Jay Busbee
Paris Olympics live updates: Team USA stars Katie Moon and Quincy Hall headline medal favorites in athletics today
Gold medals will be also awarded in boxing, skateboarding and wrestling
A busy Wednesday is set for the 2024 Summer Olympics with finals all over Paris, as some of the sports and disciplines move closer to the end of their programs. Track and field still has a host of medals to hand out, and in today's action, Team USA's Katie Moon will be among the medal favorites in the women's pole vault finals. Her 4.85m height is second best this year among the field, and her personal best of 4.95m is tops among the women competing Wednesday as she looks to defend her gold medal from the Tokyo Summer Olympics.
In the men's 400-meter, Christopher Bailey, Michael Norman and Quincy Hall are all vying to make the medal stand. Hall is the No. 1 ranked 400-meter runner in the world, and won a bronze medal at the 2023 World Championship. There will also be medal finals in the men's discus, artistic swimming, park skateboarding and boxing.
You can check out the day's full Olympic schedule here. Heading into Wednesday's action, Team USA held the overall medal count lead, tops in gold, silver and bronze. You can check out the full medal table here.
Follow along with Yahoo Sports for all the action and medals in Paris on Wednesday at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
LIVE COVERAGE IS OVER33 updates
Chinese Taipei's Lin Yu-ting wins via unanimous decision, advances to gold medal bout
Lin Yu-ting of Chinese Taipei, one of the more controversial athletes of this year's Olympic Games, squared off against Esra Yildiz Kahraman of Turkey in the 57kg semifinal Wednesday night and came away a unanimous winner on all cards.
Lin and Algeria's Imane Khelif have spent the last week at the center of a gender controversy that has spread far outside the arenas of Paris. Both Lin and Khelif were born and raised female, and competed as females throughout their early careers.
Read the full story here.
- Kari Anderson
Team USA's Sarah Hildebrandt earns first gold medal in 50kg women's wrestling
American Sarah Hildebrandt, who won bronze in Tokyo, won the gold medal in 50kg women's wrestling over Cuban Yusneylys Guzmán. Guzmán was called in as Hildebrandt's opponent after India's Vinesh Phogat failed to make weight and was pulled from the final.
GOLDEN 🥇@sarhilde is the women’s 50kg freestyle Olympic champion!#ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/ACF1atOrpQ
— Team USA (@TeamUSA) August 7, 2024
- Kari Anderson
Watch Kenneth Rooks' stunning run to a silver medal
WOW!
Kenneth Rooks just won SILVER in the men’s 3000m steeplechase in a STUNNER. 🤯 #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/PIM2gcvY47— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 7, 2024
- Kari Anderson
USA's Kenneth Rooks makes a big push to earn surprise silver medal
American Kenneth Rooks earned a stunning silver medal in the 3000m steeplechase, earning his first Olympic medal with a personal best of 8:06:41.
Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco, who won gold in Tokyo, repeated his victory with another gold. Kenya's Abraham Kibiwot took bronze.
Rooks was nearly overtaken by Kibiwot towards the end, but dug deep for one final push to take the silver medal. Even he can't believe it.
KENNETH ROOKS, OLYMPIC SILVER MEDALIST! #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/DTbXjZbgzu
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 7, 2024
- Liz Roscher
Katie Moon wins pole vault silver for Team USA!
Moon couldn't clear 4.90 or 4.95, but she's all smiles after winning silver. Nina Kennedy, the only pole vaulter to clear 4.90, is absolutely ecstatic about winning gold for Australia, and is quickly congratulated by bronze medalist Alysha Newman of Canada.
- Kari Anderson
Watch Team USA win a historic cycling medal in women's team pursuit
Team USA women's cycling scored big on Wednesday, getting the win over New Zealand in team pursuit cycling to win the Olympic gold medal — the first in the event in American Olympic history.
Jennifer Valente, Lily Williams, Chloé Dygert and Kristen Faulkner surged past New Zealand to secure Team USA's first-EVER women's team pursuit cycling gold medal!#ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/fijbqz5AYu
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 7, 2024
- Kari Anderson
USA men's volleyball will play Italy for bronze on Friday
After falling to Poland earlier today, the United States' opponent in the third-place game is set after France defeats Italy. The U.S. will play Italy on Friday for a bronze medal.
France, meanwhile, will play Poland in what is likely to be a raucous final with a home crowd advantage.
- Liz Roscher
Katie Moon is feeling a lot better after watching Quincy hall win 400m gold and cheering from the edge of the track.
The pole vaulters are getting ready to restart and execute their final jumps.
- Kari Anderson
Watch Quincy Hall's stunning run to win gold in the 400m
NEVER doubt Quincy Hall. 😱
A EPIC comeback to win 400m GOLD! #ParisOlympics
📺 NBC & Peacock pic.twitter.com/qQJqfxrH9n— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 7, 2024
- Kari Anderson
Quincy Hall sprints to a stellar comeback to win gold in the 400m
Hall struggled around the corner, but sprinted past four runners on the stretch to take gold and win his first Olympic medal.
