Summer Olympics

American sprinter Quincy Hall was in fifth place halfway through the men's 400m final on Wednesday before a late burst of speed pushed him into gold medal position at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The official split times for the race showed how Hall orchestrated his comeback by running the final 100 meters in 11.59 seconds.

Hall is the first American man to win the 400-meter race since LaShawn Merritt claimed gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Hall was at no point any higher in the pack than fourth place prior to the 300-meter mark.

The American sprinter then found another gear to push to the front and finish the race in 43.40 seconds.

That mark shattered Hall's previous personal best, the 44.17-second run he completed to qualify at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June.

That mark is also the fastest time recorded since Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa set the world record in 2016, as well as the fifth-fastest in the event's Olympic history.

British sprinter Matthew Hudson-Smith crossed the finish line just four one-thousandths of a second later to claim the silver medal.

The comeback was particularly notable given that Hall was focused on different race two years ago. The sprinter previously specialized in the 400m hurdles, the event in which he won an NCAA title at South Carolina in 2019, and only shifted to the 400m flat last year.

That decision paid off with a bronze at the 2023 World Championships, followed by Wednesday's historic comeback gold.

Hall's run marks one of several viral comeback efforts from Team USA in this week's slate of track and field events.

Noah Lyles, who was in seventh place halfway through the 100-meter race, surged in the back half of the run to earn a photo-finish gold.

Cole Hocker set an Olympic record with his own comeback effort in the 1,500-meter race, which saw him go from the middle of the group to gold medal position in the final stretch.

Team USA will hope to see more heroics from its men's track and field athletes as Lyles looks to earn his second Olympic gold in the 400-meter final on Thursday in Paris.

Quincy Hall delivered the comeback of all comebacks to win the men's 400 meters at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

The American looked like he would finish nowhere close to the medal stand through the first 300 meters, but he exploded down the final stretch to win another gold medal for Team USA in track and field.

Hall's massive burst of speed resulted in a personal best time of 43.40 seconds and a clear win ahead of Great Britain's Matthew Hudson-Smith.

Results

1. Quincy Hall (United States) - 43.40 seconds

2. Matthew Hudson-Smith (Great Britain) - 43.44

3. Muzala Samukonga (Zambia) - 43.74

4. Jereem Richards (Trinidad and Tobago) - 43.78

5. Kirani James (Grenada) - 43.87

6. Christopher Bailey (United States) - 44.58

7. Samuel Ogazi (Nigeria) - 44.73

8. Michael Norman (United States) 45.62

Hall produced one of the most incredible final stretches to a race you will ever see.

The American was clearly in fourth place a few strides behind the leaders as they made the turn for the final 100 meters.

Then Hall produced a kick of speed that few athletes can deliver and not only won but took first place four-hundredths of a second clear of the silver medalist.

Hall's incredible run brought the men's 400-meter title back to the United States. LaShawn Merritt in 2008 was the last American winner of the race and he extended a streak of seven straight wins for Team USA.

Great Britain's Matthew Hudson-Smith took the silver medal and Zambia's Muzala Samukonga took bronze.

Kirani James, a two-time medalist and 2012 winner in the event, came in fifth. Americans Christopher Bailey and Michael Norman took sixth and eighth.

The United States women's basketball team cruised into the semifinals of the 2024 Summer Olympics with an 88-74 win over Nigeria.

A'ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart were once again the stars of the Team USA offense. They combined for 33 points. Jackie Young added 15 points to the winning cause.

Team USA will take on Australia in Friday's semifinals with a spot in Sunday's gold-medal game on the line. France takes on Belgium in the other semifinal.

Australia beat Serbia 85-67, Belgium defeated Spain 79-66 and France took down Germany 84-71 in Wednesday's other three semifinals.

Box Score

Nigeria 17 Q1 / 16 Q2 / 15 Q3 / 26 Q4 / 74 TOT

United States 26 Q1 / 26 Q2 / 24 Q3 / 12 Q4 / 88 TOT

Player Statistics

Team Statistics

Team USA Moves On to Semifinals!

Everyone With Points for Team USA

Another Double-Double for A'ja

Griner With 11 Points, 3 Rebounds

Americans Are Cruising in Paris

Team USA's Lead Up to 30!

Young and Wilson Are Both In Double Figures

Stewie Leads Team USA With 13 Points

Another Big Halftime Lead for Team USA

Stewie and A'ja In Double Figures Again At Halftime

Plum Feeds Wilson

A'ja Wilson Up to 6 Points and 4 Rebounds

Team USA Off to Strong Start

Griner With the Impressive Block!

