U.S. women strike gold with dominating performances at Paris Olympics

U.S. swimming star Katie Ledecky made a splash in her first finals of the Paris Olympics. The 27-year-old finished the 1500 meter freestyle nearly half a pool length ahead of her competitors. It comes as the U.S. women’s gymnastics team celebrates their historic gold and prepares for individual events. Geoff Bennett discussed more with Christine Brennan of USA Today.

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Geoff Bennett: At the Paris Olympics, swimming star Katie Ledecky cruised to gold in the 1,500-meter race today. The 27-year-old American finished nearly half-a-pool-length ahead of her competitors.

As Ledecky dominated the pool, others swam in the Seine. Triathletes took their first plunge into the river following days of concerns about water quality. Meantime, Coco Gauff’s Olympics were cut short. The Team USA flag-bearer lost two doubles matches today. Overall, though, the U.S. remains on top of the total medal count, with 30 overall. France and China are second and third.

It all comes as the U.S. gymnastics team celebrate their historic performances yesterday and get ready for their individual finals still to come.

For more, I spoke earlier with USA Today’s Christine Brennan.

Christine Brennan, welcome back to the “News Hour.”

Christine Brennan, USA Today: It’s great to be with you, Geoff. Thank you.

Geoff Bennett: So let’s start with the U.S. women’s gymnastics team, because they have named themselves the Golden Girls. This is the oldest U.S. women’s team since 1952, and they’re still winning gold. They finished nearly six points ahead of the silver medal winners, Italy, with Brazil grabbing the bronze.

What does that say about the changing nature of the sport and its athletes?

Christine Brennan: Geoff, this has been a national conversation, a cultural conversation in the U.S. about how we look at young women, body image, the issue of eating disorders, anorexia.

These are conversations that we have had at the very top elite level of sport, but we have also had those conversations in our kitchens with our daughters and nieces and granddaughters and just having much more awareness, frankly, of those issues over the last, say, 10 or 15 years.

And look at the result, a team that America cares and the world cares so much about, led by the great Simone Biles, the gymnastics team. We were so used to seeing them look so thin. We’d hear about the injuries, the horrors, of course, of the — Larry Nassar, the sexual assault scandal, the worst sex abuse scandal in sports history, including Simone Biles, a survivor in that from those horrors.

We have dealt with all of this, and look at the result now. You have got these women, as you said, the Golden Girls, perfect name for them, in their 20s. Simone Biles is 27. This is an age that would never have been on the radar screen 20 years ago in gymnastics. And yet here we are now.

So not only are they the greatest in the world athletically, but they truly are a symbol of what we have been discussing as a nation in terms of how we look at women and young girls.

Geoff Bennett: The men’s gymnastics team also made history this past week in a different way. That team earned bronze, making it the first time in 16 years the U.S. men’s team finished on the podium in Olympic competition.

You have also got Stephen Nedoroscik, the — America’s pommel horse hero. How big a moment is this for the men’s gymnastics team?

Christine Brennan: Oh, it’s fantastic and it’s terrific.

And Nedoroscik, my goodness, the Clark Kent, right, with his glasses on, the memes and the photos that have gone viral of him waiting for his moment, picked just for the one event, the pommel horse. He goes out there and he nails it and he then, of course, ensures the bronze medal for the U.S. men, extraordinary moment.

And these are the moments, Geoff, that really, I think, attract people to the Olympic Games even after the competition, after someone has finished competing. So here he is now. He has entered everyone’s home or on our devices on social media. You have seen him. You know him. You want to find out a little bit more about him.

And he’s the one that is going through and doing the Rubik’s Cube in, like, 15, 20 seconds. And he’s online now showing those videos. So I love that for him and the entire team, so deserving of the accolades after all of these years where the men have just been completely out of the headlines.

Geoff Bennett: We’re also paying close attention to American swimmer Katie Ledecky, who continues to make waves. She almost lapped her competition in the 1,500-meter race.

Talk to us about her goal of becoming the swimmer with the most medals.

Christine Brennan: Katie Ledecky is already seen as the greatest female swimmer ever. And only Michael Phelps, in terms of just dominance and being decorated with so many medals, only Michael Phelps is bigger than that.

The longer she swims, the better it is for her. And the 1,500 is the longest. And she has just once again shown that she is just the greatest in the endurance races, the 1,500. The 800 comes later in the week. And it’s just a delight to watch her, of course, and not only is a great role model, but, again, such a great swimmer.

There are seven other swimmers, and you don’t see any of them because Katie’s so far ahead of everyone else.

Geoff Bennett: And, Christine, let’s talk about the U.S. women’s rugby team, which dramatically grabbed the bronze medal. What should we know about that team and their monumental win?

Christine Brennan: You know, this is fun. This is what the Olympics really is all about. I mean, I’m over here and I’m not covering rugby, but I have had so many friends and family say, what about the rugby team?

And their incredible victory to — over Australia to — at the very last seconds — if people haven’t seen it, go and watch it, a 90-yard run in the very last seconds for the United States to snatch the bronze medal away from Australia and win it themselves.

And this is a team that has been all over social media. And what’s really fun about that, and I think it’s informative and in many ways kind of groundbreaking, is that 15, 20 years ago, whatever, we didn’t have social media, that, when the Olympics ended, most of these athletes went away.

Well, now with social media, and these women are rock stars, and they have got, in some cases, just hundreds of thousands of followers, and their story now can continue, and their brand — they can sell their brand themselves, and they can continue to be a part of American consciousness.

We know that the Olympic Games is very much alluring to those of us who you don’t see these sports very often. And so once every four years, you tune in, and you’re enchanted and delighted.

Geoff Bennett: Sportswriter and columnist for USA Today Christine Brennan.

Christine, thanks so much.

Christine Brennan: Thank you, Geoff.

Geoff Bennett: And we have more coverage of the Olympics online, including a look at Team Palestine that’s competing in the Games. That’s on our Instagram page.