Bay Area Olympians: Stanford alum Katie Ledecky, junior Torri Huske make history in pool

Stanford alum Katie Ledecky entered rare air on Saturday when the swimmer captured Olympic gold in the 800-meter freestyle, touching the wall in 8:11.04 at the Paris Games.

She became the first woman to win four consecutive Olympic golds in the same event and the second swimmer to four-peat an event, joining Michael Phelps, who had four straight first-place finishes in the 200 individual medley. 

Ledecky now has 14 Olympic medals to her name, nine of which are gold.

Saturday’s victory came two days after she became the most decorated American woman Olympian of all time with 13 medals.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself,” Ledecky told the Associated Press after the win Saturday. “I’m just really happy that I could get the job done.”

Ledecky beat out Australian rival Ariarne Titmus, who finished in second place with a time of 8:12.29. Fellow American Paige Madden took bronze, finishing in 8:13.00.

Ledecky never gave up ground from the start of the race, not letting Titmus get ahead at any point. She took control around the 500-meter mark, using explosive kicks off the wall to get a half-body lead on the Australian late in the race. 

“I knew that it was gonna be a tough race and I felt confident coming into it,” Ledecky said to the AP. “But I knew it was going to be tough no matter what, all the way down to the finish. So I just had to stick in the race, trust myself, trust my training, trust that I know the hungry side of that. And, yeah, I am just kind of relieved.”

Saturday’s gold-medal performance put Ledecky in a tie for second place for most gold medals of all time. She joins a list that includes swimmer Mark Spitz, track star Carl Lewis, Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina and Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi in a tie for second place. 

Phelps holds the record for most Olympic gold medals with 23. 

Ledecky told reporters she plans to swim through the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. 

“It’s not easy,” she said to the AP. “I’ll take it year by year, and we’ll see if I can keep giving everything I’ve got for as long as I have left in me.”

Men’s basketball: Team USA routs Puerto Rico in final group stage game

An unusual off night from Warriors superstar Stephen Curry didn’t affect the outcome of the U.S.’s final group stage game as Team USA blew out Puerto Rico 104-83 to take the top seed going into the quarterfinals on Tuesday.

Curry finished with eight points on 3-of-8 shooting from the field. He made two of his six shots from beyond the arc.

Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star Anthony Edwards came off the bench to lead all scorers with 26 points. Kevin Durant (11 points) and LeBron James (10 points) also scored in double figures. Bam Adebayo, who had 18 points against South Sudan, finished with three points.

“It’s weird because Ant goes off tonight, Bam went off the other night, KD the night before that, Bron’s been consistent the whole time,” Curry told the Associated Press. “Everybody else, you find your place with where shots are coming from. It’s not like anybody is taking over every possession. So it’s just a matter of staying locked in. You might touch the ball once or twice in a quarter, but you’ve got to be ready to take advantage of it.”

Puerto Rico led by as much as eight in the first quarter, but that’s as close as it would get as the U.S. used a 39-point second quarter to lead 64-45 at halftime.

Durant is five points away from breaking the all-time U.S. national team (men’s and women’s) career scoring record held by Lisa Leslie (488).

Team USA will face Brazil on Tuesday. Every game for the Americans from here on out is win-or-go-home.

“I think we got done what we wanted to accomplish, winning all three games and securing the top seed,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr told the Associated Press. “We know we have to play better. Part of this tournament is it gets harder as you go. Our goal is just to try to get better each game.”.

Stanford swimmer anchors U.S. mixed medley relay team to victory

By just the tips of her fingers, Stanford junior Torri Huske pushed the United States to a first-place finish in the 4×100 mixed medley relay on Saturday at the Paris Olympics in a world record time of 3:37.43.

China finished second in 3:37.55, and Australia captured the bronze in 3:38.76.

The U.S. and China were neck-and-neck throughout the race and it ended in dramatic fashion.

Huske and Chinese anchor Junxuan Yang were side-by-side on the last leg, but Huske found a way to touch the wall first to give the U.S. the gold.

The Stanford standout finished her leg in 51.88, narrowly holding off Yang, who swam her leg in 51.96.

Huske has taken a gap year to focus on swimming, a decision that has clearly paid off.

She also won gold in the 100 butterfly and took silver in the 100 freestyle and 4×100 freestyle relay.

In addition to Huske, the U.S. mixed medley team also included Cal alum Ryan Murphy, Gretchen Walsh and Nic Fink.

“Everything we did, we got the world record, we got number one, we were on the podium with our gold. It was a pretty special moment and I mean, shout out to these three teammates,” Walsh told People magazine. “I wouldn’t be here without them.”

Bay Area rowers lead USA to bronze in men’s rowing eight final

Local rowers Peter Chatain, Pieter Quinton, Chris Carlson and Henry Hollingsworth led the U.S. men’s eight rowing team to its first medal since 2008.

The Americans finished with a time of 5.25.28, just over a second behind silver medalists the Netherlands (5:23.92) and about three seconds behind gold medalists Great Britain (5:22.88).

The same core of U.S. rowers came close to medaling in the last Olympics in Tokyo, but came one second short from a bronze.

“There’s a great saying, you either win or you learn, and we did a lot of learning the past three years,” Quinton told the Washington Post.

The U.S. was once a power in men’s rowing eight, winning gold in 11 of the first 14 Olympics. But since 1960, the Americans have only come in first twice.

Men’s golf: Cal’s Morikawa finishes Day 3 tied for 23rd

Collin Morikawa struggled to crack the top of the leaderboard in the third round of the men’s golf competition and is tied for 23rd entering the final round.

The former Cal standout sits at 5-under par, nine shots behind third-round leaders Xander Schauffele of the U.S. and John Rahm of Spain.

Morikawa shot 1-under 70 on Saturday.

Cal, Stanford alums lead U.S. men’s water polo team past Montenegro

Former Stanford standout Ben Hallock scored two goals on three shots to help the U.S. notch a 12-7 group-stage win over Montenegro.

Cal alum and Team USA goalkeeper Adrien Weinberg had 13 saves. He has 43 saves in four Olympic matches.

The U.S. took a commanding 7-2 lead after two quarters. Montenegro cut the deficit to two goals with under five minutes left in the third, but that’s as close as the European country got as the U.S. allowed just one goal after that point.

Hannes Daube led the U.S. with five goals on seven shots. The U.S. struggled on the power play, scoring on 3 of 9 attempts when they had the advantage.

USA will face Croatia in its final group-stage game on Monday.