Sport

We’re on the ground in Rio covering the 2016 Summer Olympics. Check out all our coverage here. Does Brazil have a home-field advantage in Rio? More Sports Again and again, research has shown that home-field advantage is a constant in sports across the world. Basketball referees call more fouls on the visitors. Pitchers for the home team in baseball get a wider strike zone. Home teams in soccer receive fewer…

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The most heated fight at the Rio Olympics lasted just a minute and four seconds. It was a battle between good and evil, the fair and unfair, the clean and the cheaters, with a hint of a Cold War twist. The conflict: a 100-meter breaststroke battle between two swimmers, American Lilly King and Russian Yulia Efimova. In Sunday’s qualifying race, King and Efimova came in first and second place,…

USA TODAY Sports’ Martin Rogers discusses what you should be watching at the Olympics on Tuesday. USA TODAY Sports

i Gold medal winner Lilly King, right, seen here celebrating with her U.S. teammate and bronze medalist Katie Meili, won the 100m breaststroke over her rival, Russia’s Yuliya Efimova. Adam Pretty/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Adam Pretty/Getty Images Gold medal winner Lilly King, right, seen here celebrating with her U.S. teammate and bronze medalist Katie Meili, won the 100m breaststroke over her rival, Russia’s Yuliya Efimova. Adam Pretty/Getty Images…

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We’re on the ground in Rio covering the 2016 Summer Olympics. Check out all our coverage here. While Michael Phelps’s winning of his 19th gold medal may be the feel-good story of the swimming pool not involving Yusra Mardini so far, the most significant development of the opening weekend of swimming is surely the sport’s renewed assault on the record books. More Sports The ban of full-body non-textile (“LZR”-style) swimsuits…

x Embed x Share American swimmers Missy Franklin, Ryan Lochte and Nathan Adrian reveal some surprising facts about Olympic competition. USA TODAY Sports Gabriele Detti (ITA), left, Mack Horton (AUS), middle, and Sun Yang (CHN) after the men’s 400 freestyle final during the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games at Olympic Aquatics Stadium on Aug. 6.(Photo: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports) RIO DE JANEIRO — Since when did swimming become like boxing,…

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USA TODAY Sports’ Martin Rogers on the emotional roller coaster that is defined by victory and defeat at the Olympics. USA TODAY Sports

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China arrived in Rio with big expectations. Its 711-member delegation included the largest squad of athletes ever sent abroad. Swimmer Sun Yang was a national celebrity on the edge of becoming a hero. The woman’s gymnastics team looked militaristically efficient. The country still dominated fringe events like shooting. Then the Games began. So far the thrill of athletic competition and rising medal counts has been replaced by a wave of…

China has vented its fury after subtle mistakes were noticed in its national flag on display at the Olympics, with media, sports officials and the country’s diplomats seeking answers to the apparent mix-up. “I am not nit-picking because of obsessive compulsive disorder, but this is the national flag,” said Cui Yongyuan, a Chinese television presenter. “It is a principle that even primary school students would understand,” he added on Sina Weibo,…

One record seems almost guaranteed to be broken at each Olympic Games—the number of condoms supplied to athletes in the Olympic village. At Rio 2016, the count stands at 450,000, with 175,000 sachets of lubricant for good measure—the largest amount of contraceptives ever delivered to an Olympic Games. The numbers have been climbing ever since they first started handing out condoms at the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul. It’s the…

Media playback is not supported on this device Rio 2016 Olympics: Adam Peaty wins 100m breaststroke gold Adam Peaty won gold and Jazz Carlin claimed a silver as Great Britain secured their first medals of the 2016 Olympics on day two in Rio. Peaty, 21, smashed his own world record to win the 100m breaststroke in 57.13 seconds and end GB’s 28-year wait for a men’s Olympic swimming title. Minutes…

The United States, aided by a dominant second leg from Michael Phelps, earned the gold medal in the men’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay, avenging their painful loss to France in 2012. Team USA, which consisted of Phelps, Caeleb Dressel, Ryan Held and Nathan Adrian, beat France by 0.61 seconds to take back the gold. With the win, Phelps extends his records to 23 Olympic medals, 19 golds. Adrian, who was the…

x Embed x Share USA TODAY Sports’ Dan Wolken tells you the five things to watch for during Day 3, August 8, at the Olympics. USA TODAY Sports Simone Biles performs on the balance beam during women’s gymnastics qualifying.(Photo: Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY Sports) The second day of the Rio Olympics saw some of the best American athletes take center stage. Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles all competed, though for different…

China has vented its fury after subtle mistakes were noticed in its national flag on display at the Olympics, with media, sports officials and the country’s diplomats seeking answers to the apparent mix-up. “I am not nit-picking because of obsessive compulsive disorder, but this is the national flag,” said Cui Yongyuan, a Chinese television presenter. “It is a principle that even primary school students would understand,” he added on Sina Weibo,…

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Katie Ledecky sets an olympic medal in the 400m freestyle heats.(Photo: Rob Schumacher, USA TODAY Sports) RIO DE JANEIRO — The Aquatics Stadium nearly saw its first Katie Ledecky world record Sunday afternoon, as Ledecky finished one stroke away from resetting her own mark in the 400-meter freestyle. Her return to the pool for Sunday night’s final isn’t the only thing to watch, however, as a packed slate awaits. Five takeaways…