Sports

From Simone Biles to Naomi Osaka, softball to swimming, inside a wild 24 hours at the Tokyo Olympics

July 28, 2021
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You never know what each day at the Tokyo Olympics might yield. There will be highs, some lows and, certainly, unexpected moments.

But no one could have predicted what took place over a 12-hour span, beginning Monday night into Tuesday morning. It was a dizzying run of athletic achievement — and heartbreak.

Miss something? Didn’t know it happened because you were asleep? Here is an inside look at what was a wild stretch in Tokyo:

Monday, 7:41 p.m. ET

From Bermuda to Turkmenistan, it’s golden

Bermuda could never say it had a gold medalist. Turkmenistan could never say it had a medalist — period. That’s over now.

Bermuda’s Flora Duffy won the gold medal in triathlon, grabbing the country’s first-ever gold and just the second Olympic medal in its history.

“I think (the medal) is bigger than me. It’s going to inspire the youth of Bermuda and everyone back home that competing on the world stage from a small island is really possible,” Duffy said.

Weightlifter Polina Guryeva of Turkmenistan grabbed silver in the 59-kilogram category for her country’s first medal.

“No sport in Turkmenistan has had a medal, not one medal,” the 21-year-old Guryeva said. “I think I’ve entered the history of Turkmenistan by winning a medal. I’m so in shock.”

Monday, 10:33 p.m. ET

Lydia Jacoby proves there is swimming in Alaska

Lilly King entered the 100-meter breaststroke as the defending Olympic champion. And she seemed confident she was going to repeat, even going so far as telling Sports Illustrated in April, “I’m in a fortunate situation. I don’t have too many young kids coming for me. Maybe one — one little Italian girl.”

Well … perhaps she should have paid attention to her own team. Lydia Jacoby provided one of those you’ll-never-forget-it Olympic moments. The 17-year-old won gold, setting off quite the celebration in Seward, Alaska.

And, clearly, it might not have set in for her yet, either.

Tuesday, 1 a.m. ET

Osaka out in straight sets

Naomi Osaka lit the cauldron to open the Olympics in her home country. This was her first tournament since exiting the French Open after the first round and skipping Wimbledon for a mental-health break. The expectations — again — were high. She was knocked out in straight sets by Marketa Vondrousova, the 42nd-ranked player in the world and a former French Open finalist.

“I definitely feel like there was a lot of pressure for this,” Osaka said. “I think it’s maybe because I haven’t played in the Olympics before and for the first year [it] was a bit much.”

Tuesday, 2:30a.m. ET

U.S. women’s hoops turns 50

OK, so it’s not quite the 111-game winning streak posted by UConn women’s basketball, but it has been a while since the U.S. women’s basketball team lost a game at the Olympics. A’ja Wilson led with 19 points and Sue Bird dropped 12 assists as the U.S. team won its 50th consecutive game by beating Nigeria 81-72 in its Tokyo opener.

Tuesday 4:24 a.m. ET

Surf’s up at the Games

Don’t know the name Italo Ferreira? That’s fine. But he does have a part of history. The Italian won the first-ever gold medal in surfing at the Olympics. And he did it after breaking his board early in the competition. Not long after he got his gold, the United States’ Carissa Moore grabbed the gold in the women’s competition.

“It’s been a crazy couple of days,” Moore said. “A little bit of a rollercoaster of emotions just trying to figure out the break, find my rhythm, learning how to trust myself without my family here.”

Tuesday, 5:54 a.m. ET

Scoreless draw for U.S. women’s soccer

The U.S. women’s soccer team opened these Olympics with a shocking 3-0 loss to Sweden. Then things seemed to get better in a 6-1 trouncing against New Zealand. But then, it closed pool play with a 0-0 draw against Australia. Sure, the U.S. moves on, but this was its worst performance in the group stage in 25 years.

Tuesday, 8:53 a.m. ET

Biles out of gymnastics team final, U.S. women earn silver

Simone Biles, one of the headliners of these Games, pulled out of the team competition after her first vault. Later, she explained, her decision to remove herself from the competition was about mental health.

“I just don’t trust myself as much anymore,” Biles, 24, said afterward. “I don’t know if it’s age, I’m just more nervous when I do gymnastics. I feel like I’m also not having as much fun. And I know this Olympic Games, I wanted it to be for myself. I’m still doing it for other people.

“I had to do what’s right for me and not jeopardize my health and well-being. So that’s why I decided to kind of take a step back and let them do their work.”

Tuesday, 9:10 a.m. ET

U.S. softball loses out on gold

Softball made its return to the Olympics for the first time since 2008. It was added to these Games at the request of Japan, the host country. And it was Japan, on home soil, that pulled off the upset in the gold-medal game, defeating the United States 2-0 in the final.

Just one day earlier, the U.S. had beaten Japan 2-1 in pool play on a walk-off home run.

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