U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun says further action is coming in the matter of 12-time swimming medalist Ryan Lochte and his three teammates whose story of a robbery overshadowed the Rio de Janeiro Games.
Blackmun offered no details on what disciplinary action may be coming, but made no effort to hide his frustration with the matter.
“They let down our athletes,” Blackmun said. “They let down Americans.”
Lochte originally described the incident as an armed robbery, before the story unraveled.
In televised interviews that aired Saturday, Lochte backtracked and said he “over-exaggerated” the story. Police said Lochte and three of his swimming teammates — all four were gold medalists — vandalized a bathroom after a night of partying and armed guards confronted them and asked them to pay for the damage.
Blackmun said Lochte’s story also harmed Brazil in how the storyline took a great deal of attention off the Rio Games themselves.
The Rio Olympic beach volleyball tournament, held on the iconic Copacaba beach, spanned over 18 days and boasted over one hunded matches. The tournament saw Brazil claim its first Olympic gold since the 2004 Athens Games, three-time defending champion Kerri Walsh Jennings lose her title, and three teams secure historic first Olympic medals for their nations. See the top highlights from the 2016 tournament below.
Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena narrowly edge Italy to advance
Four years after losing to the Italy’s Nicolai/Lupo in the Round of 16, Phil Dalhausser got his revenge, besting the duo 21-13, 17-21, 24-22 in the preliminary round alongside new partner Nick Lucena. The U.S. men remained undefeated in pool play but were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Brazilians Alison and Bruno Schmidt.
Top-seeded Brazilians upset in pool play match
Brazil’s Alison and Bruno Schmidt, early medal favorites, were expected to easily escape pool play unscathed. However, in a stunning upset, the top-seeded duo fell to Austria’s Doppler/Horst in pool play. While Alison and Bruno were not eliminated from the tournament, they did lose the seed dedicated for the winner of Pool A entering the Round of 16.
Italians nearly ousted
Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo went from “lucky losers” to Olympic silver medalists in the men’s beach volleyball tournament. Nicolai/Lupo entered the Rio tournament as the tenth seed and narrowly made it out of the prelimianry round after losing their first match of pool play. However the Italians won a last chance lucky loser match to advance to the elimination round. While they fell to Brazil in the gold medal match, they did win their nation’s first ever Olympic beach volleyball medal.
Mr. Skyball’s signature serve
Kerri Walsh Jennings, April Ross fall….
Three-time Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings had her eyes set on a fourth gold. But when Walsh Jennings, alongside new partner and London silver medalist April Ross, fell in semifinals, the duo had no choice but to bounce back in the bronze medal match.
… but rally back for Bronze
After the duo was upended in the women’s beach volleyball semifinals, Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross had 24 hours to regroup, plan a new strategy and return to the sand for their last shot at a medal from the Rio Games. Fighting against their rivals, top-seeded Brazilians Larissa and Talita, Walsh Jennings and Ross won a stunning three-set match 17-21, 21-17, 15-9.
The Netherlands wins first Olympic beach volleyball medal
Dutch duo Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen won Olympic bronze, taking home their nation’s first Olympic beach volleyball medal. The second-seeded pair was topped by Brazil’s Alison and Bruno Schmidt in the semifinals but bested Russia’s Krasilnikov/Semenov in the bronze medal match to secure a spot on the podium.
Germany sweeps Brazil to win nation’s first women’s beach volleyball gold
Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst entered the Rio Olympic beach volleyball tournament as the fourth seed and as outside medal contenders. The duo swept pool play and dropped only one set on their way to Olympic glory. They became the first German women’s team to win an Olympic medal.
Alison and Bruno Schmidt bring back gold to Brazil
Brazil, often considered the spiritual home of volleyball, had not won an Olympic beach volleyball gold since the 2004 Athens Games. Alison and Bruno Schmidt collected the glistening hardware on home soil, ending the nation’s beach volleyball gold medal drought.
