Lee winning silver in all around and all event apparatus finals. I was not correct in predicting the USA men's team winning a bronze medal- they finished 5th. I was not correct in predicting that Brody Malone would win bronze in men's gymnastics all around competition- Malone finished 10th I was not correct on Athing Mu winning bronze in women's 800, Athing Mu won gold. I was not correct on Gabby Thomas winning gold in the women's 200, Gabby won bronze. I was not correct in predicting Noah Lyles would win silver in men's 200, Lyles won bronze. I was not correct in predicting Erriyon Knighton winning gold in men's 200 - Knighton finished 4th. I was not correct in predicting Ronnie Baker would win silver in the men's 100- Baker finished 5th. I was not correct in predicting that Emma Coburn would win bronze in the women's 3000 steeplechase. She fell and eventually was disqualified. I was not correct in predicting Trayvon Bromell winning gold in the men's 100. Bromell did not qualify for the final. I was not correct in predicting that Matthew Centrowitz would win bronze in the men's 1500- he did not advance to the final. I was not correct in predicting that Sam Kendricks would win silver in the men's pole vault. Kendricks tested positive for COVID and withdrew from the games and American Chris Nilsen won silver in the men's pole vault. I was not correct in predicting that Keni Harrison would win gold in the women's 100 hurdles- Harrison won silver. I was not correct in predicting that Grant Holloway would win gold in the men's 110 hurdles- Holloway won silver. I was not correct in predicting that Michael Norman would win silver in the men's 400- Norman finished 5th. I was not correct in predicting that Andrew Capobianco/Michael Hixon would win bronze in men's 3M springboard synchro- Capobianco/Hixon won silver. I was not correct in predicting that Krysta Palmer/Alison Gibson would win bronze in women's 3M springboard synchro- Palmer/Gibson finished 8th. I was not correct in predicting that Tyler Downs would win silver in men's 3M springboard. Downs did not advance to the finals. I was not correct in predicting that Katie Ledecky would win gold in the women's 400 freestyle- Ledecky won silver. I was not correct in predicting that Katie Ledecky would win gold in the women's 200 freestyle. Ledecky finished 5th. I was not correct in predicting that Lilly King would win gold in the women's 200 breaststroke, King won silver. I was not correct in predicting Townley Haas would win a swimming medal.
NBC showed the opening ceremony live at 6:55 am on July 23 with fewer commercials than the replay on prime time TV at 8 pm. I watched the morning live version. For the closing ceremony it was streamed on NBC Olympics but not shown live on NBC. It was shown from 8 pm eastern time to 10:30 pm eastern time and was a bit edited. During the Olympics coverage, commercials were excessive with two boxes in prime time with play by play on the left box and along with the commercials on the right box. NBC still has the habit of cutting off several beach volleyball/indoor volleyball points with commercials that last too long. When NBC came back to live action the beach teams would be in a timeout. NBC couldn't take another commercial break because they already took one. Also 10 second cut ins by Toyota were common right in the middle of play. Also the biggest complaint I have is NBC showing 2 sets of a 3 set volleyball match the next day. NBC would pick up coverage at 16-12 in the first set. Another complaint is charging viewers 4.99 to watch USA men's basketball games on premium Peacock TV. I passed on watching several USA men's basketball games on Peacock TV. On the upside, USA women's soccer matches and USA women's basketball games would be shown with limited commercial interruption on NBC networks.
NBC's coverage of these games was good but a bit confusing and had me trying to keep up with the 8 sports I follow year round. NBC would show beach volleyball matches at 8pm eastern time, indoor volleyball matches on NBCSN or CNBC and live track and field on NBC at the same time, causing me to tape the live track and beach volleyball matches while watching NBC, then finding time the next day to try and watch through DVR or watch partial coverage on NBC the next day. The strategy for the second week differed from the first week. I would DVR NBC's prime time coverage with some beach volleyball, gymnastics apparatus finals and taped semifinals and finals of track and field events that happened 12 hours ago(shown in the morning Eastern Time on Peacock) to save. Soccer matches would start at 4 am or 7 am eastern time and would tape them to watch later. I would wake up at 6:45 am eastern time on 3 occasions to watch the USA women's gymnastics team final on Peacock TV, USA men's 100 meter dash and men's 200 final. There were beach volleyball matches at 9 am eastern time and track sprint finals between 8:45 am and 9 am eastern time, I had a hard time watching volleyball matches that started at 10 pm eastern time and some were shown live, some taped the next day. I could catch up during the days between noon and 5pm when it was nighttime in Tokyo. Another thing to get used to was watching live track on USA network with Bill Spaulding, Michelle Carter and Tim Hutchings and at the same time try to watch the track events I didn't see in the morning with Ato Boldon, Kara Goucher, Sanya Richards Ross, Trey Hardee and Leigh Diffey. All did a great job covering track and field. I watched live diving events on between 2 am eastern time and 3:30 am eastern time with Ted Robinson and Cynthia Potter. Both are great and so knowledgeable covering diving. The swimming team of Dan Hicks and Rowdy Gaines are top notch and so is NBC's new gymnastics play by play announcer Terry Gannon. Nastia Luikin and Tim Daggett always provide top notch coverage of gymnastics. All of the NBC studio hosts did a great job as well, Rebecca Lowe, Kathryn Tappen, Maria Taylor and Mike Tirico all did a great job hosting the Olympics. Just 6 months until Beijing 2022 and 3 years until Paris 2024.
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