In women’s 49kg weightlifting, Jourdan Delacruz, 23, nailed her first two snatch attempts before judges ruled no lift on her third attempt at 89kg. She could not convert any of her three attempts at 108kg in the clean and jerk – she came close to finishing her second one but lost the bar behind her – and finished seventh.
"It felt a little bit heavier. Warmup was really good. Sometimes it just doesn’t pull out on the platform," Delacruz said. "There’s a lot of pressure, but at the same time, it’s the clean and jerk. It’s the lift that you’ve done a hundred times. You can only just go out and do what you know how to do."
China’s Zhihui Hou set Olympic records in both snatch (94kg) and clean and jerk (116kg) to claim gold and also set a total Olympic record (210kg).
--Chris Bumbaca, USA TODAY
TOKYO — Brady Ellison's first crack at shooting in the Olympic archery stadium ended in an upset loss.
World No. 1-ranked Ellison and Mackenzie Brown fell behind 4-0 against Indonesia then lost 5-4 in a shootout in the first round at Yumenoshima Park.
Mixed team is a new Olympic event with the first medals awarded Saturday. Ellison, a four-time Olympian and three-time medalist, was hoping to win three medals in Tokyo and still will have a chance for two in men's team and individual.
"I'm still a little shocked," Ellison said. "I completely expected us to win a medal today. We got in that stadium, and I shot left. Mackenzie started getting it figured out there at the end. I shot left that entire match trying to aim off for the wind. That finals venue kicked my ass. I just didn't see it and that cost us the match."
The Americans were seeded second out of 16 teams based on results from the ranking rounds Friday. Indonesia's team of Risu Ege Salsabilla and Diananda Choirunisa were No. 15, but the difference is greatly reduced in 70-meter elimination matches compared to three-person, 72-arrow qualifying.
Ellison was second in the ranking round and Brown fifth, leading to the No. 2 mixed team seed behind South Korea.
Brown will be back with Casey Kaufhold and Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez in women's team Sunday. Ellison, Jack Williams and Jacob Wukie compete in men's team Monday.
--Jeff Metcalfe, USA TODAY
Yang Qian of China claimed the first gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday, winning the women’s 10-meter air rifle competition.
Yang narrowly edged Russian Olympic Committee’s Anastasiia Galashina in the final, taking advantage of the Russian’s poor final shot.
Mary Tucker, the 20-year-old American, finished sixth after entering the event as a favorite to medal. A rising junior with the Kentucky Wildcats, she is ranked No. 2 in the world in the event but was unable to overcome a series of uncharacteristically poor shots early in the finals.
IOC president Thomas Bach was among those on hand at the Asaka Shooting Range for the first medal event of the Games.
--Tom Schad, USA TODAY
TOKYO – Olympic organizers announced 17 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, including one athlete.
The latest update brings the total to 123 cases since July 1. Of the new cases, three – including the athlete – were non-residents of Japan, while the rest were Games contractors who are residents. Olympic organizers do not identify athletes by name when they test positive.
Organizers reported a three-day total of 74,528 tests from July 20-22, with 22 confirmed positives in that time.
Hitoshi Oshitani, a member of the federal government’s COVID-19 advisory panel and the head of virology at the Tohoku University School of Medicine, said the Olympic Village presents a special risk with participants sharing rooms.
“I don’t think the organizing committee has been doing their best to minimize the risk,” Oshitani told The Age. “They have just been saying the Olympics are safe without showing any strategy to minimize the risk.”
Tokyo 2020 spokesman Masa Takaya said organizers had coordinated with the national and Tokyo metropolitan governments in developing the playbooks, which outline health and safety protocols for all Games stakeholders.
“We are confident that we will keep delivering a safe and secure games,” Takaya said.
The first match of the beach volleyball tournament has been canceled due to a Czech player tested positive for COVID-19.
The Czech Republic was scheduled to play Japan, but the Japanese pair of Megumi Murakami and Miki Ishii will be declared the winners by default.
In rowing, Dutch rower Finn Florijn has been ruled out of the Olympics after testing positive for COVID-19, hours before before he was scheduled to compete.
The U.S. men's team failed to qualify for the event, but the women's team is in Tokyo. They will play their first game against France at 4:55 a.m. ET.
Taylor, 34, made her debut during NBC's opening ceremony replay of the Tokyo Olympics on Friday night.
NBC said Taylor will be a host and contributor for Football Night in America and Super Bowls. While at the Olympics in Tokyo she will join Mike Tirico as host for Prime Plus and will also serve as a correspondent.
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