Current time in Tokyo: Aug. 02, 8:11 p.m.
TOKYO — Jade Carey redeemed herself from a disappointing performance in the vault final to come back the next day here at the Tokyo Games and win the gold medal on the floor exercise.
Wearing a red, white and blue leotard that sparkled in the lights of the Ariake Gymnastics Center, she flipped, twisted and danced her way to the top of the podium, performing what she called “the best floor routine I’ve ever done in my life.”
Italy’s Vanessa Ferrari won silver and two gymnasts tied for bronze: Mai Murakami of Japan and Angelina Melnikova of Russia.
Result |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Jade Carey United States |
14.366 | |
|
Vanessa Ferrari |
14.200 | |
|
Mai Murakami |
14.166 | |
|
Angelina Melnikova Russian Olympic Committee |
14.166 | |
| 5 |
Rebeca Andrade |
14.033 |
| 6 |
Jessica Gadirova |
14.000 |
| 7 |
Jennifer Gadirova |
13.233 |
| 8 |
Viktoriia Listunova Russian Olympic Committee |
12.400 |
After realizing that she had won, Carey gave her coach, Brian — who is also her father — a big hug. The day before, the two had hugged on the competition floor, but out of sadness.
In the vault final on Sunday, Carey, who is 21 and from Phoenix, tripped during her run-up to her first vault. She had planned to do a Yurchenko 2½, which is 2½ twists in the air and one flip, but could only flip once, with no twists. Her low score for that vault ruined her chances for a medal. She left the competition in tears.
“Yesterday was really tough for me,” Carey said, calling it “a kind of a blur.” She said her U.S. teammates, especially Simone Biles, had given her a pep talk once she returned to the team’s hotel. Biles told her, “Let it go and move on. It happened and you can’t do anything about it.”
Carey added: “For tonight, I just had to let that go.”
But Carey had one chance to bounce back at these Games, and took it.
In qualifying, Carey finished third on the floor exercise, behind Ferrari, who was first, and Biles, in second. Biles elected not to compete in the final, though she announced Monday that she would participate in the balance beam final on Tuesday — her last possible event at the Tokyo Games.
Maggie Astor contributed reporting.
Simone Biles, the headliner of the Tokyo Olympics for Team U.S.A., is not done just yet.
After withdrawing from most of her events at these Olympics because of mental health issues, Biles will compete in the balance beam final on Tuesday, her final possible event in Tokyo. Her decision was announced by U.S.A. Gymnastics on Monday afternoon just before the start of the floor exercise final, which Biles elected to skip, and nearly a week after she withdrew from the team final following her vault. In interviews that night, she said it would have been dangerous for her to try to perform her complicated and daring routines because she had lost the ability to gauge where she was in the air in relation to the ground.
“We are so excited to confirm that you will see two U.S. athletes in the balance beam final tomorrow — Suni Lee AND Simone Biles!! Can’t wait to watch you both!” U.S.A. Gymnastics said in a statement.
Last week, Biles competed in qualifying and in the team finals, but only performed in the first event of team finals — the vault — before withdrawing because she felt that she could not compete safely and didn’t want to jeopardize her team’s chances at a medal. Her teammates competed in the rest of the event without her, and she earned a silver medal with them.
Since then, Biles had backed out of all-around final and three event finals, which were the vault, uneven bars, floor exercise and balance beam. While those events unfolded without her, she trained in a local Tokyo gym to try to ease her way back to doing her skills. It was both scary and disappointing, she said, explaining that her brain wanted her to do twists in the air, her body was just not cooperating.
“Literally can not tell up from down,” she wrote in an Instagram story. “It’s the craziest feeling ever. Not having an inch of control over your body.”
Biles, the four-time Olympic gold medalist, wrote that she “seriously cannot comprehend how to twist,” and noted that the problem appeared the morning after team qualifying at the Tokyo Games. While she had experienced the problem before, she said, she never has faced it on every single apparatus.
“Sometimes I can’t even fathom twisting,” she wrote. “I seriously cannot comprehend how to twist.”
Competing on Tuesday gives Biles a chance to win a gold at an Olympics where she had been expected to dominate. If she does win the event, it would also be redemption for her performance on the balance beam final at the 2016 Games, where she was the gold medal favorite but came away with the bronze. Sunisa Lee, who won the Olympic title in the all-around last week, will be the other American in the balance beam final.
