| | | | | | | | | | | Axios Sports | | By Kendall Baker ·Aug 06, 2021 | | 🎉 Happy Friday! You made it. Today's word count: 1,860 words (7 minutes). Let's sports... | | | | | | 1 big thing: 🏀 USA and France go for gold |  Photos: Getty Images; Table: Sara Wise/Axios Team USA and France tip-off tonight for men's basketball gold (10:30pm ET), finally in a time slot that should allow more than just the night owls to tune in live, Axios' Jeff Tracy writes. The backdrop: The Olympics began with France beating the U.S. by seven — and that came two years after a shocking defeat at the 2019 FIBA World Cup, when the French ended Team USA's 58-game win streak. - The 2019 defeat stemmed from one superlative effort (Donovan Mitchell's 29-6-4) not being enough to get past a well-rounded team led by Rudy Gobert (21-16) and Evan Fournier (22-3-4).
- Last week's defeat was different, as no one shot well, and the ragtag U.S. roster hadn't jelled yet — though the well-rounded French team was still led by Gobert (14-9) and Fournier (28-4).
Tale of the tape... USA: The Americans are the most dominant team in Olympic history by far, winning 15 of 19 gold medals, plus a silver and two bronzes. - Starters: Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard, Jrue Holiday, Devin Booker, Bam Adebayo
- Bench: Draymond Green, Jayson Tatum, Khris Middleton, Zach LaVine, Keldon Johnson, JaVale McGee, Jerami Grant
- Olympic GOAT: Durant already passed Carmelo Anthony as the all-time U.S. Olympic scoring leader. A win tonight would give him a third gold medal, tying Anthony's record.
France: The French have won two Olympic silvers (1948, 2000) and finished better than sixth just one other time (1956). They have five active and three former NBA players. - Starters: Gobert, Fournier, Nicolas Batum, Nando de Colo, Guerschon Yabusele
- Bench: Frank Ntilikina, Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot, Thomas Heurtel, Vincent Poirier, Andrew Albicy, Petr Cornelie, Moustapha Fall
- X-factor: Batum, who just signed a two-year deal to stay with the Clippers, has done everything for Les Bleus, including a game-clinching block to get past Slovenia and into the gold medal game.
🎥 Watch: Avery Johnson breaks down the matchup (YouTube) |     | | | | | | 2. ⚽️ Messi to leave Barcelona | | Lionel Messi in 2003. Photo: Marcelo Boeri/El Grafico/Getty Images Lionel Messi is leaving Barcelona, ending arguably the greatest club career in soccer history — one that featured 810 games, 683 goals, 10 La Liga titles and four Champions League crowns. What they're saying: Messi was reportedly "shocked" by the news, which the club announced via a statement on its website. "Despite FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi having reached an agreement and the clear intention of both parties to sign a new contract today, this cannot happen because of Spanish La Liga regulations on player registration." The state of play: Barcelona is referring to La Liga's version of a salary cap, which limits spending based on projected revenue and costs. The club is in dire financial straits, with over a billion dollars of debt. What's next: Clubs like Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City have been mentioned as possible landing spots. Meanwhile, ESPN's Gabriele Marcotti believes Messi could ultimately stay at Barcelona. - "Messi wants to stay and the club want to keep him, but the league won't allow it, even though his departure would hurt everyone. ... Does that sound right or logical to you? No, it doesn't. Because it isn't," writes Marcotti.
- "My guess is come Sept. 1, he'll still be a Barcelona player. Either because he will have restructured the contract they agreed on, or because Barca will have recouped some transfer fees or because La Liga will have revised their salary cap to accommodate the club."
| | | | | | | | 3. 🥇 Olympics dashboard |  | | | April Ross (R) and Alix Klineman celebrate. Photo: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images | | | - 📆 Coming up: Today's key events include finals in the men's and women's 4x100 relays and the women's 400. Full schedule.
- 🥇 Medal tracker (as of 8:15am ET): Team USA (95) has the most medals, followed by China (75) and ROC (62). Full list.
- 🏀 While you were sleeping: U.S. women's basketball took one step closer to a seventh straight gold, blowing out Serbia. Next up: Japan or France in the gold-medal game.
Stories: - 🏐 Back on top: Team USA's April Ross and Alix Klineman won gold in beach volleyball, beating Australia in straight sets. Ross and Klineman dropped just one set in seven matches in Tokyo, winning the event for the first time since Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings won three straight titles from 2004 to 2012.
