(TOKYO) – The USA men’s Olympic basketball team lost to France 83-76 in the team’s opening game of the 2020 Olympics.
It is the first loss for the men’s team at the games since 2004, ending a 25 game winning streak.
France’s Evan Fournier led the game with 28 points. Jrue Holiday was the leading scorer for Team USA with 18 points.
Team USA led after the first and second quarters, but a 25 point third quarter by the French had them leading by 6, 62-56, entering the fourth.
Team USA opened the final quarter on a 13-1 run, to put them up 69-63, with Holiday, who plays for the Milwaukee Bucks, scoring 12 points.
The Americans led the way until the final minute when Fournier, who plays for the Boston Celtics, hit a three-pointer with 57 seconds left to put France up 76-74. Team USA missed its next five shots, including three three-point attempts, before free throws iced the game for France.
Team USA plays Iran and the Czech Republic in its next two games of group play. They must win both games to advance to the medal rounds.
(TOKYO) — Each day, ABC News will give you a roundup of key Olympic moments from the day’s events in Tokyo, happening 13 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Standard Time. After a 12-month delay, the unprecedented 2020 Olympics will take place without fans or spectators and under a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
US men’s basketball loses 1st game since 2004
The U.S. men’s basketball team lost 83-76 in their opening game against France, the first game the team has lost since 2004. The loss hasn’t knocked Team USA out of the running, they will have two more games in the group round to qualify for the next round. Since basketball’s introduction to the Olympics in 1936, the U.S. men’s team has won a medal in every competition except the 1980 Games, which was boycotted by the United States.
US wins 1st gold medal after 1st-day drought
U.S. swimmer Chase Kalisz won the gold medal in the men’s 400m individual medley, his first gold as well as the first medal overall for Team USA at the 2020 Games. Though it was the first time in decades that the United States failed to win a medal on opening day competition, the U.S. swimming team won 6 of 12 medals in the days’ competition, including Kalisz’s gold, two silvers and three bronze.
US women’s gymnastic team finds itself in unfamiliar position: 2nd place
The often dominant U.S. women’s team saw another team leading the scoreboard after the qualifying round on Sunday. ROC, the athletes competing for Russia, finished the competition nearly a full point ahead of Team USA. Simone Biles finished first in the all-around, followed by teammate Sunisa Lee.
Coronavirus cases increase to 137 among Olympic athletes and personnel
Among the 10 new cases since yesterday, two are athletes and one of those, a Dutch rower, was staying at Olympic Village. Not included in that tally was golfer Bryson DeChambeau, who tested positive for coronavirus before leaving the United States and will no longer compete. New cases that have been reported in the Tokyo area now stand at 1,763, an increase in the rolling 7-day average of 146.5%.
Skateboarding makes debut at Olympics
Skateboarding debuted at the 2020 Games with local star Yuto Horigome of Japan winning the gold medal and Team USA’s Jagger Eaton taking home the bronze in the men’s street competition.
US softball heads to gold medal rematch against Japan
After defeating Australia 2-1 in their fourth win, the U.S. softball team heads to the gold medal game against Japan. This rematch from 2008, was the last time softball was at the Olympics and resulted in a silver medal for the team. The team was led by pitchers Monica Abbott and Cat Osterman, the only two players who were on the team for the loss in 2008.
Intense heat could cause rescheduling for outdoor events
Olympic skateboarders, who compete at the unshaded Ariake Urban Sports Park, said the heat was already intense at 9 a.m. a sentiment echoed by tennis players Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev. The International Olympic Committee said they would make backup plans if necessary.
(WASHINGTON) — First lady Jill Biden spent her final day in Japan cheering on Team USA at three Olympic events as the Games got underway in Tokyo on Saturday.
With fans unable to attend, Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron were part of a sparse crowd watching the women’s 3-on-3 basketball game between the United States and France.
The first lady was patriotically dressed for the occasion, sporting an American flag top and an official Ralph Lauren Team USA Navy blazer as she cheered on the U.S. competitors to a 17-10 victory.
In a video posted by USA Basketball after the game, Biden was seen congratulating the players on their win.
“Congratulations. We’re so proud,” Biden can be heard saying.
“Thank you for coming. It means a lot,” Stefanie Dolson, a member of the team replied. “First one’s done, so we’re good now,” she joked.
Biden also cheered on USA Swimming during a competition Saturday, appearing in the stands and receiving her own shoutout from the swimmers, who chanted “Dr. Biden!”
