Live updates from Paris: U.S. women's volleyball reaches final; men's basketball, track & field still to come

By / / Sports / 7 minutes of reading


LeBron James, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Noah Lyles are some of the most recognizable names who will be competing Thursday at the Paris Games.

Meanwhile, the U.S. women’s water polo team will play Australia in the semifinal round for the chance to contend for gold.

Lyles, the new men’s 100-meter gold medalist, will once again take the track with hopes to add more jewelry to his collection and the title of “world’s fastest man.”

Shortly after that race, the United States men’s basketball team will play three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and the Serbian national team with a berth in the gold medal game on the line.

While that game is ongoing, McLaughlin-Levrone will be at the track competing for gold in the women’s 400-meter hurdles final, the event in which she lowered her own world record at the U.S. Olympic trials in late June with a time of 50.65 seconds. On the men’s side, Grant Holloway is favored to win the men’s 110-meter hurdles, where he will compete alongside fellow Americans Freddie Crittenden and Daniel Roberts.

The Thursday schedule can be found here.

12:33 p.m. ET — Team USA women’s volleyball advances to final

The United States-Brazil volleyball rivalry runs deep, but the U.S. proved to be the better group in its semifinal match. Though the U.S. had a few defensive struggles midway through the match, its offensive strategy and rotations came through when it mattered most.

Playing to five sets, Kathryn Plummer hit a walk-off kill shot to help the Americans advance to the final with a 3-2 (25-23, 18-25, 25-15, 23-25, 15-11) win over Brazil. Team USA will play the winner of Turkey-Italy in the Sunday final.

11:33 a.m. ET — Discus gold medalist has former NFL ties

There was an NFL connection to the Olympic gold medal winner in the men’s discus throw — even if most barely remember it. Jamaica’s Roje Stona set an Olympic record Wednesday with a throw of 70.00 meters to break the previous mark of 69.97 meters set earlier in the competition.

What does that have to do with the National Football League?

Stona, who did not play college football but attended both Clemson and Arkansas for track and field, was invited to two NFL tryouts during rookie minicamps last spring with the Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints.

He was listed on the Packers’ minicamp roster as a defensive lineman wearing No. 64, but when asked if he remembered Stona, coach Matt LaFleur said Thursday: “No, not really.” — Rob Demovsky

9:36 a.m. ET — Could pickleball become an Olympic sport?

Pickleball is one of the fastest-growing and most popular sports in the U.S., but it isn’t in the Olympic Games. However, pickleball could be making its way to the Olympic scene in the future. There are 13.6 million players in the United States, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. The Olympic charter will require one governing body to regulate pickleball worldwide. The sport currently has three potential governing bodies: Seymour Rifkin’s World Pickleball Federation, the International Pickleball Foundation, and the Global Pickleball Federation. Here’s how we could see pickleball in a future Olympic games. — READ MORE

8:47 a.m. ET — Sam Watson does it again

American climber Sam Watson broke the speed climbing world record yet again in Thursday’s bronze medal race, lowering it to 4.74 seconds. It was quite the consolation after the 18-year-old made a mistake near the top of the wall in his semifinal heat against China’s Wu Peng and lost by .08 seconds, ending his bid for gold.

Indonesia’s Veddriq Leonardo won the gold medal race in 4.75, a personal best, over Peng, who registered a personal best 4.77. This is Indonesia’s first gold medal of the Paris Games and the first non-badminton Olympic gold in the country’s history.

“No regrets,” Watson said. “I don’t think the pressure really got to me or anything like that. I think just a tiny little stumble at the top, just a few millimeters off a certain hold allowed me to get less power out of it and slow down a lot.”

Watson’s world record is one one-hundredth faster than the record of 4.75 he set in qualifications Tuesday, which is .04 faster than the world-record time of 4.798 he set at a World Cup in April.

Before April 2023, no climber had broken the sub-5-second mark in speed climbing. It was the sport’s 4-minute mile. Then Leonardo clocked 4.984 in a World Cup semifinal and then a 4.900 in the final, a record that held for a year until Watson broke it twice at a World Cup in Wujiang, China, in April, taking it to 4.798.

Here in Paris, that time has been matched or lowered six times.

In the quarterfinals, three athletes clocked times under 5 seconds, and Watson wasn’t even one of them. Leonardo won the gold medal race with a time of 4.75, the world record just two days ago and one one-hundredth slower than the new world record set moments earlier in the bronze medal race.

“I’m really excited for the future,” Watson said. “I really do want to get under 4.6 seconds. If you don’t know how the sport works, the reaction time off the ground must be at least point one. So, under 4.6 means that you do the route in under 4½ seconds. That really does mean a lot to me. That was my next goal after sub-5 proved to be possible and now decently easy for all these athletes. So just keep going, no limits.”

Earlier at the Le Bourget Climbing Venue on Thursday, American Brooke Raboutou, the 2023 world bouldering bronze medalist, qualified third into Saturday’s boulder & lead final, where she’ll face tough competition in Tokyo gold medalist Janja Garnbret of Slovenia, who qualified first. — Alyssa Roenigk

7:50 a.m. ET — Katie Ledecky and Nick Mead will close out Olympic Games for U.S.

First, it was LeBron James and Coco Gauff who led Team USA as flag-bearers at the opening ceremony of the Paris Games. Now, swimmer Katie Ledecky and rower Nick Mead will carry the Stars and Stripes for the U.S. during the closing ceremony on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.

The duo was selected by a voting process consisting of Team USA athletes, led by the Team USA Athletes’ Commission.

Ledecky earned four medals in Paris — two golds in the women’s 1,500 meters and 800-meter freestyle, a silver in the women’s 4×200 freestyle relay and bronze in the 400-meter freestyle. Mead earned a gold medal in the men’s four rowing.

6:58 a.m. ET — 16-year-old will run in men’s 4×400 relay

After coaches told Quincy Wilson he wouldn’t compete in the mixed 4×400 relay, the 16-year-old will get another chance to shock the world in the men’s 4×400 meter relay Friday. Wilson will also become the youngest American male to participate in an Olympic men’s track and field event. — READ MORE

6:33 a.m. ET — Jamaica won’t advance in 4x100m relay final

The sprint rivalry between the Team USA and Jamaica men’s 4×100 meter relay teams won’t renew after Jamaica failed to qualify for the final. Jamaica had shaky second and third exchanges that set it back from being in the front of the pack. It finished fourth in its heat with a time of 38.45 seconds. This is the first time since the 2004 Athens Games that Jamaica will not compete in the 4×100 meter relay final.

5:46 a.m. ET — Sha’Carri anchors the U.S.

The U.S. women were a bit behind after an awkward second exchange in the women’s 4×100 meter relay. Enter Sha’Carri Richardson. The 100-meter silver medalist turned on the jets and blew past Germany, giving her squad a comfortable win in the heat and sending it on to the finals with a time of 41.94 seconds.





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