QUINCY HALL OLYMPIC CHAMPION! 🥇 #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/xqXEmocshs
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 7, 2024
- Liz Roscher
Remaining pole vaulters get a break due to busy track & field schedule
Katie Moon was not pleased when the pole vault official told her that there would need to be a genuine break in the action due to other events taking place. It's not known how long it will be, but we'll bring you the results of the final jumps whenever the competition picks back up.
- Liz Roscher
Katie Moon is guaranteed a medal, but what color?
Now we're really down to the nitty gritty in pole vault. There are just three competitors left: Moon, Australia's Nina Kennedy, and Canada's Alysha Newman.
Moon wasn't able to clear 4.90 on her first try, but Kennedy, who shared the world championship with Moon back in March, cleared it on her very first try.
Moon is already guaranteed a medal and has more attempts left, but she has been granted a pass at 4.90, meaning Newman must clear 4.90 to finish higher than bronze.
- Liz Roscher
Katie Moon clears 4.85 on her second attempt!
Moon didn't clear 4.85 on her first try, knocking the bar down on her way up. But on her second attempt she made it over with room to spare.
- Jeff Eisenberg
Team USA men's water polo advances to semis
The U.S. men's water polo team advanced to the semifinals after a penalty-shootout win over Australia, 11-10. The last time Team USA won an Olympic medal was silver at the 2008 Beijing Games.
Team USA men's water polo comes back to defeat Australia and advance to the semifinals 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/crjfvYLlpt
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) August 7, 2024
- Liz Roscher
Katie Moon is making pole vaulting look easy
Team USA's Katie Moon just cleared 4.80 on her first try! She also cleared 4.40, 4.60, and 4.70 on her first attempt and is currently in first place!
- Jeff Eisenberg
Noah Lyles cruises to 200m final to move one step closer to matching Usain Bolt
SAINT-DENIS, France — Noah Lyles moved one step closer to becoming the first man since Usain Bolt to pull off the Olympic sprint double.
The American settled for second place in his men’s 200-meter semifinal heat on Wednesday night, still good enough to advance to Thursday’s highly anticipated final. Lyles breezed across the finish line in 20.08 seconds, just behind Letsile Tebogo of Botswana (19.96).
On Sunday night, on Stade de France’s distinctive purple track, Lyles backed up his big talk and reaffirmed his claim to the title of World’s Fastest Man. He won the closest-ever Olympic men’s 100, clocking a personal-best 9.784 seconds to edge Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson by five-thousandths of a second.
It would be a surprise if the 200 final were quite so close.
Read the full story here.
Next stop: the 200m final. 🔥
Noah Lyles is through to his second #ParisOlympics final and another chance at gold.
📺 NBC & Peacock pic.twitter.com/p4EjaM4ppy— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) August 7, 2024
- Yahoo Sports Staff
Team USA wins gold in cycling women's team pursuit
The U.S. women topped New Zealand for the gold medal, finishing their race in 4:04.306 to New Zealand's 4:04.927. Great Britain took bronze with a 4:06.3
Jennifer Valente, Lily Williams, Chloé Dygert and Kristen Faulkner surged past New Zealand to secure Team USA's first-EVER women's team pursuit cycling gold medal!#ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/fijbqz5AYu
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 7, 2024
- Liz Roscher
Katie Moon clears again!
Moon twisted strangely during her 4.70 jump, but she managed to clear it on the first try!
- Liz Roscher
U.S. pole vaulter Katie Moon easily clears 4.60m
Team USA's Katie Moon, the defending Olympic champion as well as the reigning world champion, easily made her 4.40m jump, and just cleared 4.60m (with room to spare!) on her first try. She will be able to rest until the 18 other finalists have either cleared 4.60m, or failed on all three tries.
- Yahoo Sports Staff
U.S. men's volleyball team falls to Poland
The U.S. men's volleyball team fell in five sets to Poland on Wednesday, but will be able to play for bronze.
- Liz Roscher
USA gets silver!
No! Tom Schaar fell in the final seconds of what looked to be a gold medal run! But his 92.23 second run will land him a silver medal in his Olympic debut.
Australian Keegan Palmer will repeat as gold medalist with his first run score of 93.11. Akio's 91.85 earned him a bronze.
- Liz Roscher
Carew fell midway through his final run so he will finish in 5th place, but at 19 years old we will absolutely see him in LA in 2028.
Italian Alex Sorgente also fell, and will finish in 6th.
- Liz Roscher
Brazilians could get a medal...
In his final run, Akio does his best work and scores a 91.85 which bumps him into third — for now. His teammate Barros had Brazilian men in the crowd nearly weeping with his incredible third run. But he's just short of passing Akio with a 91.65 and will end up off the podium.
