Ashton Eaton finished the decathlon with 8,869 points to defeat fellow American Trey Hardee by 198 points. It is the first time the Americans have won both the gold and silver in the Olympic decathlon since Milton Gray Campbell and Rafer Johnson in 1956. This is super hard to grasp,” Eaton said. “For me, I want 10 perfect events. If I really felt like I was the world’s greatest athlete, I’d get 10 great events. But I know that’s pretty much not possible. That’s the toughness of the decathlon.” Trey Hardee put things into perspective: “It’s safe to say my reign is over,” said Hardee, a two-time world champion. “I still think my best decathlon is ahead of me, but Ashton’s are, too.
On the wrestling mat, 74kg men’s freestyle wrestler Jordan Burroughs defeated reigning world champion Denis Tsargush of Russia by a score of 3-1 to advance to the finals. Burroughs went on to defeat Iran’s Saderg Goudarzi 3-0 to earn the gold medal. Burroughs is the only American to win the gold in any wrestling event at the London games. Women’s wrestler Clarissa Chun won the bronze on Wednesday in the 48 kg weight class in freestyle wrestling.
The U.S. crushed the women’s 4×100 record on Friday to win its first Olympic gold medal in the women’s 4×100 meter relay since 1996. Their final time (40.82 seconds) cut more than a half-second off the old record of 41.37 seconds run by East Germany in 1985. Jamaica earned the silver with a time of 41.41 seconds, while the bronze went to the Ukraine who finished in 42.04 seconds.
Spain punched their ticket to the men’s basketball finals, defeating Russia 67-59 in the semifinals on Friday. Spain awaits the winner of today’s showdown between the United States and Argentina. The U.S. recently defeated Argentina 126-97 in the preliminary round, but the memory of the loss to them in Athens is still fresh in the back of their minds.
The United States is still atop the leaderboard in both overall medals and gold medals, with 92 and 41 respectively. China is next with 81 overall medals, 37 being gold.
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