The 2016 Summer Olympics officially kicked off on Friday night with the Opening Ceremony,but did NBC miss the point of the night? Quiz: Can you name these famous American Olympians of the past? Also, the entire Russian team was banned from the Paralympics and YOU MUST check out handball, the best sport in the world that doesn’t get enough attention. Be sure to keep up with all Olympics coverage, including schedules, results and awesome stories with Sports Illustrated.
According to SI Virginia Thrasher of the U.S. won the women’s 10m air rifle gold medal as she defeated China’s Du Li with a final round total of 208.0 on Saturday morning. This was the first gold medal handed out at the 2016 Rio Olympics—and the first gold medal of what’s expected to be a strong medal haul for Team USA.
Thrasher was a surprise winner as she was not picked by SI to medal despite being the NCAA champion from West Virginia.
China’s Yi Siling settled for bronze. Du previously won a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.This is the fifth time in history that the United States has won the first gold medal at the Olympics with 1896, 1904, ’24, ’52, ’56, ’84 and 2000 being the previous occasions, according to sports-reference.com. Women have done it on three occasions.
And he is a little feedback on the basketball from Andrew Sharp. «Three thoughts on Team USA’s dominant 119–62 debut win over China at the Rio Olympics on Saturday: Carmelo may be the leader, but Kevin Durant was the killer. If you’re into the details of a 57-point game, let the record state that Team USA started this game looking sluggish and sloppy. There were rushed jumpers that turned into missed jumpers, a handful of turnovers and China was getting a surprising number of open looks. The Americans were winning with size, foul shots and fast breaks. Even after a first quarter that ended with a 20-point lead, there was very little rhythm to any of this. And then Kevin Durant heated up. He hit back-to-back threes in the second quarter, and that’s when Team USA looked as unfair as everyone expected. His shooting alone made the whole offense more coherent. Durant kept it going in the second half and finished with 25 points, including 5-of-8 on threes. He was open for most of those looks, but then, at 6′ 9″ with 30-foot range, I’m not sure he’ll ever really be guarded in these Olympics. Even on this roster, KD is a whole different level of unfair. This could be a preview of how Team USA works in Rio. On a roster that’s bigger and stronger than everyone it’ll play, Team USA will wear teams down just by walking on the court. And then, I’m pretty sure Durant is the one who will break them».
