U.S. fails to earn medal on opening day
Athletes ‘a little shocked’ after series of mistakes
“I’m a little shocked, to be honest. I completely expected us to win a medal today.”
Brady Ellison
A three-time Olympic medalist in archery who is ranked No. 1 in the world after he and Mackenzie Brown were stunned 5-4 by Indonesia in the first round of the mixed event
TOKYO — Nothing about the Tokyo Olympics is going to go according to plan.
Not for the athletes who came here expecting to compete, only to be sidelined by COVID-19. Not for events that will surely be scrambled, as beach volleyball was Saturday when the very first match had to be canceled because of a positive COVID-19 test.
Not even for Team USA, normally a medal-winning machine from the moment the Games begin.
For the first time since the Munich Olympics in 1972 – so long ago some of the current Olympians' parents weren't even born yet – the Americans were shut out of the medals on the opening day of competition. That's right. No golds, silvers or bronzes.
Just a whole lot of oopses and upsets. “I'm a little shocked, to be honest,” Brady Ellison, a three-time Olympic medalist in archery who is ranked No. 1 in the world, said after he and Mackenzie Brown were stunned 5-4 by Indonesia in the first round of the mixed event.
“I completely expected us to win a medal today.”
A sentiment shared by plenty of Americans.
The United States brings the biggest team to the Summer Olympics, and usually leaves with the most medals. U.S. fencers, weightlifters and shooters all began the first day of competition expecting to end the day with shiny prizes, maybe even a couple of them gold.
Yet as the day went on, the U.S. performance grew more and more grim.
No fencers got beyond the round of 16 in men's sabre or women's epee. Mary Tucker was sixth in the 10m air rifle. Judges ruled no lift on weightlifter Jourdan Delacruz on her third snatch, and then she failed to convert any of her clean jerks.
“Definitely already looking forward to the future now,” Delacruz said. “Live and learn.”
Brandon Mcnulty looked as if he might end the first-day oh-fer streak, leading the men's road race with about 20 kilometers to go. But he ran out of gas and got caught with less than 5K to go, winding up sixth.
It is early – the Games haven't even been open a full 24 hours, and there are still 15 days of competition left – and the Americans are still likely to leave Tokyo laden with heavy medals.
The women's water polo team began its quest for a third consecutive gold by hammering Japan 25-4, and the softball team won its third game. The Americans will have more chances Sunday in archery, fencing, shooting and weightlifting, as well as skateboarding and judo.
All that, and Simone Biles hasn't even started doing her thing yet.
“We're human, and we get nervous just like everyone else,” water polo coach Adam Krikorian said, referring to the U.S. women being tied with Japan 3-3 at one point in the first quarter.
“So sometimes it just gets us, and once we settled down, we were much better.”
And so it will be with the rest of the Americans. Besides, they wouldn't even be under the microscope if not for a quirk in the Tokyo schedule.
At an ordinary Olympics, the first swimming finals would be Saturday night, and those are always good for a couple of medals. In Rio, U.S. swimmers had already won three silver medals by the time the lights were turned off at the pool that first day.
But swimming finals are taking place in the morning in Tokyo, meaning the first medals at the pool won't be awarded until Sunday.
By the time the Tokyo Games end, the U.S. medal drought will be long forgotten. For now, though, it's one more indication of just how surreal these Olympics are.
Contributing: Chris Bumbaca