Olympics News: US women's volleyball makes it to the quarterfinals

The U.S. women’s volleyball team won their third consecutive match at the Olympics. They are guaranteed a place in the quarterfinals.

The Americans defeated Turkey 25-19, 25-20 and 17-25, 20-25 and 15-12 in their third match in pool play to join Italy at Pool B, 3-0.

The United States seeks its first gold medal in this sport. It has a strong start in Tokyo, with wins over Argentina and China.

Brazil, Serbia, Italy and Serbia have all clinched quarters spots. The remaining four spots are still to be determined.

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MEDAL ALERT

Chen Meng beat Sun Yingsha, a Chinese teammate, to win the women's singles table-tennis title at the Olympics.

This victory marks a return to winning form by China after a disappointing loss in mixed doubles against a Japanese team in gold medal match. Every Olympic gold medal in singles has been won by Chinese women.

Sun won the first game 11-9, but Chen, who is the top-ranked player in the world, won the second and third 11-6 and 11-4. Sun won the fourth game 11-5, with Chen winning the fifth 11-4.

Chen won the final game 11-9 and she immediately hugged her coach. Then, both players took turns posing with their paddles and the Chinese flag.

Mima Ito from Japan won bronze against Yu Mengyu from Singapore.

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MEDAL ALERT

Sunisa Lee became fifth consecutive American woman to win the Olympic women's all around title. Rebeca Andrade from Brazil won her battle in an entertaining, hotly contested final. Simone Biles sat on the stands and watched.

Lee's score of 57.433 was enough to surpass Andrade. Although the Brazilian gymnast all-around medal was won by a Latin American athlete, she missed out on gold because she twice stepped out of bounds during her floor routine.

Russian gymnast Angelina Melnikova won bronze just two days after she led ROC to gold in their team final.

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MEDAL ALERT

Russian fencers won the gold medal in the women's foil competition by defeating France 45-34 in final.

The Russians continued their pursuit of gold, despite Marta Martyanova's injury to her ankle in the early medical timeout. She continued to participate in the contest, contributing 14 points.

Five fencing medals were won in Tokyo by the Russian Olympic Committee women's team. France was the first country to reach the podium in women's foil since 1984.

Italy defeated the United States 45 to 23, for the bronze medal, making it the seventh consecutive Olympic gold medal.

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In the final of women's all around gymnastics, it will be down to the wire.

Rebeca Andrade, Brazil, leads the way with a score 29.966 after two rounds. Sunisa Lee from the U.S. is next at 29.900, followed by Angelina Melnikova of the ROC and Vladislava Urazova.

For the final two rotations, the gymnasts will move to floor and balance beam.

Each of the four Olympic all-around titles has been won by an American. Andrade hopes to be the first Latin American female gymnast to win the all-around.

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Caeleb Dressel, just a few hours after he won the first individual gold medal in his career, has returned to the pool and tied an Olympic record in the preliminaries for the 100-meter butterfly.

Dressel was the first to touch the finish line in the final eight heats. His time was 50.39 seconds. This is the same time Dressel beat Joseph Schooling, who won gold at Rio Olympics 2016. Dressel holds the 49.50 world record, which was set in Gwangju two years ago.

Kristof Milak, from Hungary, was the second fastest qualifier and advanced to Friday's semifinals with a time of 50.62. Milak has already won the 200 butterfly gold.

A few big names did not make it to the top 16, but that was what was required to move up.

Chad le Clos, the South African gold medalist, was 18th. Schooling was 44th with the fastest time. Only 11 swimmers were slower than Michael Phelps, the Olympic champion.

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Simone Biles stands with American teammates Sunisa Lee and Jade Carey at the Olympic women's gymnastics all around final.

Biles won qualifying, but she chose not to defend her Rio de Janeiro title. She wanted to concentrate on her mental health. Biles was accompanied by Grace McCallum and Jordan Chiles to cheer on Carey and Lee.

Following the first rotation, Rebeca Andrade from Brazil leads the way. Carey and Angelina Melnikova are next.

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Katie Ledecky is now in the final of her last Olympic event. She posted the fastest preliminaries time for the 800-meter freestyle.

