• Monday results and today’s TV schedule.
Sam Mikulak walked off the floor, turned his palms up and laughed.
Well, sorta.
The three-time Olympian’s last performance in a gymnastics team event didn’t exactly go as planned.
Looking to preserve a fourth-place finish for the U.S. during Monday night’s finals, the 28-year-old’s feet came out from under him. Any chance of holding off Great Britain vanished in the process.
Oh well. That’s gymnastics. Nobody knows that better than Mikulak, who has spent nearly a decade as the standard-bearer for a men’s program in flux. The Americans arrived at Ariake Gymnastics Center knowing they would need major mistakes by either the Chinese, the Japanese or the Russians to have a shot at the medal stand.
They didn’t happen. Yet for the first time since earning bronze at the 2014 world championships, the U.S. appears to be gaining momentum. The three Olympic rookies — Shane Wiskus, Yul Moldauer and Stanford’s Brody Malone — were solid and occasionally spectacular.
“We really have a strong future for Team USA,” said Mikulak, who is retiring after the Games. “I know these guys are going to go (up their difficulty) and then all of a sudden coming to Paris (in 2024), I know these guys are going to be cranking it out trying to get up on that medal podium. So I’m excited for what they’re all going to do with this experience to grow from.”
Malone is 21. Wiskus is
22. Moldauer is 24. Mikulak will join Malone in the all-around on Wednesday and chalk up in the parallel bars in the event finals later in the Games.
• Nikita Nagornyy nailed his floor routine with the entire gym watching, and the Russian men completed their long climb back to the top of the gymnastics world by edging Japan and China in the team final. It’s the first Olympic title for the Russians since the 1996 Atlanta
Games.
Nagornyy needed a score of 14.564 to deliver gold, and the reigning world champion came through with a 14.600.
The team representing the Russian Olympic Committee finished with 262.500 points, just good enough to hold off the sport’s other two superpowers. Japan used a brilliant high bar routine by Daiki Hashimoto in the final rotation to surge past China for second with a score of 262.397.
BEACH VOLLEYBALL Ross-Klineman defeat Spain
The American “A-Team” of April Ross and Alix Klineman have guaranteed themselves at least one more beach volleyball match at the Tokyo Olympics.
The U.S. women beat Spain 21-13, 21-16 on Tuesday morning for their second straight win. With one more game in the preliminaries left, they can do no worse than a three-way tie for first, which would be broken during a “lucky loser” matchup after the round-robin.
Ross, a three-time Olympian who has already won silver and bronze, and firsttimer Klineman will play the Dutch team of Sanne Keizer and Madelein Meppelink on Friday.
SKATEBOARDING Teenagers dominate women’s skate medals
Youth was served at the
debut of the Olympic skateboarding event for women.
Three teenagers swept the podium at the street event with 13-year-old Momiji Nishiya of Japan taking the gold medal, 13-year-old Rayssa Leal of Brazil getting silver and 16-year-old Funa Nakayama of Japan winning bronze.
Both Nishiya and Leal became their countries’ youngest ever medalists.
“Now I can convince all my friends to skateboard everywhere with me,” Leal said.
SURFING Upsets galore at the surfing competition
With just a minute left on the clock, San Clemente’s Kolohe Andino paddled into a wedgy wave and punted to the air, spinning his board around before it touched back down on the water – and slipped out from under his feet on landing.
Andino, the last male remaining on the USA Surfing team, would be out of the running for a podium finish, the end to his Olympic bid after going up against fellow Orange County surfer Kanoa Igarashi.
Igarashi, of Huntington Beach is competing for Japan, earned a 12.60 heat total (out of 20), edging out Andino’s 11.00 score a their quarterfinal heat on the third day of competition.
In the women’s game champion Carissa Moore of the U.S. and Japan’s
Amuro Tsuzuki will face off in the semifinals. The young American phenom Caroline Marks will go up against Bianca Buitendag of South Africa.
SOCCER Canadian Quinn first trans player in Games
Canadian midfielder Quinn became the first openly transgender athlete to participate in the Olympics when they started in a 1-1 draw against Japan in women’s soccer.
Quinn, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, posted their feelings on Instagram.
“I feel proud seeing ‘Quinn’ up on the lineup and on my accreditation. I feel sad knowing there were Olympians before me unable to live their truth because of this world,” they wrote. “I feel optimistic for change. Change in legislature, changes in rules, structures, and mindsets.”
MEDAL ROUNDUP English sets record in skeet shooting win
American shooter Amber English set an Olympic record to knock off reigning women’s skeet champion Diana Bacosi of Italy.
English, ranked No. 1 in the world, hit 56 of 60 targets to bounce back from just missing the U.S. Olympic team for the 2012 and 2016 Games.
• Hidilyn Diaz became the first Olympic gold medalist from the Philippines on Monday, winning the women’s 55-kilogram category to stop China’s bid for a perfect Tokyo Games in weightlifting.
• Flora Duffy has won the Olympic women’s triathlon, earning Bermuda’s first Olympic gold medal and its first medal of any kind since 1976. Katie Zaferes of the U.S. got bronze.
Cheung Ka Long won Hong Kong’s second Olympic gold medal in its history by beating defending champion Daniele Garozzo of Italy 15-11 in the men’s foil fencing final.