Biles’s performance in the balance beam now will be the must-see event, starring the athlete who came into Tokyo as the face of gymnastics worldwide. She was expected to win the all-around and become the first woman in 53 years to repeat as Olympic champion in the all-around. She also was planning to perform her breathtaking and dangerous Yurchenko double pike vault, which is so risky that she could break her neck or ankles if she doesn’t rotate enough to land squarely on her feet. If she had landed that vault at the Games, it would have been named after her.
Biles also has a skill on the balance beam named after her. “The Biles” dismount is a double twisting double back somersault. Considering her issues with twisting at these Games, it is unclear if she will perform that move here. She said last week that she would not be twisting at all during her Gold Over America Tour, the post-Olympics tour that will feature women in the sport.
Though Biles is considering retirement, she has hinted that she might return as a vault specialist at the 2024 Games in Paris, to honor her French coaches. But life outside of gymnastics is calling and Tuesday’s performance might be her farewell bow.
Going into these Games, Biles, 24, said she felt old and was physically in pain, and was eager to start the next chapter of her life — one outside of the gym, without pressure.
KASHIMA, Japan — The United States women’s soccer team lost, 1-0, to Canada in an Olympic semifinal match Monday night at Ibaraki Kashima Stadium, ending the Americans’ hopes of following up their 2019 World Cup title with an Olympic gold medal.
The United States lost its star goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, the penalty-kick shootout hero of its quarterfinal victory, to a knee injury just half an hour into the match. But in the end, it was a shot that no goalkeeper was likely to save that sank them.
–
United States
In the 74th minute, Canada midfielder Jessie Fleming, striding to the spot after a video review awarded her team a penalty and a chance to take the lead, lashed a penalty kick high and hard to the left of Adrianna Franch, the American backup keeper. It rippled the side netting in the corner of the goal, sending her team into raucous celebrations.
The penalty call had not been made initially on the field, but it was confirmed by a second look from the video assistant and the match referee, Kateryna Monzul of Ukraine. It came after the United States defender Tierna Davidson and Canadian forward Deanne Rose came together to chase a bouncing ball in the penalty area. Davidson took a swing at it, but missed, and instead clipped the leg of Rose, who went tumbling to the ground.
Monzul reviewed the contact on a sideline monitor and then returned and, dramatically, pointed to the spot.
The loss sent the Americans spiraling out of a tournament in which they never looked totally comfortable. They fell to Sweden, 3-0, in their opening match and looked tentative and ponderous at various points thereafter.
Canada now has a chance to win a gold medal after winning the bronze at two straight Games.
A Belarusian sprinter said on Sunday that she was under the protection of the Japanese police after her country’s Olympic Committee tried and failed to forcibly deport her after she criticized her coaches for registering her for the wrong event.
The sprinter, Kristina Timanovskaya, announced on Sunday night via Instagram that she had sought protection in Japan because she feared for her safety in Belarus, where the country’s strongman leader, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, in power for 27 years, has sought to stifle any dissent.
“I am afraid that in Belarus they might put me in jail,” Ms. Timanovskaya told the independent Belarusian news portal Zerkalo.io. “I am not afraid that I will be fired or kicked out of the national team, I am worried about my safety. And I think that at the moment it is not safe for me in Belarus.”
The Belarusian National Olympic Committee, which is run by Mr. Lukashenko’s eldest son, Victor Lukashenko, said on Sunday that it had withdrawn Ms. Timanovskaya from the Games because of her “emotional and psychological state” after consulting with a doctor.
Ms. Timanovskaya denied being examined by any doctors and said she was in good physical and psychological health. She said she had been forcibly removed from her country’s team because “I spoke on my Instagram about the negligence of our coaches.”
In a video taken at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, she asked the International Olympic Committee for support. In a statement, the I.O.C. said it was researching the situation.
“The I.O.C. has seen the reports in the media,” the statement said, and “is looking into it.”
Ms. Timanovskaya, 24, was to participate in the Olympic Games for the first time this summer in the 200-meter sprint. But she said was informed that she would be running the 4x400-meter relay race because some team members had not taken enough antidoping tests to qualify for the event.
TOKYO — Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico won the women’s 100-meter hurdles on Monday morning, beating Kendra Harrison of the United States, the world-record holder.
Camacho-Quinn, a University of Kentucky graduate, was the favorite coming in on the strength of a perfect season and an Olympic record of 12.26 seconds in the semifinal. But Harrison had the experience and had gotten the best of her in their meetings over the years.
