2016 Summer Olympics: Day 6 Winners and Losers
On Day 6, pairs were a theme of the day.
The Michael Phelps-Ryan Lochte rivalry fizzled in the pool, lost in the wake of Phelps' jaw-dropping near-two-second victory margin and Lochte’s fifth-place finish in the 200-meter individual medley.
Another duo, Simone Biles and Aly Raisman, went gold-silver in the gymnastics individual all-around competition, though it wasn’t much of one. Biles, 19, fulfilled the promise and expectations of those who have watched her since 2013, when she won her first world championship.
A third pairing, the Czech men’s whitewater (C2) canoe team, was oh-so close to gold before a wipeout washed away a chance for a medal of any kind.
Simone Manuel and Penny Oleksiak tied for the women's 100-meter freestyle gold in the pool, with Manuel becoming the first black female swimmer in history to win individual gold for the U.S.
If you’re looking for history, golf is back in the Games with a surprising first-round leader, and Fiji won its first Olympic medal ever, in rugby sevens. Oh, and the U.S. field hockey team won again—it's 4-0!
Read on for these and more winners and losers from Day 6.
Winner: Michael Phelps-Ryan Lochte Rivalry
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Showing a breaststroke so improved that TV commentator Rowdy Gaines nearly blew out his larynx on the call, Michael Phelps won a gold in the 200-meter individual medley and put to bed the notion of a rivalry with Ryan Lochte.
Turns out, Lochte wasn’t close. Neither was anyone else in the pool.
Phelps, 31, won by an astounding 1.95 seconds over Japan’s Kosuke Hagino, who finished in 1:56.61. Phelps won the event for the fourth time, an Olympic record. China’s Wang Shun won bronze in 1:57.05.
Phelps is now four-for-four for Rio. The win makes 22 career gold medals for Phelps, who appears to have gotten even better than he was when he performed above expectations at the Olympic trials. Oh, and he qualified for the men's 100-meter butterfly final, set for Friday.
At one time, this was going to be the final time Lochte and Phelps would square off in the pool, with Phelps insisting he would retire after these Games. But he has opened the door for a return, per Dave Sheinin of the Washington Post. Lochte has, too, per Steve Reed of the Associated Press, which makes this rivalry a winner.
Lochte, who has been competing with Phelps in this event for 12 years, finished fifth, appeared resigned to again finish behind his friendly rival. He could cheer himself up by watching the Canadian (CBC) broadcast, where the announcer mixed up the two Americans, mistakenly calling Lochte the winner.
Loser: U.S. Men's Golf
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Golf made its return to the Olympics for the first time since 1904, but the U.S. men used the big moment to lay an egg.
The world's No. 8 golfer, Rickie Fowler, who is the U.S.’ best chance for gold on paper, shot a four-over 75, tied for 56th, two strokes from last place in the 60-player field and 12 shots behind surprise leader Marcus Fraser of Australia, the world’s 90th-ranked player.
Matt Kuchar was the only American to finish under par with a two-under 69. Patrick Reed shot a one-over 72, and Bubba Watson shot a two-over 73.
Top U.S. players Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson pulled out of contention for the Olympics, citing health concerns.
Fraser, 38, scored an eight-under 63, followed by Canada’s Graham DeLaet and British Open champion Henrik Stenson of Sweden at five under. Five players finished at four under—Belgium's Thomas Pieters, Gregory Bourdy of France, Alex Cejka of Germany, Great Britain’s Justin Rose and Spain's Rafael Cabrera Bello.
Fraser, if he should hang on through the next three rounds, would have sweet bragging rights among his fellow Aussies—he got one of two berths only after four countrymates: Jason Day, Adam Scott, Marc Leishman and Matt Jones, all declined Olympic invitations.
Rose made Olympic golf history with a hole-in-one on the par-three fourth, but the Olympic opening round’s sweetest moment might have come from Adilson da Silva, the only Brazilian in the field, who hit the opening tee shot. He compared it to the birth of his son, per CBS Sports' Kyle Porter.
Winners: Simone Biles and Aly Raisman
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It's fitting it came down to this: On the final event of the individual all-around competition, the floor, Aly Raisman led the individual all-around with just one gymnast left: her teammate, Simone Biles.
Raisman watched as Biles, 19, elevated, tumbled and twisted into history.
Biles won her second gold of these Olympics and her sport's most coveted title: Olympic all-around champion.
When it was official, Biles, who has admirably been holding it together through an expectation-packed Olympic runup, then three competitions (qualifying, team, all-around), finally lost it. She was crying and laughing as she stepped to the podium, where Raisman joined her for a hug.