After anchoring the United States to a Silver Medal in the 4x200 Free Relay during the morning session Ledecky returned to Tokyo Aquatics Centre in evening to post the top qualifying time at 8 minutes 15.67 seconds.

Katie Grimes from the USA was second at 8:17. Ariarne Titmus from Australia, who is a double gold medalist in the Australian Olympic Games, advanced to Saturday's final to set up a fourth, final showdown against Ledecky.

Ledecky will seek her second gold medal at these games, and her sixth individual medal overall. This would make Ledecky the most successful female swimmer. Her current tie is with Krisztina, a Hungarian great.

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Simone Biles, the reigning champion in all-around gymnastics for women, is not present at the final.

Biles withdrew from the competition Wednesday in order to concentrate on her mental health. The gold medal bid is still open.

American Sunisa Lee, Brazil’s Rebeca andrade and Russian athletes Angelina Melnikova, Vladislava Urazova, were all separated by just tenths of a second during qualifying. American Jade Carey was able to compete after Biles withdrew.

Starting on vault, the six top qualifying gymnasts will move onto uneven bars, balance beam, and floor.

Each of the four Olympic titles have been won by an American. Simona Amanar, a Romanian woman who won the 2000 Sydney Olympics gold medal, was the last non-American to do so.

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Novak Djokovic has reached the medal rounds in the Olympic tennis tournament.

The top-ranked Serb defeated Japan's Kei Nishikori 6-2,6-0 to reach the semifinals. He will now be attempting to win a Golden Slam.

In 1988, Steffi Graf was the only tennis player to win the Golden Slam. She won all four Grand Slam tournaments as well as Olympic gold.

Djokovic is already the winner of the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and Wimbledon this year. He needs the Tokyo Games title as well as the U.S. Open trophy in order to complete the Golden Slam.

Alexander Zverev from Germany and Jeremy Chardy from France will be Djokovic’s semifinal opponents.

Djokovic would play against Nina Stojanovic, her Serbian partner, in the quarterfinals of mixed doubles.

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MEDAL ALERT

Aaron Wolf won Japan's eighth gold medal for judo, beating Cho Gu-ham from South Korea 5:35 into the golden score. This was his first Olympic title in men's 100-kilogram judo.

Wolf, whose father was American, won the final bout by ippon using an ouchi-gari toss. Wolf defeated Varlam Liparteliani, a veteran Georgian wrestler, in the semifinals to reach the Olympic final.

Japan won eight golds, one gold, and one silver medals from the 12 first judo weight classes. This adds to their record number of medals in national martial arts. Both gold medals at the Budokan were won by Shori Hamada and Wolf (women's weight 78 kg).

Bronze was won by Russian athlete Niiaz Ilyasov and Jorge Fonseca, Portugal's two-time champion at the world. Fonseca was defeated by Cho in the semifinals.

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Allison Schmitt's swim in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay for women is a rare feat.

Schmitt was the fourth American woman to win 10 Olympic medals. For her leadoff leg at Tokyo Aquatics Centre, she was awarded a silver.

As she participates in her fourth Olympics, the 31-year old Schmitt is team captain. In Tokyo, she has won a pair of relay medals and a bronze for her swimming in the preliminaries in the 4x100 free relay.

Schmitt has now won four golds, three Silvers, and three Bronzes throughout her career. Only three other American female swimmers have won more: Jenny Thompson, Dara Turres, and Natalie Coughlin. Each of them had 12 career medals.

Schmitt wept when she was asked about her achievement. Schmitt said that "getting to Olympics is hard." It is even more difficult to win an Olympic medal.

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ALERT MEDAL

Shori Hamada won Japan's seventh gold medal for judo at Tokyo Olympics. She defeated Madeleine Malonga, a former world champion. Madeleine Malonga was defeated by Shori Hamada in the women's final of judo (78-kilogram). Shori Hamada was ippon 1:08 into the final.

This result reversed the outcome of their bout in the 2019 World Championship Final, which was also held at Tokyo. Hamada pinched Malonga quickly and won the ippon to earn her first Olympic medal at Budokan.

Hamada won the 2018 title and is now the third Japanese woman to have won gold. With nine medals in the first eleven weight classes, the home nation is dominating homegrown martial arts.

