Hopes rise for U.S. men's gymnastics team

Teenager Sheng Lihao has already won a gold medal in the air rifle mixed team event on Saturday. The Chinese shooter added another gold medal, this time solo, in the men's 10-meter air rifle with an Olympic record score.

Following him just 0.8 points behind was Viktor Lindgren, who was making his Olympic debut for Sweden.

Milan Maricic of Croatia won the bronze medal.

Although the U.S. team did not qualify for the finals this year, the Olympic record that Shen broke was held by American William Shaner at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The Tokyo Olympics didn't go as planned for sprinter Noah Lyles, who said his mental health got in the way of his success at the last Olympics. But the world's fastest sprinter says he's more prepared to take to the starting line this time and bring home a medal for Team USA.

While racial tensions in the United States and the COVID-19 pandemic have upended many lives in 2021, including athletes, Lyles said one of the things that puzzled him about the last Olympics was what wasn't there. “If there weren't any spectators, there's a good chance you're going to see me lose,” Lyles said, referring to the Tokyo Olympics, which had extremely limited attendance.

“Even with these Olympics, I've had my fair share of trials and tribulations, but to finally be able to say I'm going to compete in the Olympics without any down moments, it feels amazing,” Lyles, 27, said at a press conference Monday morning.

Lyles, who is hoping to win gold medals in the 100 and 200 metres, told reporters he was recovering well with the help of three therapists: a daily therapist, a sports therapist and a grief therapist.

“Coming into this championship, on the biggest stage in the world, I've been through the toughest times. I've hit rock bottom. I've fought my way back up. I've overcome my weaknesses. And now I'm stronger than ever. If I lose this time, it won't be because I lost to myself, it'll be because the opponent was just that good.”

Find out more about Noah Lyles here.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced this morning that the gold medals in the figure skating team event at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics will be reallocated in a ceremony to be held at 5pm local time (11am Eastern Time) on August 7 at the Parc des Champions in Paris.

The International Skating Union retroactively downgraded the Russian team's gold medal to bronze after one of its skaters, Kamila Valieva, was suspended for four years for doping. Russian skaters are competing as individual neutrals in Paris because of the war in Ukraine.

As a result of this move, the US team will be promoted to the gold medal and Japan to the silver medal.

The remaining reassignments will take place on August 9th at 1:45pm local time (7:45am EST).

China's current 10-meter synchronized platform world champions had the chance to hear the Chinese national anthem again in Paris, as divers Lian Junjie and Yang Hao won their first Olympic medals, gold.

British superstar Tom Daley and young partner Noah Williams won silver, giving Daley his fifth medal in the tournament, adding to his one gold and three bronze medals so far.

Canadian divers Nathan Zombor-Murray and Rylan Wiens won the bronze medal, the first for both countries at the Games, while the U.S. team did not qualify in the event.

Brazilian surfer Filipe Toledo earned himself an impressive score of 9.67 points in the second round of the men's shortboard competition on Monday, which is taking place off the coast of Tahiti in French Polynesia, about 10,000 miles from France.

Veteran basketball player Chase Budinger stepped onto the Olympic sands in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower for the first time on Monday afternoon.

The former Pacers, Suns, Timberwolves and Rockets forward will team up with fellow beach volleyball player Miles Evans to take on French duo Youssef Crew and Arnaud Gautier-Latte at 10 a.m. ET.

Budinger and Evans enter the tournament as a duo ranked 13th in the world, and the Americans will need to beat the Frenchman, ranked 34th, to make things tougher in Pool F. Their next two matches will be against Stephane Beaumans, ranked 5th in the world. Yorick de Groot of the Netherlands and Spain's 17th Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira.

The top two teams from each pool are guaranteed a place in the knockout round of 16.

Two of the greatest tennis players of all time, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, will take to the courts at Roland Garros today. The legends will face off in their second match of the day in the second round of the Paris men's singles tournament after women's singles number one Iga Swiatek defeated France's Diane Parry.

This won't be the first time the Serb and Spaniard have met — in fact, it will be their 60th meeting — but the two players couldn't be more evenly matched: Djokovic has faced Nadal 30 times, compared to 29, since they first met on the same court at Roland Garros in 2006 at the French Open.

Djokovic's career remains strong, having recently reached the Wimbledon final where he lost to Nadal's Olympic doubles partner Carlos Alcaraz, while Nadal has been plagued by injuries over the last few years of his career. The 38-year-old Spanish great is looking to recapture the success he had at the 2008 Beijing Olympics when he beat Djokovic in the men's singles semi-finals to win the gold medal.

“This will probably be the last time I play against Nadal on a big stage,” Djokovic said of Nadal, “and playing against him is like a final in any tournament, especially here, knowing what he's done and what he's done for our sport.”

South Korean athlete Bang Hyo-jin won the gold medal in the women's 10-meter air rifle event at the 2024 Paris Olympics. China's Huang Yuting and Switzerland's Audrey Gonia won the silver and medals, respectively.

The men's 100-meter breaststroke final on Sunday went to a photo finish between Italy's Nicolo Martinenghi, Great Britain's Adam Peaty and the United States' Nick Fink, with Martinenghi beating his fellow silver medalists by just 0.02 seconds.

Before the race, China's 2023 world champion Qin Haiyang was considered the favourite to win gold, along with Great Britain's Peaty.

Canada's women's national soccer team coach apologized Sunday after serving a one-year suspension for her role in a spying scandal at the Paris Olympics. Bev Priestman said she would “take responsibility” and cooperate with the ongoing investigation.

“My heart aches for my players and I am truly sorry for the impact this situation has had on all of them,” she said in the letter issued through her lawyer.

FIFA last week stripped Canada of six points and suspended British-born Priestman after one of its staff members used a drone to spy on the opposition, stripping the team of all points it had earned in its first two Group A matches and putting its gold medal defence in jeopardy.

The Canadian government also issued a statement on Sunday in response to the allegations, saying financial support for Priestman and two other Canadian Soccer Association officials, Joseph Lombardi and Jasmine Mander, would be suspended for the duration of FIFA's sanctions.