Sunisa Lee became the fifth consecutive American woman to win the all-around gold medal in gymnastics at the Olympics, accomplishing the feat Thursday at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Lee, from Minnesota, moved into the spotlight after the withdrawal of team leader Simone Biles, and she did not disappoint. The 18-year-old executed her final rotation — the floor exercise — with her best score on that routine during the Olympics.
Rebeca Andrade of Brazil went out of bounds twice on the floor exercise but won the silver medal, and Angelina Melnikova of the Russia Olympic Committee earned the bronze. Jade Carey of the U.S., who replaced Biles in the all-around, finished eighth.
Lee’s gold medal gave the Americans 14 through the first six days of competition, one behind Japan and China. Overall, the United States leads the medal count with 38, followed by China (31), ROC (28), Japan (25) and Australia (20).
In other Olympics action:
- American Caeleb Dressel won his second gold medal in the Games and set an Olympic record of 47.02 seconds in the men’s 100-meter freestyle, holding off Australia’s Kyle Chalmers. The gold-medal winner the 2016 Rio Olympics, Chalmers finished 0.06 seconds behind for the silver medal. Kliment Kolesnikov of ROC took the bronze.
- Bobby Finke of the United States came from behind in the final lap of the men’s 800-meter freestyle to win gold in 7:41.87. Among those he overtook were Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri, the prerace favorite, and Ukraine’s Mykhailo Romanchuk, who finished second and third. This was the first time a men’s race of this distance had been contested in the Olympics since 1904.
- China won the women’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay, holding off a charging American team anchored by Katie Ledecky. China won in 7:40.33, which was 0.40 ahead of the U.S. Australia, a heavy prerace favorite, finished third to win the bronze medal.
- Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova of Slovakia set the Olympic record of 43 targets hit to win the gold medal in women’s trap shooting. American Kayle Browning hit 42 of 50 targets to win the silver. The bronze went to Alessandra Perilli of San Marino for that country’s first-ever Olympic medal.
- Serbian Novak Djokovic defeated home-country favorite Kei Nishikori of Japan to move into the semifinals of the men’s singles tennis tournament. The top seed, Djokovic will face Alexander Zverev of Germany, the fourth seed. The other semifinal will feature Karen Khachanov of ROC against Spain’s Pablo Carrena Busta. In the women’s draw, Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic and the Czech Republic’s Marketa Vondrousova will battle for the singles gold medal.
- Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks led Slovenia to a 116-81 win over Japan and into the quarterfinals of the men’s basketball tournament. Doncic had 25 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Rui Hachimura of the Washington Wizards led Japan with a game-high 34 points.
–Field Level Media