(TOKYO) — American Carissa Moore grabbed a typhoon by the tail and rode into the history books on Tuesday, becoming the first woman ever to win a gold medal in surfing at the Olympics.
The 28-year-old Hawaiian, the world’s No. 1 ranked woman surfer, burst into tears as she emerged from the water at Japan’s Shidashita Beach following her victorious performance on waves stoked up by Typhoon Nepartak swirling in the Pacific Ocean. She was lifted on the shoulders of Team USA coaches as she wrapped herself in an American flag.
Moore’s win came after she bested South Africa’s Bianca Buitendag in the head-to-head finale of the inaugural surfing event at the Tokyo Games.
A four-time World Surfing League champion, Moore posted a combined score of 14.93 to Buitendag’s 8.46. Buitendag settled for the silver medal and with Moore well ahead of her, left the water early to allow the Olympic champion the spotlight as she surfed to shore to the applause of her teammates and coaches.
Moore was the only member of Team USA to advance to the medal round after winning her heats in the quarterfinals and semifinals.
Her teammate Caroline Marks, 19, of Melbourne Beach, Florida, the sixth-ranked woman’s surfer in the world, was nudged out of the medal round by Japan’s Amuro Tsuzuki, 20, who went on to claim a bronze medal.
On the men’s side, American Kolohe Andino, 27, of San Clemente, California, who holds seven USA Surfing Champion titles, was knocked out of the competition in the quarterfinals by Kanoa Igarashi, 23, of Japan, who went on to win a silver medal.
Brazil’s Italo Ferreira, 27, was crowned Olympic gold medal champion with his win over Igarashi.
Owen Wright, 31, of Australia, claimed the bronze medal with an upset win over Gabriel Medina, 27, of Brazil, the No. 1 ranked male surfer in the world.
(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 Summer Olympics is taking place without fans or spectators and under a state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Simone Biles withdraws from women’s gymnastics team final
After a rare stumble on her first vault, American gymnastics star Simone Biles withdrew from the team competition, leaving Team USA’s Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles and Grace McCallum to finish the event. Biles, the reigning Olympic champion, pulled out “due to a medical issue,” USA Gymnastics said in a statement Tuesday.
All eyes were on Biles, considered the greatest gymnast in history, to see if she would attempt a Yurchenko double pike on vault. Instead, she bailed in the middle of her Amanar attempt, bringing down the difficulty level of her vault. Her score of 13.766 was remarkably low for Biles. Afterwards, Biles left the competition floor.
Alaskan swimmer Lydia Jacoby wins gold, U.S. takes lead in medal count
American swimmer Lydia Jacoby won the gold medal in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke. Jacoby, 17, is the first athlete from Alaska to make the U.S. Olympic swim team. Her teammate Lilly King, who was favored to win, took home the bronze.
Team USA now leads the Tokyo Olympics with 22 medals, including 9 gold.
Team USA’s Carissa Moore takes the gold in surfing
Team USA’s Carissa Moore won the first-ever Olympic gold medal for women’s surfing in high waves brought by an incoming storm. The surfing finals were moved up a day to take advantage of the offshore push before conditions deteriorate.
It’s the first time that surfing has been included on the Olympic schedule for the Summer Games.
Tropical Storm Nepartak to make landfall in latest challenge for Olympics
Other sports were less enthusiastic about the approaching storm as rainy conditions descended over Japan. Olympic officials have rescheduled archery and rowing events as Tropical Storm Nepartak, which was downgraded from a typhoon, is forecast to make landfall north of Tokyo on Tuesday.
COVID-19 cases at Tokyo Olympics climb to 160
There were seven newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 among people at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday, including two athletes and two personnel who were staying at the Olympic village. The total now stands at 160, according to data released by the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee.
The surrounding city of Tokyo reported 2,848 new cases on Tuesday, an increase in the rolling seven-day average of 149.4%, according to data released by the Tokyo metropolitan government.
Osaka exits early in emotional loss
Japanese tennis superstar Naomi Osaka lost to Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-4 in the women’s tennis singles and with it, her chances to bring home the gold for Japan.
An outpouring of support followed Osaka’s exit, coming just days after she led her country in lighting the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony.
U.S. women’s basketball wins 50th consecutive Olympic game
The U.S. women’s basketball team defeated Nigeria 81-72 in their opening game to acheive the milestone of 50 consecutive Olympic wins. Players A’ja Wilson, Brittney Griner and Sue Bird, one of Team USA’s flag bearers at the Olympic opening ceremony last week, led the team to victory.
(TOKYO) — Simone Biles left competition early at the Tokyo Olympics team competition Tuesday after a rare stumble on vault, NBC announced and the International Gymnastics Federation wrote on Twitter.
She will not be competing in the rest of the competition for the team event.