She was also in the stands to support the U.S. women’s soccer team as they delivered a decisive, 6-1 win over New Zealand Saturday evening.
In addition to cheering on the games, the first lady kept busy on her three-day trip leading the U.S. presidential delegation.
She hosted a virtual conversation with members of Team USA, attended the Olympic opening ceremonies and held a watch party of the U.S. vs. Mexico women’s softball game for foreign service officers and their families at the U.S. Embassy.
She also penned an open letter to Team USA, congratulating and thanking them for helping to bring the country together through the games.
“Your entire nation is cheering you on and we are grateful for what you’ve given us: the chance to come together in common awe and appreciation for your accomplishments and the shared joy of rooting for our country on the edge of our seats,” she wrote in a note published by NBC News.
“In these moments, we are more than our cities or states or backgrounds. We are more than our jobs or our political parties. We are united. We are all, first and foremost, Team USA.”
Biden’s trip to Japan came as COVID-19 cases among athletes and Olympic personnel continue to rise, increasing concerns about the games and athlete safety.
She followed “strict protocols and precautions set by the White House COVID team, the government of Japan, and the Olympics to keep the public, athletes and the delegation safe,” according to her office.
She and President Joe Biden wanted to show the “highest level of support for our Olympic Athletes and the Games,” with Biden’s attendance, the statement said.
While in Japan, the first lady dined with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Mrs. Mariko Suga at Akasaka Palace and held a bilateral meeting with Mrs. Suga.
Even from afar, she highlighted the Team USA spirit back home in Washington, D.C., tweeting a photo of the White House illuminated in red, white and blue.
(TOKYO) — Unlike most sports at the Tokyo Olympics, the venue for surfing will be decided by when and where Team USA hopefuls such as Carissa Moore and Kolohe Andino paddle out off Japan’s Shidashita Beach.
Organizers of the first-time event have scheduled an eight-day waiting period — July 25 to Aug. 1 — to squeeze in up to four days of competition based on daily conditions — wave heights, direction, wind strength.
Kurt Korte, the international surf forecaster for the Olympic surfing event, told ABC News this week that conditions off the Pacific Coast of Japan are starting to look good with signs of a tropical cyclone forming well south of Shidashita Beach that could whip up the type of waves for great competition among the best surfers in the world.
“That storm as it moves past could set us up for some pretty good surf. So that’s kind of what we’re eying right now for the initial part of the contest,” said Korte, who lives in North Carolina and works for Surfline.com, a company that provides global wave and ocean forecast.
“It’s definitely within the realm where we could see overhead surf and good conditions as this thing moves past,” Korte said. “It’s really fortunate that this is what’s happening for the opening days.”
Korte said Surfline.com has worked with Olympic officials for the past six years to determine if surfing was even possible at the Tokyo Games. The company analyzed 35 years of weather and ocean data to suggest Shidahita as the best possible spot, and Korte left for Japan this week to study the ocean and make recommendations on which days the competition should unfold.
Team USA
The inaugural event will feature 20 men and 20 women from 17 countries.
The four-member U.S. team, described as a “Dream Team” by USA Surfing, is a heavy favorite. The Americans are led by the 27-year-old Andino of San Clemente, California, who holds seven USA Surfing Champion titles, and Moore, 28, of Honolulu, the No. 1-ranked female surfer in the world who holds four World Surfing League titles.
The team also features John John Florence, 28, of Oahu, Hawaii, a two-time World Surfing League champion. The youngest member is 19-year-old Caroline Marks of Melbourne Beach, Florida, the sixth-ranked female surfer in the world.
The American team is expected to face stiff competition from Brazil, which boasts Gabriel Madina, the world’s No. 1-ranked men’s surfer, and Italo Ferreira, the No. 2-ranked surfer in the world. The Australian team, led by seven-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore, is also expected to compete for gold.
How the competition will work
The surfers qualified for the Olympics based primarily on how well they did at previous major competitions, including the 2019 World Surfing League Championship Tour, where Florence and Moore each came out on top.
The Olympic Games will be exclusively a shortboard affair, meaning surfboards are less than 7 feet long, with pointy noses and usually three small fins on the underside.
Once the water conditions are deemed fit, according to Olympic rules, athletes will take to the ocean four at a time and compete in heats, with the first round consisting of four heats.