The Olympic diving slate at the Rio Games is now complete with China taking gold in seven of the eight events. A quick look back at all the action…
MEDAL COUNT
China — 10 (7 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze)
Great Britain — 3 (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
USA — 3 (2 silver, 1 bronze)
Italy — 2 (1 silver, 1 bronze)
Canada — 2 (2 bronze)
Mexico — 1 (silver)
Malaysia — 1 (silver)
Australia — 1 (bronze)
Germany — 1 (bronze)
WOMEN’S SYNCHRONIZED 3M SPRINGBOARD
Medalists
Gold — Wu Minxia & Shi Tingmao (China)
Silver — Tania Cagnotto & Francesca Dallapé (Italy)
Bronze — Maddison Keeney & Anabelle Smith (Australia)
China’s Wu Minxia took ownership of five Olympic records with her gold medal in the first diving event of the Rio Olympics — most diving gold medals by an individual in Olympic history, most Olympic diving medals won by a woman, oldest woman to win an Olympic diving gold medal, most Olympic Games with a diving medal and most gold medals in the same Olympic diving event.
The battle for bronze came down to the final dive. Australia’s Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith, who were in last after the first two rounds, stormed back to place third to secure the bronze medal with 299.19 points, narrowly edging Canada’s Jennifer Abel and Pamela Ware by just 0.87 points.
Brazilian 35-year-old diving icon Juliana Veloso made her final Olympic appearance in front of the hometown crowd.
No Americans qualified for the event.
MEN’S SYNCHRONIZED 10M PLATFORM
Medalists
Gold — Chen Aisen & Lin Yue (China)
Silver — David Boudia & Steele Johnson (USA)
Bronze — Thomas Daley & Daniel Goodfellow (GBR)
Chen Aisen and Lin Yue set an Olympic record on their way to the gold, amassing 496.98 points. The pair received a number of 10s from the judges in both execution and synchronization for their fifth dive — a forward 4.5 somersault that earned them 106.56 points.
American’s David Boudia and Steele Johnson turned in a strong performance to score 457.11 points and secure the silver medal, even though they finished nearly 40 points behind China.
The silver is the highest the United States has ever placed in the event, marking the first career medal for 20-year-old American Johnson in his first event and third career medal for Boudia.
WOMEN’S SYNCHRONIZED 10M PLATFORM
Medalists
Gold — Chen Ruolin & Liu Huixia (China)
Silver — Pandelela Rinong Pamg & Cheong Jun Hoong (Malaysia)
Bronze — Meaghan Benfeito & Roseline Filion (Canada)
The day the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center diving well infamously turned green, China’s Chen Ruolin matched her countrywoman Wu Minxia in the history books with the most diving gold medals in Olympic history.
Chen’s path to greatness is wildly impressive. The 23-year-old is five-for-five, winning gold in every Olympic event in which she has competed.
Americans Amy Cozad and Jessica Parratto, who were each competing in their first career Olympic event, finished in seventh place.
MEN’S SYNCHRONIZED 3M SPRINGBOARD
Medalists
Gold — Jack Laugher & Chris Mears (Great Britan)
Silver — Sam Dorman & Mike Hixon (USA)
Bronze — Cao Yuan & Qin Kai (China)
Jack Laugher and Chris Mears stuck a wrench in China’s plans for total domination in Olympic diving with an impressive program to win Great Britain’s first ever Olympic diving gold.
USA’s Michael Hixon and Sam Dorman put together a clean 450.21-point list to place second and earn the silver medal, finishing higher than the United States ever has in the men’s synchronized 3m springboard. (Troy Dumais and Kristian Ipsen won bronze in 2012.)
China’s Cao Yuan and Qin Kai, who led after the first two rounds and were the favorites going into the event, posted a total of 443.70 points for bronze.