USA Gymnastics said in a statement, “Simone has withdrawn from the team final competition due to a medical issue. She will be assessed daily to determine medical clearance for future competitions.”
NBC had reported earlier that her coach said she withdrew due to a “mental issue.” Details were not immediately clear.
All eyes were on Biles to see if she would attempt a Yurchenko double pike on vault. Instead, as the Americans opened competition on vault, Biles bailed in the middle of her Amanar attempt, bringing down the difficulty level of her vault.
Rather than 2.5 twists, she only did 1.5, resulting in a score of 13.766 — remarkably low for Biles’ standard. The Americans ended that first rotation, out of four, about a point lower than the athletes from Russia.
After that vault, Biles spoke with her coach and a trainer. She left the competition floor and returned as her teammates were preparing for uneven bars. She has since stood by her team, wearing sweats and cheering them on.
The U.S. women’s gymnastics team is competing in the team finals at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday, seeking to bring home the gold for the third time in a row.
This is one of the strongest gymnastics teams the world has seen, led by all-time great Biles and uneven bars phenom Sunisa Lee. The team is rounded out by Jordan Chiles, who’s powerful on floor, and Grace McCallum.
During qualifiers for the final this past weekend, the Americans were surpassed by athletes from Russia competing under the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).
The U.S. ended with a cumulative score of 170.562, while the athletes from Russia finished with 171.629. While those numbers do not factor into the finals scores, it sent a message to the previously dominant American team.
“I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times,” Biles posted on Instagram after the qualifying event. “I know I brush it off and make it seem like pressure doesn’t affect me but damn sometimes it’s hard hahaha! The olympics is no joke!”
The U.S. has medaled in every women’s gymnastics team event at the Olympics since 1992. That included three golds, two silvers and two bronzes.
In the team event, three athletes from a four-person team compete on each apparatus. For the women, this includes balance beam, uneven bars, vault and floor.
The U.S. men’s gymnastics team came in fifth at their final Monday.
Both individual American men and women will have more opportunities for medals as the all-around and apparatus finals take place later in the Games. While Biles had qualified for those individual events, it remains to be determined if she will be able to compete.
(TOKYO) — The U.S. won silver in the gymnastics team competition at the Tokyo Olympics after Simone Biles left competition early following a rare stumble on vault Tuesday.
She did not compete in the rest of the competition for the team event.
USA Gymnastics said in a statement, “Simone has withdrawn from the team final competition due to a medical issue. She will be assessed daily to determine medical clearance for future competitions.”
NBC had reported earlier that her coach said she withdrew due to a “mental issue.” Details were not immediately clear.
All eyes were on Biles to see if she would attempt a Yurchenko double pike on vault. Instead, as the Americans opened competition on vault, Biles bailed in the middle of her Amanar attempt, bringing down the difficulty level of her vault.
Rather than 2.5 twists, she only did 1.5, resulting in a score of 13.766 — remarkably low for Biles’ standard.
After that vault, Biles spoke with her coach and a trainer. She left the competition floor and returned as her teammates were preparing for uneven bars. She went on to stand by her team, wearing sweats and cheering them on for the rest of the event.
The U.S. women’s gymnastics team was competing in the team finals at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday, seeking to bring home the gold for the third time in a row.
The athletes from Russia came out on top, beating the Americans’ cumulative score by more than three points.
This was one of the strongest gymnastics teams the world has seen, led by all-time great Biles and uneven bars phenom Sunisa Lee. The team was rounded out by Jordan Chiles, who’s powerful on floor, and Grace McCallum.
During qualifiers for the final this past weekend, the Americans were surpassed by athletes from Russia competing under the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).
“I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times,” Biles posted on Instagram after the qualifying event. “I know I brush it off and make it seem like pressure doesn’t affect me but damn sometimes it’s hard hahaha! The olympics is no joke!”
The U.S. has medaled in every women’s gymnastics team event at the Olympics since 1992. That included three golds, two silvers and two bronzes.
In the team event, three athletes from a four-person team compete on each apparatus. For the women, this includes balance beam, uneven bars, vault and floor.
The U.S. men’s gymnastics team came in fifth at their final Monday.
Both individual American men and women will have more opportunities for medals as the all-around and apparatus finals take place later in the Games. While Biles had qualified for those individual events, it remains to be determined if she will be able to compete.
(TOKYO) — Naomi Osaka, ranked second and competing in her home country, will leave the Tokyo Olympics without a medal.
Osaka, 23, lost to Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-4 in the third round of the Olympic tennis tournament on Tuesday.
“I’m disappointed in every loss, but I feel like this one sucks more than the others,” Osaka said after the match, according to ESPN.
Osaka was born in Japan but raised in the United States. She lit the Olympic cauldron during the opening ceremony last week in Tokyo, a moment that she described as “undoubtedly the greatest athletic achievement and honor I will ever have in my life.”