A five-judge panel will base scores on a scale of 1 to 10 that can include decimal points. Competitors will be judged on speed, power, snap turns and how seamlessly they flow on a wave. Judges also look for difficulty, risk and innovation of maneuvers performed, such as a barrel, or riding through the tube a curling wave makes, and aerials in which surfers ride up the face a wave and catch air at the lip.
In April, Moore wowed spectators at the Rip Curl Newcastle Cup, the second leg of the World Surf League’s Championship Tour, by nailing an aerial where she landed a reverse on the face of a wave before spinning another 180 degrees forward. The judges gave her a near-perfect score of 9.9.
In each heat, surfers will be given a 30-minute window to catch as many waves as possible but must go one at a time, with the surfer closest to the peak of a wave given preference to catch it. Participants can be docked points for violating surfing etiquette by cutting in line.
The best two scores from each surfer will decide who moves on to the next round and, eventually, the medal round, where whoever is left will compete head-to-head.
“I’m stoked, super stoked,” Andino told People magazine before heading to Japan. “I think the waves on offer in Japan will be pretty fun. It’ll be a lot of aerial maneuvers, so it should be pretty exciting to watch.”
(TOKYO) — China’s Qian Yang wins 1st gold medal for shooting
Qian Yang, 21, received the first gold model of the 2020 Games in the 10 meter air rifle event, where competitors have 75 minutes to shoot 60 rounds at a target.
U.S. women’s soccer team bounces back to dominate New Zealand
The U.S. women’s soccer team defeated New Zealand 6-1, a strong showing after losing to Sweden 2-0 in their previous game. The women’s team has one more game left in the group round.
Coronavirus cases increase to 127 among Olympic athletes and personnel
Among the new cases, which have increased by 17 since yesterday, only one infected person was staying at the Olympic Village. In the greater Tokyo area, officials have reported 1,128 new cases on July 24, a 133% increase in the 7-day rolling average. U.S. Olympic & Paralympic medical director Dr. Jonathan Finnoff said at a press conference on July 23, that an estimated 83% of the U.S. athletes competing at the games are vaccinated.
Youngest Olympian eliminated from competition
Twelve-year-old Hend Zaza of Syria was eliminated from her women’s single preliminary round table tennis match.
3-on-3 basketball debuts at 2020 Games
Three-on-three basketball made its Olympic debut today with the U.S. women’s team defeating France 17-10. This Olympic version of a street game is won by being the first to 21 points, or leading after the 10-minute game clock has expired. The United States is solely represented by the U.S. women’s team, as the men’s team failed to qualify.
Formerly retired pitcher leads U.S. softball team to 3-0 start
Cat Osterman, 38, led the U.S. softball team to their third victory, a 2-0 win over Mexico on July, 24, 2021. Osterman was on the 2008 Olympic team that received the silver medal after losing to Japan.
(TOKYO) — Novak Djokovic could be on his way to making men’s tennis history with this year’s Olympic Games.
Every year, tennis players have the opportunity to achieve a Grand Slam by winning all four majors: the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open.
But every four years — or, well, five years, in this case — they have the opportunity to achieve a “Golden Slam.” That means winning all four majors and the Olympics.
It’s only ever been achieved once, by Steffi Graf in 1988. No man has ever completed a Golden Slam.
Djokovic, at the very least, is close to it. So far this year, he has won the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon. The U.S. Open takes place at the end of summer.
A Grand Slam is rare enough. No men’s tennis player has done it in a calendar year since Rod Laver in 1969 — though Djokovic did hold all four titles simultaneously from 2015 to 2016.
After debating whether he would attend the game due to COVID-19 restrictions, the world No. 1 confirmed on July 15, “I booked my flight for Tokyo and will proudly be joining #TeamSerbia for the Olympics.”
Despite that — and despite the Serbian athlete’s general dominance over the last two years — it won’t exactly be a walk in the park as Djokovic’s competition will include Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas, Germany’s Alexander Zverev and Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, representing the Russian Olympic Committee, among others.
Djokovic has made no secret of his ambitions, recently telling Montenegro’s MINA news agency, according to USOpen.org, “I am inspired to play my best tennis and confident that I can win the gold medal after a tremendous run so far this season.”
While he acknowledged the Olympics and U.S. Open would be “demanding,” he added, “But I am full of confidence and motivated to represent Serbia in the best possible way. I am yearning for a medal in Tokyo, hopefully gold, and then I’ll go to New York aiming to complete it all.”
