Our live coverage of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics has moved here.
American swimmer Lydia Jacoby has won the gold medal in the women’s 100m breaststroke.
Jacoby, just 17, was not expected to win the event. She beat South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker, who clinched silver, and Lilly King of the US, who collected bronze.
Jacoby is the first-ever Olympic swimmer from Alaska.
She went to high school in Seward, a small, picturesque city in the south of the state with a population of fewer than 3,000 people.
Russian swimmers Evgeny Rylov and Kliment Kolesnikov have finished first and second respectively in the men’s 100m backstroke final.
American Ryan Murphy, who won gold in the event at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and holds the world record, collected bronze.
US men had won six consecutive Olympic golds in the event before the Tokyo Games.
Australia’s Kaylee McKeown has won gold in the women’s 100m backstroke, setting an Olympic record with a time of 57.47 seconds.
It is the first Olympic medal of McKeown’s career, and the adrenaline was flowing in the 20-year-old’s post-race interview with CNN affiliate 7 News Australia.
When asked by the network if she had a message for her mother Sharon and sister Taylor, who were watching, she responded: ““F*** yeah!”, before realizing she swore and covering her mouth. Then she followed it up with a celebratory “Woo!”
On 7 News, her mother said “I’ll have a word to her later,” while laughing.
Canada’s Kylie Masse clinched silver and the United States’ Regan Smith bronze in the event.
McKeown set the world record for the women’s 100m backstroke in June with a time of 57.45 seconds.
Kevin McDowell finished sixth in the men’s individual triathlon on Monday, the highest finish ever by an American man in the event at the Olympics.
The achievement is harder fought than most people realize, since McDowell was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma back in 2011.
McDowell attributed some key advice to getting through chemotherapy.
McDowell next competes in the mixed triathlon relay on Saturday.
Bermuda’s Flora Duffy has won the women’s triathlon at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The victory earns Bermuda’s first ever Olympic gold medal. A four-time Olympian who finished eighth at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Duffy won with a winning time of 1:55:36.
Great Britain’s Georgia Taylor-Brown took silver while Katie Zaferes of the US earned bronze.
This is the second-ever Olympic medal in Bermuda’s Games history. Heavyweight boxer Clarence Hill earned the bronze medal at the 1976 Games in Montreal.
Competition at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo began Wednesday, more than a year after the original start date after the Games were delayed due to the pandemic.
But with Covid-19 still spreading unchecked in Japan, organizers have been forced to take unprecedented steps to keep competitors and the public safe.
Athletes who contracted coronavirus have seen their Olympic dreams dashed. Some tested positive in Japan, some before coming.
These are the athletes we know who have publicly dropped out due to Covid-19 health and safety protocols.
Team USA:
Team Czech Republic:
Team Great Britain:
Team Mexico:
Team Netherlands:
Team South Africa:
Team Australia:
Team Chile:
Team Portugal:
Team ROC (Russian Olympic Committee):
The 2020 Summer Olympics — which were delayed a year for the Covid-19 pandemic — are underway in Tokyo. While Japan is 13 hours ahead of the US East Coast, you can watch some events live and NBC broadcasts tonight.
Here’s a look at some of the events we’re watching this evening:
Japan’s mixed doubles pair of Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito claimed their country’s first ever Olympic table tennis gold medal with a dramatic victory over China’s Xu Xin and Liu Shinwen on Monday.
It was the first time the mixed doubles event had been played at the Olympics and Monday’s finale didn’t fail to disappoint.
Mizutani and Ito came back from 2 sets down to win 4-3, clinching the final set 11-6.
Victory for the pair ended years of incredible Chinese dominance in the sport.
China had won every Olympic title in the table tennis since South Korea’s Ryu Seung-min triumphed in the men’s singles competition at the 2004 Athens Games.
Mizutani and Ito’s victory sees Japan end Monday top of the Olympics medals table with eight gold medals, one more than the United States.
The Olympics are in full swing in Tokyo, with 21 gold medals won on Monday. You can track the medal count here.
