7.31pm EDT
19:31
And now we’ve done the day for Australia, we may as well look at US chances/highlights.
9pm EDT/2am EDT: men’s 3m springboard semi-final/final
A total of 18 divers will compete in the morning semi-final, and the top 12 scorers advance to the afternoon final. One American, Andrew Capobianco, qualified for the semi; he won a silver in the synchronized event last week. Capobianco, 21, finished 17th in the preliminary round.
9.50pm EDT: women’s long jump final
Two Americans, Brittney Reese and Tara Davis, qualified for the long jump final, competing in a field of 12. Reese is ranked No 5 in the world, Davis No 15, but Davis is having a career year. The Americans will face stiff competition if they hope to medal; the top four jumpers in the world ahead of Reese qualified for the final, as did Nos 7, 8, 10 and 11 ahead of Davis.
11.20pm EDT: men’s 400m hurdles final
Rai Benjamin, 24, is competing in his first Olympics in Tokyo and is favored to medal in the 400m hurdles after placing second in his semi-final heat. Benjamin is the second-ranked athlete in the world in the event, and he posted a personal-best time of 46.83 seconds at the US trials in June–which also marked the second-fastest time anyone has ever posted in the event.
2.33am: mixed Nacra 17 sailing medal race
Americans Anna Weiss and Riley Gibbs will sail for a medal in Enoshima in the mixed event. Both are competing in their first Olympics, but as a pair, they were Pan American Games Champions in 2019 and won a bronze medal at the Oceania Championship in 2020.
2.44am/4.19am EDT: women’s team pursuit cycling first round heat three/finals
The US team of Jennifer Valente, Chloe Dygert, Emma White and Lily Williams will race against the British team in heat three of the team pursuit first round. The winner of that race will advance to face the winner of the heat four matchup between Germany and Italy. The losers of those heats will be entered into a pool with the remaining four teams and seeded by first-round times; two fastest teams in that pool will compete for bronze.
4.50am EDT: women’s balance beam final
Simone Biles will return for one last Olympic event: the balance beam final. After withdrawing from the team competition and the rest of her individual events citing mental health strains, Biles will compete in one final competition at the Games before she retires. Sunisa Lee, the 18-year-old who helped propel Team USA to a silver in the team competition and won gold in the individual all-around last week, will also compete in the event.
5.39am EDT: men’s horizontal bar final
Brody Malone, the US’s reigning national champion, placed 10th in the all-around–but he did execute a new trick on the parallel bars, which will be named for him in the code of points. He has a chance for his first medal in the horizontal bar individual event, where he’s had strong showings at past NCAA championships, winning gold in 2019 and ’21.
6.20am EDT: men’s pole vault final
Two Americans, KC Lightfoot and Chris Nilsen, advanced to the pole vault final after clearing the 5.75 meter mark in the semis. Nilsen is the fifth-ranked pole vaulter in the world, and Lightfoot, 21, cleared six meters on a jump at a meet in February, setting a collegiate indoor pole vault record.
7.35am EDT: women’s hammer throw final
Three Americans–Brooke Andersen, DeAnna Price and Gwen Berry–qualified for the final field of 12 in the hammer throw, where the US has a solid chance to medal. Price is the top ranked thrower in the world; she set an American record at the Olympic trials in June, when her 80.31-meter throw marked the second-farthest throw in history. Berry, who’s No 6 on the all-time list of longest throws, has made a name for herself protesting injustice in American and systemic racism. She, like Price, is looking for her first Olympic medal, as is Andersen.
8.25am EDT: women’s 800m final
Both Raevyn Rogers and Athing Mu won their respective heats in the semi-final of the 800m, and the two Americans are eyeing medals in the final. Rogers, 24, ran at Oregon and set a collegiate record there in the 800, and Mu, 19, races for Texas A&M. She’s become a breakout face at these Olympics after winning the 800 handily at the US trials–even after stumbling. Her time at the trials was the fastest anyone has run the 800 this year, and she wasn’t even challenged at the end of the race and coasted to the finish.
8.50am EDT: women’s 200m final
At the Olympic trials, Gabrielle Thomas became the second-fastest woman of all time in the 200m race, ahead of Marion Jones and behind only Florence Griffith-Joyner. Thomas, who was diagnosed with a benign liver tumor earlier this year and is studying for a master’s degree in epidemiology, is eyeing gold in Tokyo.