Germany's Anna-Maria Wagner, the current world champion, and Brazil's Mayra Anguiar won bronze.

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MEDAL ALERT

Jessica Fox from Australia is the first woman to win gold in the women's canoe-slalom at the Tokyo Games.

Fox won the final race and swept it. She beat Mallory Franklin, a silver medallist from Britain. Fox ran 105.04 seconds through rapids at the Kasai Canoe Slalom Center to win the title.

She ran a smooth race, without any mistakes or penalty seconds. This was the same run that she used to win bronze in the kayak slalom just two days before.

In a push to ensure gender equality, the Olympics added 18 new events this year. It replaces the double canoe-slalom for men.

Andrea Herzog, Germany won bronze

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MEDAL ALERT

Jiri Liptak, a Czech shooter, has defeated David Kostelecky to win the men's trap gold at Tokyo Olympics.

After 50 shots, Liptak and Kostelecky were tied. They hit 43 targets to establish an Olympic record. Both shooters hit six of the seven targets in the shootoff, while Kostelecky missed the seventh.

Bronze was won by Matthew Coward-Holley of Great Britain.

Liptak placed 18th at London 2012 Games. However, he did not compete in Rio five year ago. Kostelecky won his second Olympic medal with the same gold medal he won at Beijing Games 2008.

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After American pole vaulter Sam Kendricks was positive for COVID-19, more than 50 Australian athletes and officials were temporarily isolated from their rooms at the Olympics.

Kendricks is the two-time world champion and has been ruled out of the Games.

According to the Australian Olympic Committee, three of its athletes are still being isolated following "a brief casual interaction with a U.S. track & field athlete who had tested positively." They can train but not with other members.

According to the Australian Olympic Committee, all three had negative results and would be tested daily. All three were vaccinated. They were not named by the committee.

The remaining 41 Aussie athletes were also allowed to return to their normal routines, as were 13 officials. All athletes will be expected to participate as planned, according to the committee. The track and field events start Friday.

Kendricks was a strong contender in Tokyo for gold. While his father posted that his son was healthy, he was informed by social media that he had tested positive for the virus while in Tokyo. He was placed in isolation at a hotel.

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A German Olympic team official cycling will be sent home after using a racist slur in the men's time trials.

Patrick Moster, the German Cycling Federation's sports director, was responsible for overseeing the Tokyo Olympics cycling team.

The slur was used to describe an Algerian rider while encouraging a German rider, however, to catch up. It was broadcast on television.

Alfons Hormann, president of the German National Olympic Committee, says Moster's apology was sincere but that fair play and respect are not negotiable for the German team.

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MEDAL ALERT

Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova, Slovakia, has broken the Olympic record for women's trap. This was done to deny the United States an Olympic record in shotgun gold at the Tokyo Olympics.

Rehak Stefecekova, who beat American Kayle Browning, hit 43 of the 50 targets at Asaka Shooting Range.

Alessandro Perilli won bronze, the first medal in San Marino’s 61-year Olympic tradition.

Amerika's Amber English and Vincent Hancock opened the shotgun events on Tuesday by sweep-skeeting.

Rehak Stefecekova, a 37-year-old officer in the police, won silver at the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Games. She missed Rio 2016 because of the birth her son.

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According to the IOC's medical director, COVID-19 cases from the Tokyo Games do not pose a problem for the city's health system.

Officials claim that 198 people who were accredited to the Tokyo Games tested positive for COVID-19 between July 1 and Wednesday. This includes 23 athletes. Three new cases were reported Wednesday by athletes who were staying at the Olympic Village.

Olympic organizers claim that two of the 198 athletes are in hospital. Both of these cases are not considered severe.

Richard Budgett, Medical Director, says that athletes are being cared for by the team's medical staff and a village polyclinic.

He said he is confident that the Olympics will not affect Japan's essential secondary care or hospital provision.

Tokyo reported 3,177 coronavirus new cases on Wednesday. This is an all-time record and surpasses 3,000 for the first ever.

Experts believe that Tokyo's surge may be caused by the more contagious Delta variant of the virus. The evidence is not clear that the disease could be transmitted to the general population from Olympic participants.

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American pole vault champion Sam Kendricks will not be competing in the Olympics due to positive COVID-19 tests.

