USA’s pommel horse nerd nails it 🤓

Your Olympics essentials.

• What happened yesterday: The U.S. men’s gymnastics team won bronze, their first Olympic medal in 16 years! Katie Grimes and Emma Weyant won silver and bronze, respectively in the 400m IM! Skateboarders Jagger Eaton and Nyjah Hutson won silver and bronze, respectively, in the men’s street final! Ryan Murphy won ~another medal in the 100m backstroke! U.S. women’s basketball won! Check out all the day’s highlights.
• What’s happening today: Simone Biles and the U.S. women in the gymnastics team final! More swimming finals! 3x3 hoops starts and both U.S. teams are in action! Follow all the day’s action.
• The latest medal count: Entering Tuesday, the U.S. held the lead in the medal count with 20 (three golds, eight silvers, nine bronze), although Japan leads the gold medal count with six.

A note on the U.S. pommel horse nerd.

Stephen Nedoroscik, the U.S. pommel horse specialist, did a Rubik’s Cube before his routine that helped seal the Americans win bronze. He solved it in 9.32 seconds. Yeah, just super casual stuff. My colleague Tom Schad has written about America’s latest nerdy heartthrob – who was hoisted in the air by his teammates yesterday and held up his glasses in celebration after he nailed his routine – more than once and his story is pretty cool. 

Nedoroscik realized pretty early he had no real shot at being an all-arounder, but loved pommel horse and decided to take the huge risk of going all-in on the event. That has drawn some critics over the years, especially as he has struggled to perform under pressure a couple of times.

He completely flushed that last night, and it was so fun watching his teammates lose their minds during and after his routine. Tom described what Nedoroscik did like this: It'd be like an NFL kicker sitting on the bench for the entirety of the Super Bowl, then coming out in overtime and draining a 49-yard field goal to win the game.

Nedoroscik called this the greatest moment of his life. The internet and its memes agree. 

First croissant of the trip.

I am ashamed to admit it took me a week to go into a patisserie here for my first croissant of the trip. 

I wandered into a patisserie off Boulevard de Strasbourg in the 10th Arrondissement – 100% did not have to look up how to spell, totally definitely absolutely spelled it off the top of my head – and got my flaky treat and a tomate and chevre baguette sandwich. 

I decided to walk a little more than halfway to the gymnastics arena to stretch my legs and see the sights. But when I settled into my arena seat, I plopped that buttery delight down on the table and dove in. I groaned, it was so delicious. First official croissant rating of these games: 10 out of 10, zero notes.

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Other Day 4 highlights.

• The U.S. men's gymnastics team winning Olympic bronze shows their strategy changes are working – big time. Now, they have more motivation than ever ahead of LA 2028.
• How Brody Malone went from the worst meet of his life to powering the U.S. men to Olympic bronze.
• Frederick Richard delivered team-best performances in the floor, parallel bars and horizontal bar last night, fulfilling a lifelong dream.
• How USA skateboarder Jagger Eaton won silver in men's street.
• How the U.S. women’s basketball team responds to their opponents really upping the physicality against them: "You get the first punch."
• U.S. swimmer Luke Hobson took home bronze in a 200-meter freestyle "dogfight."
• A fencer won Ukraine's first Olympic medal in Paris: "It's for my country."
• Beach volleyball duo Chase Budinger and Miles Evans were inspired by a U.S. support group at their win.
• Rafael Nadal's loss to Novak Djokovic suggests his time in tennis is running short.
• Noah Lyles says his popularity has made it hard to stay in Olympic Village.