- ⚾️ Historic double: Eddy Alvarez and Team USA face Japan for gold tomorrow, but Alvarez already made history. The infielder won speed skating silver at Sochi 2014, and will thus become the sixth Olympian to medal in both the Summer and Winter Games.
- 🇳🇱 Treble watch: Dutch runner Sifan Hassan already took gold in the 5K. If she wins — or even medals in — the 1500 today and the 10K tomorrow, she'll be the first ever to pull off that treble. Either way, she'll run over 15 miles of Olympic races this week.
Highlights: - 🥇 Three Olympic records: Kenya's Abel Kipsang broke the 1500 OR in the men's semis, Canada's Damian Warner broke the decathlon OR to win gold and China's Quan Hongchan absolutely shattered the 10-meter platform OR, including two perfect 10's.
- ⛳️ Hole-in-one: Morocco's Maha Haddioui aced the seventh hole during second-round play. Honestly not sure what was better: the shot, or the understated call by the British commentator, who simply said, "Buckets."
- 🇺🇸 Close call: Katie Nageotte nearly failed to clear even the lowest height during the pole vault final, but by the end of the competition, the 30-year-old American beat out the reigning world champ for gold.
| | | | | | | | A message from Axios | | Discover what's changing in how we work, play and get around | | |  | | | | 'Axios What's Next' will guide you through the next decade of big, sweeping changes when new technologies like 5G, AI and drones will transform how we work, live and play together. Sign up for free | | | | | | 4. 🇺🇸 U.S. men's track woes continue |  | | | Trayvon Bromell. Photo: Pete Dovgan/Icon Sportswire via Getty Image | | | | American men once owned the track, but what looked like a promising week in Tokyo has turned nightmarish in a hurry, Jeff writes. The state of play: In every Summer Games the U.S. has participated in, at least one man has gone home with a track gold medal. Just four events remain in Tokyo to keep that streak alive. - Friday: 5K and 4x400 relay heat
- Saturday: 1500, 4x400 final, marathon
Driving the news: There have been some highlights, including Rai Benjamin finishing second in one of the greatest races ever. But what happened in the 4x100 relay was troubling. - The U.S. was favored to win gold, but finished sixth ... in their heat. Three of the four fastest men in the world teamed up and couldn't even make it to the final.
- "The relay program has been a disaster for years because there's no leadership and no system. When I said everything is wrong, it is," Olympic legend Carl Lewis told USA Today.
- "If you break it down, people were in the wrong legs, obviously they were not taught how to pass the baton ... I'm not blaming the athletes so much. This was leadership."
The backdrop: From 1920 to 2000, the U.S. won 4x100 gold 15 of 18 times. Since then? Just one silver medal in 2004, which would have been gold if not for a botched handoff. - 2008: Eliminated in qualifiers after dropping the baton.
- 2012: Silver, which was later stripped after Tyson Gay was found guilty of doping.
- 2016: Disqualified due to an illegal baton exchange.