Camacho-Quinn broke fast, then powered away after halfway to win comfortably in 12.37 seconds. Harrison was second in 12.52, three-hundredths of a second ahead of Megan Tapper of Jamaica.
Reaction |
Time |
||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn Puerto Rico |
0.149 | 12.37 | |
|
Kendra Harrison United States |
0.158 | 12.52 | |
|
Megan Tapper |
0.166 | 12.55 | |
| 4 |
Tobi Amusan |
0.161 | 12.60 |
| 5 |
Nadine Visser Netherlands |
0.152 | 12.73 |
| 6 |
Devynne Charlton |
0.144 | 12.74 |
| 7 |
Gabriele Cunningham United States |
0.172 | 13.01 |
| 8 |
Britany Anderson |
0.164 | 13.24 |
It was only the second Olympic gold medal for Puerto Rico, following Monica Puig’s win in women’s tennis at the 2016 Games. It was Puerto Rico’s first gold in track and its second medal in the sport, after a bronze in the men’s 400 hurdles for Javier Culson in 2012.
“I am pretty sure everybody is excited” in Puerto Rico, Camacho-Quinn said. “For such a small country, it gives little people hope. I am just glad I am the person to do that.”
Camacho-Quinn had hit a hurdle and failed to qualify from the semifinals of this event in 2016. Her brother, Robert Quinn, is a linebacker for the Chicago Bears.
Harrison had been a medal favorite in 2016 but failed to qualify at the Olympic trials that July, before setting the world record at 12.20 later that month. “I missed out in 2016, so to come here and get a medal for my country, I couldn’t be happier,” she said Monday.
The standoff over free speech between the International Olympic Committee and U.S. Olympic officials continued on Monday, as the I.O.C. grappled with what to do if the Americans refused to penalize an athlete for violating rules limiting demonstrations on the medal podium.
On Sunday night, Raven Saunders, a U.S. shot putter, delivered the first political demonstration on the podium at the Tokyo Olympics when she raised her arms and crossed them in the shape of an X shortly after receiving her silver medal.
She made the gesture as the ceremony concluded, during a session for photographers after the medals were handed out and the Chinese national anthem had been played for the winner, Gong Lijiao.
As Saunders left, she told reporters that her act was “for oppressed people.”
Mark Adams, the chief spokesman for the I.O.C., said on Monday that leaders of the two organizations and World Athletics, track and field’s international governing body, were in talks.
“We want to fully understand what is going on with the matter and take it from there,” Adams said.
Kate Hartman, the chief spokeswoman for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, said the organization’s leaders had pointed out to I.O.C. officials that Saunders did not perform her demonstration during the awarding of the medals or the playing of the Chinese anthem.
“That is important to us,” Hartman said.
In a statement on Monday, the U.S.O.P.C. said it was still discussing what happened with the I.O.C. and other groups.
“Per the U.S.O.P.C.’s delegation terms, the U.S.O.P.C. conducted its own review and determined that Raven Saunders’ peaceful expression in support of racial and social justice that happened at the conclusion of the ceremony was respectful of her competitors and did not violate our rules related to demonstration,” the organization said in a statement.
The I.O.C. and the U.S. Olympic Committee have conflicting rules and views regarding the exercise of free speech during the Games, and even how penalties should be meted out.
The I.O.C., which prohibits demonstrations on the podium or during competition, said on Sunday night that an athlete’s national Olympic committee is required to issue any required punishment. U.S. officials have said they will not punish any athlete for exercising the right to free speech that does not express hatred.
Sarah Hirshland, the chief executive of the U.S. Olympic Committee, said last week that international Olympic leaders “have the authority and the jurisdiction and a unique set of sanctions. We sit in a different seat.”
If the I.O.C. orders the Americans to punish an athlete and they refuse to do so, they would be in violation of the Olympic charter.
Also on Sunday, Race Imboden, an American fencer, went to the podium at a different venue after the United States took the bronze medal in foil with a circled X written on his hand. But Hartman said no one had complained about the episode.
Asked what would happen next, Hartman said, “Now we wait.”
By waiting, though, the U.S. Olympic Committee is behaving far differently that American Olympic leaders did in 1968 and 1972, when they moved quickly to punish Black athletes who demonstrated on the podium or did not behave according to the I.O.C.’s standards, forcing them to leave the Games.
