Olympics live updates: Katie Ledecky takes silver, U.S. men win relay gold – The Washington Post

TOKYO — A pair of 13-year-olds won gold and silver in the inaugural women’s street skateboarding competition at Ariake Urban Sports Park on Monday afternoon.

Momiji Nishiya of Japan took gold, following her countryman Yuto Horigome’s gold medal performance in the men’s event the day before. Rayssa Leal claimed silver, and 16-year-old Funa Nakayama of Japan earned bronze.

The United States men’s rugby sevens team got its Olympic run off to a dramatic start with a last-minute win over Kenya.

In pool play Monday morning at Tokyo Stadium, Madison Hughes scored a try on a play that began 95 meters from the goal line and included a nice feed from teammate Kevon Williams. Steve Tomasin made the conversion with seconds left to give the Eagles a 19-14 win. Just before that, U.S. wing Matai Leuta made a great defensive play to deny Kenya what would have probably been a game-sealing try of its own.

Hughes missed a conversion earlier in the game but led the United States with seven points. Carlin Isles and Martin Iosefo scored the other tries for the Eagles, who began the game with a 12-0 lead but were down 14-12 late. Collins Injera and Jeff Oluoch scored tries for Kenya, which also got a pair of conversions from Eden Agero.

The Eagles were also slated to play Ireland later Monday in Group C action.

Olympic officials on Monday stressed the importance of providing mental health support to athletes and said that the issue has become a greater priority in these Games.

There is a mental health hotline available for athletes and professionals who can provide support within the Village, International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said, noting that such support is a significant shift from just 10 to 15 years ago.

“I think it’s really getting the recognition and the work and resources it deserves,” Adams said in a news briefing Monday.

Some athletes have been working to bring greater awareness of the impact of their competitions and heightened media scrutiny on their mental health, including tennis superstar Naomi Osaka.

Officials again highlighted their focus on gender equity in news coverage of the Games and their push to minimize discriminatory portrayals of female competitors, including images and videos of athletes’ bodies.

Naoko Imoto, education specialist at UNICEF and an ex-Olympic swimmer, said in the news briefing that in comparison to male athletes, female athletes such as Osaka have been subject to outsize criticism when it comes to their mental health concerns.

TOKYO — On the eve of their matchup in the first Olympic softball gold medal game since 2008, the United States and Japan provided a preview of what could be coming Tuesday night in the final game of round-robin play Monday. The Americans used a walk-off solo home run from Kelsey Stewart to win, 2-1.

Stewart delivered the game-winning shot off Yamato Fujita in the bottom of the seventh to help the United States close round-robin play with a 5-0 record. Japan went 4-1. The two teams will play for the gold medal Tuesday night at Yokohama Baseball Stadium, 13 years after Japan beat the United States in the gold medal game in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Japan struck first Monday after Saki Yamazaki scored on a passed ball thrown by U.S. starting pitcher Ally Carda. The Americans didn’t tie the score until the sixth, when Haylie McCleney scored on an RBI single from Valerie Arioto. Pitcher Monica Abbott, who has won or saved every game for the Americans in these Olympics — came on in relief in the seventh and struck out the side.

That set up Stewart’s walk-off blast, which was the just the fourth hit of the afternoon for the Americans.

TOKYO — Olympic officials have rescheduled rowing and archery matches that were set to take place Tuesday because of an impending tropical storm that is expected to make landfall that day.

Officials said they are monitoring the weather closely and that changes in the daily schedule will be made on a case-by-case basis.

Tokyo 2020 spokesman Masa Takaya noted that while the Japanese terminology for the tropical storm heading toward Japan is “typhoon,” it is a Grade 3 storm out of a five-grade scale and that it is technically classified as a tropical storm by U.S. standards.

“It’s going to be different, on a case-by-case basis, and from venue to venue,” Takaya said in a news briefing Monday. He declined to answer yet about whether other sports, such as surfing, will be rescheduled because of the potential for high winds.

Meanwhile, officials asked Japanese locals to refrain from attending roadside events such as cycling races, urging them to abide by the ban on spectators. Coronavirus cases have been on the rise in and around Tokyo, while vaccination rates remain in the low-20 percent range.