The Tokyo Olympics marked Osaka’s first tournament back after taking a mental health break from professional tennis this summer.
Osaka withdrew from the French Open in June after being penalized for not doing post-match press conferences, which she said at the beginning of the tournament she would not do to preserve her mental health.
The tennis superstar also decided not to compete in Wimbledon. Her agent said at the time that Osaka would be “ready for the Olympics and is excited to play in front of her home fans.”
Osaka acknowledged the huge expectations she faced as she competed in her first Olympics.
“I definitely feel like there was a lot of pressure for this,” Osaka said after her loss. “I think it’s maybe because I haven’t played in the Olympics before and for the first year [it] was a bit much.”
“I’ve taken long breaks before and I’ve managed to do well,” added Osaka, who, according to ESPN, met with a small group of reporters after her loss. “I’m not saying that I did bad right now, but I do know that my expectations were a lot higher.”
“I feel like my attitude wasn’t that great because I don’t really know how to cope with that pressure, so that’s the best that I could have done in this situation,” she said.
ABC and ESPN are both owned by parent company, The Walt Disney Co.
(TOKYO) — Naomi Osaka, ranked second and competing in her home country, will leave the Tokyo Olympics without a medal.
Osaka, 23, lost to Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-4 in the third round of the Olympic tennis tournament on Tuesday.
“I’m disappointed in every loss, but I feel like this one sucks more than the others,” Osaka said after the match, according to ESPN.
Osaka was born in Japan but raised in the United States. She lit the Olympic cauldron during the opening ceremony last week in Tokyo, a moment that she described as “undoubtedly the greatest athletic achievement and honor I will ever have in my life.”
The Tokyo Olympics marked Osaka’s first tournament back after taking a mental health break from professional tennis this summer.
Osaka withdrew from the French Open in June after being penalized for not doing post-match press conferences, which she said at the beginning of the tournament she would not do to preserve her mental health.
The tennis superstar also decided not to compete in Wimbledon. Her agent said at the time that Osaka would be “ready for the Olympics and is excited to play in front of her home fans.”
Osaka acknowledged the huge expectations she faced as she competed in her first Olympics.
“I definitely feel like there was a lot of pressure for this,” Osaka said after her loss. “I think it’s maybe because I haven’t played in the Olympics before and for the first year [it] was a bit much.”
“I’ve taken long breaks before and I’ve managed to do well,” added Osaka, who, according to ESPN, met with a small group of reporters after her loss. “I’m not saying that I did bad right now, but I do know that my expectations were a lot higher.”
“I feel like my attitude wasn’t that great because I don’t really know how to cope with that pressure, so that’s the best that I could have done in this situation,” she said.
ABC and ESPN are both owned by parent company, The Walt Disney Co.
(NEW YORK) — American Katie Ledecky is looking to further cement her name in swim history with a race making its Olympic debut in Tokyo.
The 1,500-meter freestyle had previously only been available to men at the Olympics. But this year, as the Games became more gender-equal, the distance race was opened up to women.
Ledecky is a favorite to win the race. During qualifiers Monday, she set the official Olympic record at 15:35:35. That was about 15 seconds slower than the world record — which she set in 2018.
The 24-year-old has already medaled once in Tokyo, winning the silver in the 400-meter freestyle. Australian Ariarne Titmus took home that gold.
“I can’t be disappointed with that,” Ledecky said of that race, according to Team USA. “It was my second best swim ever, and I fought tooth and nail. That’s all you can ask for.”
As a distance freestyle swimmer, her bigger events are the 800- and 1,500-meter races.
The heavily decorated Olympian won one gold in 2012 and four golds and one silver in 2016 at the Games. In addition to the 1,500 and 400, she’ll look to add to her count with the 200-meter and 800-meter freestyle races.
The Olympics have made the competition more gender-equal by incorporating new events for women and more mixed-gender teams in various sports. This impacts athletes in sports like boxing, rowing and shooting, in addition to swim.
Tokyo marks a “turning point” for the elite international sporting competition as the most gender-equal Olympics in the Games’ history, organizers said, with women accounting for nearly 49% of the 11,090 athletes.
(DALLAS) — The University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma have notified the Big 12 that they will not renew its grant of media rights in 2025, according to a joint statement.
“Providing notice to the Big 12 at this point is important in advance of the expiration of the conference’s current media rights agreement,” the statement said. “The universities intend to honor their existing grant of rights agreements. However, both universities will continue to monitor the rapidly evolving collegiate athletics landscape as they consider how best to position their athletics programs for the future.”
Multiple media reports have said Texas and Oklahoma are looking to move to the SEC.
