Gold medalist Chase Kalisz celebrates on the rostrum after profitable the boys’s 400-meter particular person medley on the 2020 Summer time Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
Matthias Schrader | AP
TOKYO — The U.S. swim group ended the day-long drought Sunday after the Individuals didn’t medal on the primary day of Olympic competitors for the primary time in nearly 50 years.
Chase Kalisz took the primary gold medal for the U.S. and Jay Litherland snagged the primary silver on Sunday as they completed one and two within the 400-meter particular person medley.
“U-S-A! U-S-A!” a small group of their jubilant teammates chanted on the Tokyo Aquatics Heart, which was almost empty as a result of the Covid-19 state of emergency presently bars followers from the stands.
Requested what was sweeter, profitable his first-ever gold medal or profitable the primary medal in these Olympics for the U.S., Kalisz instructed NBC Information, “Each are superior!”
“We’re Workforce USA and on the finish of the day USA swimming has a powerful historical past of getting it completed when it counts,” Kalisz stated. “And that is one thing that we actually delight ourselves on and one thing that we’ve got constantly completed since.”
U.S. swimmers Emma Weyant and Hali Flickinger added to the U.S. medal depend by profitable silver and bronze within the 400-meter particular person relay.
And by late afternoon native time, the uswas second within the medal desk with eight, behind China with 9, after swimmer Kieran Smith gained the bronze within the 400-meter freestyle, the U.S. girls swimmers gained the bronze within the 100-meter freestyle relay and William Shaner gained our second gold within the 10m air rifle competitors.
Jagger Eaton additionally took bronze within the males’s road skateboarding competitors.
The {hardware} haul got here a day after the U.S., for the primary time in nearly half-a-century, didn’t medal on the primary day of Olympic competitors.
“Final occurred on the Summer time Olympics in 1972 at Munich,” Olympics historian Invoice Mallon tweeted on Saturday.
Workforce USA additionally didn’t win a medal on day one of many 2018 winter video games in South Korea.
America’s greatest likelihood of medaling Saturday was regarded as the archers, however they got here up empty.
“I am nonetheless a bit of shocked,” Brady Ellison, who gained silver and bronze medals on the Rio Olympics in 2016, instructed USA As we speak. “We received in that stadium, and I shot left.”
Lately, the U.S. has dominated the Summer time Video games. On the 2016 Rio Olympics, Workforce USA gained a world-best 121 medals.
The U.S. has tallied essentially the most medals, together with essentially the most gold medals, in every of the final six summer season Olympics going again to 1996.
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