Here’s who walked off a winner:
Archery
Artistic Gymnastics
Canoe Slalom
Cycling Mountain Bike
Diving
Fencing
Judo
Shooting
Skateboarding
Swimming
Table Tennis
Taekwondo
Triathlon
Weightlifting
Sofia Pozdniakova, daughter of Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) President Stanislav Pozdniakov, secured a gold in the individual women’s sabre fencing competition on Monday.
Two-time world champion Pozdniakova, who was making her Olympic debut, defeated ROC teammate Sofya Velikaya 15-11 in the final.
For 36-year-old Velikaya it was a third Olympic silver medal after she finished runner-up at London 2012 and Rio 2016.
Pozdniakova follows in the footsteps of her father Stanislav who previously won 4 Olympic gold medals in the sabre competitions – 3 coming in the team competition at Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 200, respectively, and 1 in the individual competition at Atlanta 1996.
Pozdniakov was appointed President of the Russian Olympic Committee in May 2018.
Remember: Due to a ban by the World Anti-Doping Agency for doping non-compliance, Russian athletes are note competing under their country’s name, flag and national anthem at major international sporting events until Dec. 16, 2022. They are officially recognized as members of ROC.
Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz has won the Philippines’ first ever Olympic gold medal after she won the women’s 55kg event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, setting an Olympic record with a total mark of 224 kg.
Prior to Diaz’s gold, the Philippines had claimed 10 Olympic medals (3 silvers and 7 bronzes). She won the silver medal in the women’s 53kg event at the 2016 Rio Games.
The Philippines captured their first medal of the Summer Games.
Liao Qiuyun of China took silver with 223 kg and Kazakhstan’s Zulfiya Chinshanlo won bronze with 213 kg.
Hong Kong fencing athlete Edgar Cheung has won the city’s first gold medal at the Summer Olympics in 25 years, beating Italy’s Daniele Garozzo at the men’s foil finals.
Cheung beat Garozzo — who won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics — by 15 to 11 on Monday night local time in Tokyo, becoming the first Hong Kong fencing athlete to win a medal at the Olympics.
Speaking to the media after the victory, Cheung said he still could not believe his win.
Hong Kong has now won two gold medals at the Olympics, the first of which was won by windsurfer Lee Lai-shan in 1996.
The Russian Olympic Committee has captured the gold medal in men’s all-round gymnastics.
Nikita Nagornyy, Denis Abliazin and Artur Dalaloyan and David Belyavskiy together scored a total of 262.500, which is the top mark.
Japan claimed the silver with a total of 262.397, and China took the bronze medal with a score of 261.894.
What is the Russian Olympic Committee? Due to a ban by the World Anti-Doping Agency for doping non-compliance, Russian athletes aren’t competing under their country’s name, flag and national anthem at major international sporting events until Dec. 16, 2022. They are officially recognized as members of ROC, an abbreviation of Russian Olympic Committee.
Team Great Britain’s Tom Daley ended his long wait to top an Olympic podium after winning the men’s synchronized 10-meter diving competition with his partner Matty Lee on Monday.
In December 2013, Daley came out on YouTube and almost eight years later, the Briton says he is proud of the LGBT representation that he has witnessed at the Games.
He said that he hopes they don’t feel “so frightened and scared and alone.”
Daley’s husband, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, posted a video on Instagram of him screaming and celebrating the win from Canada as they watched the live event from afar. The couple have a three-year-old son together.
In comments after the event, Daley said he also felt he’d grown since becoming a husband and father.
“My husband, he said to me that my story wasn’t finished, and that my son … needed to be there to watch me win an Olympic gold medal,” he said.
Read more about Tom Daley here:
Kosovo’s Nora Gjakova further extended the country’s golden Olympic judo record by winning the women’s under-57kg final on Monday.
Two-time world champion Gjakova defeated France’s Sarah-Léonie Cysique to claim her maiden gold medal.
Gjakova’s gold is Kosovo’s second of the Tokyo Games after Distria Krasniqi’s victory in the women’s under-48 kg category on Saturday.
It’s Kosovo’s third Olympic medal in total since the country made its debut at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Majlinda Kelmendi earned the country’s first historic gold in the women’s under 52kg at Rio 2016.
