Sha’Carri Richardson takes silver in the 100 meters, bested by Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred
(PARIS) — Sha’Carri Richardson took silver in the 100 meters at the Summer Games in Paris on Saturday, not quite reaching the top of the podium in her comeback bid, but clinching her first medal in the Olympics. Fellow American and training partner Melissa Jefferson finished with the bronze.
Julien Alfred, 23, of Saint Lucia, won gold in a time of 10.72 seconds as she led from start to finish on a wet track after dominating in every round leading up to the final. She competed for the University of Texas at Austin.
Saint Lucia, a tiny island in the Caribbean, had never won a medal in the Summer Olympics in any sport.
Richardson finished in a time of 10.87 seconds, well off her time from last year’s world championships, while Jefferson finished in 10.92 seconds.
It was the first time two Americans appeared on the podium since 1996 when Gail Devers won gold and Gwen Torrence took bronze. The event has been now dominated by Jamaicans for decades.
Richardson won the U.S. trials in 2021, but was disqualified after a positive test for marijuana.
With Jamaican legend Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce scratching in the semifinals, the three Jamaican women who swept the podium in Tokyo all missed the final. Elaine Thompson-Herah, who won gold in 2016 and 2021 in both the 100 and 200, dropped out of the Jamaican trials due to injury and Shericka Jackson, who took bronze in Tokyo, surprisingly pulled out of the race the day before it started to focus on the 200.
Richardson won the gold in the world championship last year in a time of 10.65 seconds.
The final featured three Americans: Richardson, Jefferson and Twanisha Terry. It was the first time all three American women made a 100-meter final.
(NEW YORK) — As the 2024 Summer Olympics officially kick off in Paris on July 26, USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan joined Brad Mielke on Thursday’s episode of “Start Here,” ABC News’ flagship daily news podcast, and dived into the concession made by the U.S. Olympic Committee and officials from Salt Lake City, Utah, in order to secure the city’s bid to host the 2034 Winter Games, which the city also hosted in 2002.
START HERE: But as far as the U.S. is concerned, the biggest Olympics story of the day did not have anything to do with Paris at all. In the wee hours of the morning, Salt Lake City, Utah, learned it will once again be the host of the Winter Olympics, in 2034. That was the sound of people cheering this news at 4 a.m. local time in Salt Lake City. They’ve got a decade to get even more amped up.
But the International Olympic Committee announced a rule here that has already created a really weird vibe. Let’s take you to Paris right now, where Christine Brennan is covering the Games. She’s a sports columnist with USA Today…she’s also an ABC News contributor. Christine, can you just explain what’s going on with the future Olympics?
BRENNAN: Brad, this was crazy. Salt Lake City is really the only city that wants to host the Winter Olympics. It’s getting harder and harder for the International Olympic Committee to find cities and countries that are interested. It costs so much money, it’s so difficult. Obviously, climate change, you know, all the things that we know about what it is with an Olympics.
So you get a city like Salt Lake City, which hosted the 2002 Olympics and did a fabulous job, great Olympic Games. And this was a slam dunk. Everyone just expected it would just go without any issue, any problem. Instead, several International Olympic Committee members proposed an amendment. And they want the U.S. to drop the FBI investigation into the Chinese doping controversy.
START HERE: Yeah, I think the language was like the U.S. cannot “undermine the world anti-doping agency,” they can’t undermine WADA, which you’d think like, why would they do that? And yet it apparently all goes back to this federal investigation of Chinese athletes. Can you brush us up on that?
BRENNAN: We just found out about it. The New York Times and a German public broadcasting company exposed it a few months ago. Chinese swimmers, the 23 swimmers tested positive before the Tokyo Olympics. But it was never revealed, no transparency. They went to compete in Tokyo and three, three golds. They won three golds. And 11 of them, of the 23, are competing here. And so all these athletes that competed in Tokyo, including Katie Ledecky in a relay, came in second to people who had tested positive a few months earlier. That outrages the United States.
Because of a law known as the Rodchenkov Act, it allows the U.S., in this case, the FBI, to go after officials or others in a criminal manner and criminal prosecution, who were involved in this doping scheme. They’ve already served a subpoena to the World Aquatics executive director. Again that’s swimming, to try to figure out this doping scheme, what happened and why the world didn’t know about it.
START HERE: OK, so this is like an ultimatum. You can have the Games if you stop investigating this. What did U.S. organizers do?