WOMEN’S INDIVIDUAL 3M SPRINGBOARD
Medalists
Gold — Shi Tingmao (China)
Silver — He Zi (China)
Bronze — Tania Cagnotto (Italy)
Shi Tingmao, the favorite entering the event, was clean from start to finish for 406.05 points and the gold medal. Countrywoman He Zi comfortably took silver with 387.90 points.
Behind the two Chinese divers, Canada’s Jennifer Abel and Italy’s Tania Canotto went back and forth for third with the Italian emerging at the end to secure the bronze medal.
USA’s Abby Johnston placed sixth in the preliminary on Friday and fifth in the semifinal on Saturday, but she did not perform as well in the final and finished in 12th place.
The women’s 3m final wasn’t the only highlight at the diving pool on Aug. 14. A pair of Chinese divers took the plunge as Qin Kai proposed to He Zi.
MEN’S INDIVIDUAL 3M SPRINGBOARD
Medalists
Gold — Cao Yuan (China)
Silver — Jack Laugher (Great Britain)
Bronze — Patrick Hausding (Germany)
It seemed like a wide open event after the reigning men’s 3m springboard World champion He Chao of China was eliminated in the prelims and the reigning Olympic champion Ilya Zakharov of Russia — after a brutal belly flop — was eliminated in the semifinal.
But 21-year-old Cao Yuan made sure it was anything but, leading from start to finish with a dominant program to take the gold.
Great Britain’s Jack Laugher took silver and Germany’s Patrick Hausding, after finishing fourth in his two previous Rio diving events, finally cracked the podium and won bronze.
For the first time since 2000, the United States placed two competitors in the top 10 of the men’s 3m as Kristian Ipsen — who performed the difficult “triple out” — placed fifth and Mike Hixon placed 10th.
WOMEN’S INDIVIDUAL 10M PLATFORM
Medalists
Gold — Ren Qian (China)
Silver — Si Yajie (China)
Bronze — Meaghan Benfeito (Canada)
Ren Qian is just 15 years old, but with all the poise and confidence of a veteran in the women’s individual 10m platform event, comfortably winning gold ahead of countrywomen Si Yajie, 17, who took silver.
USA’s Jessica Parratto placed third in the prelim and second in the semifinal, but endured a number of miscalculated entries in the final and settled for a 10th-place finish in her Olympic debut.
MEN’S INDIVIDUAL 10M PLATFORM
Medalists
Gold — Chen Aisen (China)
Silver — German Sanchez (Mexico)
Bronze — David Boudia (USA)
China’s Qiu Bo was the favorite going in and he authored a perfect dive in the final, receiving 10s from all seven judges, but his inconsistencies left the door open.
And countryman Chen Aisen stormed right through for his second gold of the Rio Games.
USA’s David Boudia, the defending gold medalist from London, performed well. When the pool calmed, he sat in third place behind Chen and Mexico’s German Sanchez.
Steele Johnson, in his first career individual Olympic event, placed 18th and just barely qualified for the semifinal, where he wasn’t as luck and finished 13th — one spot off of qualifying for the final.
GREEN WATER
It was the storyline that no one expected in the Rio Olympics. Divers showed up to the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center on Tuesday, Aug. 9, and beheld a unique sight. The water in the diving well, a pristine azure blue the day before, turned a murky green.
The reason wasn’t forthcoming, but officials vowed to fix the problem overnight.
That didn’t happen and divers dubbed the pool “The Swamp.”
Finally, four days after the color change on Saturday, Rio 2016 director of venue management Gustavo Nascimento and Rio 2016 Organizing Committee executive director Mario Andrada held a press conference to set the record straight. Apparently one of their contractors dumped 80 liters of hydrogen peroxide in the pool, which neutralized the chroline’s ability to keep the water clear.
After a day with no diving on Aug. 11, the water was back to a smoky blue color on Aug. 12. Two days later, the clear blue color began to return.
The water was never unsafe for the divers. In fact, many divers indicated that the green water actually made diving easier as it provided starker contrast for the divers to pick up their visual cues.
