Katie Ledecky is otherworldly 🥇🏊
Your Olympics essentials.
- What happened yesterday: Water is wet and Katie Ledecky won gold in the 1,500m freestyle in record-setting fashion! Torri Huske won silver in the 100m free! Evy Leibfarth won bronze in canoe slalom! Perris Benegas won silver in BMX freestyle! The triathlon happened in the Seine! Simone Biles put her former teammate on blast and rightfully so! The U.S. men’s hoops team beat South Sudan! USWNT beat Australia to advance to the knockout rounds! Check out all the day’s highlights.
- What’s happening today: Simone Biles and Suni Lee compete in the women’s gymnastics all-around final! Katie Ledecky is back in the pool for the 4x200m relay! The U.S. women’s basketball team faces Belgium in group play! Back-to-back fencing gold medalist Lee Kiefer goes for gold again, this time in the team final! Men’s golf starts! Follow all the day’s action.
- The latest medal count: Entering Thursday, the U.S. held the lead in the medal count with 30 (five golds, 13 silvers, 12 bronze), although China led the gold medal count with nine.
The happiest man in the building.
U.S. gymnast Paul Juda fully did not expect to make the men’s all-around final. But he did. And he knew he had no real shot at a medal, but that’s OK. He was just jazzed to be competing. So he just wanted to put in 100% effort, enjoy the moment and soak it all in. He placed 14th (out of 24 gymnasts) and what he said after was so heartwarming I had to share, via my colleague Tom Schad. A really good reminder that sometimes it truly is just about the experience.
When asked to rank his Olympic experience, the 23-year-old beamed. He'd give it a 12 out of 10.
"Experience of a lifetime," Juda said. "You know, I'm in the all-around final. And I'm not last! That was my only other goal."
On his final event, pommel horse, Juda confessed that he was already thinking about how he wanted to kiss the horse in celebration when he finished. But in order to do that, he reasoned that he had to turn in a solid routine. He hopes one of the many television cameras in the arena captured the words he said before his dismount: "Oh my God I did it, oh my God I did it, I did it, I did it."
"At some point, I’m going to watch back the Olympics," Juda said, "and I want to be like, ‘OK, that was awesome. I’m really happy with that performance.'"
A New Yorker does laundry in Paris.
I’ve been sweating for like a week straight here and desperately needed to do laundry yesterday. So my non-speaking French self went on the hunt for a laundromat. I scored with the second place I walked into taking cards so I didn’t have to fuss with coins.
You know that woman thinks about doing math meme? That was me − phone in hand, Google Translate app pulled up on my phone − trying to figure out the instructions on the machines, on how to pay, the whole bit. And then, a hero appeared to save me. An expat just so happened to walk in, saw me struggling and said: "Need help?" YES, YES I DO. So thanks to that man, my clothes are clean and I feel like a new woman. I paid it forward this morning, explaining how it all works to a couple colleagues via voice note. Teamwork make the dream work!
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Highlights from yesterday because I *still* don’t know what day it is 😂
- Jason Kelce’s appearance was "super cool" for the underdog U.S. field hockey team.
- Is Australia catching the U.S. in swimming? It's gold medals vs. total medals in the pool.
- Delaney Schnell and Jess Parratto failed to add medals while Chinese diving stars shone bright.
- U.S. boxer Jahmal Harvey trailed on the Olympic judges' scorecards entering the final round yesterday. Here’s how he advanced.
- Torri Huske is becoming one of Team USA's biggest swimming stars here.
- Jamaica's Shericka Jackson withdrew from the 100-meter sprint. That’s huge news for Sha’Carri Richardson.
- US gymnast Frederick Richard already has his sights set on the 2028 Olympics: "I’m not satisfied."
- A night in Paris shows how far U.S. table tennis has come – and how far it has to go.