The Sportsletter - Closing Time 🏅

BY JEFF YODER

AUG. 9, 2024 |  SUBSCRIBE  |  WEB VIEW

Happy Friday 🙌

~ Today's Edition Was Delayed Due to Technical Difficulties ~

We’ve come to the end of Week 2 in Paris. Only three days remain. We’ll recap some more medal moments on Monday before flipping the channel back to MLB, NFL preseason, and the FedEx Cup Playoffs — you know, normalcy.

The Latest From Paris? Just another world record for Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and a sigh of relief for Team USA men’s basketball. That overall medal count is getting out of hand.

Letter Rip!

  MEDAL TRACKER   🏅

*Accurate Through Midnight, Aug. 9 / Click Image for Updated Medal Count 

6. 🇯🇵 Japan (33 medals)

7. 🇮🇹 Italy (30 medals)

8. 🇰🇷 South Korea (28 medals)

9. 🇳🇱 Netherlands (25 medals)

10. 🇩🇪 Germany (22 medals)

11. 🇨🇦 Canada (21 medals)

12. 🇧🇷 Brazil (15 medals)

13. 🇳🇿 New Zealand (13 medals)

14. 🇪🇸 Spain (13 medals)

15. 🇺🇦 Ukraine (10 medals)

16. 🇭🇺 Hungary (9 medals)

17. 🇸🇪 Sweden (9 medals)

18. 🇷🇴 Romania (8 medals)

19. 🇮🇪 Ireland (7 medals)

20. 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan (7 medals)

Full Medal Count

  OLYMPICS   🏅

Sydney Be Speedin' 💨 

Photo: Tim Clayton-Corbis / Getty Images

🇺🇸 Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone Celebrates 25th Birthday With Another Gold & 6th Broken World Record in 400-Meter Hurdles (50.37 Seconds)

The day after her 25th birthday, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone entered the women’s 400-meter hurdles as the heavy favorite once again. She won gold in 2021. No one had ever won two golds in the event, let alone back-to-back. She also broke her own world record five different times before Thursday. One quick lap with 10 hurdles shouldn’t be long enough to win by a landslide, but Sydney puts the "her" in hurdles (as in: 'She's Her'). By the ninth jump on the backstretch, it was over. There was Sydney, 20 feet of oxygen, then the field. She broke her previous world record (50.65s) by 0.28 (50.37s) and crossed the tape more than 1.5 seconds clear of second place. Birthday crown — earned.

Watch: 🇺🇸 Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone Shatters 400M Hurdles World Record for 6th Time En Route to Gold Medal

🐶 The Underdog: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone

Other Track & Field Highlights

• 🇺🇸 Grant Holloway Wins Gold in Men’s 110M Hurdles
• 🇺🇸 Tara Davis-Woodhall Wins Gold in Women’s High Jump With 7.10-Meter Leap
• 🇯🇲 Jamaican Men’s 4x100m Relay Stunningly Fails to Qualify for Finals
• 🇧🇼 Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo Takes Men’s 200M, 🇺🇸 American Noah Lyles Takes Bronze

  OLYMPICS   🏅

Scream Team Comeback 🇺🇸 

Photo: Aris Messinis / Getty Images

Steph Curry (36 Points) Rallies 🇺🇸 Team USA From 17 Down to Beat 🇷🇸 Serbia (95-91) & Reach Gold Medal Game

Forget the dream team. This squad is emotional, and I love it. The U.S. men’s basketball team got trounced by Nikola Jokic and Serbia for three quarters of yesterday’s semifinal. Then came the scream team, screaming all the way back, and screaming in each other’s faces in a show of passion with every momentum-swinging bucket. Serbia led the U.S. by as many as 17, but Steph Curry (36 points) cooked up one of those unguardable shooting sprees. Joel Embiid (19 points) was a force of nature while LeBron James had a triple-double (16 pts, 12 rebs, 10 ast), but it was a late Curry flurry — 11 fourth-quarter points — that swung the score. The leading quartet of Curry (11), LeBron (6), Embiid (6) and Kevin Durant (7) combined for 30 of Team USA’s 32 points in the 4th. They retook the lead, and held it, with just over two minutes to go.

"The most fun I've had in a very long time." — Steph Curry

Fun Fact: Curry’s 36 points were just one away from the U.S. men’s basketball single-game Olympic record set by Carmelo Anthony (37 points, 2012).

Gold Medal Match: The gritty win sets up a finals showdown with the host nation after France held off Germany (73-69) in the other semifinal. The French roster consists of some familiar NBA names; Victor Wembanyama, Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier and Nicolas Batum. It’ll be a true “road game” for the U.S. in front of the Paris fans on Saturday.