World Athletics is also highly unlikely to discipline athletes because the federation does not have any rules against demonstrations on its books. Sebastian Coe, the federation’s president, said this year that he was “reluctant to discourage athletes from expressing their views, and I sense that the current generation is more willing to speak out than some previous generations were.”
U.S. officials are trying to eliminate the free speech issue before the Summer Games come to Los Angeles in 2028.
TOKYO — Laurel Hubbard of New Zealand is poised to make history on Monday night when she competes in weight lifting competition and becomes the first openly transgender woman to participate in the Olympics.
Hubbard, 43, is one of 10 competitors scheduled in the heavyweight division and has an outside chance at a medal. But no matter where she finishes, she is certain to draw attention because of her participation.
While supporters of transgender athletes have hailed Hubbard’s appearance at the Olympics, athletes, some advocates for women’s sports and fair-sport campaigners have questioned whether she has an unfair advantage. Hubbard competed in men’s competitions before she took a break from the sport two decades ago and transitioned.
Hubbard, who rarely speaks to the news media, said in 2017 that she did not see herself as a flag-bearer for transgender athletes.
The New Zealand Olympic committee has shielded Hubbard since she arrived in Tokyo. Kereyn Smith, secretary general of the committee, called Hubbard “quite a private person” and said she wanted her lifting to be the focus.
In recent years, weight lifting was more likely to make headlines because athletes were caught using performance-enhancing drugs. After decades of rampant doping, bribery, vote-rigging and corruption at weight lifting’s highest levels, the International Olympic Committee took action last year by threatening to drop the sport from the Games in the coming months if the International Weightlifting Federation does not introduce a host of fixes, including rigorous drug testing measures and governance changes.
Hubbard’s presence has changed the subject in a big way, at least for now. For the competition on Monday night, there were twice as many requests for seats in the press tribune as there were seats. Credentials to enter the mixed zone, where members of the media can interview athletes were distributed 10 hours before Hubbard and her competitors were set to face off.
Hubbard won junior titles in men’s competitions before her transition, but stopped weight lifting in her 20s because, she told an interviewer, “it just became too much to bear” as she struggled to cope with her identity. She resumed competing in 2012, five years after she transitioned. When she won three titles in 2017, her performances triggered a firestorm on social media.
The International Olympic Committee has left it up to sports federations to decide whether and how transgender athletes can compete, and Hubbard has met all the requirements set by the International Weightlifting Federation.
Last week, officials from the I.O.C. said they would soon adopt new guidelines, originally developed in 2015, governing the participation of transgender women in Olympic sports because they consider the current rules outdated.
Indonesia has won Olympic gold in only one sport: badminton.
On Monday, the world’s fourth most populous nation notched another badminton victory when Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu claimed gold in the women’s doubles event. It was the first gold for Indonesia at the Tokyo Games and the eighth in the country’s Olympic history.
Polii and Apriyani overwhelmed the former world champions, Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan of China, in straight sets, 21-19, 21-15, delivering precision strikes of the shuttlecock combined with fluttery shots that left their opponents lunging in vain. Toward the end of the match, Polii had to race off court midrally to change her racket because of a busted string but returned to win.
Badminton is a national sport in Indonesia, where shuttlers take whatever space they can find to play: a clearing in a palm-oil plantation, a jetty on a far-flung island or a strip of cement between high rises. The Olympic sport’s medal count is dominated by Asian countries, like China, Indonesia and South Korea.
Polii, 33, is a badminton veteran, having first competed in the 2012 London Games. But her debut was inauspicious. To secure a better draw, she and her partner tried to lose an early match, Olympic organizers determined. The Indonesians, along with several other pairs, were disqualified.
Unsporting behavior has plagued badminton in recent months. The sport’s governing body this year banned three Indonesian players for life for match-fixing and betting. Another five were fined and suspended for up to 12 years.
After the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, where she and her former partner made it to the quarterfinals, Polii was getting ready for retirement. But Apriyani, a decade younger, convinced her to stick it out for one more Olympics. They came into the competition in Tokyo unseeded.
Indonesia has been consumed by the coronavirus, which has made the country one of the most dangerous places in the world. The Delta variant is coursing through the sprawling archipelago as vaccination rates remain low.
Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia will play in the bronze medal match in the men’s singles event on Monday night, but the only hopes for a badminton gold rested with Apriyani and Polii. (Indonesia has also won bronze in women’s weight lifting and has medal hopes in another women’s weight lifting class.)
“The wait for gold ended this afternoon,” President Joko Widodo of Indonesia wrote on social media. “This win is Indonesia’s independence gift two weeks early.”
Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, although it has a significant Christian minority and adherents to other faiths. While sectarian tensions have simmered over the years, sometimes with fatal consequences, badminton doubles players have often been from mixed backgrounds, like Apriyani, a Muslim, and Polii, a Christian.
After the pair’s victory on Monday, a politician from an Islamist party praised them on Twitter.
“This gold medal is a sweet gift for Indonesia, which is still fighting against the pandemic,” wrote Mardani Ali Sera, a lawmaker for the Prosperous Justice Party. “Thank you to all Indonesian athletes who have fought and are still fighting. Indonesians are supporting and praying for you.”
Muktita Suhartono contributed reporting.
YOKOHAMA, Japan — The U.S. baseball team will face off against top-ranked Japan in a battle of unbeaten teams at Yokohama Baseball Stadium on Monday night. On the mound will be a face that is very familiar to fans from both countries: Masahiro Tanaka.
–
United States
After completing his seven-year, $155 million contract with the Yankees in October, Tanaka returned to his former team, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. He wanted to remain in New York and has said he has unfinished business in the United States (he never won a World Series). But the Yankees opted, in General Manager Brian Cashman’s words, to acquire two other pitchers — Corey Kluber and Jameson Taillon — for the price of one.
So Tanaka, a two-time All-Star who posted a 3.74 earned run average with the Yankees, returned home. The right-hander signed a two-year deal with the Eagles. An added benefit: Because the Nippon Professional Baseball league takes an Olympic break, Tanaka was allowed to pitch for his country again. Major League Baseball doesn’t pause its season for the Olympics, nor does it permit players from 40-man rosters to participate.
“I didn’t come home because I wanted to participate in the Olympics, but I thought I would have a chance to participate if I’m in Japan,” Tanaka said in Japanese. “I wanted to be selected.”
He had many motivations. The 10th anniversary of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan — and specifically the Sendai area, where the Eagles play — is not lost on Tanaka. And the last time he was on Japan’s Olympic roster in 2008, he was 19, which was also the last time baseball was played in the Summer Games. Japan failed to win a medal then.
This time around, Tanaka, 32, said the experience has been very different. “I was the youngest, now I’m the oldest,” he said. “I feel the different roles I play.”
To win its first two games against the Dominican Republic and Mexico, Japan used two talented young pitchers — Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 22, and Masato Morishita, 23. Facing a tougher assignment against the United States, Manager Atsunori Inaba tabbed Tanaka, who knows a few of the opposing hitters, such as Todd Frazier, a former Yankees teammate.
Back in New York, where Tanaka was well liked in the clubhouse, teammates such as Gerrit Cole have kept tabs on his performance this year. Tanaka, who has a 2.86 E.R.A. in 85 innings with the Eagles this season, has done the same with the Yankees and the M.L.B. standings, including the play of Los Angeles two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, a leading American League M.V.P. contender.
Asked over the weekend what he thought of Ohtani’s season, Tanaka answered in English before departing for the team bus: “amazing.”
Makiko Inoue contributed reporting
TOKYO — The U.S. women’s basketball team, the heavy favorite for Olympic gold, completed group play at a perfect 3-0 with a 93-82 victory over a stubborn French team on Monday.
A’ja Wilson remained the American star with 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting. Breanna Stewart had 17 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.
The U.S. team, made up of a full complement of top-tier W.N.B.A. stars, took some time to pull away, trailing by 3 after one quarter as France shot well from 3-points. The U.S. efforts to get the ball in to their bigger players were successful, but thwarted on several occasions by missed layups. The U.S. led, 50-44, by the half.
United States
But France clung on tenaciously, continuing to move the ball well and benefit from some U.S. turnovers. The referees also seemed to show an occasional reluctance to call France for fouls against the U.S. post players like Stewart and Brittney Griner.
France took the lead by a point with nine minutes to play before a Jewell Loyd 3 put the United States ahead for good. For the rest of the fourth quarter, the U.S. depth and talent seemed to reassert itself, resulting in the final, reasonably comfortable 11-point margin.
