Team USA surges up Olympics medal chart with banner Sunday
The U.S. men’s basketball team may have opened with a thud at the Tokyo Olympics, but it wasn’t all bad news for Team USA this weekend.
Several Americans reached the podium on Sunday, pushing the U.S. up the medals table.
As of Sunday afternoon ET, the U.S. has 10 total medals (four gold, two silver, four bronze), trailing only China’s 11 (6-1-4).
Here are some of the highlights:
Chase Kalisz, Swimming
Kalisz became the first American to medal in Tokyo when he took gold in the 400-meter Individual Medley, a brutal race sometimes referred to as the decathlon of swimming (100 meters in each of the four strokes).
The 27-year-old from Maryland, who is a former training partner of legend Michael Phelps, won silver in the event in 2016. On Saturday night (U.S. time), he edged U.S. teammate Jay Litherland by .86 of a second for the gold.
"It means the world," Kalisz said on NBC following the race. "This is the last thing that I really wanted to accomplish in my swimming career. It was a dream of mine since as long as I could remember."
Beyond Kalisz and Litherland, the Americans added four other medals in the pool. They were:
Women’s 400 IM: Emma Weyant, silver. Hali Flickinger, bronze.
Women’s 4x100 free relay: Erika Brown, Abbey Weitzel, Natalie Hinds, Simone Manuel, bronze.
Men’s 400 free: Keirnan Smith, bronze.
Check out Kalisz’s win:
Anastasija Zolotic, Taekwondo
No American woman had ever won a taekwondo event at the Olympics. That all changed on Sunday when Anastasija Zolotic took the gold medal in the 57 kg weight class.
Zolotic, just 18, defeated Tatiana Minina of Russia with a dominating 25-17 performance in the gold medal bout.
The young American already had an impressive portfolio, previously winning gold at the junior worlds as well as at the Pan Am Games.
After her match, she told Greg Beacham of the Associated Press that she immediately Facetimed her mom: "She was in shock, screaming. I don’t even think she realized she answered the phone. I’m looking at the ground, like, ‘Mom, where are you?’"
Here are the highlights of her match:
Lee Kiefer, Fencing
Kiefer might not be an up-and-comer like Zolotic, but the 27-year-old Kentuckian made history all the same, becoming the first American woman to win a gold medal in individual foil.
Kiefer, who had to practice in her parent’s basement when COVID-19 kept her from visiting her club, defeated top-ranked Inna Deriglazova of Russia 15-13 in the final.
After failing to medal in the 2012 and 2016 Games, Kiefer told USA Today that she thought her Olympic career was over. But she kept at it, working her way up to a No. 1 world ranking at one point. And when her fencing club shut down, it was her husband, Gerek Meinhardt, who helped her build that fencing strip in her parents’ basement.
The highlights:
Will Shaner, Shooting
Shaner became the first American ever to win gold in the men’s 10 meter air rifle, scoring 10.5 or better on 13 of his 24 shots in the final to produce an Olympic record score of 251.6.
"Still trying to believe it," Shaner said. "It’s been a long time, though, growing up in the sport, progressing. To finally have [the gold medal], it’s amazing."
Shaner’s highlights:
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