USA’s Simone Biles watches the artistic gymnastics women’s team final on July 27. (Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images)
It’s Tuesday, August 3, the 11th official day of Tokyo 2020. Here’s what you need to know.
Biles is back: Simone Biles is expected to compete in the final women’s gymnastics event of Tokyo 2020: the balance beam. The American superstar withdrew midway through the women’s team final last week, and has not competed since, citing mental health concerns.
Biles is a favorite to win the event. She’ll be competing alongside fellow American Sunisa Lee, who won the women’s individual all-around title last week.
Warholm makes history: Norway’s Karsten Warholm became the first athlete ever to run the 400 meters men’s hurdles in under 46 seconds on Tuesday morning.
Hassan’s big night: Sifan Hassan is a third of the way toward her goal of a historic distance triple crown. The Dutchwoman obliterated the rest of the field to win gold in the women’s 5,000 meter final to complete the first leg of what could be an unparalleled treble.
Hassan is aiming to become the first athlete in Olympic history to win the 1,500 meters, 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters gold medals at a single Games.
She had a dramatic Monday morning in her 1,500 meter heat. Hassan fell on the last lap and had to make up more than 20 meters on the field, but somehow ended up winning the race.
Timanovskaya likely headed to Poland: Belarusian sprinter Kristina Timanovskaya received a humanitarian visa from Poland on Monday, hours after she refused to board a flight out of Japan. She said she was being forced to return to her native country against her will and feared being arrested upon her arrival.
Timanovskaya was set to compete in the women’s 200 meters in Tokyo but said representatives of the Belarus national team tried to forcibly send her back to her home country after she criticized national sporting authorities for entering her into the 4×400 meter relay without her consent.
The medal update: China is pulling ahead. It has won 29 gold medals, seven more than the second-place US. Japan remains in third with 17.
The US leads the total medal tally with 66, followed by China with 63. The Russian Olympic Committee sits third with 50.
What’s on tap:
- Basketball: It’s win or go home for the six teams left. Tuesdays’ first game saw Slovenia beat Germany by 24 points to advance to the semifinals. the Americans take on Spain in the next game at 1:40 p.m. Tokyo time. They’re followed by Italy vs. France, and the day ends with Australia vs. Argentina.
- Boxing: Britain’s Pat McCormack fights Roniel Iglesias of Cuba for men’s welterweight gold. More boxing medals are also up for grabs throughout the day.
- Gymnastics: Biles headlines the last night of artistic gymnastics in Tokyo. The men will compete in the individual horizontal bar and parallel bar finals. Competition starts at 5 p.m. Tokyo time.
- Climbing: Sport climbing will make its Olympic debut when qualifications begin at 5 p.m. in Tokyo (4 a.m. ET) at the Aomi Urban Sports Park
- Athletics: Gold medals will be handed out tonight in Tokyo in the men’s pole vault, women’s hammer throw, women’s 800 meters final and the women’s 200 meters final.
The full Olympic schedule can be found here.
