Olympic 2016 Results: Medal Winners, Highlights for Each Event After Wednesday
There was a wide range of stars on Day 5 of the 2016 Summer Olympics, but the common theme was close competitions throughout the day.
Although the men's gymnastics all-around competition was supposed to be a blowout, it ended up coming down to the final score. Most race events on the day, whether it was kayaking, swimming or cycling, were much closer than most would have expected.
Here is a recap of all the medals handed out in Wednesday's competitions.
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| Kayak Men's K1 Whitewater | Joseph Clarke (GBR) | Peter Kauzer (SLO) | Jiri Prskavec (CZE) |
| Women's Cycling Time Trial | Kristin Armstrong (USA) | Olga Zabelinskaya (RUS) | Anna Van Der Breggen (NED) |
| Men's Cycling Time Trial | Fabian Cancellara (SUI) | Tom Dumoulin (NED) | Chris Froome (GBR) |
| Men's Synchronized Diving 3M | Great Britain | United States | China |
| Women's Individual Foil | Inna Deriglazova (RUS) | Elisa Di Francisca (ITA) | Ines Boubakri (TUN) |
| Men's Individual Sabre | Aron Szilagyi (HUN) | Daryl Homer (USA) | Kim Junghwan (KOR) |
| Men's Gymnastics All-Around | Kohei Uchimura (JPN) | Oleg Verniaiev (UKR) | Max Whitlock (GBR) |
| Women's Judo 70 KG | Haruka Tachimoto (JPN) | Yuri Alvear (COL) | Laura Vargas Koch (GER)/Sally Conway (GBR) |
| Men's Judo 90 KG | Mashu Baker (JPN) | Varlam Liparteliani (GEO) | Cheng Xunzhao (CHN)/Gwak Donghan (KOR) |
| Men's 50M Pistol | Jin Jongoh (KOR) | Hoang Xuan Vinh (VIE) | Kim Song Guk (PRK) |
| Men's Double Trap | Fehaid Aldeehaini (IOA) | Marco Innocenti (ITA) | Steven Scott (GBR) |
| Men's 200M Breaststroke | Dmitriy Balandin (KAZ) | Josh Prenot (USA) | Anton Chupkov (RUS) |
| Women's 200M Butterfly | Mireia Belmonte Garcia (ESP) | Madeline Groves (AUS) | Natsumi Hoshi (JPN) |
| Men's 100M Freestyle | Kyle Chalmers (GBR) | Pieter Timmers (GER) | Nathan Adrian (USA) |
| Women's 4x200M Relay | United States | Australia | Canada |
| Women's Weightlifting 69 KG | Xiang Yanmei (CHN) | Zhazira Zhapparkul (KAZ) | Sara Ahmed (EGY) |
| Men's Weightlifting | Nijat Rahimov (KAZ) | Lu Xiaojun (CHN) | Mohamed Mahmoud (EGY) |
Canoe/Kayak—Men's K1 Whitewater
When the world's best competitors don't miss any gates and suffer few penalties, the final times are extremely close.
This is what happened on the kayak course Wednesday, where Joseph Clarke of Great Britain finished with a time of 88.53 seconds, just 0.17 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Peter Kauzer. Both third and fourth place were also within a half-second of the leader.
Considering one or two extra waves might have made the difference between gold and off the podium, you know this was a thrilling contest Clarke is fortunate to win.
Cycling—Men's Road Time Trial
Chris Froome is known for his work in the Tour de France, but he could only manage a bronze as Fabian Cancellara showcased his ability in the time trial.
The Swiss rider first won gold in this event in 2008 while also taking silver in the road race that summer. After a crash ruined his chance to medal in 2012, Cancellara bounced back well with a dominant showing to win his second career gold at the 2016 Games.
With a time of 1:12:15.42, he was 47 seconds ahead of silver medalist Tom Dumoulin of the Netherlands and more than a minute ahead of everyone else in the field.
Cycling—Women's Road Time Trial
This is clearly Kristen Armstrong's event. The American has now won the road time trial in three straight Olympics, putting her in a rare category of athletes in any sport.
Armstrong trailed eventual silver medalist Olga Zabelinskaya for a large portion of the race, but she found a way to come from behind despite rainy conditions to once again end up on top of the podium.
She discussed her excitement after the race, courtesy of NBC Olympics:
Anna van der Breggen earned the bronze after winning a gold medal earlier in the week in the road race.
Diving—Men's Synchronized 3-Meter
Although China had won each of the first three gold medals in synchronized diving, the country was not going to get a fourth thanks to the impressive performance of Great Britain's Jack Laugher and Chris Mears.
Chinese competitors Cao Yuan and Qin Kai had the early lead as expected, but the Great Britain team was too consistent throughout their dives and pulled away with an incredible fifth jump.
Meanwhile, Americans Sam Dorman and Michael Hixon were also able to move in front of China on their last jump, seen here courtesy of NBC Olympics:
The synchronization and execution was nearly perfect throughout the day, although Great Britain was just that much better.
Fencing—Women's Individual Foil
Inna Deriglazova completed a dominant run through the women's foil tournament with a gold medal for Russia.
The talented fencer didn't give up more than six points in any of her first four rounds while reaching the necessary 15 points in each contest. This include a 15-3 rout in the semifinals.
Against the more defensive Elisa Di Francisca in the finals, the two athletes battled through all three rounds before time expired. Still, Derigralzova had done enough to take first place with a 12-11 advantage.
Ines Boubakri finished in third place after a solid win in the bronze-medal match.
Fencing—Men's Individual Saber
Daryl Homer was the big story throughout this tournament. The New York native had an impressive run throughout the day, winning four close matches to clinch a rare medal in fencing for the Americans.
