Alaska teen surprises with swimming gold
Alaska, of all places, has an Olympic champion at the pool.
Lydia Jacoby, 17, gave the United States a victory in the women’s 100meter breaststroke, knocking off teammate Lilly King, the defending champion, on Tuesday.
Jacoby was the first swimmer from the Arctic state ever to make the U.S. Olympic swimming team.
Now she’ll return to giddy Seward — population: 2,773 — with a gold medal, rallying to win in 1 minute, 4.95 seconds..
South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker claimed silver in 1:05.22. King gave the Americans another medal by taking the bronze in 1:05.54.
Jacoby was third at the turn but surged past King and glided past the South African on the final two strokes.
Looking at the scoreboard in disbelief, the enormity of her accomplishment finally hit when Schoenmaker reached across the lane rope for a hug.
“I was definitely racing for a medal. I knew I had it in me,“Jacoby said. “I wasn’t really expecting a gold medal, so when I looked up and saw the scoreboard, it was insane.”
⏩ Australian Kaylee McKeown won the women’s 100meter backstroke with a winning time of 57.47 seconds, just off her record this year of 57.45. Silver went to Canada’s Kylie Masse in 57.72. Former worldrecord holder Regan Smith of the United States, an incoming freshman at Stanford, took bronze in 58.05.
⏩ The American men lost a backstroke race at the Olympics for the first time since 1992. Russians swept the top two spots in the 100meter back, with Evgeny Rylov winning in 51.98 seconds and Kliment Kolesnikov second in 52.00. The defending Olympic champion, American Ryan Murphy (Cal), was third in 52.19. The U.S. had won 12 straight golds at the past six Olympics, including Murphy’s 100 and 200meter backstroke sweep in 2016 at Rio.
⏩ Britain went 12 in the men’s 200meter freestyle. Tom Dean took the gold in 1 minute, 44.22 seconds, and Duncan Scott picked up the silver in 1:44.26. The bronze went to Brazil’s Fernando Scheffer at 1:44.66.
American Kieran Smith was sixth after earning a bronze in the 400 free.
Weather: A typhoon brought wind, rain and cooler temperatures to the Games. Archery, rowing and sailing adjusted their Tuesday schedules, but no other sports made changes early Tuesday in Japan.
It’s a big change from the Games’ first three days, in which athletes sweltered in intense heat. An archery competitor collapsed from heatstroke and tennis players and skateboarders complained that the heat affected their performance.
Surfing: Brazilian men and American women led the final day of competition, which is making its Olympic debut. The arriving typhoon has been a boon for surfers, who got big waves for their final day.
In the semifinals, Kanoa Igarashi of Japan stunned Brazil’s Gabriel Medina. He faces Italo Ferreira of Brazil for the gold. Australian Owen Wright faces Medina for the bronze.
In the women’s game, champion Carissa Moore of the U.S. and Japan’s Amuro Tsuzuki will meet. American Caroline Marks went up against Bianca Buitendag of South Africa. Moore predicted Monday that Floridian Marks would be the woman to beat.
Beach volleyball: Alix Klineman (Stanford) and April Ross defeated Spain’s Elsa Baquerizo and Liliana Fernandez 2113, 2116 in Pool B.
Volleyball: The U.S. women handed defending gold medalist China its second straightset loss. The Americans won a tight first set 2927 on their fourth set point before taking the final two sets 2522 and 2521. They improved to 20.
China is still seeking to win its first set this tournament having been swept in the opener by Turkey. The Chinese went 23 in pool play in 2016 before rallying to win the gold.