Kendricks' father posted on social media that his son was healthy, but was informed in Tokyo that he had tested positive for symptoms and was therefore out of the contest.

The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee confirmed this news and stated that Kendricks was now in isolation at a hotel. The USA Track and Field and the USOPC are supporting him.

Kendricks won bronze at the 2016 Olympics, and took home gold at the two previous world championships. At 19 feet, 10 1/2 ins (6.06 meters), he holds the American record.

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UPSET ALERT

China surprised Australia and the U.S. with their world-record performance at the women's 4x200 meter freestyle relay.

Katie Ledecky, who was almost 2 seconds behind the Chinese but also trailing the Aussies in third place on the anchor leg for America, took it.

Ledecky beat Australia's Leah Neale, closing the gap on China's Li Bingjie. But she couldn't catch her at the finish.

Li reached the finish line in 7 minutes 40.33 seconds, depriving Ariarne Titmus and Ledecky of another gold medal. Titmus won the individual 200 and 400 titles free of charge, and then he took off for Australia in relay.

Silver was claimed by the Americans in 7:40.73. Bronze went to Australia in 7:41.29. This was the second swimming world record at Tokyo Games. In fact, all three medalists broke 7:41.50 that the Australians had set at the 2019 world championships.

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Phil Dalhausser, Nick Lucena and Nick Lucena continue to play in the Olympic beach volleyball tournament.

To improve their round-robin record to 2-1, the Americans defeated Nicolas Capogrosso and Julian Azaad of Argentina 21-19. This is good enough for at least one match in Tokyo.

The preliminary stage has seen American teams score 8-1. There is still one match for three other teams.

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USA Climbing's head coach Josh Larsen has returned home to the United States following the passing of his father.

Larson will temporarily be replaced by Meg Coyne as assistant coach and national team manager.

At the Tokyo Games, sport climbing will make its Olympic debut. The qualification rounds for the men begin on August 3. The qualification rounds for women begin on Aug. 3.

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Mariana Pajon, Columbia's reigning BMX racing champion, and Connor Fields, the United States have advanced to the semifinals at Tokyo Olympics.

Pajon is the only BMX rider who has won two Olympic gold medals. To finish with three points, she won all three of her qualifying rounds. American Alise Willoughby was her top challenger and she won all three of her qualifying runs.

Fields, a 2016 Rio Olympics gold medalist, won two qualifying heats while finishing second in another. France's Sylvain André and Joris Daudet won all three heats.

Niek Kimmann, a former world champion from the Netherlands, won two heats to qualify. He was involved in an accident with a race steward after he had stumbled onto the course during a Monday training run.

The top four riders in each semifinal will advance to Friday's finals.

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Simone Biles expressed gratitude to social media for all the support since she dropped out of the Tokyo Olympics women's team gymnastics final.

After the first rotation vault, she withdrew because she wasn't in the right mindspace to compete.

She gave up on her chance to defend her all round title a day later.

"The most decorated gymnast has ever tweeted, "The outpouring of love & support that I've received have made me realize that I'm so much more than my achievements and gymnastics. This is something I've never believed in before."

Biles has yet to decide if she will participate in the individual events.

The all-around competition for women is on Thursday night Tokyo Time, while the individual events begin Sunday.

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MEDAL ALERT

Caeleb Dressel, an American swimmer, has won the first individual Olympic gold medal.

Dressel defeated Australia's Kyle Chalmers with a sprint to the wall. The Olympic record for winning was 47.02 seconds.

Dressel defeated Chalmers by just six-hundredthsof a second. This left the 2016 winner with a silver award. Kliment Kolesenikov of Russia claimed the bronze.

All three of Dressel's first gold medals were in relays.

He now has one all to himself.

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MEDAL ALERT

China won its first Olympic gold medal.

Zhang Yufei turned in a dominating performance to win the women's 200-meter butterfly with an Olympic-record time of 2 minutes, 3.86 seconds. Regan Smith and HaliFlickinger were more than a length ahead of her.

Smith won the silver in 2:05.30, while Smith was second at the finish. Flickinger won the bronze in 2:05.65.

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Fabio Fognini, an Italian tennis player, has since apologized for his homophobic remarks during a loss at Tokyo Games.

