Olympic roundup: Team USA sets world record in medley relay to close out swimming with most gold medals

SWIMMING: The U.S. women closed out their Olympic Games emphatically with a gold medal and a new world record in the women’s 4×100-meter medley relay on Sunday night.

Regan Smith, Lilly King, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske finished in 3 minutes, 49.63 seconds and beat the rest of the field by more than 3 seconds.

Australia (3:53.11) took silver and China (3:53.23) earned bronze.

Their gold was the eighth for Team USA, which pushed the Americans past the Australians, who tallied seven in the pool. The U.S. has won more swimming gold medals than its peers in every Olympics since 1988. Walsh admitted afterwards that she knew going into the relay that they could get Team USA to the top of the gold -medal count. Neither King or Smith said they had any idea. King was asked how much it meant to beat the Aussies.

“It matters because we like to win,” King said. “But we’re just here to race and do what we do best.”

Earlier Sunday, the U.S. men earned silver in the men’s medley relay – the first time in the history of the event that the Americans didn’t win it (excluding the boycotted 1980 Games). It was a disappointing meet overall for the American men; distance swimmer Bobby Finke was the only man to win an individual event, and he didn’t do that until the final night of competition. Star sprinter Caeleb Dressel didn’t win any individual medals, despite entering the Games as the reigning Olympic champion in three individual events. A number of young swimmers failed to qualify for the finals in their events.

“We compete against the best in the world,” U.S. men’s head coach Anthony Nesty said. “Yes, we want our athletes to win gold medals, but the other teams have great athletes as well.”

Nesty said that everyone involved will need to go back and look at everything involved in the preparation for the meet and what happened here to figure out why so many swimmers swam faster at the U.S. Olympic trials in June than they did at the actual Games.

“Our goal is always to match our times or be better,” he said.

The hope, Nesty said, is to make sure the times are faster and the medals are more golden four years from now in Los Angeles.

• Finke sets world record: Bobby Finke sent the U.S. men out with a world-record swim and a gold medal.

He took gold in the men’s 1,500-meter freestyle for the second consecutive Olympics. His time of 14:30.67 set a new world record in the men’s 1500 free.

Finke earned a silver medal earlier this week in the men’s 800 free. If he’d come up short, it would have been the first time since 1900 that the U.S. men did not win an individual swimming gold.

U.S. women roll past Germany into knockouts

BASKETBALL: Team USA coach Cheryl Reeve is no stranger to dynasties. From 2011 to 2017, her Minnesota Lynx won four WNBA championships. And during the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, where Reeve was an assistant, four of her players played key roles for the gold medal squad.

So, it’s probably a pretty comforting — and in a way, a familiar — feeling for Reeve to look down her bench now in France and see four starters for the Las Vegas Aces, the defending two-time WNBA champs.

It was a core from the most dominant WNBA team in recent memory — go figure — that propelled Team USA to an 87-68 win over Germany in the team’s final group stage game.

Through the first 15 minutes, the game was pretty even (Germany even led after the first quarter), but midway through the second quarter — just a minute after Team USA took its first lead of the game with an Alyssa Thomas layup — Reeve re-inserted A’ja Wilson onto the floor, where she joined Aces guards Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young. With the Aces core on the floor, Team USA closed out the first half on a 17-7 run.

Again, in the third quarter, midway through, a Plum-Young substitution (with Wilson already on the floor) spelled instant offensive energy for Team USA as the squad — which had allowed Germany to cut its lead to 10 — ended the third quarter on a 20-7 run.

• Men’s 3x3 eliminated: The United States men’s 3x3 basketball team started the Olympic tournament with four straight losses, but then took back-to-back wins over France and China on Friday to give themselves hope of qualifying for the knockout stage.

Those hopes ended Sunday as they lost their final group stage game, getting blown out 21-6 by the Netherlands.

Faulkner first U.S. woman to win road race since ’84

CYCLING: American Kristen Faulkner pulled off a stunning victory in the women’s road race, breaking away with a little under 2 miles to go to take gold. The last time an American woman won the event was at the 1984 Los Angeles Games when Connie Carpenter-Phinney placed first.

Though she is the reigning U.S. road race champion, Faulkner was a replacement athlete in this Olympic event. Taylor Knibb resigned her position in the road race to focus on the time trial and triathlon events, and Faulkner took her place.

The 31-year-old made a dramatic bid for home at the very end of the 158-kilometer contest and her rivals around her had no answer as she bolted clear to claim gold.

“I knew I had to attack them as soon as we caught them,” she said. “I knew they were sprinters. But I knew they didn’t want to work together – they were three different countries. I knew if I got a small gap they would have to race for second.

“I just counted to 10 about 10 times until I hit the finish line.”

Djokovic completes golden slam

TENNIS: Novak Djokovic beat Carlos Alcaraz 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) in the men’s singles final at Roland Garros in Paris.

The No. 1 seed prevailed over the No. 2 seed in an epic of intensity and tactical fortitude, ultimately decided by Djokovic’s adaptability behind serve.

He played two completely flawless tiebreaks, which have become a calling card of his game through 24 Grand Slam singles titles and now, finally, one Olympic gold medal, at the age of 37.

Lee’s comeback continues

GYMNASTICS: As she slowly made her way back from two debilitating kidney diseases, it was the bars that helped restore America’s Suni Lee.

And it was the bars where Lee would claim her third medal of these Olympics, a second bronze to go with her gold in the team final.

When the 14.800 score flashed she covered her mouth in surprise, shocked that she won a medal, but more surprise at what she’s done. “The last couple of days, I saw my scores and I saw that if I just hit my routine, I could medal,’’ she said. “But really I just wanted to prove it to myself that I can do it.’’