TOKYO — The United States women’s gymnastics team, and its transcendent star Simone Biles, showed feet of clay in the preliminaries, finishing behind Russia. The slate is wiped clean for Tuesday’s team final, but the unexpectedly shaky performance suddenly adds some drama to what some thought would be an easy coast to gold. The Americans to watch are Kieran Smith in the men’s 200 freestyle, Regan Smith in the women’s 100 backstroke, Ryan Murphy in the men’s 100 back and Lilly King in the women’s 100 breaststroke. The women’s basketball team makes its debut. Big favorites to win the tournament, they are even bigger favorites to win this game over Nigeria (30 points to be precise).

Source: New York Times July 27, 2021 07:41 UTC