by PARIS (AP) — Sprinter Noah Lyles revealed he has COVID-19 after missing out on another gold medal for the United States at the Paris Olympics on Thursday.
Elsewhere, French basketball star Victor Wembanyama moved closer to his dream of a first gold medal after helping Les Bleus beat Germany to set up a dream final against Team USA after the Americans beat Serbia 95-91.
On the same Stade de France track where he won the historically tight 100 metres by five thousandths of a second, Lyles finished third behind gold medallist Letsile Tebogo of Botswana and his American teammate Kenneth Bednarek.
Medics tended to a tired Lyles and wheeled him away in a wheelchair. Wearing a mask as he spoke to reporters, Lyles later said he had COVID.
“It definitely affected my performance,” Lyles said, adding that he tested positive early Tuesday morning but was cleared to compete. The U.S. Track and Field federation said it and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee followed all Olympic and Centers for Disease Control guidelines.
At Bercy Arena, under the eyes of former NBA players Dirk Nowitzki and Tony Parker, France held on to win 73-69.
Wembanyama, the NBA rookie of the year, pumped his fists at the buzzer and teammate Evan Fournier jubilantly threw the ball into the crowd.
The 20-year-old star did not play three years ago in Tokyo, when the French lost the final to the United States. They will meet again on Saturday, when Wembanyama hopes to give France its first Olympic gold medal in men’s or women’s basketball.
Highlights of what happened on day 13 of the Paris Olympics:
Curry leads semi-final comeback against Serbia
LeBron James had a triple-double and Steph Curry scored 36 points as the Americans came back from 17 points behind.
The United States battled back from an 11-point halftime deficit — the largest deficit successfully overcome by an American team since NBA players were added to the Olympic roster in 1992 — and found themselves trailing the Serbians by 11 points again with just over seven minutes remaining.
The Serbian players fell on their backs at the buzzer after coming so close to scoring.
It was a far cry from their first group game, when the United States won 110-84.
Team USA breaks world record, surpasses 100 medals
The United States now has more gold medals and more total medals than any other nation.
With three days left in the competition, American athletes have won 30 gold medals for a total of 103 medals.
The United States won the women’s 400m hurdles, with Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone breaking her own world record of 50.37 seconds and Anna Cockrell taking silver.
Grant Holloway then won gold in the men’s 110m hurdles in 12.99 seconds, beating compatriot Daniel Roberts.
Long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall also won the women’s long jump, while Jasmine Moore took bronze behind Germany’s Malaika Mihambo.
Chinese diving double ends in tears
China has won its sixth diving gold medal at the Paris Games, with defending champion Xie Siyi winning the three-metre springboard event.
The Chinese took the podium 1-2, with Wang Zongyuan taking silver ahead of Mexico’s Osmar Olvera Ibarra.
Wang was in tears after that.
He had not lost a major diving competition since finishing behind teammate Xie at the Tokyo Olympics. After that silver medal, Wang won three consecutive world championship titles.
“It’s unfortunate that I lost,” Wang said through an interpreter. “I have to learn to accept any failure and my response is to make a greater effort to improve myself.”
Another world record but no gold
American Sam Watson left the Games with a new world record under his belt but missed out on the gold medal.
Watson, 18, broke the sport climbing speed world record on Thursday for the second time at the Paris Games, but it was in the fight for bronze.
Indonesia’s Veddriq Leonardo won gold in 4.75 seconds in the final.
Charron fights for another medal
Maude Charron raised the Canadian flag at the opening ceremony of the Paris Games and lifted another medal in weightlifting.
Charron won the silver medal in the 59-kilogram category, in addition to his gold medal in the 64-kilogram competition at the Tokyo Games.
Rahimi shines and Morocco wins bronze
Football-mad Moroccan fans finally have an Olympic medal to celebrate after beating African rivals Egypt 6-0 for bronze.
Soufiane Rahimi scored twice and the Casablanca-born forward will surely become a household name in his country after scoring an impressive eight goals in the tournament.
He was comfortably the top scorer heading into Friday’s final between Spain and 1984 Olympic champions France.
Morocco won the African Cup of Nations title in 1976.
Netherlands ends long wait for men’s field hockey gold
Duco Telgenkamp scored the golden goal in the penalty shootout to give the Netherlands a 2-1 victory over Germany.
It is the Netherlands’ first gold medal in men’s hockey at the Olympics since 2000 and the third in the country’s history.
Captain Harmanpreet Singh scored both goals as India beat Spain 2-1 for a second consecutive bronze medal, after beating Germany at the Tokyo Games.
French win gold, Portugal a rare medal
Track cyclist Benjamin Thomas overcame a crash in the men’s omnium race to give France its 14th gold medal of the Paris Games.
Thomas held off Iúri Leitão, whose silver was only Portugal’s second medal so far – compared to 54 for the French.
World champion Ellesse Andrews of New Zealand also won the Olympic title in the women’s keirin.
Nadeem wins Pakistan’s first medal in Olympic record
Arshad Nadeem won Pakistan’s first medal of the Paris Games in style by setting an Olympic record in the javelin.
Nadeem’s throw of 92.97 metres broke Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen’s record of 90.57 from the 2008 Beijing Games.
Austria in all serenity
In the southern port city of Marseille, Austrians Lara Vadlau and Lukas Maehr won gold in a tight mixed dinghy race.
This sport became a new category of sailing at these Games.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/paris-olympics-2024