Biles, who helped the U.S. to team gold in dominating fashion Tuesday, now has another to add to back-to-back U.S. team titles. Biles is the fourth straight American to win all-around Olympic gold, and she joins icons like Mary Lou Retton (1984) and streak-starters Carly Patterson, Nastia Liukin and 2016 teammate Gabby Douglas.
No country has ever done that before—not the Soviet Union, which owned the sport with eight team titles from 1952 to 1980; not Romania, which medaled in every Olympics since 1956.
Raisman, an emphatic No. 2 in perhaps the best one-two punch any gymnastics team has ever seen, won silver, redemption for missing a medal in 2012 and the main driver behind her return for a second Games.
She lost that 2012 bronze in a tiebreaker to Russia's Aliya Mustafina, who again won bronze on Thursday and finally cracked a smile. Mustafina, like Raisman her team's captain and veteran member, had her own four-year struggle to return to the Games after injuries and surgeries since London.
Biles, as usual, won in a rout, scoring 62.198 points to Raisman's 60.098. Mustafina posted a score of 58.665.
Gymnastics scores go to hundredths because competitions are usually that close. With Biles in the field, the sport might think about dropping that last digit.
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Loser: Anyone Fighting Judo's Kayla Harrison
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Kayla Harrison sealed the best Olympic showing by an American judo athlete when she successfully defended the gold medal she won in 2012.
On Thursday, Harrison, 26, added to Travis Stevens' men's silver earlier in the week. Before Rio, no two judokas from the U.S. had ever reached an Olympic final in the same year.
Top-ranked Harrison dominated the 78-kg division, delivering match-ending armbars in the both the final and semifinal, forcing tapouts from France's Audrey Tcheumeo and Anamari Velensek of Slovenia, respectively.
Not that there wasn't drama. She and world No. 2-ranked Tcheumeo fought to a draw with the match expected to be decided by penalties when, with six seconds left, Harrison suddenly maneuvered to deliver the armbar.
Harrison, who in London made history as the first U.S. judo athlete to win gold, has a troubled past. She was sexually abused by her coach and recently said she had been suicidal, per espnW's Allison Glock.
Harrison said this will be her final Olympics, per Marla Dickerson and Reed Johnson of the Wall Street Journal, but told reporters Thursday she's not likely to try mixed martial arts, where Ronda Rousey, America's first Olympic medalist in women's judo, has had a lucrative career.
Winner: Fiji Men's Rugby
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Before Thursday, Fiji had never won an Olympic medal of any color through 17 Olympics (14 Summer, three winter).
Then their national sport, rugby sevens, got named to the Olympic calendar, and world No. 1 Fiji became a medal favorite.
The island nation of 900,000 people can now celebrate after its team won gold in a rout over Great Britain, 43-7. Great Britain didn't score until four minutes remained. Both medal matches were blowouts, with South Africa defeating surprise semifinalist Japan, 54-14, for bronze.
It is the first Olympic rugby gold awarded since 1924, when rugby, as a 15-a-side tournament, was last in the Games.
The victory, even though it was assured early, left players on their knees and sprawled on the turf weeping. Then the team huddled and sang together—beefy guys led by their British ex-pat coach, Ben Ryan, who stands out among them because of his red hair, thick-framed glasses and too few vowels.
He calls them "the Harlem Globetrotters of rugby," per Jerry Brewer of the Washington Post, and while they are stars back home, some players have backgrounds of poverty and misfortune, a few left homeless by a recent devastating hurricane. One reserve player, Masivesi Dakuwaqa, is blind in one eye.
But now they are Olympic champions.
The U.S. defeated Spain, 24-12, to finish ninth.
Loser: Czech Double Canoeists
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A few paddle strokes from gold in the men's C2 final, Jonas Kaspar and Marek Sindler flipped their canoe in the roiling waters of Rio Whitewater Stadium and wound up with no medal.
The event had unfolded perfectly for the Czech team, ranked second in the world and favored for silver. On the Czech's final run, they had muscled their slim craft skillfully through a core-sapping number of gates.
With just three gates to go, on an upstream push, the boat suddenly went edge up.
The duo managed to get the boat righted and paddled furiously through the remaining gates, but the damage was done.
After crossing the finish, both Kaspar and Sindler covered their heads in agony.
The gold medal went to Slovakian cousins Ladislav and Peter Skantar, favored throughout the competition. Brits David Florence and Richard Hounslow took silver, and France's world No. 1-ranked Gauthier Klauss and Matthieu Peche won bronze.
The medal helped Florence, who has a degree in mathematical physics, ease the pain from Tuesday's poor individual canoeing (C1) performance. He was favored to medal but finished a shocking 10th. Florence and Hounslow were silver medalists in London, just 0.38 seconds from gold.