During Wednesday's third round defeat to Daniil Medvedev, Fognini repeatedly used the offensive Italian term.

Fognini writes in an Instagram story that the extremely hot conditions "affected his head" and that he "used a really stupid expression toward myself."

He says that he didn't intend to offend any feelings and that he loves the LGBT community.

The Instagram story was created on a rainbow background.

Fognini, a volatile player, was kicked out the 2017 U.S. Open Doubles Tournament for insulting the chair umpire in his singles loss.

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MEDAL ALERT

Izaac Stubby-Cook from Australia won the 200-meter breaststroke at Tokyo's Olympic pool.

Stubblety Cook rallied to beat Arno Kamminga from the Netherlands on the final lap. The Australians won their fifth gold medal in swimming, beating the American team by an Olympic record time of 2:06.38 seconds.

Kamminga ran at a world-record pace for the first 150 metres, but he lost the silver in 2:07.01. In 2:07.24, Matti Mattsson of Finland won the bronze.

American Nic Fink placed fifth.

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MEDAL ALERT

Bobby Finke, USA, won gold at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre's inaugural 800-meter freestyle swimming event for men.

After leading the majority of the race, Gregorio Palatrinieri of Italy won the silver medal. Mykhailo Romachuk from Ukraine took the bronze.

It was thrilling to the end. On the final flip, Florian Wellbrock of Germany took the lead from Paltrinieri. Finke was back in fourth. The American swimmer turned on a stunning burst in speed to win the 16-lap race. He passed all three of his competitors and took the gold.

Finke won in 7 minutes 41.87 seconds. This was 0.24 more than Paltrinieri. Romachuk was fourth in the race, finishing in 7:42.33.

The Olympic program for Tokyo Games included the 800-meter freestyle men's race. This was the first time the men have competed in this distance since the 880-yard race at 1904 St. Louis Games.

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MEDAL ALERT

Valentina Rodini of Italy and Federica Cesarini from Italy have sprinted over the last 50 meters to claim the gold medal in women's lightweight double-sculls.

Marieke Keiser and Ilse Paolis, the Dutch team, led almost the entire race. However, they fell to bronze in the last 20 meters. Claire Bove and Laura Tarantola from France won silver.

The Dutch team almost missed out on the medals completely and was only 0.01 seconds ahead Great Britain.

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Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil, American beach volleyball players, defeated Kenya in 25 minutes. This was the fastest women's match since their Olympic format.

The U.S. team beat Gaudencia Makokha and Brackcides Khadambi 21-8, 21-6. This move improved their record to 2-0. It almost assured them a place in the knockout round. The pair will play Brazil on Saturday, their last match.

This match was the fastest since 2002, when the international volleyball federation introduced the best-of-3 sets and rally scoring format.

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MEDAL ALERT

Fintan McCarthy and Paul O'Donovan, from Ireland, won the gold medal in the men's lightweight double-sculls.

Through the first 1000 meters, the Irish boat seemed secure. Then the Germans closed in on the gap with 500 more and threatened to pull the plug.

The Irish won the race by 0.86 seconds thanks to a late surge of 200m over which they were able to win.

Bronze was won by Pietro Ruta and Stefano Oppo from Italy.

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MEDAL ALERT

Grace Pendergrast of New Zealand and Kerri Gowler of New Zealand have won gold in rowing women's pairs.

The world championship was won by the Kiwi pair in 2019, and they were expected to win in Tokyo. They are the third non-European team that has won the Olympic event, and the first since 1996.

Russia's Vasilisia stepanova and Elena Oriabinskaia swept past Canada's Caileigh filmer and Hillary Janssens in the final 300m to win the silver medal. Canada took bronze.

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MEDAL ALERT

Croatian brothers Martin and Valent Sinkovic have dominated the men's pair in Olympic rowing, cruising to victory in a race they led from the start.

The heavy favorite was the Croatians. After winning double sculls in 2016, they switched to boat discipline and won two world championships. They then won another Olympic gold medal. They are the first men in Olympic history to win gold in double sculls as well as sweep pairs.

Silver was won by the Romanian duo Marius Cozmiuc & Ciprian Tudosas. Bronze was won by Joachim Sutton and Frederic Vystavel from Denmark.