Paris Olympics Day 7: U.S. women beat Canada in OT for 3rd straight win in 3×3 basketball pool play after 0-3 start

PARIS — Washington native Hailey Van Lith delivered a message after the defending champion U.S. posted its third straight win with an overtime victory against Canada in women’s 3×3 basketball pool play at the Paris Olympics following three straight losses to start the tournament.

“We have a lot of tweets bookmarked on how we shouldn’t come back to the States,” the Cashmere High School grad said. “So we haven’t forgotten.”

Rhyne Howard’s 2-point shot in overtime lifted the U.S. to an 18-17 win over Canada after the Americans beat France 14-13 earlier Friday.

Van Lith made a 2-point shot with 22 seconds left to tie it at 16 and force overtime, where the first team to score two points wins.

Canada scored first in OT on a short shot by Katherine Plouffe. Howard, who was 0 for 5 from long range in regulation, then drained the winning basket.

“After that third loss we had a heart-to-heart as a team and we were like ‘we didn’t come this far to lose,’” Dearica Hamby said. “We weren’t the favorites so to say but we’re still USA basketball and gold is the standard.”

Hamby made a layup with four seconds remaining in the victory over France.

The U.S. was up by three after a basket by Howard with just more than a minute to go. France got a layup from Myriam Djekoundade before Marie Eve Paget’s 2-pointer tied it with 20 seconds remaining.

Van Lith then missed a shot, but the team got the ball back to set up the game-winner.

Laetitia Guapo had a chance to give France the win at the buzzer, but her 2-pointer was short.

Hamby, Cierra Burdick and Van Lith had four points each. Burdick also grabbed seven rebounds.

Belarusian athletes medal

Trampoline gymnasts Ivan Litvinovich and Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya of Belarus became the first two neutral athletes to win medals at this Olympics.

Litvinovich defended his men’s title from Tokyo to win gold, while Bardzilouskaya took home silver in the women’s competition won by Britain’s Bryony Page.

They are two of the 17 Belarusians competing as individual athletes for Team AIN at the Paris Games, along with 15 Russians. The countries are barred from team sports because of the war in Ukraine.

Djokovic, Alcaraz in men’s tennis final

Novak Djokovic is in the men’s singles final at the Olympics for the first time after the 37-year-old from Serbia defeated Lorenzo Musetti of Italy 6-4, 6-2. Djokovic next faces Spain’s Carlos Alcarez for gold. Djokovic is the oldest men’s player in the Olympic final. Alcaraz advanced by beating Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada 6-1, 6-1.

The women’s singles final is Saturday, with Zheng Qinwen of China playing against Donna Vekic of Croatia.

Later Friday, Auger-Aliassime went back on court and teamed with Gabriela Dabrowski to give Canada the bronze in mixed doubles with a 6-3, 7-6 (2) win over Demi Schuurs and Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands. The Czech Republic’s Katerina Siniakova and Tomas Machac beat China’s Wang Xinyu and Zhang Zhizhen 6-2, 5-7 (8) for gold.

Iga Swiatek of Poland, who lost to Zheng in the semifinals, earned the bronze with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia on Friday. It’s Poland’s first tennis medal at any Olympics.

In the men’s doubles semifinals Friday, Matt Ebden and John Peers of Australia defeated Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul of the United States 7-5, 6-2. Ebden and Peers will go up against another American duo, fourth-seeded Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram, for the gold.

U.S. men’s soccer eliminated

The United States is out of men’s soccer after getting routed 4-0 by Morocco in the quarterfinals. The Americans — in the Games for the first time since Beijing 2008 — were outclassed by Morocco, which reached the semifinals at the Olympics for the first time.

“It’s sad because I think it’s a group that has a lot of belief in each other and a lot of character and I don’t think it showed through,” defender Walker Zimmerman said. “That’s what’s hard is knowing how much everyone did care (and) had each other’s back.”

American archers win bronze

American archers Brady Ellison and Casey Kaufhold — mentor and student — defeated Ankita Bhakat and Dhiraj Bommadevara of India 6-2 to claim Olympic bronze in the mixed team category.

Kaufhold was just 15 when she teamed up with the veteran Ellison in 2019 to earn silver at a World Cup event and gold at the Pan-American Games. Five years later, the pairing has proved to be strong.

Men’s golf through two rounds

Tommy Fleetwood is chasing more gold outside Paris, this time an Olympic medal and not the Ryder Cup trophy.

The British golfer shot a 64 in the men’s competition and shares the lead with two-time major winner Xander Schauffele and Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama. They are at 11-under 131 and that ties the 36-hole Olympic record Schauffele set in the Tokyo Games.

Schauffele is the defending champion and a two-time major champion this year. Fleetwood has the experience at Le Golf National — along with his Ryder Cup memories, he won the 2017 French Open.

Jon Rahm was two shots back.

French judo icon wins

French icon Teddy Riner became the second three-time individual Olympic gold medalist in judo history in one of the most electrifying events of the Games so far.

The 35-year-old heavyweight defeated South Korea’s Kim Min-jong for the gold in his fifth Olympics.

An 11-time world champion and four-time Olympic gold medalist, Riner is one of the most popular and beloved figures in any sport from France. Riner was France’s flag bearer during the opening ceremony and joined retired French track and field sprinter Marie-José Pérec in lighting the cauldron at the end of the night.