“We are requesting general audiences to refrain from coming to the roadside, under the current situation,” Takaya said. “We should thank those people who did not come and stay in their homes to watch those events.”

There is no current discussion on whether to lift the spectator ban, and officials have not yet made a decision on spectators for the Paralympics, Takaya said.

Australia’s Ariarne Titmus and Katie Ledecky staged an epic battle Monday in the final of women’s 400-meter freestyle. Titmus needed 300 meters to overtake the United States star and barely held Ledecky off over the hard-charging final stretch.

It’s entirely possible, though, that no one expended more energy during the race than Dean Boxall.

As Titmus celebrated before exchanging congratulations with Ledecky, NBC showed a replay of the wildly exuberant behavior exhibited by Boxall, Titmus’s coach, during her stretch run. He roared, pumped his fist, thrust his pelvis and, in general, acted like a man possessed.

Of course, the 43-year-old Boxall had good reason to be excited, given the torch-passing stakes of the race. He is famously intense and has more than shown his emotions during previous races, but Monday’s display took things to a new — and slightly terrifying — level.

Boxall, who has generated controversy for his unorthodox coaching methods, has said he has “never picked up a textbook about swimming technique” and goes by “feel.”

Safe to say Titmus’s coach was feeling pretty pumped up about her highly anticipated win.

Caeleb Dressel finally hit the Tokyo Olympic pool and did not disappoint. He led off the 4×100 men’s freestyle relay, building a lead for the Americans and helping the U.S. squad defend its Olympic title in the much-anticipated relay event.

The Americans posted a gold medal-winning time of 3:08.97, which was 1.14 seconds ahead of second-place Italy. Australia was third with a time of 3:10.22.

The U.S. team had posted the second-fastest qualifying time, and coaches swapped in Dressel for the final. Blake Pieroni swam the second leg, followed by Bowen Becker and then Zach Apple for the final 100 meters. In the anchor leg, Apple held off the charging Italians, posting a final 100-meter split of 46.69 — the fastest of any Americans.

“We had a couple people rule us out in that event. We’re never going to take that,” Dressel told NBC. “So it feels nice to dominate that event and have that back on home soil.”

After tallying six medals — including one gold — on the first full day of the swimming competition, the American squad picked up just two on the second day — Katie Ledecky’s silver in the women’s 400 free and the gold in the men’s relay.

The relay was the first Tokyo race for Dressel, who will take aim at six — possibly seven — medals in Tokyo.

It also marked the first time since 2000 that the United States fielded a 4×100 freestyle relay team without Michael Phelps. Phelps led the Americans to gold in the event in 2016 and 2008, silver in 2012 and bronze in 2004. The 2008 U.S. relay team set the world record.

TOKYO — U.S. swimmer Regan Smith set an Olympic record Monday morning in Tokyo, recording a time of 57.86 in the 100-meter backstroke in her semifinal round to advance to the final.

That time was 0.02 seconds better than the previous Olympic record, set by Australia’s Kaylee McKeown the night before. McKeown also qualified for the final after swimming a 58.11 on Monday, finishing two-tenths of a second behind Canada’s Kylie Masse, who clocked a 58.09 to win the second semifinal.

The trio of Smith, McKeown and Masse had delivered a stunning sequence in the preliminary heats the night before, when the Olympic record in the event was set three times over in successive heats. Masse set it first with a time of 58.17. Two minutes later, Smith posted a time of 57.96 in her heat, which stood until McKeown registered a 57.88 in the final heat.

Smith broke it again Monday morning to set up a showdown in the final just a month after McKeown set the world record in the event with a time of 57.45. Smith had previously held the record at 57.57, set at the 2019 world championships.

TOKYO — Sixteen more people linked to the Tokyo Olympics have tested positive for the coronavirus, including three unidentified athletes, organizers announced Monday.

Since July 1, 148 people connected to the Olympics have tested positive. Of the reported positive cases Monday, eight were Games-concerned personnel and four were contractors; one was a Tokyo 2020 employee.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee did not report any new cases from testing conducted Sunday.