Northern lights: Alaska teen shocks for gold
Alaska, of all places, has an Olympic champion at the pool.
Seventeen-year-old Lydia Jacoby gave the United States a victory in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke, knocking off teammate and defending champion Lilly King on Tuesday.
Jacoby was the first swimmer from the Arctic state ever to make the U.S. Olympic swimming team.
Now, she’s heading back to giddy Anchorage with a gold medal, rallying to win in 1 minute, 4.95 seconds.
South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker claimed the silver in 1:05.22, while King gave the Americans another medal by taking the bronze in 1:05.54.
Jacoby’s stunning win salvaged what had been a disappointing morning for the American team. The U.S. had only managed a pair of bronze medals before the high schooler came through.
On the men’s side, the U.S. team lost a backstroke race at the Olympics for the first time since 1992.
Russia swept the top two spots in the 100-meter back Tuesday, with Evgeny Rylov claiming the gold medal in 51.98 and teammate Kliment Kolesnikov taking the silver in 52.00.
Defending Olympic champion Ryan Murphy settled for the bronze in 52.19.
It was the first backstroke defeat for the U.S. men at the Olympics since the Barcelona Games. They won 12 straight golds at the last six Olympics, including Murphy’s sweep of the 100 and 200 back at the 2016 Rio
Surfing
Olympics.
TROUBLE WITH COVID >> An aggrieved Olympic surfing alternate forced into a futile race against time to catch a wave in Japan is slamming a competitor’s officials as “selfish” for not being transparent about his rival’s positive COVID-19 test that cost him a shot at the sport’s historic Summer Games debut.
Angelo Bonomelli, 30, is the frustrated Italian surfer who, by a hair, missed out on the sport’s Olympic debut because Portugal’s Frederico Morais, 29, waited until the last minute to disclose his reported infection — despite the long list of coronavirus rules, restrictions and realities set for the Tokyo Olympics.
That meant it became impossible for Bonomelli or the next eligible alternate, Carlos Munoz of Costa Rica, to make it to Tokyo on time, which ultimately left a startling hole in the surf zone Sunday, the first day of the men’s inaugural Olympic surfing competition. FAVORITES FALLING >> Asa brewing storm stirred up the waves Monday during day two of surfing’s historic Olympic debut, there was a collapse of the favorites with some of the sport’s biggest stars failing.
The second day of competition at Tsurigasaki beach, about 60 miles east of Tokyo, began with a stunning upset in the first heat in the women’s contest. Venerated Australian Stephanie Gilmore was eliminated by the 17th-ranked Bianca Buitendag of South Africa.
Gilmore, 33, is the most decorated surfer competing at these Games, and she had won the first day of Olympic competition with the highest ride and heat score.
The 27-year-old Buitendag said she initially had a “heart attack” when she saw what she was up against: the world’s greatest female surfer with seven world championship titles.
Gymnastics
VERSATILE GANNON ADAPTS >> Terry Gannon has become the voice of some of the most-watched sports at the Olympics.
Gannon has called figure skating at two Winter Games and is doing gymnastics at a Summer Games for the first time this year after Al Trautwig had called the past five. Gannon has been calling gymnastics since 2018, when he was paired with 1984 gold medalist Tim Daggett and 2008 all-around champion Nastia Liukin.
“When this comes around, you feel the pressure and excitement when you sit down to call the action,” Gannon said. “I just feel lucky to have gotten to this point through many years of calling so many different sports and to be calling at this level is an honor.”
The Tokyo Olympics are Gannon’s third Summer Games for NBC. He called rowing and canoeing in London in 2012 before switching to golf when it made its Olympic debut at Rio in 2016.
Triathlon
GOLD FOR BERMUDA >> Bermuda has been sending athletes to the Olympics since 1936. The Atlantic island’s highest honor was a bronze medal won 45 years ago.
Flora Duffy changed that in just under two hours, swimming, cycling and running through the wind and rain around Tokyo Bay to win the Olympic women’s triathlon for Bermuda’s first gold medal.