Men’s Basketball Highlights (Semifinals)

🇺🇸 USA def. 🇷🇸 Serbia (95-91)

🇫🇷 France def. 🇩🇪 Germany (73-69)

Finals: Saturday (Sat. 3:30 pm)

Read More

Sporting News: Steph Curry’s Explosion Leads Miraculous USA Semifinal Comeback

ESPN: Team USA’s Comeback Win Over Serbia in Olympic Semifinals Excites Social Media

  OLYMPICS   🏅

Other Olympics Highlights

• 🇦🇺 Australia Comes Back to Beat 🇺🇸 USA in Women’s Water Polo Semis
• 🇺🇸 USA Advances to Men’s Water Polo Semis With Penalty Shootout Win
• 🇨🇭 Swiss Golfer Morgane Metraux Leads After Round 2, 🇺🇸 Nelly Korda Collapses

  MLB HIGHLIGHTS   🎥

⚾️ MLB Quick-Hitters

Mitch Haniger Hits 3-RBI Walk-Off

Mariners Top Tigers (4-3)

Jackson Chourio Hits 2 HRs in Brewers’ Win

Youngest Player in Team History With Multi-HR Game

Pete Alonso’s 2 Moonshots Lift New York

Mets Leap Past Braves in AL East

Full MLB Scoreboard

🏈 NFL Preseason

Patriots def. Panthers (17-3)

Pats’ Rookie QB Joe Milton III (76 Yards, 1 TD)

Giants def. Lions (14-3)

Giants’ RB Eric Gray Scores 2 TDs on 4 Carries

  STORYLINES  

🇺🇸 Closing Ceremony Flag Bearers

Team USA announced the flag bearers for Sunday’s closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. After becoming the most decorated American athlete in Olympics history, Katie Ledecky gets the honor. Gold-medal rower Nick Mead will join her. (B/R)

🏈 The Best Week 1 Preseason Games

The NFL's regular season doesn't start for another month, but that doesn't mean that meaningful football won't be played before that. From Burrow’s return to a battle of former Buckeye QBs, here are the best games to watch in preseason Week 1. (CBS Sports)

⚾️ Who Will Replace Pedro Grifol?

After 279 games and 190 losses, the Pedro Grifol error… era… is over in Chicago. The White Sox lost an AL record-tying 21 straight games in the last month. For the third time in four years, the team is looking for a new manager. (The Athletic)

  NEWS   📰 

⚾️ White Sox Fire Manager Pedro Grifol After Snapping 21-Game Losing Streak (CBS Sports)

🏈 Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles to Retire With Eagles at Home Opener (ESPN)

👟 16-Year-Old U.S. Track Phenom Quincy Wilson Will Make Olympic Debut Friday Morning in 4x400M Relay (Yahoo! Sports)

🏅 Olympics Swimming Broadcast Legend Rowdy Gaines to Retire After 2028 Games (SI)

🏈 Seahawks WR D.K. Metcalf Reportedly Hits Teammate With Helmet During Practice Fight (B/R)

🏀 NBA Christmas Day Game Schedule Revealed (B/R)

🏈 Cowboys’ Owner Jerry Jones Has ‘No Urgency’ to Get CeeDee Lamb Extension Done (ESPN)

🏅 USA Track Star Noah Lyles Done for Rest of Olympics After COVID-19 Diagnosis (SI)

  SCHEDULE   🗓️

The Olympic Must-Watch List 🏅

🏀 Basketball

W-Semis: 🇺🇸 USA vs. 🇦🇺 Australia (Fri. 11:30 am)

M-Finals: 🇺🇸 USA vs. 🇫🇷 France (Sat. 3:30 pm)

W-Finals: Teams TBD (Sun. 9:30 pm)

⚽️ Soccer

M-Finals: 🇫🇷 France vs. 🇪🇸 Spain (Fri. Noon)

W-Finals: 🇺🇸 USA vs. 🇧🇷 Brazil (Sat. 11:00 am)

👟 Track & Field Events (Friday-Sunday)

Track: Distance, Relays, Heptathlon & Marathon

Field: Javelin, Shot Put & High Jump

Other Events

🏊 Men's 10K Open Water (Fri. 1:30 am)

⛳️ Women’s Golf, Rounds 3-4 (Friday-Saturday)

Other Sports in Action: Boxing, Canoeing, Cycling, Diving, Handball, Penthathlon, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Sailing, Sport Climbing, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Water Polo, Weightlifting, Wrestling / *All Times ET / Coverage on NBC & Peacock

Other Sports to Watch

⚾️ MLB Schedule

🏈 NFL Preseason (Week 1)

⛳️ PGA Tour (Wyndham Championship)

  POLL   📊

The Olympics Exit Survey 🏅

Before the Olympics began, we polled your excitement on a scale of 1-10. More than 75% of readers gave their excitement rating a “5” or above while 19% selected a '10' rating. Let’s find out how Paris performed. We'll compare on Monday.

On a scale of 1-10, how much did you enjoy the 2024 Paris Olympics?

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

  THE TEAM  

Writer & Editor: Jeff Yoder

Assistant Writer: Marissa Kasch

Social Media: Aaron Yorke

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