Anastasija Zolotic defeated Tatiana Minina 25-17 in the women's 57-kg taekwondo division final to win gold for Team USA at the Tokyo Olympic Games on Saturday.
Of note: The 18-year-old is the first American woman to win gold in taekwondo. "It really hasn't sunk in yet," she told reporters after her win. Zolotic's was the fourth U.S. gold of the day, after swimmer Chase Kalisz, shooter Will Shaner and fencer Lee Kiefer.
TOKYO — Sunday was a chance to venture beyond my comfort zone of softball and soccer.
Behind the scenes: I decided to check out the U.S. men’s water polo team, since I flew over to Japan with them. They managed a nice come-from-behind victory over Japan, with the only downside being spilling an entire bottle of water in my backpack.
U.S. fencer Lee Kiefer made history Sunday when she defeated defending champion Inna Deriglazova of Russia, 15-13, in the women’s foil final Sunday.
Why it matters: Kiefer's win marks Team USA's first Olympic gold medal in women's foil and it's third in fencing. Kiefer is a three-time Olympian who is ranked No. 5 in the world.
Swimmer Chase Kalisz became on Sunday the first Team USA Olympian to win gold at the Tokyo Games.
The big picture: The Rio 2016 silver medalist's winning time in the men's 400 meters Individual Medley Final was 4 minutes 9.42 seconds. His teammate Jay Litherland took silver .86 seconds later.
Naomi Osaka's Tokyo Olympic Games are off to a winning start, after Japan's tennis superstar beat China's Zheng Saisai 6-1, 6-4 in the first round Sunday.
Kimia Alizadeh narrowly missed winning the Refugee Olympic Team's first Games medal, in the bronze match — hours after defeating a two-time Olympic gold medalist and also the favorite to win the 57-kilogram taekwondo division Sunday.
The big picture: Alizadeh, Iran's Rio Games bronze medalist who defected to Germany last year, defeated Iranian friend Nahid Kiyani 18-9, then Great Britain's Jade Jones 16-12 and then contest favorite Zhou Lijun, of China, 9-8.
The big picture: The men's surfing got under way at 6p.m. Saturday ET with the first of six rounds, and the women's round began just over three hours later. Eliminations were beginning in the second round. Medal matches are scheduled for July 27.
The NFL will fine unvaccinated players $14,650 if they violate COVID-19 protocols this season, ESPN reports.
The big picture: The rule change comes two days after the NFL announced that postponed games due to coronavirus outbreaks among unvaccinated players or staffers will not be rescheduled and teams responsible for delays will automatically forfeit.
A new(ish) face will be leading NBCUniversal's prime-time coverage of the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games: veteran sportscaster Mike Tirico.
Why it matters: It's Tirico's first run as prime-time host for the Summer Olympics. Legendary broadcaster Bob Costas hosted 12 Olympic Games between 1988 and 2016 for NBC before handing over the prime-time spot to Tirico in 2018.
For the first time since 2004, the face of Team USA at the Olympics will not be Michael Phelps, who retired from swimming in 2016.
Why it matters: With the most decorated Olympian of all time no longer anchoring coverage and driving attention, a new crop of American stars will emerge in Tokyo.
TOKYO — The COVID rule-breaking was obvious at Friday's opening ceremony, when athletes were clearly visible on TV with masks below their noses, but an athlete tells Axios that the rule-breaking has been going on well before that.
It's been happening at least since athletes arrived in the Olympic Village, where masks were dropped below noses and different teams were forced to share buses.
TOKYO — This year's Games have drifted from the usual mix of sports and drama into reality TV: There are plenty of cameras, no live audience — and even the citizens of Tokyo have to watch on TV.
And, like with all reality TV shows, the contestants take the risks and the producers make the money.
Welcome to our Axios AM Deep Dive behind the scenes of the Tokyo Olympics detailing the impact of the COVID pandemic,led by Ina Fried, who's on the ground in Tokyo, plus Kendall Baker, who's covering the Games every day in his Axios Sports newsletter.