| | | | |  | | | | If you like this newsletter, your friends may, too! Refer your friends and get free Axios swag when they sign up. | | | | | | | | 5. ⚾️ Vlad Jr. is officially on Triple Crown watch |  | | | Photo: Kathryn Riley/Getty Images | | | | With 56 games left, Blue Jays slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is threatening to win the Triple Crown, Jeff writes. - RBI: 85 (leads AL)
- HR 34 (second; leader has 37)
- Batting average: .322 (fourth; leader is batting .331)
Why it matters: Only 10 MLB players have won the Triple Crown, just one has done so since 1967, and everyone on the list is either in the Hall of Fame or will be. - Miguel Cabrera, AL: 2012 (44 HR — 139 RBI — .330 BA)
- Carl Yastrzemski, AL: 1967 (44 — 126 — .326)
- Frank Robinson, AL: 1966 (49 — 122 — .316)
- Mickey Mantle, AL: 1956 (52 — 130 — .353)
- Ted Williams, AL: 1947 (32 — 114 — .343); 1942 (36 — 137 — .356)
- Joe Medwick, NL: 1937 (31 — 154 — .374)
- Lou Gehrig, AL: 1934 (49 — 166 — .363)
- Jimmie Foxx, AL: 1933 (48 — 163 — .356)
- Chuck Klein, NL: 1933 (28 — 120 — .368)
- Rogers Hornsby, NL: 1925 (39 — 143 — .403); 1922 (42 — .152 — .401)
| | | | | | | | 6. 📸 Exclusive: Behind the camera | | Getty Images photographers picked their favorite photos from the Olympics so far and provided commentary on how they got the shot. Photo: Patrick Smith/Getty Images Caption: Athletes compete during Round 1 of the women's 200-meter heats at the Olympic Stadium. With the absence of fans, I wanted to capture the scale of the emptiness. I hiked to the top of the Olympic Stadium and worked with the light to show what it might feel like to be here, while giving viewers a sense of emotion around the world's biggest sporting event being held in front of no one. — Patrick Smith Photo: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images Caption: Team USA's Brittney Griner tips off against France's Sandrine Gruda during the first half of a Group B game at Saitama Super Arena. To get this shot, I turned my camera upside down and put it on the floor. The position helps clean up the background and elevates the players, giving them more of a heroic feel. Which is what these athletes are to so many of us: heroes. — Mike Ehrmann Photo: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images Caption: Team USA's Andrew Capobianco competes in the men's 3-meter springboard preliminary round at Tokyo Aquatics Centre. Divers are moving so quickly that it's easy to view their dive as one graceful movement. I thought it would be interesting to use a long lens to photograph their faces as they spun and flipped through the air, arriving with barely a splash into the water. — Maddie Meyer | | | | | | | | 7. 📆 Aug. 6, 1926: Queen of the waves | | Ederle prepares for the swim. Photo: Bettmann Archives/Getty Images 95 years ago today, Gertrude Ederle became the first woman — and first American — to successfully swim the English Channel, doing so in a world record time of 14 hours, 31 minutes. - The backdrop: Ederle, 20, was a hugely successful swimmer, winning one gold and two bronze medals at the 1924 Olympics in Paris.
- The swim: Ederle swam from France to England, besting the previous world record by two hours. The shortest route is 21 miles, but the waters were so choppy and tides so fierce that she swam 35 miles.
Ederle is honored in New York City. Photo: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images The aftermath: Ederle returned home a hero, getting a ticker-tape parade in New York and a White House invitation from President Calvin Coolidge. - Nearly a century later, the record stands at six hours, 55 minutes for men and seven hours, 25 minutes for women.
🎥 Watch: Archival footage of the swim (YouTube) | | | | | | | | 8. 🎉 Happy "Ocho" day | | Source: Giphy Happy Ocho day! ESPN's annual celebration of offbeat sports — an ode to the fake channel from 2004's "Dodgeball" — airs all day on ESPN2. Highlights: The party started on Monday, with select events featured throughout the week, but the 24-hour romp began at midnight. - Noon: Pogopalooza (extreme pogo world championship)
- 4pm: 2021 corgi races at Emerald Downs
- 5pm: 52nd annual cow chip throwing world championship
- 7pm: World Chase Tag USA
- 9pm: World Cornhole League championships, live from South Carolina
- 11pm: The 2020 death diving world championship
🎥 Watch: Pogopalooza highlights (YouTube) | | | | | | | | 9. 🏀 Wooden Award trivia |  | | | Photo: Chris Schwegler/NBAE via Getty Images | | | | Luka Garza (No. 52 pick in this year's draft) is the lowest-drafted men's Wooden Award winner in history. Answer at the bottom. | | | | | | | | 10. 🐤 Pic du jour: Ducky Derby | | Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images 70,000 rubber ducks were dumped in the Chicago River on Thursday at the start of the 16th annual Chicago Ducky Derby, which raised $300,000 for Special Olympics Illinois. Donors sponsored ducks for $5 each. | | | | | | | | A message from Axios | | Discover what's changing in how we work, play and get around | | | | | | | | 'Axios What's Next' will guide you through the next decade of big, sweeping changes when new technologies like 5G, AI and drones will transform how we work, live and play together. Sign up for free | | | | Enjoy the weekend, Kendall "Barca blew it" Baker Trivia answer: Frank Mason III 🙏 Thanks for reading. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter: @thekendallbaker and @jeffreytracy. |  | | It'll help you deliver employee communications more effectively. | | | | | | Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. If you're interested in advertising, learn more here.
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