France, which was led by 15 points from Endy Miyem, had an especially high incentive to stay close in the game. A loss by 14 or less would guarantee that the team would advance to the next round. “We were completely aware, yeah, yeah, yeah,” said Gabby Williams of the French team. “It was 10 minutes by 10 minutes and just trying to focus on staying with them.”
The U.S. women have not lost a game at the Olympics since 1992, a run that stands at 52 games.
“Obviously, it wasn’t a must-win, but we always want to win,” Stewart said. “This is where we start to peak.”
The U.S. advances to a quarterfinal game on Wednesday against an opponent to be determined.
Here are some highlights of U.S. broadcast coverage on Monday, including beach volleyball quarterfinals, key track and field events and knockout rounds in baseball knockout. All times are Eastern.
BASEBALL The U.S. baseball team, featuring former M.L.B. players Todd Frazier and Edwin Jackson, will face Japan in the playoff round live at 6 a.m. on Monday on NBC Sports.
WOMEN’S SOCCER Australia takes on Sweden in one semifinal at 7 a.m. on Universo (and streaming on Peacock or NBCOlympics.com). A replay of the other semifinal game, a matchup between the United States and Canada, will air at 10 a.m. on NBC Sports.
WEIGHT LIFTING Finals in the women’s 87 kilogram weight class will begin at 6:50 a.m., and can be streamed on Peacock or NBCOlympics.com. USA Network will air the event at 9 a.m., with replays at 2:30 p.m.
GYMNASTICS Coverage of the men’s finals in vault and rings will air during NBC’s daytime coverage, which starts at 12 p.m.
BEACH VOLLEYBALL Jake Gibb and Tri Bourne of the United States play a round of 16 match against Julius Thole and Clemens Wickler of Germany, streaming live on Peacock at 9 a.m. and replayed on NBC Sports at 5 p.m.
TRACK AND FIELD The Americans Brittney Reese and Tara Davis contend for gold in the women’s long jump final, which starts live at 9:50 p.m. on NBC. In the men’s 400-meter hurdles, at 11:20 p.m., Rai Benjamin of the United States looks to get ahead of Karsten Warholm of Norway, the current world-record holder.
DIVING Qualifying in the men’s 3-meter springboard will air during NBC’s daytime coverage that starts at 12 p.m. The event’s semifinals will stream live on Peacock at 9 p.m.
EQUESTRIAN A replay of the team and individual jumping and eventing finals will air at 2 p.m. on NBC Sports.
Tokyo 2020 organizers on Monday reported 17 new infections among people credentialed for the Games, bringing the total number of reported cases connected to the Olympics to 281, including 27 athletes. None of the new cases on Monday were athletes.
Tokyo and the rest of Japan are experiencing the worst surge of the pandemic. On Saturday, officials in Tokyo reported more than 4,000 new infections, the first time the city’s daily count had surpassed that figure.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced on Friday that the government would expand a state of emergency to four areas besides Tokyo, and that the restrictions in the capital would be extended until the end of August — past the conclusion of the Olympics and into the start of the Paralympic Games.
With only 28 percent of the population fully vaccinated, the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus has taken root in Japan. More than three-quarters of cases in Tokyo are now being caused by the variant, according to the health ministry.
In the men’s high jump, Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy and Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar matched each other all evening until both failed to clear 7 feet 10 inches on three straight tries. They were facing the equivalent of sudden-death overtime when one of the officials, citing an obscure rule, asked if they wanted to settle for a tie instead.
“Can we have two golds?” Barshim asked him.
Assured that they could, Tamberi and Barshim embraced, their bromance on display.
“He’s one of my best friends,” Barshim said. “We’re always together.”
Barshim was so excited, he broke his sunglasses.
“It’s OK,” he said. “I’ve got like 50 pairs.”
After missing the 2016 Olympics because of a leg injury, Tamberi kept his cast and wrote “Road to Tokyo 2020” on it. When the Games were postponed last year, he scratched out “2020” and wrote “2021.” On Sunday, he took the cast with him to the stadium as a reminder of his hard work.
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Mutaz Essa Barshim |
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Gianmarco Tamberi |
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Maksim Nedasekau |
Tamberi secured his gold medal minutes before his countryman Lamont Marcell Jacobs won gold in the men’s 100-meter dash. Jacobs said he had felt inspired. Only then, he said, did the goal of winning his race seem plausible.
“Olympic champions,” Jacobs said, “for us and for Italy.”
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