Biles out of all-around, Ledecky gets gold, Thursday features Caeleb Dressel
Katie Ledecky makes history winning gold in women's 1500m free. BMX racing and golf start on Thursday. Caeleb Dressel will swim in 100m free final.
Sandy Hooper, USA TODAY
At the Tokyo Olympics, gymnast Simone Biles continues to be the main topic of discussion. The defending gold medalist in the women's all-around competition qualified first for Thursday's final, but withdrew to focus on her mental health. Jade Carey will take Biles' place for Team USA.
The question now is whether or not Biles will compete in any of next week's individual event finals.
Elsewhere, the men's individual golf competition gets underway with opening round play. Men's singles tennis moves into the quarterfinal round, while the women have their semifinals.
In the pool, Bobby Finke got the USA off to a strong start when he came from far behind to win an unexpected gold in the men's 800-meter freestyle. Later in the day, Hali Flickinger and Regan Smith will swim in the finals of the women's 200-meter butterfly, and Caeleb Dressel going for gold in the men's 100 free final.
WEDNESDAY RECAP: Katie Ledecky, USA women's 3x3 basketball win gold
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TOKYO — Team USA continued to add to its medal total in the pool Thursday, as 21-year-old underdog Bobby Finke took gold in the men's 800-meter freestyle.
Finke, a rising senior at the University of Florida, was in the middle of the pack for most of the race before using a furious final surge to pull ahead. He finished with a time of 7:41.87.
Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy took silver, and Ukraine's Mykhailo Romanchuk finished third for bronze.
A Florida native, Finke comes from a diehard swimming family. His mother, Jeanne, swam collegiately at Ball State. His dad, Joe, is a swim coach. And his two older sisters, Autumn and Ariel, both swam at Division I schools.
The U.S. has now won 17 medals in the pool in four-plus days. Entering Thursday, swimmers had accounted for more than half of Team USA's overall medal count.
-- Tom Schad
Former Olympic gymnast Dominique Moceanu shared support for Simone Biles on Wednesday after Biles withdrew from multiple competitions at the Tokyo Games to focus on her health.
Moceanu shared a video on social media of her when she was 14 and fell during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, hitting her head on a balance beam. The moment came after she had already suffered a stress fracture in her tibia.
“I was 14 y/o w/ a tibial stress fracture, left alone w/ no cervical spine exam after this fall,” Moceanu shared on multiple social media platforms. “I competed in the Olympic floor final minutes later.”
“In our sport, we essentially dive into a pool w/ no water. When you lose your ability to find the ground — which appears to be part of @Simone_Biles decision — the consequences can be catastrophic,” Moceanu added.
“She made the right decision for the team & herself.”
-- Marina Pitofsky
TOKYO — Expecting Simone Biles to produce medals on command, or not seeing her for anything beyond her athletic achievements, is dehumanizing, teammate Sam Mikulak said. It’s no wonder Biles reached a point where her mental health was precarious enough that she felt she had no choice but to withdraw from the team and all-around competitions.
“You go on Twitter and everyone’s like, 'Oh, I’m really expecting this. I want this from this person.’ And, 'Oh, Simone is going to be the medal factory of the world,’” Mikulak said Wednesday night after the men’s all-around, where he finished 12th.
Biles came to Tokyo as the biggest star of the Games, projected to win a record five gold medals. But she pulled out of Tuesday night’s team competition after the first event and has since withdrawn from Thursday’s all-around.
A six-time U.S. champion and three-time Olympian, Mikulak understands what Biles is experiencing. Just before he left for Tokyo, in fact, he was feeling some of the old anxiety, but was able to recognize it and address it.
“Everyone really needs to start focusing on their mental health a lot more, really ask the hard questions for your personal self, because those are the questions that are going to eat you up when you get out in these big pressure situations and you feel these expectations from the whole world,” Mikulak said. “Being able to tackle it early on is going to be the solution in the future.”
-- Nancy Armour and Rachel Axon
Olympic golf an 'unbelievable' experience for PGA Tour's Thomas
TOKYO – Even before Justin Thomas teed it up for his first shot Thursday at Kasumigaseki Country Club, he’s already made his mind up about playing golf in the Olympics.
“This is the coolest thing I’ve ever been a part of,” the 28-year-old Louisville native said on the eve of golf’s second run since rejoining the Olympics in 2016. “Going to the village and checking out the USA building. It’s so hard to explain. It’s unbelievable."
Thomas is No. 4 in the world with a win at the Players Championship in May that helped to put him on the hard-to-make U.S. Olympic team. Other Americans in the 60-man field are world No. 3 Collin Morikawa, No. 5 Xander Schauffele and No. 12 Patrick Reed (replacing No. 6 Bryson DeChambeau, out due to a positive COVID test).
-- Jeff Metcalfe
TOKYO — Not one to take long vacations, Las Vegas Aces guard Jackie Young figured a three- or four-day trip to Florida during the WNBA's Olympics layoff was an appropriate respite.
She didn't stay long.
The WNBA's 2019 No. 1 overall pick got a call from the USA Basketball selection committee letting her know that a member of the U.S. 3-on-3 team had tested positive for COVID-19 and they wanted her to join the squad.
Young, who played college ball at Notre Dame, flew from vacation to Las Vegas to begin the testing protocol. She met her new teammates in Tokyo. And on Wednesday, they defeated the Russian Olympic Committee in the championship game.
"It’s crazy to think about,” Young said. “Ten days ago, I was on vacation. My life changed like that. Now I’m a gold-medalist. It’s crazy how things work out."
— Chris Bumbaca
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