Jackie Young With 4 Early Points!

Team USA Feeding Wilson & Stewart In the Paint Again

Team USA Starting Five

Team USA sprinter Noah Lyles will seek his second Olympic gold in the finals of the men's 200-meter dash.

Lyles placed second in his semifinal heat with a time of 20.08 to qualify for Thursday's final.

Letsile Tebogo of Botswana won the heat with a time of 19.96 seconds.

Lyles previously made it to the semifinals with a qualifying heat time of 20.19 seconds.

He ran the 100-meter final in 9.784 seconds on Sunday to claim the first Olympic gold of his career.

American sprinter Kenny Bednarek also qualified for the 200-meter semifinal by winning his earlier heat with a time of 20.00 seconds.

Defending champion Andre de Grasse of Canada ran his heat in 20.41 seconds and did not qualify for the final.

Bednarek is seeking the first gold medal of his Olympic career after claiming the 200-meter silver at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

The full list of sprinters who will be competing in the final is below.

Men's 200m final qualifiers

1. Letsile Tebogo, Botswana (19.96 seconds)
2. Kenneth Bednarek, United States (20.00 seconds)
3. Noah Lyles, United States (20.08 seconds)
4. Alexander Ogando, Dominican Republic (20.088 seconds)
5. Erriyon Knighton, United States (20.089 seconds)
6. Joseph Fahnbulleh, Liberia (20.12 seconds)
7. Tapiwanashe Makarawu, Zimbabwe (20.16 seconds)
   
8. Makanakaishe Charamba, Zimbabwe (20.31 seconds)
   

The top six qualifiers finished within the top two spots in their heat, while the two Zimbabwean sprinters marked the next two fastest times overall.

The final will feature three American sprinters as Erriyon Knighton runs against Lyles and Bednarek for a spot on the podium.

Knighton held off a late push from Liberia's Joseph Fahnbulleh and Zimbabwe's Tapiwanashe Makarawu to lead his semifinal heat. The 20-year-old is looking for the first Olympic medal of his career.

Lyles crossed the line 0.14 seconds behind Tebogo, but the second-place finish will not dampen his hopes of winning another gold in the 2024 Games.

Prior to his winning race in the 100-meter event, Lyles marked the third-best time in the semifinals after being outrun by Kishane Thompson and Oblique Seville of Jamaica in the qualifiers.

Lyles will hope for a similar result on Thursday after both Tebogo and Bednarek marked faster 200-meter semifinal times.

A win would make Lyles the first American man to win both the 100-meter and 200-meter Olympic races since Carl Lewis in 1984, and the first male sprinter from any country to achieve the feat since Usain Bolt in 2016.

The men's 200-meter final is set to begin in Paris on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. ET.

The Team USA men's basketball team is one win away from playing in the gold-medal game at the Paris Olympics and standing in its way is a Serbia squad that it has already defeated twice.

However, Team USA head coach Steve Kerr isn't letting the team get cocky following its wins over Serbia in exhibition and group-stage games, as he told reporters that it won't be easy to get past three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić and Serbia in Thursday's semifinal.

"We can't get lulled to sleep because we beat them twice," Kerr said. "We have to be prepared for their best effort. We've got to think about what are they going to do differently. Jokić, I guess he could play 40 minutes. What else do they have up their sleeve?"

Jokic has been outstanding during the Summer Games, leading Serbia with averages of 19.3 points, 11.8 rebounds, 7.5 assists, 2.5 steals and 1.0 blocks per game. ESPN's Brian Windhorst spotlighted the impact the 29-year-old has had, reporting that Serbia is outscoring opponents by 43 points when he's on the floor while being outscored by 12 points when he's on the bench.

During its showcase leading up to the Paris Olympics, Team USA defeated Serbia 109-75. The teams opened group play against one another on July 28 and the result was the same, with Team USA earning a 110-84 victory.

However, Windhorst pointed out that the score during the group-stage game was even while Jokic was on the floor. Team USA took advantage of his limited time on the bench by outscoring Serbia 29-3. Serbia rattled off three straight wins after the loss.

In Serbia's quarterfinal game against Australia, the team overcame a 24-point deficit to earn an overtime victory. Jokic had 21 points and 14 rebounds in the win, and the team was plus-17 in the minutes he played as opposed to minus-12 in his seven minutes on the bench.

