Olympic Highlights Day Five: South Sudan take on the Dream Team as Ledecky hunts glory
Gymnastics
Individual all-around
17:30 CET, Paris, Bercy Hall
The men's gymnastics competitions brought high drama and one major sporting heartbreak on Monday when China lost a near-certain gold medal on the last apparatus in the team all-around. The Japanese took advantage of Su Weide's mistake on the trapeze with a fantastic finish to move into first place.
Two days later, the medal battle will culminate in the individual all-around and once again it will be a battle between China and Japan.
Zhang Boheng was the best qualifier, but right behind him lined up Shinnosuke Oka and Daiki Hashimoto, winner of the last World Championships in this prestigious discipline. But Hashimoto knows that Boheng missed the World Championships last year and when he is in action, he is hard to beat.
The eternal rivals and great friends are great on the horizontal, which will be the last discipline for both, but the Chinese also excels on the rings. The rest of the world will probably just watch, although the Britons Jake Jarman and Joe Fraser would also like to push into the medal fight, the USA are betting on Fred Richards, but he didn't do so well in qualifying.
Basketball
21:00 CET, Lille, Pierre Mauroy Stadium
It was only in 2013 that South Sudan became a member of FIBA and only last year that its national team went to their first major tournament. At the World Championships, they exited from the preliminary group, but at the same time, their 17th place meant qualification for the Olympic Games.
Unfortunately, arguably the most famous basketball player from Sudan, Manute Bol, did not live to see it. But the iconic and tallest player in NBA history (231 cm) would certainly be proud of this great story.
Under the leadership of former NBA players Luol Deng and American Royal Ivey, South Sudan have, in a short period of time, turned into a team that are playing fabulous and spirited basketball and can keep up with the world's best.
The Sudanese defeated Puerto Rico 90-79 in the first game of the regular group and their second Olympic test will be against the USA's Dream Team. A sure thing? On paper maybe, after all the team from the Central African country has only one current NBA player, JT Thor, in its midst.
But we must not forget Carlik Jones or Wenyen Gabriel, who was still with the LA Lakers last year and played with LeBron James. There will, then, be a reunion of former teammates. South Sudan truly have nothing to lose and, what's more, it was James who saved the USA from losing the last time these two played with just eight seconds left in the game (101-100).
Swimming
Women's 1,500m freestyle final
21:13 CET, Paris, Aquatics Centre
12 years ago, American swimmer Katie Ledecky won her first Olympic medal. She won the 800m freestyle and started her fabulous collection. Since then, she's become a 21-time world champion, triumphing in six different distances that swimming has to offer. Over time, however, she began to specialize in long-distance and her main event is set to be on Wednesday evening.
The 1,500m freestyle is on the agenda, where she holds the 17th fastest times in history and, given her incredible record, has a chance to win her 12th career Olympic medal (currently seven gold, three silver and one bronze). This would tie the record among female swimmers and the record for an American woman in any sport, held by swimmer Jenny Thompson (eight gold, three silver and one bronze).
The fact that Ledecky has the potential to win her eighth Olympic gold is evidenced by the results of the last two world championships, where she left behind first compatriot Katie Grimes and then Italy's Simona Quadarella by 14 seconds each time.
The heats in Paris suggest that this final could be more dramatic, however. Quadarella was just four seconds slower (15:51.19) and the times of Isabel Gose of Germany (15:53.27) and home representative Anastasia Kiprichnikova (15:52.46), who represented Russia five years ago but took French citizenship in 2020, also looked promising.
