What to watch at the Rio Games on Wednesday
Simone Biles performs on the floor during the women’s gymnastics team final at the Summer Olympics on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, in Rio de Janeiro.
A day after adding a record 19th gold medal to his collection, Michael Phelps swims in preliminaries of the men’s 200 meter butterfly at 1:44 p.m. The long wait time between sets, leading some commentators to say the USA team was being “iced”, had no impact on that team’s overall performance, with Biles leading the way by competing in each of the competition’s events.
And, at the end of the night, at 11:38 p.m. the men’s 4×200 meter freestyle relay starts. He was 0.68 seconds behind top qualifier Kyle Chalmers of Australia, who was timed in 47.90.
About an hour after winning gold medal No. 20 in the 200 butterfly, Phelps completed his grueling double with a triumphant four laps of the pool.
Gold medalist Lilly King of the United States celebrates as silver medalist Yulia Efimova of Russian Federation looks on during the medal ceremony for the women’s 100-meter breaststroke final.
No major glitches so far for the US, and the team is all business as it sits on the bench watching the Chinese gymnasts perform their vaults.
The Americans will start out on the vault, then move on to the uneven bars, the balance beam and then the floor exercise, as the top eight national teams rotate through apparatuses.
The tennis tournament continues and it could be a busy day for Rafael Nadal.
“One of the indicators of changing viewer habits, especially with these Olympics, is that our digital consumption has more than tripled from London in each of the first three days of full competition”, NBC Sports Group chairman Mark Lazarus said.
Earlier, Serbia takes on France at 2:15 p.m.
There were a few wobbles here and there, even for Simone Biles, but those imperfections could not stop the United States from blowing away the opposition to capture the Olympic women’s team title with a record margin on Tuesday. LeBron James has 273 points. They’ve smashed opponents Senegal and Spain in their first two games.
The dominant US men’s basketball team takes on Venezuela at 7 p.m. after Saturday’s romp over China, 119-62.
BRAZIL’S HERO: While Neymar has been a disappointment for the wildly popular Brazilian men’s soccer team, Marta has been a revelation.
Also of note, Argentina faces Honduras at 1 p.m. Marta Vieira da Silva has toiled in the shadow of the men for most of her career, but playing in front of her home fans in the Olympics has given her the chance to shine. The finals for the women are at 7 p.m. following the bronze medal match at 6:30 p.m.
One look at the members of Team USA and it was pretty obvious that wasn’t going to be the case. She had two goals in a victory over Sweden on Sunday and is back Tuesday night against South Africa. One would wait and watch if his legend will only get greater here or not.
Women and men compete for medals in the middleweight divisions (70kg and 90kg, respectively), with bouts taking place through the day.