Those figures have fueled Kerr's belief that Team USA will be getting a heavy dosage of Jokic when they meet on Thursday. Still, the players don't sound very worried.

"I guess we'll be ready for that," Joel Embiid said. "If that's what they think they have to do to try to beat us, then they won't hesitate to do that"

Star forward LeBron James added, "Every game is its own test. No matter what happened in the first two, it's about what goes down Thursday night. So we need to lock in our film session, lock in during the day on Thursday and then come out and be ready to go."

Tom Schaar's attempt to bring home the gold for the United States came down to his last trick.

Unfortunately, he was unable to pull off his run-defining 720, crashing to the ground and handing the gold to Australian Keegan Palmer. The Aussie captured his second straight Olympic gold in the skateboarding park event with a score of 93.11 at the 2024 Paris Games.

Schaar managed to capture silver for the U.S., while Augusto Akio of Brazil took home bronze.

Park Skateboarding Final Results

Gold: Keegan Palmer (Australia): 93.11

Silver: Tom Schaar (United States): 92.23

Bronze: Augusto Akio (Brazil): 91.85

The silver is the first Olympic medal for Schaar, the 24-year-old who burst onto the scene at age 12 when he became the first skateboarder to ever land a 1080.

Schaar was the most complete skateboarder in Wednesday's final, with all three of his runs scoring over 80. However, his jaw-dropping third run came to an unfortunate end when he failed to stick the landing on a 720 that would have almost certainly put him ahead of Palmer for gold.

When Schaar crashed to the ground, all Palmer had to do in his final run was skate to the adoring cheers of the Paris crowd.

Palmer is a two-time gold medalist at age 21. He and Arisa Trew swept the park competition for Australia, giving the country 15 golds overall. Australia is third behind the United States (24) and China (23) in the overall gold tally and fifth among all countries in total medals.

The U.S. leads the total medal count with 87. Akio's bronze was the 13th medal for Brazil in the Summer Games.

The United States and Brazil will clash on Saturday in the Lyon Stadium in the gold medal match of the 2024 Olympic women's soccer tournament.

Sophia Smith cashed the Americans' ticket to the game by firing a goal in extra minutes to advance past Germany while Brazil bested Spain, 4-2, to earn their spot.

Ahead of the high-stakes finale, take a look at each team's road to the gold medal game, and the current odds for the showdown, with this preview.

The Road to the Gold Medal Game

Brazil

• vs. Nigeria (won, 1-0, group stage)
• vs. Japan (lost, 2-1, group stage)
• vs. Spain (lost, 2-0, group stage)
• vs. France (won, 1-0, quarterfinals)
• vs. Spain (won, 4-2, semifinals)

United States

• vs. Zambia (won, 3-0, group stage)
• vs. Germany (won, 4-1, group stage)
• vs. Australia (won, 2-1, group stage)
• vs. Japan (won, 1-0, quarterfinals)
• vs. Germany (won, 1-0, semifinals)

Current Odds

Brazil (+370), Draw (+205), USA (-110)

Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook

Preview

The Americans have advanced through the tournament without suffering a defeat, despite a young roster and a first-time head coach in Emma Hayes. The team has proven it can run away with wins, as it did during a difficult group stage, and can win close battles against the best in the field, as in the knockout round.

The young stars and future faces of the national team have come through when most needed, with Trinity Rodman propelling the team into the semifinals with an extra-minutes goal to defeat Japan and Smith putting the dagger in Germany's gold medal hopes.

They face a Brazilian squad that, on paper, they should be able to overcome.

As Canarinhas lost two of their group stage matches, but did not let those disappointing outcomes stick with them. They went on the offensive, scoring five goals to eliminate France and Spain, two of the tournament favorites, and advance to the final.

For the United States, winning the gold medal would return the USWNT to prominence, announce a new era of extraordinary competitors, and give coach Hayes her first international trophy.

For Brazil, it would be the first time the country has ever won gold at the Olympics and an opportunity to send the legendary Marta, who announced that this will be her final international tournament, out on the highest of notes.

The Americans hold the edge, having won 32 of 41 previous showdowns.

The Brazilians have proven resilient throughout these games, answering their two losses with victories in the games that mattered most. They are likely driven to win both Marta and their country their first gold medals.

The United States has been the best team in the tournament, though, and if they can resist turning the ball over and giving their opponents opportunities, it should be a golden return to form.