And now we’ve looked at the Aussie chances, here’s where Team USA can go big today.
10.30pm EDT: women’s 400m hurdles final
Three US women – including the newly minted world-record holder – are set to square off in the final of the women’s 400m hurdles. Sydney McLaughlin, 21, set the world record at the US Olympic trials in June, and she won her semifinal heat Monday with a time of 53.03 seconds. (That’s 1.13 seconds off her time from the trials.) Dalilah Muhammad, the previous record holder, won her semi, too, clocking in at 53.30 seconds, and Anna Cockrell, a recent USC graduate competing in her first Games, placed second in her semi-final. McLaughlin and Muhammad are expected to contend for gold, and Cockrell, too, has a real shot at medaling.
7am EDT: women’s 3000m steeplechase final
Emma Coburn is competing in the steeplechase in her third consecutive Olympics; she didn’t medal in 2012 and took bronze in ‘16, and she’s expected to contend in Tokyo. Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech is favored in the race – she holds the current world record – but had a mediocre showing in her preliminary race Saturday. Chepkoech did qualify for the final, but she’s dealing with an inflamed Achilles tendon, potentially leaving a door open for Coburn to take gold. Two more Americans, Courtney Frerichs and Val Constien, also qualified for the steeplechase final.
7.15am EDT: men’s hammer throw final
Two American men, Daniel Haugh and Rudy Winkler, qualified for the hammer throw final. In the semi-final, Winkler had the second-farthest throw of anyone in the 31-man field, and Haugh’s throw was good for ninth. Winkler is competing in his second Games; he placed 18th in the qualifying round in 2016 and did not advance to the final. These are Haugh’s first Olympics.
8.05am EDT: men’s 800m final
Clayton Murphy, who won bronze in the 800 in Rio, was the only American man to qualify for the finalsin the event this summer. His semi-final time was third-best among the field of 24. Wilson’s wife, sprinter Ariana Washington, is also an Olympian; the two met in the Olympic Village in 2016. Washington isn’t racing in Tokyo.
8.55am EDT: men’s 200m final
The men’s 200m final is packed with Americans, and in a field that doesn’t include Usain Bolt, it’s anyone’s race. Of the Americans, 22-year-old Kenny Bednarek ran fastest in the semi-finals, finishing second to Canada’s Andre de Grasse, who took second in the event behind Bolt in Rio. Erriyon Knighton, who’s just 17 years old, won his semi-final heat, and Noah Lyles, who’s the reigning world champion in the event, also made the field.
