Olympic weekend wins and losses

On Saturday, West Virginia teenager Ginny Thrasher, ranked 23rd worldwide in air rifle before the Summer Olympics, stunned the experts to win the first gold medal of the Rio de Janeiro games. Then Team USA swimmers made a splash on the world stage, breaking records and winning medals.

American Katie Ledecky looks like the next international swimming superstar. On Sunday, she set a new Olympic record in her 400-meter freestyle heat and shattered her own world record time in the final, finishing at 3 minutes, 56.46 seconds. Her opponents looked hopelessly outpaced.

Two U.S. relay teams did well, too: Ledecky’s 4x100 freestyle relay team took silver, and Michael Phelps added to his Olympic haul with a gold in the men’s 4x100 freestyle. Both Ledecky and Phelps are expected to continue their winning streaks when preliminaries begin for the 200-meter races tonight.

This afternoon, the U.S. men’s gymnastics team has a chance to win gold for the first time in 32 years. They finished second in their qualifying round, raising expectations for their performance this afternoon. The U.S. women in their qualifiers finished nearly ten points ahead of their closest competition, China, and are favored for gold in the team final Tuesday, with Simone Biles and Aly Raisman advancing to compete in the women’s individual all-around contest.

David Boudia and partner Steele Johnson will compete in the synchronized 10-meter dive at the same time as men’s gymnastics. Boudia currently holds the Olympic bronze medal.

The U.S. basketball team will be disappointed with anything other than gold. On Saturday, fans cheered the team in its game against China until the game became a runaway; then sympathy for the losers led some to chant “Olê China!” The United States won, 119-62.

U.S. tennis fans were disappointed this weekend when Venus and Serena Williams, three-time gold medalists, lost to a Czech pair in the first round of the women’s tennis doubles. The sisters, now knocked out of the competition, made no excuses and said they were grateful for the medals they had won.