Winner: Olympic Field Hockey
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TeamUSA.org called them "the best USA team you've never heard of."
That would be women's field hockey, and it is toppling giants. The Americans are 4-0 in group play after Thursday's 3-0 victory over India and have already advanced to the quarterfinal, though another preliminary game remains, against Great Britain on Saturday, before quarterfinals begin Monday.
They have beaten No. 2 Argentina and No. 3 Australia in pool play.
The team finished 12th (last) at the 2012 Games, but since hiring coach Craig Parnham in 2013 and overhauling the program, they have won a Pan-Am gold medal and moved from a No. 10 world ranking to No. 5.
They excel at set plays and have possibly the best-named player in Rio: Katie Bam, a striker who leads the team in goals, including two against India. The team is also led by captain Lauren Crandall, and goalkeeper Jackie Briggs is strong.
Most of the roster is from the sport's hotbeds, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The world's top team is the Netherlands, winner of the past two Olympic golds.
Loser: Olympic Swimming
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Adding to the turmoil in Rio’s aquatic center about doping comes complaints over mistakes made in Olympic swimmers’ entry times, and a veteran swimmer criticizing the Olympics for becoming “a spectacle, not a competition” and “a glorified reality TV show.”
Swimming in his fifth Olympics in Rio, Trinidad and Tobago competitor George Bovell, the 2004 bronze medalist in the 200-meter medley behind Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte, said this is his final Olympics, per the Guardian's Andy Bull. Bovell, a respected figure in the sport, said he has become “disillusioned” by the international swimming federation’s anti-doping policies.
After Russia was accused of engineering a state-sponsored doping program, the IOC refused to ban the country from the Rio Games, instead handing off the responsibility to sports federations like swimming’s FINA. Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova, who won silver in Thursday’s 200-meter breaststroke, adding it to her silver in the 100, was called out by 100-meter gold medalist Lilly King.
King isn’t the only one. Swimmers are talking.
“There is a general consensus that we have been let down and we are fed up,” Bovell told Bull.
In addition, some swimmers are finding their Olympic race entry times are incorrect, per Bull, which could affect lane assignments. Rio organizers blame FINA. FINA blames Rio. Organizers say no results have suffered, but it's yet another blow to the sport's credibility and confidence swimmers have in the running of their competition.
U.S. officials say they have spoken to FINA about automating the process, per Bull, but the international organization continues to process the entry times by hand.
It’s not the first time the issue has surfaced. Mexico was found to have submitted false times for the 2015 world championships, per John Leonard of the World Swimming Coaches Association (via Bull).
Winner: Simone Manuel
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Thank you, Simone.
Not Biles. Simone Manuel.
It has been 32 years since an American woman won the Olympic 100-meter freestyle race.
Manuel, 20, pulled off an upset in the pool Thursday night and made history in the process.
In tying Canadian teenager Penny Oleksiak for the 100-meter freestyle Olympic title, she became the first black woman to win individual swimming gold for the U.S.
Their time of 52.70 seconds set a new Olympic record. It is Manuel’s second medal of the Rio Games—she won silver as part of the 4x100 freestyle relay as well.
Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom was third at 52.99.
The competitors Manuel and Oleksiak defeated were impressive. During her swim, Manuel was flanked by the Aussie Campbell sisters, Cate and Bronte. Cate is the current world-record holder. Bronte is the current world champion. Cate was sixth and Bronte finished fourth.
The U.S., with all its firepower in the men’s sprint freestyle, has not been strong on the women’s side.
Natalie Coughlin, with 2008 bronze, was the last American swimmer to win an Olympic medal in this race. Carrie Steinseifer and Nancy Hogshead tied for gold in the event in 1984’s boycotted Games in Los Angeles, the last time a U.S. swimmer had won it.
Loser: Guanabara Bay Competitors
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Uh...what's the incubation period for water-borne viruses or bacteria again?
Since the Games began, we've been so distracted we lost track.
Chances are Belgian doctors may be able to refresh our memories. Belgium medical staffers are saying one of the team's sailors has become ill after training in Rio's notoriously polluted Guanabara Bay in July, a Belgian coach has told Jeb Blount of Reuters.
Evi van Acker, a 2012 bronze-medal sailor, has been suffering from a severe gastrointestinal illness since July that has weakened her despite antibiotics. She is 10th overall after six of 10 preliminary races in the Laser Radial class.
According to Blount, coach Wim van Bladel said van Acker's symptoms are lethargy and weakness.
"The judgement of the medical team is that the water is the likely cause of her illness and continuing low-energy level. These diseases affect your muscles' ability to react," van Bladel told Reuters.
That's unsettling news for Olympic athletes who will compete and possibly go home with more than a suitcase full of souvenirs from Rio. September could be an ugly month.
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