Defending champion Kelmendi, though, was eliminated in her first round contest in Tokyo on Sunday.
Here are some highlights from the first Monday of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (in 2021).
Big surprises and upsets:
In the performance of a lifetime, Austria’s Anna Kiesenhofer won the cycling gold medal, after she raced so far ahead that she was out of sight of the other cyclists. She only took up the sport in 2014 and does not have a professional contract at the moment.
Tunisia’s Ahmed Hafnaoui shocked the swimming world by winning gold in the 400m freestyle. During the preliminary round, he qualified in 8th place with the slowest qualifying time of all finalists.
The US men’s basketball team, flush with NBA stars, lost its first game to France. The French used the size of three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert and a magnificent performance from fellow NBAer Evan Fournier to shock the Americans, who could not capitalize on multiple attempts to close out the game.
Some firsts:
Anastasija Zolotic became the first American woman to win Olympic gold in Taekwondo and Fencer Lee Kiefer is the first US woman to win gold in individual foil.
At just 13, Nishiya Momiji of Japan, is now one of the youngest gold medal winners in Olympic history, after she won the women’s street skateboarding event. She is just months older than the current female record-holder, American diver Marjorie Gestring, who was 13 years and 267 days old when she won gold at the Berlin Games in 1936.
What’s on tap today in Japan:
Covid-19 continues to loom large:
The Games have been overwhelmingly unpopular among the Japanese public, according to polls. But the mood appears to be shifting as Japan brings in gold medals.
Meanwhile, Tokyo continues to report a rising number of daily new coronavirus cases, with at least 153 cases linked to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, organizers said Monday.
The full schedule can be found on the Olympics website here.
When the three athletes on an Olympic podium have a combined age of 42, you know — in the words of English rock band The Who — that the kids are alright.
That was the case as women’s street skateboarding made its bow at the Olympics, with 13-year-old Momiji Nishiya of Japan taking gold ahead of Brazil’s Rayssa Leal — also 13 — and 16-year-old Funa Nakayama, also from Japan.
If organizers wanted to engage a younger audience by adding skateboarding to the Olympic program, then it was mission accomplished at Tokyo’s Ariake Urban Sports Park.
“I’m simply very, very delighted. I am so happy,” Nishiya told reporters, adding that she felt her success had “nothing to do with her age.”
Full report below:
Tokyo reported 1,429 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, nearly doubling the amount of new cases from the previous Monday when the capital reported 727 new cases, according to Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
This daily jump is the highest increase reported on a Monday, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported. Mondays typically see lower daily increases of new cases.
Meanwhile, at least 153 cases have been linked to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, organizers said Monday.
Polls have consistently shown that the Games have been overwhelmingly unpopular among the Japanese public amid health and safety concerns.
Still, the mood appears to be shifting as competitions kick-off and Japan brings in gold medals.
IOC official Mark Adams said nearly 70 million watched the opening ceremony, with the Olympic broadcast services saying it was the most-watched event in Japan over the past decade.
Even though the buzz and excitement is a far cry from what you would expect for a city hosting the Olympics – people are trying to experience the Games in any way possible.
Minoru Omori, a shopkeeper in Tokyo’s Koto ward – home to ten Olympic venues – was elated when he found out Tokyo had been chosen to host the 2020 Summer Games.
His district decked out Tokyo 2020 banners and posters and was expecting a tourist boom, but then the pandemic struck.
He told CNN he was happy the event hadn’t been cancelled but that the spectator ban in the capital was for the best.
South Korea claimed gold in the archery men’s team event on Monday, extending their reign and winning the country’s third archery gold at the Tokyo Games.
The men’s team dominated Chinese Taipei in Monday’s final with a 6-0 clean sweep victory.
Five of the last six men’s team Olympic titles have been won by South Korea – the only exception was Italy breaking their winning streak at London 2012.
The country has already swept two gold medals in archery, with the women’s team tying the longest gold streak in Olympic history with nine medals.
Kim Je-deok secured the mixed title with An San.