Tennis: Topranked Novak Djokovic remains on course for a Golden Slam after a 64, 63 win over JanLennard Struff of Germany. The Serb already won the Australian and French Opens as well as Wimbledon this year. He now needs the Tokyo title and the U.S. Open trophy to complete the unique collection in the same year. Steffi Graf, in 1988, is the only player to win the Golden Slam. 3x3 basketball: The U.S. women are 60 through the first three days of 3on3’s debut at the Olympics. They play one more pool game Tuesday against Japan. The U.S. will be the top seed for Wednesday’s semifinal and medal games. Triathlon: Flora Duffy, 33, won the women’s event, Bermuda’s first Olympic gold medal and its first medal since 1976. She finished the swimming, cycling and running course in 1 hour, 55:36 minutes. Britain’s Georgia TaylorBrown won silver and American Katie Zaferes of Santa Cruz bronze. Weightlifting: Hidilyn Diaz, 30, became the first Olympic gold medalist from the Philippines on Monday, winning the women’s 55kilogram category to stop China’s bid for a perfect showing in weightlifting. At her fourth Games, Diaz overtook Liao Qiuyun of China on her last lift in the clean and jerk to win with a total 224 kilograms — one more than Liao.
“It’s unbelievable,” Diaz said, caressing the medal around her neck. “I expected to win, but when you hold this already, it’s like, ‘Wow, I never thought this would happen today.’ ”
The Philippines has competed at every Summer Games since 1924 — except for a boycott of the Moscow Games in 1980 — with three silver and seven bronze medals. Diaz won silver in 2016, her country’s first appearance on an Olympic podium for 20 years. Skateboard: Momiji Nishiya of Japan won the first competition for women. The 13yearold gave the host nation a sweep of golds in the street event a day after after Yuto Horigome won the men’s event. Rayssa Leal, a 13yearold from Brazil, won silver and Japan’s Funa Nakayama the bronze.
Rugby sevens: South Africa, the bronze medalist in Rio in 2016, rallied to beat the United States 1712. The Americans faced Britain in the quarterfinals later Tuesday.
Men’s basketball: Luka Doncic made a spectacular Olympic debut with 48 points, tied for the secondhighest total in men’s basketball history, to lead Slovenia to a 118100 victory over Argentina in Saitama. Slovenia didn’t even have a spot in the Olympics until this month but is a medal threat, thanks to Doncic.
Judo: Japan’s Shohei Ono won his second gold medal after an epic lightweight final against Georgia’s Lasha Shavdatuashvili. Ono, who hasn’t lost since 2015, and Shavdatuashvili went 5:26 into golden score before the champion finally threw Shavdatuashvili for a waza ari. Table tennis: Japan’s Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito ended China’s dominance in the sport by beating Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen 43 for the mixed doubles gold medal.
Taekwondo: Maksim Khramtcov won gold in the men’s 80kilogram division over Saleh ElSharabaty of Jordan 209 in the final despite what the Russian Olympic Committee said was a broken bone in his right arm or wrist.
Skeet shooting: Vincent Hancock became the first skeet shooter to win three gold medals, giving the U.S. a sweep. The 38yearold Texan, who won in 2008 and 2012, set an Olympic record with 59 of 60 overall. American Amber English set an Olympic record by hitting 56 of 60 targets to knock off reigning women’s skeet champion Diana Bacosi of Italy.
Archery: South Korea defended its Olympic men’s team title as energetic 17yearold Kim Jedeok came up clutch in the semifinals to hold off host Japan and then again in a 60 win over Chinese Taipei during the goldmedal match at Yumenoshima Park Archery Field.
The U.S. men, who had earned silver medals in each of the past two Olympics, were knocked out in the quarterfinals. On a windy day, the combination of Brady Ellison, Jack Williams and Jacob Wukie lost 51 to Japan. Of not winning a medal, Ellison said. “It would be like Simone Biles not making the cut in the allaround. I don’t know what else to say.”
Cycling: Tom Pidcock won the men’s mountainbike race, extending Britain’s dominance from road and track to dirt. Leaving Nino Schurter and his Swiss teammate Mathias Flueckiger behind on the fourth of seven laps, the 21yearold multidiscipline prodigy dominated the toughest course in Olympic history.