The five big takeaways from Day 10 Olympic action:
No. 1: The U.S. women’s soccer team won a 4-3 overtime thriller against Canada that looked for a while like the Canadians would pull off the upset. Canada’s Christine Sinclair scored three goals, putting Canada back ahead whenever the U.S. equalized – until the end of the second 15-minute extra period when Alex Morgan knocked in a header. Seconds later the clock expired and the U.S. punched its ticket to a gold-medal match against Japan, which defeated the U.S. in the 2011 World Cup.
No. 2: After consecutive mental meltdowns at the Athens and Beijing Olympics – final-shot miscues that tumbled him from surefire gold medals all the way off the podium – this was going to be the year American shooter Matt Emmons pulled it together in the 3-position rifle event. Not quite. On Monday Emmons had silver pretty much locked up with one shot to go; then he fired the lowest-scoring shot among all competitors in the final round (a 7.6 of a possible 10.9). He still took home the bronze medal, but his struggles makes sports psychiatry seem like a legitimate profession after all.
No. 3: Lolo Jones easily advanced to the 100m semifinal, then gave an emotional interview in which basically said she’s had it with all the haters out there. Most likely she was referring to a scathing piece in Saturday’s New York Times that dismissed her as an underperformer overhyped by the media because of her good looks and a willingness to shape her personal story to the will of interviewers. Similar accusations have been leveled at her before; Monday was the next step for Jones in letting her performance speak for itself.
No. 4: American gymnast Sam Mikulak loved his second attempt in the men’s vault so much that he actually kissed the vault. Unfortunately the competition was tremendously stiff; Mikulak finished fifth in a competition won by South Korea’s Yang-Hak Seon. Like Mikulak, the high-flying Gabby Douglas – already the owner of gold medals in this year’s individual all-around and team competitions – turned in a solid performance. But she was marked down for an over-rotation while attempting a handstand and finished last among the eight competitors. Aliya Mustafina won gold just 18 months after a major knee injury jeopardized her status for these Olympics.
No. 5: It was a day of firsts for two small nations: Grenada took home its first-ever Olympic medal when Kirani James won the 400m gold by more than half a second. Likewise, Cyprus won the first medal in its history when Pavlos Kontides sailed to silver in the Laser class competition.
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