The U.S. is maintaining its overall medal lead heading into Thursday’s events in Tokyo. Team USA is up to 31 total medals including 11 gold. China remains second with 27 medals, while ROC is third with 23. Japan has won the most gold so far with 13.
The U.S. men’s basketball team is keeping its gold medal hopes alive after crushing Iran 120-66 in Tokyo. Team USA is now 1-and-1 after its stunning loss to France earlier this week. It marked their first setback in Olympic competition since 2004. The Americans will clash with the Czech Republic on Saturday in their final preliminary round game. Meanwhile, the U.S. women’s basketball team meets Japan in its second game Friday at 12:40 a.m. Eastern.
Four-time gold medalist Simone Biles is out of the women’s individual all-around gymnastics competition as she continues to deal with mental health issues. Phoenix native Jade Carey will replace Biles in the all-around event, which gets going at 6:30 a.m. Eastern. Fellow American Sunisa Lee is also in the field. They hope for a better outcome than the U.S. men, which saw Brody Malone place 10th and Samuel Mikulak 12th in the men’s all-around final early this morning.
Two of the U.S. beach volleyball duos are in action tonight, U.S. time. On the women’s side at 8 p.m. Eastern, Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil meet Kenya looking to improve to 2-and-0. Later tonight, the men’s duo of Philip Dalhausser and Nick Lucena will battle Argentina to wrap up preliminary round play.
The U.S. women’s water polo team is dealing with its first loss in the Olympics in more than a decade. The two-time defending gold medalists were upset by Hungary 10-9. It’s their first loss since the Beijing final in 2008. Team USA will wrap up the preliminary round on Friday against ROC. The men’s team plays Italy tomorrow morning at 1 a.m. Eastern.
