Yahoo Sports Olympics AM: Nadal vs. Djokovic

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Nadal vs. Djokovic

Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic will write a 60th — and potentially final — chapter of their historic rivalry today at Roland Garros. The action starts soon on Peacock (~7:30am ET).

Head-to-head: Djokovic leads 30-29. A victory today by Nadal — at a venue where he has become a legend — would be poetic and tie the all-time series.

Fun fact: Roland Garros was not only the site of their most recent meeting two years ago, but also their first — all the way back in the 2006 French Open quarterfinals.

Photos of the day

🏀 USA 110, Serbia 84: LeBron James (21-8-9) and Kevin Durant (23 points, 8-9 FG) led Team USA to victory in their opening game in Lille, 127 miles north of Paris. Our very own Jay Busbee made the trek to watch the game in person.

🇫🇷 Hometown hero: Léon Marchand, the face of the Paris Games, lived up to the hype by winning the 400m IM in an Olympic-record time of 4:02:95, nearly six seconds ahead of the field. The 22-year-old delighted the thousands of French fans in attendance.

🇺🇸 USA goes 1-2: Torri Huske (gold) and Gretchen Walsh (silver) took the top two spots in the women’s 100m butterfly. It’s quite the redemption story for Huske, who missed the podium in Tokyo by 0.01 seconds.

⚽️ USWNT keeps rolling: Sophia Smith’s brace powered the USWNT to a 4-1 win over Germany as the Americans improved to 2-0. They’ve already scored nearly twice as many goals in these Olympics (7) as they did during the entire 2023 World Cup (4).

Team USA is proudly funded by family, friends and fans like you. When you give to the Team USA Fund, 100% of your donation goes to athletes and the programming that supports them. Donate today.

Athlete spotlight: Chase Budinger made over $18 million during a seven-year career in the NBA. But the former basketball star has long since traded in his sneakers for the feel of sand on his bare feet, and today makes his Olympics debut in beach volleyball.

Two-sport athlete: Budinger was a high school basketball and volleyball superstar in Southern California, winning co-MVP of the 2006 McDonald’s All-American game alongside Kevin Durant while also being named Volleyball Magazine’s National Player of the Year.

• He considered dual-sport scholarships but chose to focus on basketball at Arizona, where he averaged 17 points in three seasons before heading to the NBA as a 2009 second-rounder.

• In 2017, the 6-foot-7 forward with incredible leaping ability (he was in the 2012 Slam Dunk Contest) retired from basketball to give volleyball another shot, and in 2018 he was named rookie of the year in the AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals).

What he’s saying: “I miss basketball,” Budinger told three-time beach volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh-Jennings in an interview with Yahoo Sports. “I mean, it was such a big part of my life for so long. But I’ve kinda put that part of my life away and started this new chapter.”

Ending the drought? Budinger and partner Miles Evans, whose first match is today (10am ET, NBC), defied the odds to even qualify for the Olympics. But they’re ready to “shock the world” in Paris, where they hope to win the USA’s first men’s beach volleyball medal since 2008.

More athletes in action:

• 🤽‍♀️ Maggie Steffens: The U.S. women’s water polo captain (and the sport’s all-time Olympic scoring leader) leads the Americans in their second match today. One spectator who’ll definitely be in attendance? 65-year-old Flavor Flav, the team’s unlikely super fan.

• 🛹 Jagger Eaton: The seven-time X Games medalist and two-time world champ won bronze in street (one of skateboarding’s two disciplines) three years ago in Tokyo… on a broken ankle! Today, the 23-year-old hopes to find himself on the podium once again.

Team USA: News | Athletes | Shop

Follow along at TeamUSA.com and @TeamUSA on social media.

Medal race

Full medal count.

Watchlist: U.S. women’s hoops

The U.S women’s basketball team begins its quest for an eighth straight Olympic gold today when it tips off against Japan.

Featured events:

• 🏀 Women’s Basketball: Team USA vs. Japan (2:45pm, USA) … One of four games today.

• 🏊 Swimming: Five medal events (2:30pm, NBC) … Women’s 400m IM, Men’s 200m Freestyle, Men’s 100m Backstroke, Women’s 100m Breaststroke, Women’s 200m Freestyle.

