Silver medalist Jagger Eaton on the 'out of body experience' of skateboarding in Paris
Skateboarder Jagger Eaton won silver in the street event at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
He reflects on the “out of body experience” and the music that pumped him up for his victory.
Surfing: USA comes out on top thanks to Caroline Marks
Team USA's Caroline Marks brought home a gold medal in surfing, beating Brazil's Tatiana Weston-Webb by one-tenth of a point.
The women's final was plagued by lulls in surf, as was the rest of the day's competition, but Marks made the most of it, using high-performance moves to dance on the walls of Teahupo'o, a spot better known for its hallow tubes.
The match-up could have gone either way, but Marks' final wave clenched the gold medal. Fellow Americans draped Marks in a U.S. flag as she emerged from the water.
Marks' victory wasn't a surprise. She was the 2023 pro surfing champion. Many expected fellow American Clarissa Moore to be the one standing atop the podium today, but she was knocked out of medal contention in the quarterfinals.
Likewise, men's pro John John Florence, another American hope, was out of the competition in the third round. Marks took the opportunity to carry the team.
Weston-Webb, who never seemed to give up in her battle to the final, took home a silver medal for Brazil.
Back-to-back discus golds for Team USA's Valarie Allman
Valarie Allman won her second consecutive Olympic women’s discus gold medal, becoming the first U.S. woman in history to win back-to-back golds in the event.
U.S. wrestler Amit Elor defeated her semifinal opponent, Pak Sol-Gum of North Korea, by technical superiority in less than two minutes. Elor, 20, is now headed to the women’s freestyle 68kg final at the Paris Olympics.
Kenyan 5,000-meter runner's DQ overturned, earning her silver medal
After initially being disqualified in today’s women’s 5,000-meter final, Kenyan Faith Kipyegon has been reinstated and awarded the silver medal after an appeal by the Kenyan federation.
With just more than two laps to go in the race, there was upper-body contact among several runners in the lead pack. Most notably, gold medal contenders Kipyegon and Gudaf Tsegay, of Ethiopia, who were at the very front, were involved.
Kipyegon went on to cross the line second behind Beatrice Chebet but was disqualified shortly after the race. That meant third-place finisher Sifan Hassan, of the Netherlands, was awarded silver, and fourth-place finisher Nadia Battocletti, of Italy, was awarded bronze. No other athletes were disqualified. Tsegay finished ninth.
The Kenyan federation appealed the disqualification, and the ruling was overturned. The Jury of Appeal agreed that there was “significant contact between, and by the two athletes” but that “the incident did not warrant a disqualification.” The decision means Kipyegon is awarded the silver medal and Hassan the bronze, leaving Battocletti off the podium.
Kipyegon and Tsegay are expected to meet again in the women’s 1,500 meters. The first round begins tomorrow, with the final coming up Saturday.
While the U.S. continues to dominate in Olympics basketball, the French teams are also in contention as the sport grows increasingly popular in France.
Wedded to the idea of an Olympics proposal?
Everyone loves watching a proposal, but not everyone approves when you mix diamonds with Olympic gold.
Viewers have had mixed reactions to athletes who have gotten engaged during the Paris Games. The recent proposal from Chinese singles badminton player Liu Yuchen to badminton mixed doubles gold medalist Huang Yaqiong just after her big win Friday, for example, drew nearly as many boos online as it did cheers. While some feel the grand gesture makes Olympians’ big moments even bigger, others say the proposals steal the spotlight from female athletes in particular.
This year, many others used the international event to cement their love, including French women’s skiff sailors Sarah Steyaert and Charline Picon — both of whom clinched the bronze medal before they were surprised onshore with proposals — and Argentine handball player Pablo Simonet, who proposed to fellow Team Argentina athlete Maria Campoy, a hockey player, moments before the opening ceremony as their respective squads took a group photo together. Indeed, popping the question at the Games has become somewhat of a trend. A Chinese social media site even jokingly shared a post featuring an added engagement ring column alongside the medal counter.
Italy claimed top honors in the inaugural mixed team skeet event in shooting over the U.S.
A third-generation artistic swimmer fulfills the American dream
For any parents who have ever sacrificed everything humanly possible to see their children succeed, this will resonate.
Today, the Ramirez family watched their daughter, Daniella, compete for Team USA in artistic swimming.
She is a “third-generation artistic swimmer” whose grandmother performed the sport when it was called water ballet and whose mom and dad both competed for the Venezuelan national team. They moved to America in the late 1990s with the hope their kids could fully realize the American dream.
Daniella separated from her family in Miami when she was 15 to train in California for seven years in the hope this day may come.
The fact that Team USA finished outside the top three after the first round is an afterthought.
Her father, Fernando, told NBC News this week that it was “a great achievement for her and for us as immigrants and in this beautiful country that has given us the opportunity to be who we are. And for her to get that flag and represent the United States — bring back the United States to where it belongs [in the sport] ... I couldn’t be more thankful and proud.”
Team USA’s 68kg/149lb wrestler Amit Elor ceded nothing in a “masterful” 8-0 quarterfinal victory over Poland’s Wiktoria Chołuj in the Grand Palais Éphémère.