(TOKYO) — The first gold medal of the 2020 Olympics was officially won Saturday in Japan
China’s Qian Yang earned gold in the women’s 10-meter air rifle to take home the long-awaited first medal. The 21-year-old is a rising star in the sport.
She defeated Russian Anastasiia Galashina — competing under the Russian Olympic Committee moniker — in the final. Nina Christen took the bronze for Switzerland.
The first medal events took place Saturday in Tokyo, with opportunities to win in archery, men’s cycling, fencing, judo, shooting, taekwondo and women’s weightlifting.
Although the opening ceremony just took place Friday, competition has been underway for several days, including in soccer, softball, baseball and shooting. Competition will continue through Aug. 8, when the closing ceremony will be held.
The United States won the most medals during the last Summer Olympics in 2016, coming home with 121, 46 of which were gold. China and Great Britain followed shortly after the U.S., taking home 70 and 67 medals, respectively.
Shooting takes place in several disciplines, based on different distances from targets. In the 10-meter air rifle, athletes have 75 minutes to fire 60 shots at a target. Ginny Thrasher of the U.S. won gold in 2016. Thrasher did not qualify for the 2020 Games, though American Mary Tucker finished in sixth.
The men’s 10-meter air pistol competition will be taking place later in the day.
While this is the first gold medal of the Tokyo Games, there are other notable first medals coming up. The first medals ever will be awarded over the next two weeks in skateboarding, karate, surfboarding and sport climbing, four sports that are making their Olympic debut this year.
Meanwhile, American greats like gymnast Simone Biles and sprinter Allyson Felix are competing to make medal history as individuals in their sports, and Serbian tennis icon Novak Djokovic is going for gold on his hunt for an elusive Golden Slam.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Friday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL:
INTERLEAGUE
Final N.Y. Mets 3 Toronto 0
Final Baltimore 6 Washington 1
Final Milwaukee 7 Chicago White Sox 1
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Final Tampa Bay 10 Cleveland 5
Final Boston 6 N.Y. Yankees 2
Final Kansas City 5 Detroit 3
Final Minnesota 5 L.A. Angels 4
Final Houston 7 Texas 3
Final Seattle 4 Oakland 3
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Final Chicago Cubs 8 Arizona 3
Final Philadelphia 5 Atlanta 1
Final San Diego 5 Miami 2
Final Cincinnati 6 St. Louis 5
Final Pittsburgh 6 San Francisco 4
Final Colorado 9 L.A. Dodgers 6
(CLEVELAND) — Following decades of backlash from the Native American community, Cleveland’s Major League Baseball team announced that the franchise will change its name from the Indians to the Guardians.
The team initially announced its intention to change its name in December 2020, but the new name was shared on the team’s official Twitter account Friday morning in a video narrated by actor Tom Hanks, a longtime fan.
The new name is a nod to the Guardians of Traffic, the city’s iconic statues on the Hope Memorial Bridge and is set to take effect at the end of the 2020 season.
The final decision was a product of interviews with fans, community leaders, a survey of 40,000 fans and team brainstorming sessions, which generated 1,198 name options that were winnowed down through 14 rounds of vetting, according to a Friday MLB press release.
“While inspired by the iconic sculptures of the Hope Memorial Bridge, our Guardians name is a reflection of the traits we, as Clevelanders, take pride in the most—fierce loyalty, unwavering support, and a resolve to stand side by side through thick and thin,” the franchise says on its website. “As a team, as an organization, as citizens of Cleveland, we hope to protect and preserve all that we love about this city.”
For the Native American community, including advocates in Ohio who have been urging the franchise to drop the Native American moniker for decades, the name change is welcomed but long overdue.
“We are excited. This has been a long half century of adjuration towards this name change. It is coming not a moment too soon,” Sundance, director of the Cleveland branch of the American Indian Movement, told ABC News in a phone interview on Friday, but urged the franchise to continue to engage in dialogue with the Native American community.
Sundance is a member of the Muscogee tribe who led a successful effort to change the mascot of a high school from the Oberlin Indians to the Oberlin Phoenix.
The organization he leads has been urging national and local teams with indigenous names and mascots to change their names for more than 50 years through lawsuits, protests and public appeals, arguing that making Native Americans mascots further dehumanizes a community that has been oppressed for centuries.
