Making her point: 100 record falls
A roundup of Saturday’s action from the Olympic Games
Streaking down the track, with only six steps to go until she reached the finish line, Elaine Thompson-Herah stuck out her left arm and started pointing at the clock.
She knew she had the win. It was only a matter of what else would come with it.
With a time of 10.61 seconds, the latest in the long string of Jamaican speed stars defended her Olympic title in the 100 meters Saturday. She broke a 33-year-old Olympic record held by none other than Florence Griffith Joyner. And, as a more-than-fitting bonus, she revisited a debate first triggered by the fastest Jamaican of all — Usain Bolt.
Yes, the gold medal and Flo Jo’s venerable record were great. But the question could not be avoided: Just as people wondered what Bolt might have given up when he hotdogged his way to the finish line in his first Olympic victory in 2008, how much faster might Thompson-Herah have gone had she run hard for 100 meters, not just 90 or 95?
“I think I could have gone faster if I wasn’t pointing and celebrating, really,” she said. “But to show you that there’s more in store. Hopefully, one day I can unleash that time.”
As it was, she finished the night as the second-fastest woman in history. Flo Jo’s world record of 10.49 still stands. As it was, she beat a two-time Olympic champion, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and joined bronze medalist Shericka Jackson in the first Jamaican podium sweep at the Olympics since 2008.
Kevin Durant scored 19 points in the Americans’ 119-84 win over the Czech Republic in their final game of group play. Durant surpassed Carmelo Anthony’s 336 career points to become the top scorer in U.S. men’s basketball history. Durant is at 354 points.
Novak Djokovic is leaving Tokyo without a singles medal. The top-ranked Serb lost 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3 to Spain’s Pablo Carreño Busta in the bronze-medal match of the tennis tournament. It was his third loss in two days.
Katie Ledecky closed out her Tokyo Olympics with another gold medal. Ledecky became the first female swimmer to capture six individual gold medals in her career with a victory in the 800-meter freestyle. Ledecky finished the Tokyo Games with two golds, two silvers and a fifthplace finish in the 200 free.