Riner is widely considered the greatest judoka the sport has ever seen. He had a 10-year unbeaten streak in which he dominated opponents with his imposing size and athleticism.

FRIDAY’S MEDALISTS

ARCHERY

Mixed Team

GOLD: South Korea (Sihyeon Lim, Woojin Kim)

SILVER: Germany (Michelle Kroppen, Florian Unruh)

BRONZE: United States (Casey Kaufhold, Brady Ellison)

ATHLETICS

Men’s 10,000m

GOLD: Joshua Cheptegei, Uganda

SILVER: Berihu Aregawi, Ethiopia

BRONZE: Grant Fisher, United States

BADMINTON

Mixed Doubles

GOLD: China (Si Wei Zheng, Ya Qiong Huang)

SILVER: South Korea (Won Ho Kim, Na Eun Jeong)

BRONZE: Japan (Yuta Watanabe, Arisa Higashino)

CYCLING BMX RACING

Men

GOLD: Joris Daudet, France

SILVER: Sylvain Andre, France

BRONZE: Romain Mahieu, France

Women

GOLD: Saya Sakakibara, Australia

SILVER: Manon Veenstra, Netherlands

BRONZE: Zoe Claessens, Switzerland

DIVING

Men’s Synchronized 3m Springboard

GOLD: China (Daoyi Long, Zongyuan Wang)

SILVER: Mexico (Juan Manuel Celaya Hernandez, Osmar Olvera Ibarra)

BRONZE: Britain (Anthony Harding, Jack Laugher)

EQUESTRIAN

Jumping Team

GOLD: Britain (Scott Brash, Harry Charles, Ben Maher)

SILVER: United States (Karl Cook, Laura Kraut, McLain Ward)

BRONZE: France (Simon Delestre, Julien Epaillard, Olivier Perreau)

FENCING

Men’s Épée Team

GOLD: Hungary (Gergely Siklosi, Mate Tamas Koch, Tibor Andrasfi, David Nagy)

SILVER: Japan (Koki Kano, Kazuyasu Minobe, Masaru Yamada, Akira Komata)

BRONZE: Czech Republic (Jiri Beran, Jakub Jurka, Martin Rubes, Michal Cupr)

TRAMPOLINE GYMNASTICS

Men

GOLD: Ivan Litvinovich, AIN

SILVER: Zisai Wang, China

BRONZE: Langyu Yan, China

Women

GOLD: Bryony Page, Britain

SILVER: Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya, AIN

BRONZE: Sophiane Methot, Canada

JUDO

Men +100 kg

GOLD: Teddy Riner, France

SILVER: Minjong Kim, South Korea

BRONZE: Temur Rakhimov, Tajikistan

BRONZE: Alisher Yusupov, Uzbekistan

Women +78 kg

GOLD: Beatriz Souza, Brazil

SILVER: Raz Hershko, Israel

BRONZE: Hayun Kim, South Korea

BRONZE: Romane Dicko, France

ROWING

Men’s Pair

GOLD: Croatia (Martin Sinkovic, Valent Sinkovic)

SILVER: Britain (Oliver Wynne-Griffith, Tom George)

BRONZE: Switzerland (Roman Roeoesli, Andrin Gulich)

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls

GOLD: Ireland (Fintan Mc Carthy, Paul O Donovan)

SILVER: Italy (Stefano Oppo, Gabriel Soares)

BRONZE: Greece (Antonios Papakonstantinou, Petros Gkaidatzis)

Women’s Pair

GOLD: Netherlands (Ymkje Clevering, Veronique Meester)

SILVER: Romania (Ioana Vrinceanu, Roxana Anghel)

BRONZE: Australia (Jess Morrison, Annabelle McIntyre)

Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls

GOLD: Britain (Emily Craig, Imogen Grant)

SILVER: Romania (Gianina Elena van Groningen, Ionela Livia Cozmiuc)

BRONZE: Greece (Dimitra Kontou, Zoi Fitsiou)

SAILING

Men’s Skiff

GOLD: Spain (Diego Botin le Chever, Florian Trittel Paul)

SILVER: New Zealand (Isaac McHardie, William McKenzie)

BRONZE: United States (Ian Barrows, Hans Henken)

Women’s Skiff

GOLD: Netherlands (Odile van Aanholt, Annette Duetz)

SILVER: Sweden (Vilma Bobeck, Rebecca Netzler)

BRONZE: France (Sarah Steyaert, Charline Picon)

SHOOTING

50m Rifle 3 Positions Women

GOLD: Chiara Leone, Switzerland

SILVER: Sagen Maddalena, United States

BRONZE: Qiongyue Zhang, China

SWIMMING

Men’s 200m Individual Medley

GOLD: Leon Marchand, France

SILVER: Duncan Scott, Britain

BRONZE: Shun Wang, China

Men’s 50m Freestyle

GOLD: Cameron McEvoy, Australia

SILVER: Benjamin Proud, Britain

BRONZE: Florent Manaudou, France

Women’s 200m Backstroke

GOLD: Kaylee McKeown, Australia

SILVER: Regan Smith, United States

BRONZE: Kylie Masse, Canada

TENNIS

Mixed Doubles

GOLD: Czech Republic (Katerina Siniakova, Tomas Machac)

SILVER: China (Xinyu Wang, Zhizhen Zhang)

BRONZE: Canada (Gabriela Dabrowski, Felix Auger-Aliassime)