7.21pm EDT
19:21
Australia are flying high in the medal table: fourth, just above Definitely Not Russia. What chance more medals today? Well, Kurtis Marschall and Brooke Stratton go for track and field medals, track cycling continues in the velodrome, sailing medals are on offer and the Kookaburras face Germany in a hockey semi-final. For a full rundown, read our handy guide to Aussies on Day 11:
Updated
at 7.24pm EDT
7.11pm EDT
19:11
The big news of the day (APART FROM THIS) is the return of Simone Biles. I tend to think she thought: “I may as well give it a shot, even if I only come out and all I can do is walk down the beam”. However, my colleague Bryan Graham – who actually knows about gymnastics – thinks the mental block she has experienced won’t be such a problem on the beam as it’s only in twists that she has been losing her bearings in the air. Her dismount from the beam is a a double back dismount. No twists – no twisties.
Here is the excellent Tumaini Carayol on “the twisties” that have been troubling Simone:
7.00pm EDT
19:00
Preamble
Hello. A big day ahead at the Olympics [note to self: STOP SAYING THIS: it’s always a big day at the Olympics]. We have the men’s football semifinals, all kinds of finals on both track and field and the return of one Simone Biles.
For a full rundown, here is my colleague Martin Belam:
Key events for Day 11
All events are listed here in local Tokyo time. Add an hour for Melbourne, subtract eight hours for Harrogate, 13 hours for Philadelphia and 16 hours for Seattle.
?If you only watch one thing: 5pm, 6pm and 9.10pm Sport climbing – there are qualification rounds for the men today. You’ve probably never seen sport climbing before. You’ve definitely never seen it at the Olympics before because it is making a debut and this is the first day. And I’ve got a hunch you are going to absolutely love it.
9.00am-12.35pm and 7pm-9.55pm Athletics – highlights today are the women’s long jump final (10.50am), the men’s 400m hurdles final (12.20pm), the men’s pole vault final (7.20pm), the women’s hammer throw final (8.35pm), and then todays session finishes with the women’s 800m final (9.25pm) and the women’s 200m final (9.50pm) ?
9.30am-12.56pm Canoe sprint – from 11.37am we get into finals territory in the water, with the women’s kayak single 200m, the men’s canoe double 1,000m, the men’s kayak single 1,000m and the women’s kayak double 500m ?
10am-9pm Basketball – the men’s competition has quarter-finals throughout the day. Team USA face Spain in the second, at 1.40pm.
10am and 3pm Diving – today sessions are the semi-final and then the final of the men’s 3m springboard ?
10.30am and 7pm Hockey: the men’s competition reaches the semi-final stage – India v Belgium go first, Australia v Germany is the evening game.
11am-1.40pm and 5pm-7.40pm Boxing – there’s the final of the women’s featherweight at 1.05pm and the final of the men’s welterweight at 7.05pm ?
3.30pm-6.10pm Cycling track – it is the women’s team pursuit and the men’s team sprint today. The finals start from 5.19pm ?
5pm Artistic gymnastics – its the individual finals in the men’s parallel bars, the men’s horizontal bar and the women’s balance beam final – with, it appears, Simone Biles ?
5pm and 8pm Football – the men’s semi-finals are on Tuesday, Mexico v Brazil at 5pm and the hosts face Spain at 8pm.
7.30pm Artistic swimming – it is the duet technical routine in the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
You can find our full interactive events schedule here. It also carries live scores of everything that is going on at any given moment.
As it stands
Here’s how the emoji table stood at 11.15pm Tokyo time
1 ?? China ? 29 ? 17 ? 16 total: 62
2 ?? USA ? 22 ? 25 ? 17 total: 64
3 ?? Japan? 17 ? 6 ? 10 total: 33
4 ?? Australia ? 14 ? 4 ? 15 total: 33
5 ? Not Russia ? 12 ? 21 ? 17 total: 50
6 ?? Great Britain ? 11 ? 12 ? 12 total: 35
7 ?? France ? 6 ? 10 ? 7 total: 23
8 ?? Germany ? 6 ? 6 ? 11 total: 23
9 ?? South Korea ? 6 ? 4 ? 9 total: 19
10 ?? Netherlands ? 5 ? 7 ? 6 total: 18