Olympic 2016 Results: How to View Friday's Live Medal Tally Updates
The Summer Olympics' one-man show will need help from his teammates to make history on Friday night in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Usain Bolt continued his track and field dominance on Thursday, becoming the first man to win the 200-meter dash three straight times. He's now one more triumph away from pulling off an unprecedented triple-triple by sweeping the 100-meter, 200-meter and 4x100-meter relay at three-consecutive Olympics.
Friday's team relay is the final step to immortality. Before the Jamaican star seeks another gold, the United States men's basketball team will vie for gold-medal inclusion in a semifinal showdown against Spain.
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Either way, no country is catching up to the U.S. during the final three days in Rio de Janeiro. Here's an updated look at the medal tally and Friday preview:
On the heels of two three-point victories, Team USA ended the suspense by crushing Argentina in the quarterfinals. Behind 27 points from Kevin Durant, the men's basketball squad advanced with a 105-78 win.
Per ESPN Stats & Info, the new Golden State Warriors star passed His Airness and moved within arm's reach of topping two more legends on Friday:
Yet, he's not breathing a sigh of relief just yet. "We've got to build on it," Durant said after Wednesday's victory, per the Associated Press' Brian Mahoney, "but we're not satisfied at all."
Spain has experienced a similar Olympic arc. A top contender to set up a third-straight gold-medal matchup with Team USA, it dropped group games against Croatia and Brazil. Surviving preliminaries was no longer a certainty.
The back-to-back silver finishers turned a corner, annihilating Lithuania in group play before ousting France with a 25-point quarterfinal victory. Pau Gasol had a quiet game, but Nikola Mirotic and Willy Hernangomez led the way with 23 and 18 points, respectively.
The gold-medal match in London was hardly a rout; U.S. survived with a 107-100 win that went down to the wire. Team USA isn't out of the woods just yet.
To most fans' shock, the U.S. women's soccer team won't compete for a medal. Instead, Sweden shocked the world in the quarterfinals before silencing Brazil in the semifinals. Following consecutive triumphs on penalty kicks, the squad faces Germany for gold.
Although Germany has won three bronze medals, neither country's women's squad had previously made the gold-medal matchup before. Regardless of the outcome, Sweden will earn its first medal.
After knocking off her former team, head coach Pia Sundhage can claim her third-consecutive gold. Her defensive acumen helped Sweden keep Marta and Co. off the scoreboard for 120 minutes in the semifinals.
Fox Sports' Caitlin Murray pointed out the vanishing validity to any claims of Sundhage having succeeded solely because of a loaded U.S. roster:
The underdog in two nail-biting upsets, Sweden won't catapult to a finals favorite. As noted by UEFA.com, Germany has won each of its past five meetings dating back to 2012. Germany has also won all three Olympic matches, but a contest eight years ago has no predictive value on this clash.
Silvia Neid, who steered three bronze finishes in 2000, 2004 and 2008, will coach Germany for the final time. It's not the matchup most viewers expected, but Sweden and Germany are poised to deliver a hotly contested battle for gold.
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