Still, officials were clear that the failure on their part was an embarrassing blemish on the Rio Games execution.
The dynasty continues, with a rhythmic gymnastics group from Russia winning Olympic gold for the fifth straight time.
Tied behind them with the same score was Spain and Bulgaria, with Spain winning the tiebreaker to receive a silver medal, and Bulgaria earning bronze.
It was the same podium as the 2015 World Championships, just with Spain and Bulgaria swapped places.
Italy finished fourth, just a few tenths out of the medals. Italy won bronze at the 2012 London Olympics.
The final rankings were:
1. Russia: 36.233
2. Spain: 35.766
3. Bulgaria: 35.755
4. Italy: 35.549
5. Belarus: 35.299
6. Israel: 34.549
7. Ukraine: 34.282
8. Japan: 34.200
Rhythmic gymnastics is best known for its costumes, music and make-up—but don’t underestimate its athletes.
Besides their mind-blowing flexibility, strength and coordination they’re also some of the toughest athletes around. There are no time-outs in rhythmic; you’ll never see a rhythmic gymnast “take a dive” in order to gain some advantage. Instead, when injury or accident occurs, a rhythmic gymnast will finish her routine with a smile on her face and blood running down the back of her head.
That’s a real example.
“One time I got hit in the head by the club and it pushed the pin through my skin, and I started bleeding backstage,” U.S. rhythmic gymnast Aliya Protto said. “It was just like covered in blood.”
What did she do next? Go out and compete.
Every rhythmic gymnast has a similar story.
“One time, at nationals, my ribbon stick hit right next to my eye and I got a black eye,” Camilla Feeley, the Olympic alternate in Rio, said. So did she finish her routine? “Yeah!”
The sole U.S. representative in individual rhythmic gymnasts at the Olympics, Laura Zeng, has been lucky enough to avoid mid-routine injuries. But she has a few scars, nonetheless.
“A couple years ago, during control practice, my club hit my head and it was gushing blood and I had to get stitches!” she said. Typically stoic, Zeng says of getting three stitches, “It wasn’t too fun.”
For the U.S. rhythmic gymnastics group, have multiple clubs, ribbons and hoops flying through the air means injuries are unavoidable.
There are six members of the team, with only five performing at a time. In one routine, they use five ribbons. In the second, they use two hoops and three sets of clubs.
They have a special name for when one of the apparatus hits one of them square on the forehead: a unicorn bump.
“Sometimes the ribbon or something, if you don’t see the lighting it can like directly hit you in the forehead,” Alisa Kano said.
Like Zeng, group members Monica and Jennifer Rokhman—twin sisters—had to get stitches after a rhythmic-related accident.
Jennifer got a ribbon stick to the eye in practice. “It was this thing where I tied the ribbon around my foot and I would do a walkover,” she said, “and it would sort of toss and I would catch, and I did it really fast and it flew at my face and I was gushing blood.”
She had to get multiple stitches, “but you can’t even tell!” she proudly pointed out.
Monica probably has the highest stitch count: “About 23,” she said. The accident happened when one of her teammates—she’s too loyal to name names—accidentally let go of a club too early and it flew into Monica’s forehead.
Her teammate, Kiana Eide, still sounds a little in awe by the gruesome accident.
“I was on the other carpet, and all of a sudden everyone stopped and I just saw a black dot on her head, and then it was like blood. I remember it so clearly.”
Even more seriously, Kristen Shaldybin competed with a broken foot at the 2015 World Championships—but she didn’t find out until later it was broken, and still doesn’t know how it happened.
“You can’t prevent the injuries, it just kind of happens. I didn’t know at world championships that my right foot was broken,” she said.
“It was like everyone’s in pain, why should I say something? [I went to the doctor] in October to check out my foot, it’s like ‘Oh yeah, you have a fractured foot.’ I was like ‘Oh, that’s good to know.’
