This archive report was first published on 25 July 2021.
Japan's Olympic Gold Rush ¶
Japan celebrated a gold rush on the second day of the Tokyo Olympics, with four gold medals won by the host nation. The haul included victories in skateboarding, judo, swimming, and women's cycling.
Japanese skateboarder Yuto Horigome made history by winning the first-ever Olympic gold medal in skateboarding. The 22-year-old world champion landed three huge tricks in a row to eclipse American favourite Nyjah Huston, who finished seventh.
"This is special because it was held in Koto City, where I was born," said Horigome.
Japan's gold rush continued with victories in judo, swimming, and women's cycling. Brother and sister Uta and Hifumi Abe both won Olympic titles within an hour of each other, with Uta Abe winning the women's under-52kg category and Hifumi Abe overpowering Georgian judoka Vazha Margvelashvili in the under-66kg gold medal fight.
Unheralded swimmer Yui Ohashi sparked the Japan gold spree in an action-packed morning session at the pool, powering to victory in the women's 400 individual medley and toppling Hungary's defending champion Katinka Hosszu.
"I swam believing in myself. I really did not think of winning the gold," said Ohashi.
Other notable upsets on the day included a USA men's basketball team losing at an Olympics for the first time since the 2004 Athens Games, with France inflicting an 83-76 defeat on the Americans. NBA player Evan Fournier top-scored with 28 points for France, finding form from three-point range late in the game to help his team claw back a 10-point deficit to stun the Americans.
Austrian mathematician Anna Kiesenhofer claimed a surprise victory in the women's cycling road race, which ended in bizarre fashion with Dutch veteran Annemiek van Vleuten crossing the line mistakenly thinking she had won.
"I'm gutted about this, of course," Van Vleuten said. "At first I felt really stupid, but then the others (her teammates) also did not know who had won."
Elsewhere on Sunday, a century-long wait to see surfing at the Olympics came to an end at Tsurigasaki Surfing Beach, marking the culmination of efforts to get surfing added to the Olympic programme dating back more than 100 years.
The spectre of Covid-19 meanwhile continued to stalk the Olympics, with the men's golf tournament upended by two high-profile withdrawals. World number one Jon Rahm was ruled out after returning a positive test — his second Covid-19 positive in two months — while Bryson DeChambeau also saw his Olympic hopes end with a positive case.
US superstar and defending champion Simone Biles produced a rusty performance in qualifying, with several uncharacteristic mistakes in a near-empty arena. "Simone took three big steps on the beam dismount, I've never seen her do that before," said performance director Tom Forster.
"This is not the finals, this is getting into the finals, this might be a great awakening for us," he said.