BRENNAN: Stunningly and amazingly, just I cannot believe it, the Salt Lake City officials and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee caved.
START HERE: Wow.
BRENNAN: They caved. And so while you had Katie Ledecky an hour and a half earlier in a press conference talking about the importance of clean sport. One floor and 90 minutes later, you had these officials caving in to demands, as from the International Olympic Committee, for them to get rid of the investigation into something that Katie Ledecky — Michael Phelps just testified in front of Congress — that they care so much about.
START HERE: Right and it’s interesting, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency sounded pretty furious about this, but they sound more upset with the IOC for pressuring Salt Lake City. Local organizers though, Christine, sounded upbeat about this. You had Utah Gov. Spencer Cox yesterday defending all this. But I guess I’m just confused as to why the organizers made this concession? Like if the U.S. has been so public about wanting to go after these people and protecting their own athletes, frankly?
BRENNAN: Because they were scared they were going to lose the Olympics otherwise. I cannot believe that Salt Lake officials and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee didn’t just say no.
Now, what’s going to end up happening here, I believe, is that it will be a rude awakening, because I cannot imagine Congress taking too kindly to what the U.S. Olympic Committee and the Salt Lake officials just did. And I’ve got to believe that if any of these officials show up and deserve to be arrested, they’re going to get a knock on the door and they’re going to be arrested. And so they may be the most shocked people on the planet when they thought they got this deal from Salt Lake City.
So it’s truly a mess. It’s stunning. It’s exactly the way that they did not want to kick off the Olympic week. But it is something worthy of all of our attention.
I think for a lot of people, they remember Salt Lake City and they remember the bribery scandal from 1999. Once again, Salt Lake City officials are involved again in a major controversy of their own making. This is supposed to be such a positive thing, and now they’re mired right back in controversy, just as they were at the beginning of the century.
START HERE: Wow. Unbelievable. And Christine Brennan will, of course, have a column in USA Today that’s out actually right now this morning. Thank you so much, Christine.
(PARIS) — Team USA stars Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey carried the U.S. to gold in the team event in Paris on Tuesday, returning to the top of the podium after Biles dropped out of the event in Tokyo.
Team USA finished with a score of 171.296, nearly six points more than second place.
in winning gold, Biles also became the most-decorated American gymnast in history with eight medals. She broke a tie with the great Shannon Miller for most overall medals.
Italy earned the silver medal with 165.494 points and Brazil took home bronze with 164.497.
The U.S. women’s gymnastics team adds a fourth gold medal to its collection after previously landing in the top spot on the podium in 2016 at the Rio Games. The team has medaled at every Olympics since 1992 in Barcelona.
Italy landed on the podium for the first time since 1928, while Brazil — led by star Rebeca Andrade — claimed its first medal in the women’s team event.
US women’s gymnastics win gold medal in team finals
Rotation 1: Vault
The Americans started with vault, putting up 44.100 in a strong performance to give them the lead over China, which started with the uneven bars, after the first rotation. Chiles, Carey and Biles performed on vault with Biles posting a team-high score of 14.900.
Carey was narrowly behind Biles with a 14.800 and Chiles posted a 14.400.
Rotation 2: Uneven Bars
Chiles led off the uneven bars for Team USA with a near stuck landing, posting a score of 14.366, which Biles followed up with a 14.400. In Lee’s first rotation of the day, the Tokyo bronze medalist in this event, subsequently scored 14.566 after her feet tapped the ground, which accounted for a five-tenth deduction.
The U.S. led Italy by 3.102 at the end of the second rotation heading into balance beam.
Rotation 3: Balance Beam
Chiles had a difficult start for the U.S. on the beam with a fall on her entry to the first skill, but recovered to post a score of 12.733.
Lee started strong with a straddle mount and her solid routine with a gainer full dismount earned a 14.600 for the U.S.
Biles, a two-time Olympic balance beam bronze medalist, had a flawless flight series in her routine and posted a 14.366.
Through the third rotation, Team USA led Great Britain by 4.967 with a total score of 129.131.
Rotation 4: Floor Exercise
Suni Lee kicked off Team USA’s first of three floor routines set to music from Lindsey Stirling, the same artist she competed to in Tokyo, and notched a 13.533.