Shaldybin recounted this all with a laugh, especially the moment when she first suspected something was wrong with her foot.
“In Bulgaria in August, we had to go on this long walk that our coach took us. And I was so upset about this walk, we came back and I was just like, ‘I know why I was upset about this walk!’”
At the Rio Olympics, several rhythmic gymnasts had injury strike at the world possible time. In the last moments of China’s ribbons routine, one of the athletes got hurt so badly she had to be helped off the competition floor by her teammates.
Gold: Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya)
Silver: Feyisa Lilesa (Ethiopia)
Bronze: Galen Rupp (United States)
A couple of days before the 2016 Olympic men’s marathon, Galen Rupp watched the movie “Happy Gilmore.”
Rupp was inspired by Adam Sandler’s character, a professional hockey player who discovers that he might actually be more talented at another sport, golf.
Rupp, an accomplished track runner, is making a similar transition to new event, the marathon. Running 26.2 miles for just the second time, he claimed the bronze medal Sunday morning in Rio.
“I fought being a marathoner,” Rupp said to NBC’s Lewis Johnson, “but maybe this is my best event.”
Four years after not making the Kenya’s 2012 Olympic team, Eliud Kipchoge won the men’s marathon. Kipchoge, a two-time Olympic 5000m medalist, is the second fastest marathoner of all time. He crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 8 minutes, 44 seconds.
Ethiopia’s Feyisa Lilesa finished 70 seconds later to earn the silver medal.
Rupp finished in 2:10:05. After crossing the finish line, he flashed the “O” gesture with his hands, a nod to the University of Oregon.
Rupp made his 26.2 mile debut in February, winning the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.
He also ran the 10,000m at the 2016 Olympics, finishing fifth after earning the silver medal in 2012. Rupp’s training partner, Mo Farah, won the 10,000m in Rio.
“It was tough,” Rupp said. “I was pretty drained after the 10k.”
American Jared Ward finished sixth, running 2:11:30, a personal best. He is known as the “Running Nerd” because he is a statistics professor at BYU.
Meb Keflezighi, the 2004 Olympic silver medalist, said that he stopped seven times during the race and even threw up. But he continued running and finished 33rd. Keflezighi, 41, is the second oldest U.S. Olympic runner of all time, behind Bernard Lagat, who ran the 5000m in Rio.
Keflezighi slipped as he was about to cross the finish line. He played it off by doing a couple of push-ups before returning to his feet to finish the race.
“I knew it was going to be a long day,” Keflezighi said.
Earlier in Rio, Jemima Sumgong won the women’s marathon. She became the first Kenyan woman to win an Olympic marathon gold medal. All three U.S. women finished in the top 10.
Solid defense and fluid transitional play lifted Germany above Poland to win the bronze medal in men’s handball.
In a very tense first half, the bronze medal match was waiting for one of these two sides to make the first move and stretch ahead.
It was Mateusz Jachlewski who first made the move, poaching from the wing and scoring off an assist by Karol Bielecki. Poland quickly capitalized on the momentum provided by Jachlewski and moved three goals ahead of Germany.
Germany quickly countered, going on a 4-0 run themselves to inch back ahead of Poland. Paul Drux posed serious problems for Poland on the top of the perimeter, forcing his way through that Polish defense to give Germany the advantage. Germany scored four goals on fast breaks in the first half.
They continued to pick up on the momentum that Drux established and, after trailing 5-8, Germany led Poland 12-9 after capitalizing on the fast breaks and Polish turnovers.
With Patrick Wiencek – one of the best defenders in the men’s handball competition – in the center, Poland struggled to push through the top of the arch. Poland scored on only three attempts from the nine meter mark out of 10.
USA men’s volleyball decided to flip the script.
After blowing a late lead and suffering a heart-wrenching defeat in the semifinals to Italy, the Americans decided they had a comeback of their own left.