A heat wave in Tokyo pushing temperatures into the 90s with high levels of humidity has posed yet another challenge for athletes competing in the Olympic Games.
Why it matters: The extreme heat — making the Tokyo Games one of the hottest Olympics in decades — has made organizers reschedule matches and push events to the early morning hours or dusk to avoid the scorching sun, NBC reports.
Young athletes of color are increasingly compelled to pursue gymnastics as the faces of the most elite competitors reflect a more diverse collection of backgrounds.
The big picture: Women of color make up half of the members of Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics.and more than half of the 18 women asked to come to the Olympic trials in St. Louis last month were women of color, according to the Associated Press.
China denounced NBC for displaying what the nation called an "incomplete map" of its territory during the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics, Reuters reports.
Driving the news: The map was shown on-air as Chinese athletes entered the opening ceremony and did not include Taiwan nor the South China Sea.
Tail grab. Kickflip. 5-0 grind. The Summer Olympic vocabulary is expanding this year as skateboarders, including Nyjah Huston — considered by many as the world's best contest street skater of all time — descend on Japan.
The big picture: For Huston, who is no stranger to competing on the international stage, the addition of his sport to the Olympic lineup is long overdue. “It's always been confusing as to why it wasn't there in the first place, considering that similar sports like snowboarding and skiing were there," he recently told L'Officiel magazine.
An Algerian judo athlete is being sent home from the Tokyo Olympics after he withdrew from a match to avoid a possible competition against an Israeli opponent, AP reports.
Driving the news: Fethi Nourine and his coach, Amar Benikhlef, told Algerian media they were withdrawing to avoid a potential second-round matchup on Monday with Israel’s Tohar Butbul in the men’s 73 kg division, per AP.
First lady Jill Biden attended three Olympic events on Saturday and hosted a watch party at the U.S. Embassy for the Team USA-Mexico softball game.
Driving the news: On her first day as a spectator at the Games, Biden attended a women's 3x3 basketball game, cheered on American swimmers during preliminary heats and caught the second half of the U.S. women's soccer game against New Zealand.
The U.S. women's national soccer team beat New Zealand on Saturday in a must-win game for their second appearance of the Tokyo Olympics.
The big picture: Following a stunning defeat to Sweden in the first match of the Olympics, the U.S. team rebounded Saturday, easing past New Zealand with a final score of 6-1 and dominating possession — a 180-degree turnaround from the U.S. team's first performance in the tournament.
Team USA concluded the first official day of competition at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday without winning a single medal despite several close contests.
Why it matters: Olympic historian Bill Mallon noted that this was the first time the United States did not receive any medals on Day 1 of the Summer Olympics since Munich in 1972.
Colorado counts 34 athletes in the Olympic Games in more than 14 sports and 23 disciplines, according to Team USA.
By the numbers: Colorado's athlete count is the third highest in the nation — behind California's 126 and Florida's 51, according to an analysis by John and Axios Sports' Jeff Tracy.
China's Yang Qianwon the first gold of the Tokyo Olympics, narrowly beating Anastasiia Galashina of the Russian Olympic Committee in the women's 10-meter air rifle final.
Why it matters: The first medal ceremony of the Games took on extra meaning after a year-long delay and other hurdles brought on by the pandemic. Athletes are required to hang medals around their own necks in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
First lady Jill Biden sent Team USA an extra boost of encouragement on Friday, cheering them on in an open letter that highlighted the Olympics' power to bring people together.
What she's saying: "In these moments [of rooting for our country], we are more than our cities or states or backgrounds. We are more than our jobs or our political parties," Biden wrote in a letter published on NBC News. "We are united. We are all, first and foremost, Team USA."
U.S. lawmakers have joined activists and Chinese ethnic minorities calling on the International Olympic Committee to move or postpone the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics unless the Chinese government ends its Uyghur genocide.
Why it matters: Politicians and human rights groups have increasingly urged the Chinese government to halt its abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities, which reportedly include forced labor, sexual violence and torture.