Unfortunately, the always emotional Homer came up short in the final against Aron Szilagyi. The Hungarian athlete earned a 3-0 lead early in the match and built that up to 8-4 after the first period. From there, he was able to cruise to a win and a gold medal.
Mitch Goldich of Sports Illustrated described the final:
Even with the loss, Homer should be proud of earning the silver medal at the highest level.
Gymnastics—Men's Individual All-Around
Kohei Uchimura likely sealed his fate as the greatest male gymnast of all time, but it certainly didn't come easy this time around.
Oleg Verniaiev had an excellent run through the first five events, holding a 0.9-point lead after a spectacular performance on the parallel bars. However, Uchimura came back with one of the best efforts of his career to post a 15.8 on the high bar. Whether it was the pressure or just bad timing, Verniaiev struggled a bit on his high bar and ended up with a 14.8.
This was enough to give Uchimura a 0.1-point win, making him the first male gymnast in 44 years to win back-to-back all-around Olympic gold medals. Along with six World Championships in this event and a team title won earlier in the week, the Japanese star has pretty much accomplished everything you could ask of him throughout his career.
Great Britain's Max Whitlock ended up in third place in what was one of the best individual competitions in years.
Judo—Women's 70 KG
Yuri Alvear was the favorite throughout the tournament and especially in the final against a surprise competitor, but it was Haruka Tachimoto who came away with the gold medal.
Tachimoto earned one impressive takedown near the edge of the mat and held down Alvear for 20 seconds, earning an ippon and ending the match. Laura Vargas Koch and Sally Conway each won gold through consolation matches.
Judo—Men's 90 KG
It was a low-scoring battle, but Mashu Baker did exactly what was needed to come through with a win in the gold-medal match against Varlam Liparteliani. The Japanese star earned a takedown early and became defensive from there, avoiding giving up points until the clock hit zero.
Baker earned bronze at the 2015 World Championships but raised his game to a new level to earn gold in Rio.
Shooting—Men's Double Trap
There was a bit of Olympic history in this event as Fehaid Aldeehani became the first-ever athlete to win gold under the Olympic flag. The shooter had won bronze medals for Kuwait in the past, but the entire country was banned, leaving Aldeehani to compete as an independent Olympic athlete (IOA).
Regardless of what flag he used, the veteran was impressive with a mark of 28/30 in the semifinals and then a 26/30 in the final to win gold over Marco Innocenti, who managed just 24 points in the championship round.
Steven Scott just missed a chance to compete in the final, but he bounced back with a perfect 30/30 round to win the bronze over fellow Great Britain challenger Tim Kneale.
Swimming—Men's 200-Meter Breaststroke
There were close races throughout Wednesday night in swimming, with the 200-meter breaststroke being one of them.
Dmitriy Balandin of Kazakhstan narrowly edged American Josh Prenot for the gold, winning by just 0.07 seconds. Despite the loss, Prenot was happy about the silver:
Usually a mid-range distance like 200-meters features a bit more separation, but all eight swimmers ended within one second of each other. Of course, Balandin doesn't care about the distance as long as he is able to wear a gold medal for the rest of his life.
Swimming—Women's 200-Meter Butterfly
The close finishes continued with the women's 200-meter butterfly. Mireia Belmonte Garcia, who finished with a silver medal in this event last year and held the world record coming in, lived up to expectations with an outstanding race from start to finish.
While Madeline Groves fought hard at the end, Garcia was barely able to hold her off to win the gold by 0.03 seconds. NBC Olympics provided a look at the two top finishers hitting the wall:
American Cammile Adams finished just outside of the podium in fourth place after ending up in fifth place in London. At this rate, she should be able to get onto the medal stand by 2020.
Swimming—Men's 100-Meter Freestyle
Nathan Adrian was the name to watch in this event. He anchored the United States 4x100-meter relay time with a split of under 47 seconds, which would have been enough to win this race.
However, it was 18-year-old Kyle Chalmers who came through with the surprise victory with a time of 47.58 seconds. Pieter Timmers ended up just out of first place, while Adrian ended up with the bronze medal.
Considering Chalmers also set a world junior record in the process, the British star has a bright future.
Swimming—Women's 4x200-Meter Relay
It's hard to keep finding adjectives to describe Katie Ledecky. While this was a four-person relay, the Americans actually trailed by a second heading into the final leg. When you have arguably the best swimmer in the world, this doesn't matter.
A day after winning gold in the 200-meter freestyle, Ledecky showed off this ability once again by needing just one lap to regain the lead and three more to pull away and earn almost a two-second win for the United States.
Ledecky now has three gold medals and a silver in Rio with her best event (800-meter freestyle) still to come.
Weightlifting—Women's 69 KG
It was a close competition, but the best athlete won in the end. Xiang Yanmei won the last two World Championships and can now add an Olympic gold medal to her trophy stand after totaling 261 kilograms lifted.
Xiang started with a 116 kg snatch before coming through with 145 kg in the clean and jerk, and impressive showing throughout.
Zhazira Zhapparkul ended up just off the lead with a total of 259 kg.
Weightlifting—Men's 77 KG
This was a gold medal that almost seemed stolen.
Lu Xiaojun broke his own world record with a 177-kilogram snatch and then put up what he thought was an insurmountable total at 379 kilograms. However, Nijat Rahimov went for the necessary total to win gold and lifted on his second attempt, shocking the defending gold medalist at this weight.
Although both lifted the exact same amount, Rahimov got the edge as the slightly lighter of the two athletes.
Mohamed Mahmoud finished in third place, but this was really just a two-man competition with Rahimov finishing on top.
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