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Day 6 at the 2024 Paris Olympics brought history for Katie Ledecky and the U.S. women's fencing team. Thursday also provided a goodbye to a tennis great, the ascent of a future star, a show of Olympic spirit to a competitor in need, and both continued greatness and humbling disappointment for U.S. basketball players.
Simone Biles takes gold in the all-around, Suni Lee earns bronze
It was another big day for Team USA gymnastics, as Simone Biles continued her gymnastics domination with a gold medal win in the women's gymnastics all-around and teammate Sunisa Lee took bronze.
The Gymnastics GOAT continued her historic run, dominating the field on vault with a competition-high 15.766. Biles struggled slightly on bars, costing some points with a mistake during her routine, but rallied with a great routine on beam. Biles then finished off with her signature event, floor, nailing an explosive routine to win gold.
Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, who posted great scores in all four events, finished with her second-straight all-around silver medal. Lee, meanwhile, took bronze after a slow start on vault gave way to excellent scores on beam and floor and an especially strong score on bars.
Biles’s return to the top of the podium eight years after her all-around gold in Rio marks the first time a gymnast has gotten two gold medals in non-consecutive Olympics. She is also only the third gymnast to win two all-around golds, and the first since 1968.
Wearing a goat necklace, Biles received her sixth gold medal on Thursday, making her the most-decorated gymnast in U.S. Olympic history. She has the chance to compete for three more medals in the individual apparatus finals this weekend.
Katie Ledecky wins historic 13th medal on another busy swimming day
On Thursday, Katie Ledecky won her 13th Olympic medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay, becoming the most decorated female Olympic swimmer, and the most decorated American female Olympian ever. Ledecky and the other members of the relay, Claire Weinstein, Paige Madden and Erin Gemmell, earned a silver medal in the race, falling to — who else — Australia and Ariarne Titmus.
Another American, Reagan Smith, also took home silver after getting beaten by teenage Canadian phenom Summer McIntosh. Although the U.S. has struggled to take as many swimming gold medals in Paris as they'd like, Kate Douglass gave Team USA a gold-medal finish in the 200m breaststroke.
Generally speaking, the first two-thirds of the meet have fallen short of American expectations. They have produced plenty of medals — 20 in total. But most gold medal threats have fallen short of the top step of the podium. A few — like Torri Huske in the 100 free, or Nic Fink in the men’s 100 breast, or Luke Hobson in the men’s 200 free — have exceeded expectations, but their medals have been silver or bronze.
USA women’s basketball wins 57th consecutive Olympic game
The U.S. women's basketball team improved to 2–0 in Olympics group play with an 87–74 victory over Belgium on Thursday. Breanna Stewart scored 26 points (shooting 9-for-10 on free throws) with seven rebounds, followed by A'ja Wilson's 23 points, 13 rebounds and three steals to pace the U.S.
However, the bench may have been the difference in the game with Team USA outscoring Belgium's reserves, 31–11. Alyssa Thomas and Jewell Loyd each scored eight points off the bench.
Belgium gave the U.S. a tough game despite being 23.5-point underdogs, with Emma Meesseman leading Belgium with 24 points. USA faces Germany for its final game in group play. Tip-off is Saturday at 11:15 a.m. ET.
USA's futility in 3x3 basketball
The U.S. women's 3x3 basketball team won one of its two games on Thursday, falling to Australia before beating Spain. Unfortunately, that victory is the only one either the U.S. women's or men's team has won in Paris.
The men's squad lost to Lithuania, which dropped its record to 0–4. And the prospects likely won't get better with Jimmer Fredette suffering a leg injury in USA's previous game versus Poland that may have ended his Olympic games.
Team USA's futility in 3x3 basketball is one of the great mysteries of the Paris Olympics. How can a nation which dominates in traditional 5x5 play be so bad in a half-court game that resembles the sort of playground ball in which nearly every basketball player has competed? Whether it's a lack of familiarity and talent or injuries, the poor results have been surprising.
Andy Murray says goodbye as tennis field narrows
With his doubles loss to Americans Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul, legendary English tennis player Andy Murray's career has come to an official end.
Murray, a three-time Grand Slam winner who was the men’s singles world No. 1 in 2016, was set to retire after his Olympic run ended. He and his doubles partner, Daniel Evans, advanced further than expected, but eventually fell to the American duo, who move on to the semifinal.
After the loss, Murray rode off with a little bit of humor to end his career. "Never even liked tennis anyway," the 37-year-old tennis player wrote in a post on X, which has 370,000 likes and counting. (Murray also changed the bio in his X profile from "I play tennis." to "I played tennis.")
Murray's exit came on another busy day of tennis, where world No. 1 Iga Światek fell to China's Zheng Qinwen in the semifinals at Roland-Garros. Meanwhile, Paul, who was the only American remaining in the singles competition, was defeated by men's No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz — hours before Paul joined with Fritz to dispatch Murray.
Team USA Medals
Highlight of the Day
It's already been said during these Paris Games that Canada's Summer McIntosh is the future of Olympic swimming. Yet the future is already here, judging from McIntosh winning gold in the women's 200m butterfly on Thursday.
Watching the 17-year-old phenom overtake American Regan Smith and China's Zhang Yufei was a thrill.
One more thing...
Rapper and reality TV star Flavor Flav supporting the U.S. women's water polo team is one of the curiosities of the 2024 Olympics. However, he's also a part of what might be the most heartwarming story to come out of Paris.
U.S. discus thrower Veronica Fraley shared a harsh reality for many Olympic athletes. Despite competing on a world stage and being among the best in their chosen sport, many competitors don't receive nearly enough financial support. Fraley, who also competes at Vanderbilt, revealed that the compensation she gets as an NCAA athlete can't even cover her rent.
A fan brought Fraley's story to the attention of Flav and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and the two pledged to help her.
Thanks to the outreach by that fan, millions of people became aware of Fraley's story and will surely be watching when she competes in Paris next week. More importantly, several benefactors made sure that she wouldn't have to worry about her rent for at least a year.
While Fraley's story may not be the Olympic dream, it's certainly a demonstration of the Olympic spirit for people to come together for a common cause to support the world's best athletes.
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