“For the moment we’re just all floating on the good news that the name is changed, but I hope this does not mean that Cleveland baseball has ceased to dialogue,” he said. “I am hoping that this will be an avenue for them to meet the Native community in northeast Ohio on an even playing field,” he added.
The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), the country’s oldest and largest American Indian and Alaska Native tribal government organization, applauded Cleveland baseball’s name change in a statement on Friday.
“The Cleveland baseball team has taken another important step forward in healing the harms its former mascot caused Native people, in particular Native youth,” NCAI President Fawn Sharp said. “We call on the other professional sports teams and thousands of schools across the country that still cling to their antiquated Native ‘themed’ mascots to immediately follow suit.”
Before deciding to change their name the Cleveland team stopped using the Chief Wahoo logo on their uniforms in 2019.
“Hearing firsthand the stories and experiences of Native American people, we gained a deep understanding of how tribal communities feel about the team name and the detrimental effects it has on them,” team owner and chairman Paul Dolan said in a statement in December 2020.
He also said in an interview with The Associated Press at the time that the police killing of George Floyd was an “awakening or epiphany” that contributed to the team’s decision.
Amid nationwide protests and an energized civil rights movement sparked by the killing of Floyd, Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, announced in July 2020 that the team would change its name to the Washington Football Team, after FedEx, which has naming rights to the stadium, requested a change.
According to an October 2020 FiveThirtyEight analysis, hundreds of schools across the country still use Native Americans as their team mascots — monikers widely seen as racist and dehumanizing to the Native American community.
(TOKYO) — After a yearlong delay and a string of scandals, the 2020 Summer Olympics is officially opening in Tokyo.
All eyes are on the opening ceremony to see whether the host city can not only put on a good show but also lift spirits and unite a world battered by a raging pandemic. The event, which is taking place in Tokyo’s newly rebuilt Olympic Stadium, began Friday at 8 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET) and is being broadcast live on NBC.
The Games were initially scheduled to kick off in the Japanese capital last summer but were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Here are key moments from the opening ceremony. All times Eastern:
Jul 23, 7:45 am
Ceremony commences with light-filled dance, national anthem performance
The opening ceremony kicked off with a dance inspired by how sports can bring people together after a difficult year marked by a global pandemic. Bright, moving lights filled the empty venue and the rhythm was meant to imitate a heartbeat as dozens of Japanese performers pranced across the stadium.
Arisua Tsubata, a boxer and nurse who treated COVID-19 patients, helmed the opening dance performance from a treadmill in the center of the stadium grounds.
Following the colorful dance event, the Japanese national anthem was sung by artist MISIA as the as the iconic flag was raised by members of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces.
Japan’s Emperor Naruhito was in attendance, taking on the same role his grandfather held when he opened the Tokyo Olympics in 1964.
The ceremony then featured percussive performances meant to honor traditional Japanese carpentry arts. Beloved Japanese tap dancer Kazunori Kumagai also made a cameo performance.
Fireworks erupted over the stadium, lighting up the sky and officially commencing the Summer Olympics.
Jul 23, 7:04 am
Opening ceremony kicks off
The opening ceremony for the 2020 Summer Olympics has begun in Tokyo.
The event at Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium, which is virtually empty, will feature a lighting of the Olympic cauldron, some of the athletes and plenty of music.
Basketball player Sue Bird and baseball player Eddy Alvares have been selected to carry the flag for Team USA during the lap of the stadium.
Traditionally, each nation chooses just one flag-bearer. But this year, countries have been encouraged to select both a male and female representative to carry their flag.
The stands will be virtually empty with less than 1,000 people in the venue, which can hold up to 68,000.
No spectators are allowed to attend the opening ceremony — or any event in an Olympic venue in Tokyo during the Games — as part of efforts to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection. There are also a limited number of athletes and dignitaries in attendance. U.S. first lady Jill Biden is among them.
The Tokyo Olympics organizing committee and the Japanese government have faced criticism for pushing ahead with the Games this year, despite public health concerns amid rising COVID-19 cases. The opening ceremony is already mired in controversy of its own, with the latest incident happening on the eve of the event. The Tokyo Olympics organizing committee fired the ceremony’s director, Kentaro Kobayashi, over a joke he made about the Holocaust as a comedian in 1998.
“We have been preparing for the last year to send a positive message,” Seiko Hashimoto, president of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, said during a press conference Thursday. “Toward the very end now there are so many incidents that give a negative image toward Tokyo 2020.”
