21 gold medals for Phelps; Ledecky wins second gold of 2016 Games

olympics

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – American swimmers continue to mine for gold in the swimming pool at the Rio Olympics.
Michael Phelps has made up for one of the few losses in his Olympic career. Phelps avenged his defeat at the 2012 London Games by winning the 200-meter butterfly last night, holding off Japan’s Masato Sakai by a mere four-hundredths of a second. Then Phelps won his 21st career gold medal as part of the winning four-by-200 relay team. Phelps now has 25 medals in all, and three more races in Rio to add to his almost unimaginable total.

Katie Ledecky of the United States has captured her second gold medal, winning the 200-meter freestyle. Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden claims the silver and Emma McKeon of Australia takes the bronze. Earlier, Ledecky had won the 400-meter freestyle.

In other Olympic highlights:

– The U.S, women’s gymnastics team has defended its title with a gold medal win at the Rio Olympics.

Led by three-time world champ Simone Biles, the Americans blew past the competition. They finished more than eight points in front of runner-up Russia.

Biles was joined by Aly Raisman, Laurie Hernandez, Gabby Douglas and Madison Kocian.

China won the bronze, 68-hundredths of a second back of Russia.

– With time running out in women’s soccer, Catalina Usme beat Hope Solo with a free kick from a tight angle to give Colombia a 2-2 draw against the United States at the Olympics. Teenager Mallory Pugh became the youngest player to score for the United States in an Olympics with her goal in the 59th minute.

Despite the draw, the top-ranked United States still finished atop Group F.

– In equestrian, Phillip Dutton of the U.S. has won the bronze in individual event. The winner of the gold was defending champion Michael Jung of Germany.

– The U.S. beat Spain 11-4 in women’s water polo, while in men’s rugby, the U.S. fell to Argentina 17-14.

– The U.S. men’s volleyball team has dropped to 0-2 after a 3-1 loss to Italy. The Americans next play host Brazil Thursday night.

– In the Olympic tennis tournament, Serena Williams is out. Committing five double faults in one game, Williams lost to Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-4, 6-3 in the third round in a real shocker Tuesday, ending the No. 1-seeded American’s bid to become the first tennis player to collect a pair of singles golds.

In other tennis, defending Olympic champ Andy Murray advanced to the third round with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Argentina’s Juan Monaco.

Also winning were 2008 gold medalist Rafael Nadal and No. 12 Steve Johnson of the U.S.

For the women, seventh-seed Madison Keys of the U.S. moved on to the fourth round.