Down two sets to none, the U.S. rallied to beat Russia in five sets (23-25, 21-25, 25-19, 25-19, 15-13) and claim the bronze medal in Rio.
The Americans were just three points away from the gold medal match in the fourth set of the semifinal Friday, but Italy rattled off six straight poitns and then took the fifth set to send the U.S. to a devastating loss.
Russia, meanwhile, lost in three sets to host Brazil in the semifinal.
To add insult to injury, the U.S. team not only had to psychologically move past the heartache of missing out on gold, but then had a traveling snafu Sunday morning where their bus didn’t have the right credentials and they were forced to walk several blocks to the Maracanãzinho arena in the pouring rain in advance of the bronze medal match.
Veteran Reid Priddy – playing in his fourth Games – provided a big spark for the Americans, starting out 15-of-20 hitting and finished with 18 points in his last Olympic match.
The 38-year-old Priddy had hardly played in the tournament prior to Sunday.
This is the second medal for Priddy and U.S. captain David Lee, who also won gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The U.S. also won gold in 1988 and 1984 and took home bronze in 1992
Russia was the reigning gold medalists from the 2012 London Games.
Reigning world champion Kyle Snyder is one win away from a gold medal at the Rio Games.
Snyder took out Cuba’s Javier Cortina by a score of 10-3 in the Round of 16, then rolled to a 7-0 victory over Romania’s Albert Saritov in the quarterfinals.
In the semifinals, Snyder appeared to be in trouble when his opponent, world No. 6 Elizbar Odikadze of Georgia, hit a four-point takedown early in the match. At the intermission, the score was 4-0 in favor of the Geogian.
But Snyder, known for his premier conditioning, wore Odikadze down in the second period. Snyder was repeatedly able to get the Georgian’s leg and force him out of bounds. Snyder forced three step outs to cut the score to 4-3, then got a takedown to take the lead. Snyder added a few more step outs and takedowns to push his advantage to 9-4 by the end of the match.
In the gold medal match for men’s 97kg freestyle wrestling, Snyder will face Khetag Gazyumov, the world No. 3 from Azerbaijan. Earlier in the day, world No. 1 Anzor Boltukayev from Russia was surprisingly eliminated in the Round of 16 by Ukraine’s Valerii Andriitsev.
A second member of the U.S. team will be competing for a medal this afternoon as well. Molinaro, competing in the 65kg division, won his first match before losing to 2012 gold medalist Toghrul Asgarov by technical fall in the quarterfinals.
With Asgarov reaching the final, Molinaro has been pulled into the repechage. There he will face Ukraine’s Andriy Kvyatkovskyy, with the winner moving into a bronze medal match.
65kg quarterfinals
Chamizo (ITA) wins 4-3 vs. Iakobishvili (GEO)
Asgarov (AZE) wins by tech fall 10-0 vs. Molinaro (USA)
Navruzov (UZB) wins 8-5 vs. Gomez (PUR)
Ramonov (RUS) wins 6-0 vs. Ganzorig (MGL)
97kg quarterfinals
Snyder (USA) wins 7-0 vs. Saritov (ROU)
Odikadze (GEO) wins 6-1 vs. Ibragimov (KAZ)
Andriitsev (UKR) wins 5-2 vs. Musaev (KGZ)
Goziumov (AZE) wins 12-3 vs. Ibragimov (UZB)
65kg semifinals
Asgarov (AZE) wins 7-4 vs. Chamizo (ITA)
Ramonov (RUS) wins 18-7 vs. Navruzov (UZB)
97kg semifinals
Snyder (USA) qins 9-4 vs. Odikadze (GEO)
Goziumov (AZE) wins by tech fall 11-0 vs. Andriitsev (UKR)
Gold medal matches
65kg: Asgarov (AZE) vs. Ramonov (RUS)
97kg: Snyder (USA) vs. Goziumov (AZE)
Live coverage of men’s basketball gold medal game between USA and Serbia at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.