US eyes remaining medals as Games come to a close
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The cauldron will be snuffed Sunday on the exhausting, enlightening, sometimes enraging 2020 Tokyo Olympics — held, actually, in 2021. These are the Games that were to be tolerated, not celebrated.They will be both.Imperfect but not impossible, these Olympics — willed into existence despite a pandemic that sparked worldwide skepticism and hard-wired opposition from Japan’s own citizens — just might go down as the Games that changed sports for good.The countries that typically dominate the numbers game have done so again when tallying gold, silver and bronze. But there have been some big surprises along the way, some of them delivered by smaller nations, older athletes and teenage newcomers. Sunday is the last day of competition in Tokyo.As they did in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, the United States and China rank first and second in total medals. After Saturday, the U.S. led the total medal count with 108, including 36 gold.China wanted a big medal count ahead of hosting the 2022 Beijing Winter Games in February. China had 87 total medals after Saturday, 38 of them gold, bolstered by strong results in diving, shooting, weightlifting and gymnastics.Here are some things to watch as things wrap up: Women’s basketballSue Bird and Diana Taurasi will try to lead the U.S. women’s basketball team to a seventh consecutive gold medal when the Americans play Japan in the Olympic final.Bird and Taurasi will be going for a record fifth gold — an achievement no other basketball player has ever accomplished.Japan has already assured itself the first Olympic medal in women’s basketball in the country’s history. Coach Tom Hovasse had said when he was hired a little over four years ago that his team would be playing against the Americans for gold at the Tokyo Games.His team proved him right.Women’s volleyballThe U.S. seeks its first gold medal ever in women’s volleyball when the Americans take on Brazil in the finals on Sunday.The United States has won three silver medals and two bronze since 1984, but has never stood at the top of the podium at the Olympics. The Americans lost to Brazil in 2008 and ’12 and to China in 1984.U.S. coach Karch Kiraly is looking to join China’s Lang Ping as the only Olympians to win gold as a player in volleyball and also a coach. His team is led by three-time Olympians Jordan Larson and Foluke Akinradewo Gunderson, who have already won silver and bronze medals.
The cauldron will be snuffed Sunday on the exhausting, enlightening, sometimes enraging 2020 Tokyo Olympics — held, actually, in 2021. These are the Games that were to be tolerated, not celebrated.
They will be both.
Imperfect but not impossible, these Olympics — willed into existence despite a pandemic that sparked worldwide skepticism and hard-wired opposition from Japan’s own citizens — just might go down as the Games that changed sports for good.
The countries that typically dominate the numbers game have done so again when tallying gold, silver and bronze. But there have been some big surprises along the way, some of them delivered by smaller nations, older athletes and teenage newcomers. Sunday is the last day of competition in Tokyo.
As they did in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, the United States and China rank first and second in total medals. After Saturday, the U.S. led the total medal count with 108, including 36 gold.
China wanted a big medal count ahead of hosting the 2022 Beijing Winter Games in February. China had 87 total medals after Saturday, 38 of them gold, bolstered by strong results in diving, shooting, weightlifting and gymnastics.
Here are some things to watch as things wrap up:
Women’s basketball
Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi will try to lead the U.S. women’s basketball team to a seventh consecutive gold medal when the Americans play Japan in the Olympic final.
Bird and Taurasi will be going for a record fifth gold — an achievement no other basketball player has ever accomplished.
Japan has already assured itself the first Olympic medal in women’s basketball in the country’s history. Coach Tom Hovasse had said when he was hired a little over four years ago that his team would be playing against the Americans for gold at the Tokyo Games.
His team proved him right.
Women’s volleyball
The U.S. seeks its first gold medal ever in women’s volleyball when the Americans take on Brazil in the finals on Sunday.
The United States has won three silver medals and two bronze since 1984, but has never stood at the top of the podium at the Olympics. The Americans lost to Brazil in 2008 and ’12 and to China in 1984.
U.S. coach Karch Kiraly is looking to join China’s Lang Ping as the only Olympians to win gold as a player in volleyball and also a coach. His team is led by three-time Olympians Jordan Larson and Foluke Akinradewo Gunderson, who have already won silver and bronze medals.
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