Summer Olympics 2016: Biggest Disappointments on Day 2 in Rio
Disappointment is a relative thing.
After the second full day of competition at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Team USA is tied with China in the overall medal standings. It's been a pretty solid start for the Americans.
Still, the country defines Olympic success by one simple metric: Did it beat the rest of the world or not? With a bar that high, you feel every stumble.
Against such stiff competition day in and out, let downs are inevitable, and that goes for every country, not just Team USA.
Day 2 was no exception to this fact of life, and in fact may have ended ahead of the average pace. These are the athletes who fell a little short on Sunday.
Williams Sisters Fall in Early Doubles Match
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Venus and Serena Williams just set an ignominious personal precedent: They suffered their first Olympics loss as a doubles tandem.
Is it fair to say the Czech Republic's team of Barbora Strycova and Lucie Safarova were not expected to win on Sunday? Yes, it is. It is very fair to say. You could even say—and I know these are strong terms—that Venus and Serena were huge favorites against the Czechs.
The sisters took home women's doubles gold from each of the past three games. Strycova and Safarova, paired together after another player withdrew, had never won a match together. So the 6-3, 6-4 triumph was a first for them, too.
"We honestly didn't play our best whatsoever tonight. We played terrible and that basically showed in the results," Serena said after the match, per James Masters of CNN. "I don't know why. I wasn't playing the way I needed to play, I wasn't crossing the way I needed to cross, it was what it was."
It just goes to show why you should never write a Czech you're not sure you can cash. A-ha, ah, great.
Novak Djokovic Upset in 1st Round
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The tennis drama didn't end with the Williams sisters. Indeed, it arguably deepened when Novak Djokovic, the world's top-ranked men's player, fell to a total unknown in Argentinean Juan Martin del Potoo.
The Serbian also failed to earn a singles medal in the 2012 London games. He lost in the bronze-medal match. And guess who he lost to. Juan Martin del Potro. Yes, that Juan Martin del Potro.
Djokovic could never get it going, and committed 30 unforced errors en route to the 7-6, 7-6 loss.
The Djoker still has a chance on the doubles side, but he'll once again head home disappointed as an individual competitor.
Spain Shocked in Men's Hoops Opener
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Spain nabbed a silver medal in 2012 and 2008, paced by NBA stars like Pau Gasol, Ricky Rubio and Serge Ibaka. Missing Ibaka and Marc Gasol in Rio, the Spaniards were nevertheless predicted to vie for a medal once again.
They didn't look to be in medal form Sunday, when Croatia came back from a 14-point second-half deficit to win 72-70.
Pau Gasol went for a game-tying shot as time expired but was blocked by Dario Saric, and that's your ballgame. Despite the final shot, Gasol had a great game (26 points, nine rebounds). Rubio finished with zero points and one assist. Current Los Angeles Lakers guard Jose Calderon didn't play at all. Of the Spanish players who did see court time, four failed to tally a point.
As with soccer, Olympic basketball begins with group play, so Spain can rebound. But this was a tough loss. As Kevin Draper of Deadspin put it:
"It’s just one game, but it’s a big one. Spain is the silver medal favorite, but they’re also old and undermanned. The door is cracked open for some other country to sneak in and lose to the United States in the gold medal game, and Croatia’s victory set them on that path.
"
Obviously, there's some potential exaggeration there for comic effect, but Team USA is the overwhelming favorite. Spain just dug itself a substantial hole if it wants to put itself alongside the Americans as part of the conversation.
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Mara Abbott Fades Late, Misses Medal Stand
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Sometimes vocabulary fails you. Sometimes, a thing just plain-old sucks.
That might be the best way to describe the circumstances for U.S. cyclist Mara Abbott, who was leading the women's road race with just meters remaining.
Abbott is known as an expert climber, and that's where she put road between herself and the pack.
Then, in the home stretch along Copacabana Beach, a rider passed her. Then another. And then, mere seconds from the tape, one more.
The Netherlands' Anna van der Breggen, Swede Emma Johansson and Italian Elisa Longo Borghini took medals, with Abbott finishing in perhaps the most heartbreaking position in all of sports: fourth place in the Olympics.
Massialas Must Content Himself with Silver
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Alexander Massialas is the world's top-ranked men's fencer, and he was the favorite to win the foil event.
It didn't go as analysts expected, as he lost 15-11 to Italian Daniele Garozzo in the gold-medal match.
“He’s very sad about this moment,” said Greg Massialas, his father, coach and fellow Olympian, according to Nick Zaccardi of NBC Sports. “He really dreamed of getting that gold medal.”
Don't feel too bad for Alexander. A silver medal is still pretty good, and he seems to have a decent non-fencing career path to fall back on. The 22-year-old is studying mechanical engineering at Stanford. So, yeah. Don't feel too bad.
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