- Liz Roscher
Tom. Schaar. Aces. His. Second. Run.
Team USA's Tom Schaar just laid down a second run that made Tony Hawk grab his head and go "Oh. My. God." And it was his backup run! He still has his best yet to go! He scored 92.23 on his backup.
Buckle in for his third run, which presumably isn't his backup.
- Liz Roscher
Team USA's Tate Carew jumps into second!
Tate Carew for Team USA just threw down some crazy tricks during his flawless run. He scores a 91.19 with Snoop Dogg and skateboard legend Tony Hawk looking on and cheering
- Liz Roscher
But not so fast! Akio's teammate Pedro Barros also improved on his first-round score of 22.10 with a daring and fall-free second run that came in at 86.41. He has now taken over third place
- Liz Roscher
Brazilian Augusto Akio, who fell off his board almost immediately after starting his first run and scored a 2.66, improved tremendously in his second run. He now sits in third place after scoring an 81.34.
- Liz Roscher
All eight skaters have done their first runs, and just two managed to make it through the entire 45 seconds without a fall: American Tom Schaar, who scored 90.11, and Australian Keegan Palmer, who scored 93.11. Palmer is seeking his second straight gold medal in this event, as he was the top finisher at the Tokyo Olympics.
- Liz Roscher
Skateboarding kicks off!
The men's park final is underway right now, with three Brazilians, two Australians, two Americans, and an Italian vie for gold.
Every skater will get three runs of 45 seconds each, with only the highest-scoring run counting. The highest-scoring of those will win the gold medal.
The three Brazilians have already thrown down their first runs, and each one ended far short of the 45 seconds due to falls. If a skater falls during their run, it automatically stops.
- Liz Roscher
Belgium shocks undefeated Spain in women's basketball
Spain was undefeated coming into today's game against Belgium, but they did not leave undefeated. They were stunned 79-66 by a confident and accurate Belgian squad that is now on to their first Olympic semifinal.
España's Megan Gustafson, a former Iowa standout who now plays for the Las Vegas Aces, scored 21 points on 8-of-16 shooting and snagged seven total rebounds.
BELGIAN CATS 🇧🇪 GOING TO THE #OLYMPICS SEMIS FOR THE FIRST TIME 👏#Paris2024 x #Basketball pic.twitter.com/KdJ3t1wWqU
— FIBA (@FIBA) August 7, 2024
- Henry Bushnell
The USWNT moved on from Alex Morgan. They’re in the Olympic final as a result
LYON, France — Here, at 8 p.m. Tuesday, was the moment that might’ve been Alex Morgan’s. This, an Olympic semifinal, was the very stage on which her vast experience would have been prized. The U.S. women’s national team sputtered scoreless into extra time of a second straight knockout round match. Most soccer coaches, suckers for conventional wisdom, would’ve turned to their veteran striker off the bench.
But not Emma Hayes.
Hayes left her veteran striker, Morgan, at home.
She handed attacking keys to Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman and Mallory Swanson, who have led the USWNT to an Olympic final, and repaid their new coach’s faith.
They are, at last, the front three of the future and the present. They have been empowered by Hayes, who took charge of the USWNT in May, after years of jostling with Morgan and others for playing time. For most of last year, Swanson was injured; Smith was pushed out to the left wing, so that Morgan could play centrally; she and Rodman crumbled under World Cup pressure, and in a rigid system that refused them freedom and individual expression.
Now, with Morgan out of the picture, omitted from the Olympic roster, they have been liberated.
Read the full story here.
- Yahoo Sports Staff
USA men's volleyball looks to book a spot in the #ParisOlympics gold medal match. 🏐🇺🇸
📺 Tune in at 10A ET on NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/hUn2zYfE4D— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 7, 2024
- Jack Baer
Indian wrestler disqualified from gold medal match in women's 50kg after missing weight
When an athlete makes a gold medal match at the Olympics, a silver medal is typically seen as a happy worst-case scenario. It wound up being much worse for India's Vinesh Phogat.
Phogat, who defeated Cuba's Yusneylys Guzmán 5-0 in the semifinal on Tuesday, was eliminated from the women's 50kg wrestling tournament on Thursday morning when she failed her second weigh-in, the Olympics announced. Phogat had been set to face Team USA's Sarah Hildebrandt for gold on Wednesday, the first time a female Indian would have ever competed in an Olympic wrestling final.
The extra weight won't just cost Phogat the first wrestling gold medal in India's history. United World Wrestling's rules explain that when a wrestler doesn't make weight on the second weigh-in, they are eliminated from the tournament and are basically ranked last, unless someone is forced to withdraw on the first day of competition.
So Phogat will leave Paris without a medal. You can see the official Olympic bracket with Phogat's name crossed out here.
Read the full story here.