• 🤸 Men’s Gymnastics: Team Final (11:30am, NBC) … Team USA advanced to the final with the fifth-best score in qualifiers, behind China, Japan, Great Britain and Ukraine.

• 🛹 Men’s Skateboarding: Street Final (11am, Peacock) … The U.S. and Japan both have powerhouse teams vying for the podium.

• 🏄 Surfing: Men’s Round 3 (1pm, Peacock); Women’s Round 3 (5:45pm, Peacock)

Medal events:

• 🚴🏼 Men’s Cycling: Mountain Bike (8am, Peacock; 8:45am, USA)

• 🐎 Equestrian: Eventing Individual Jumping Final (9am, Peacock)

• 🥋 Judo: Women’s 57kg and Men’s 73kg (10am, Peacock)

• 🏹 Men’s Archery: Team Finals (10:48am, Peacock)

• 🛶 Men’s Canoeing: Slalom Final (11:20am, Peacock)

• 🤺 Fencing: Women’s Sabre and Men’s Foil (3:45pm, Peacock)

Non-medal events: Badminton, Beach Volleyball, Boxing, Handball, Hockey, Rugby Sevens, Sailing, Shooting, Table Tennis, Tennis, Volleyball, Water Polo.

Primetime on NBC: Men’s Gymnastics Team Final (8pm), Women’s 400m IM Final, Men’s 200m Freestyle Final and Women’s 100m Backstroke Final (8:30pm), Men’s Diving 10m Synchronized Platform Final (10:15pm).

For a complete schedule, click here.

NCAA in Paris

The NCAA is well represented in Paris, where 1,217 current, former or incoming athletes from 251 schools are competing in the Summer Games.

Long live the “Conference of Champions”: Three of the four most well-represented schools, and six of the 15 that have at least 25 Olympians, were in the Pac-12(*) until this year’s mass exodus.

1. USC*: 58 Olympians in Paris

2. Stanford*: 54

3. Michigan: 42

4. California*: 41

5. Florida: 39

6-15: UCLA* (34), LSU (33), Tennessee (33), Texas (32), Arkansas (27), Florida State (27), Penn State (27), Arizona State* (26), Georgia (26), Oregon* (26)

More NCAA stats:

• By country: 125 countries have at least one NCAA athlete, led by Team USA with 385, comprising 65% of their delegation. Canada (132), Australia (44), Nigeria (38), Germany (34), Jamaica (34), Puerto Rico (32) and Spain (30) are the others with at least 30.

• By sport: Track and field dominates with 406 NCAA athletes representing 75 countries. Swimming (223), basketball (152), golf (65) and soccer (65) round out the top five.

The 100% club: 14 U.S. Olympic teams are made up entirely of NCAA athletes: Women’s basketball, men’s and women’s 3×3 basketball, men’s and women’s water polo, men’s and women’s volleyball, men’s golf, men’s gymnastics, women’s field hockey, modern pentathlon, beach volleyball, diving and fencing.

Lightning round

🔥 The Olympic flame is… not a flame: The “flame” that will remain lit throughout the duration of the Games is actually a mixture of lights and water vapor. Paris 2024 wants to be the most environmentally responsible Games ever, and this fits into that mission.

🏀 Staley on Clark: Dawn Staley said Sunday that Caitlin Clark’s recent play (12.5 assists per game in July) had made a strong case for her inclusion on Team USA. “If we had to do it all over again … she would be in really high consideration of making the team because she is playing head and shoulders above a lot of people.”

⚽️ What a goal: Momoko Tanikawa lifted Japan to a comeback victory over Brazil with a sensational strike in stoppage time at Parc des Princes, home of PSG.

🎾 Coco matches Venus: Coco Gauff, 20, became the youngest American woman to win a singles match at the Olympics since Venus Williams in 2000. Of note: Venus went on to win gold.

Daily trivia

Question: Who was president of the United States when the modern Olympic Games opened in Athens, Greece, in 1896?

Hint: He won the popular vote in three presidential elections (1884, 1888, 1892).

Answer at the bottom.

In non-Olympics news…

Mercedes goes 1-2 (kind of): Mercedes’ surge continued Sunday at the Belgian Grand Prix, where George Russell and Lewis Hamilton went 1-2 — until Russell was disqualified for his car being under the minimum weight in a post-race inspection.

Plus:

Trivia answer: Grover Cleveland

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