Chiles impressed with a “fire” routine, as Lee told her teammate, upon finishing to an uproar of cheers throughout the arena that resulted in 13.966.
Biles capped off the final rotation and notched the last score of 14.666.
US women’s gymnastics team final in Paris Olympics
This marks the first team in Olympics history for men’s or women’s to field two Olympic all-around gold medalists with veterans Biles, who won in 2016, and Lee, who won in Tokyo three years ago.
The team took home the silver medal in the team finals in the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games and will look to best their result in hopes of gold in Paris.
While Hezly Rivera, just 16 years old, is also part of the U.S. team, she did not compete in any of the four apparatuses in the team event. Rivera was prepped and ready to go, but is just as much a part of the team and will get a gold medal for the team’s win.
Scoring on each apparatus is broken up by execution and difficulty to give final combined scores.
The U.S. women have medaled at every team event in the Olympics since 1992.
(NEW YORK) — Ahead of an exciting opening night for the 144th U.S. Open at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York, on Monday, the last American man to win the singles title on that court, Andy Roddick, received a special honor from the USTA Foundation for all of his work as a philanthropist and role model.
“It’s kind of humbling to get an award for philanthropy in the house of Arthur Ashe, in the tennis center of Billie Jean King,” Roddick told ABC News’ Good Morning America on Tuesday after accepting the Serving Up Dreams Award. “I have always said I don’t think tennis gets enough credit for its absolute icons — the people on [its] Mount Rushmore speaking out for social change, doing something bigger than themselves.”
Roddick founded his eponymous foundation in 2000 at just 17 years old with a mission of improving the lives of children and families, to keep kids learning so they can succeed, especially during times when statistics show they’re typically most at risk and falling behind.
“When your heroes do stuff, you fall in line, and all of a sudden you’re doing tennis clinics when you’re young just because Andre Agassi does it, and he set the precedent,” the 41-year-old Grand Slam winner said. “Out of school time matters in a huge way — summer learning loss in lower socioeconomic areas is a big, big deal. So, a parent not having to decide to leave work early to go pick up their kids for their own safety is a big, big deal.”
The Austin, Texas-based tennis stalwart added, “The award is great, I’m happy for our team, but I’m most happy for our kids.”
Tennis legend Andy Roddick shares US Open predictions
Roddick, who won the US Open in 2003, also reflected on the dynamic pool of next-generation American talent who are taking the court over the next two weeks in Flushing with big names like Ben Shelton, Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, Sebastian Korda and Tommy Paul.
“Specifically with the American men, as we currently stand, we have 25% of the Top 20 men [in the world rankings]. That’s a big deal,” he said. “Five in the Top 20 on the men’s side, five in the Top 20 on the women’s side.”
“It seems like they have kind of this healthy jealousy where they all get along, they all respect each other, they all support each other. But also, I feel there’s a little bit of FOMO if someone makes a run to the semis,” he said of the aforementioned singles stars. “I hope someone breaks out in a big way.”
Andy Roddick weighs in on Jannik Sinner doping case
Italian tennis star Jannik Sinner was not suspended from the US Open, despite twice testing positive for steroids, which has drummed up lots of opinions from current and former players, including Roddick.
“There’s a little known Italian player, Marco Bortolotti, who went through the exact same thing two months ago,” he began. “The most recent precedent with the similar circumstances — they found no fault, no negligence. That’s just the way it goes.”
He continued, “People are talking about it’s unfair. It would have been unfair had he gotten a different ruling than someone who was 350 in the World and 110 in the World in Doubles. I don’t think he would put everything at risk for something that didn’t benefit him. It was one billionth of a gram. He’s either the dumbest person on Earth or we should believe him on merit.”
‘Served with Andy Roddick’ takes show live on the road
Roddick also hosts the podcast “Served with Andy Roddick,” breaking down all things tennis with a fresh spin and proceeds going to the Andy Roddick Foundation.
During the US Open, the podcast, presented by Chase, is popping up at the rooftop of Pier 17 for live shows open to Sapphire Reserve members, which is slated to include tennis super fan Seal as a guest on Wednesday.
“He’s a massive, massive tennis fan, and he’s like my energy guru,” Roddick said. “Tennis is largely ignored outside of the live events, so [it’s] just a friendly place to get content on a normal Tuesday.”
For local fans who want to get in on the action, there are also opportunities to book a rooftop tennis clinic with Roddick through Chase experiences.