“Although our eight members are disappointed with the decisions of these two institutions, we recognize that intercollegiate athletics is experiencing rapid change and will most likely look much different in 2025 than it does currently,” said Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby in a statement. “The Big 12 Conference will continue to support our member institutions’ efforts to graduate student-athletes, and compete for Big 12 and NCAA championships. Like many others, we will use the next four years to fully assess what the landscape will look like in 2025 and beyond. The remaining eight institutions will work together in a collaborative manner to thoughtfully and strategically position the Big 12 Conference for continued success, both athletically and academically, long into the future.”
According to ESPN, next up for Texas and Oklahoma will be to let the SEC know they want to join the conference. 11 of the conference’s 14 schools would then need to vote them into the league.
(INDIANAPOLIS) — Indianapolis Colts head coach Frank Reich has tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss the start of training camp, the team announced Monday.
The first practice of training camp is on Wednesday.
“I’m excited for training camp, however, I’m disappointed I won’t be there with the team as we start,” Reich said in a statement. “I’m fortunate to be fully vaccinated and I’m asymptomatic. I’m feeling well and I’m looking forward to returning as soon as I’m medically cleared.”
Reich is entering his fourth year with the team and has a 28-20 record.
Colts general manager Chris Ballard told reporters Reich will still be involved with the team when quarantining.
“Frank’s still a part of it,” Ballard said. “With everything we learned a year ago with Zoom, he’s still involved. He’s in meetings through Zoom, he’ll be in team meetings through Zoom, he’s in contact with the coaches, we have staff meetings every morning, and he’s in constant contact with everybody.”
Ballard did not give a timeline for Reich to return to the team.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, this month 13 staffers and four players across the NFL have tested positive for the coronavirus.
(TOKYO) — Three of the four members of Team USA have advanced to the quarterfinals of surfing’s debut at the Tokyo Olympics with Caroline Marks and Kolohe Andino emerging from the waters off Japan’s Shidashita Beach with the highest scores in the opening heats.
For Andino, 27, of San Clemente, California, who holds seven USA Surfing Champion titles, victory was bittersweet because he knocked teammate John John Florence, 28, of Oahu, Hawaii, out of the competition during a head-to-head faceoff on Monday.
Andino earned the highest score in the first two days of competition with an 8.5 out of a possible 10 from the judges on a ride he described as “really rad and one for the history books.”
With waves churned up to 7 feet by a developing typhoon far north of Shidashita Beach, Andino nailed what an announcer described as a “slob frontside air reverse” in which he caught air off the lip of a wave, grabbed onto his surfboard with one hand and landed on the face of the wave in a reverse position before spinning forward.
On the women’s side, Team USA’s 19-year-old Caroline Marks and Carissa Moore, 28, of Honolulu, the world’s No. 1 ranked surfer, both moved on to the quarterfinals.
Moore, who holds four World Surfing League titles, narrowly defeated Peru’s Sofia Mulanovich, 38, in a one-on-one competition on Monday.
Marks, the sixth-ranked female surfer in the world, enters the quarterfinals after achieving the highest overall score of any woman or man in the third round of the inaugural surfing event. In her two best heats she scored an 8 and 7.33 for a combined total of 15.33.
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 that conditions off the Pacific Coast of Japan are looking good for the remainder of the week. In his latest forecast for Surfline.com, Korte said surfers can expect smaller waves for the quarterfinals on Tuesday, with “peaky swell mix in the head-high range with well overhead sets.”
Korte said Tropical Cyclone Nepartak well off Japan’s Pacific Coast was easing up and not producing the bigger more challenging waves competitors saw over the weekend.
16 to surf it out in quarterfinals
Sixteen of the 40 surfers from 17 countries who qualified for the Olympics move onto the quarterfinals. But big stars in the surfing world like Florence and Australia’s Stephanie Gilmore, a seven-time world champion, were eliminated in the earlier rounds.
“It wasn’t my best performance but sometimes you’ve just got to take those heat wins and roll with it,” Moore, now the heavy favorite to win gold, said after squeaking into the quarterfinals. “It was crazy to see some top seeds bow out earlier this morning. It just goes to show that these conditions are very tricky.”
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 are exclusively a shortboard affair, meaning surfboards are less than 7 feet long, with pointy noses and usually three small fins on the underside.
A five-judge panel bases scores on a scale of 1 to 10 that can include decimal points. Competitors are 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.
Surfing fans are watching to see if Moore will perform the maneuver again on the world’s biggest stage.
In each heat, surfers are 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 semifinals round and, eventually, the medal round.
Following her first day of competition on Sunday, in which Moore won a tough battle with Teresa Bonvalot of Portugal, Moore admitted to having Olympic jitters.
“I actually had a little mini-meltdown because of all the nerves and the anxiety and stuff that had built up,” Moore said during a press conference.
Since then she said she has felt a “sense of calm” with each round of surfing.
“Whatever happens, I’ve done everything I could, and now it’s time to have fun,” Moore said.
