SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Paris Olympic Games will officially come to a close tomorrow. I'll miss them. Yesterday brought surprises for many Americans, both good and bad. And today brings a couple of opportunities to inch ahead in the medal count. NPR sports correspondent Becky Sullivan joins us from Paris. Thanks for being with us, Becky.
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: Good morning, Scott.
SIMON: Let's begin with track and field.
SULLIVAN: Let's.
SIMON: Americans ran two big relay races, the 4x100 meters, both men's and women's - substantially different outcomes, weren't they?
SULLIVAN: Yes, no doubt. Let me start with the bad one first, which was the men. So we'd hoped - or the U.S. had hoped to have the sprinter, Noah Lyles, competing. He just won the 100-meter dash about a week ago, but he had to bow out of the relay final because he tested positive for COVID. So the rest of the team was talented, but they just couldn't put it together yesterday. They, like, really badly bobbled the handoff of the baton, and so not only did they not medal, but then - the salt in the wound - were eventually disqualified over this messed-up handoff.
The handoffs really have been a problem for the U.S. over the years in the relays, and the American women also struggled a little bit last night with it. But the good news there was the track star, Sha'Carri Richardson - she was the anchor, the dramatic last runner in the race. The U.S. was in fourth place when she got the baton, and she booked it and, in fact, had this amazing sort of meme-worthy moment where she pulled ahead into first place, looked over at the runners who were now behind her in this...
SIMON: Yeah.
SULLIVAN: ...Like, gotcha, triumphant way - secured the gold medal for the U.S. and also her first Olympic gold.
SIMON: And a historic gold medal in U.S. women's weightlifting, right?
SULLIVAN: Absolutely. Yeah, so this is a great story here. Olivia Reeves is a 21-year-old college student at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga. She was a favorite in the light heavyweight division, and she came in, and she crushed it. She set a new Olympic record in the lift that's called the snatch, and then she came just shy of another record in the other lift called the clean and jerk. And as you say, it's the first gold medal for the U.S. in women's weightlifting since before Olivia Reeves was even alive. Women's weightlifting, amazingly, was only added to the Olympics back in the year 2000. And that was the last time the U.S. won one of the golds.
SIMON: And Imane Khelif, the Algerian boxer - she won a gold last night after being at the center of a controversy over who ought to be allowed to participate in women's sports. You were there. What was it like?
SULLIVAN: Yeah, it was really something. So just to give some context, the controversy around her comes from claims by the International Boxing Association that she, along with another female boxer here at the Olympics, had failed two gender eligibility tests over the past couple of years. But there have just been a lot of questions about those tests. The IBA hasn't released proof or really details about them. Additionally, for context, the IBA has deep ties to Russia, and there have long been concerns about corruption in the organization, so much so that the Olympics cut ties with the IBA last year before all of this.
And so over the past couple of weeks, Olympic officials had defended Khelif. They say she's eligible. They say that her participation has nothing to do with inclusion or anything like that. So anyway, last night, she was up against the Chinese boxer Yang Liu in the gold medal match, and Khelif won in a unanimous decision. Afterwards, she said, defiantly, I'm a woman like any other woman. I was born a woman. I lived as a woman. I've competed as a woman. There's no doubt about it.
SIMON: Becky, two big U.S...
SULLIVAN: Yeah.
SIMON: ...Medal opportunities for gold medals today come in team sports - women's soccer...
SULLIVAN: Yep.
SIMON: ...And men's basketball. They're playing France, OK?
SULLIVAN: They are.
SIMON: I'm going to be a little divided about this. So give us...
SULLIVAN: Oh.
SIMON: ...A preview.
SULLIVAN: OK, well, the U.S. - these are two big, huge team opportunities. And today, they need a little bit of a lift because the women's water polo team, which has been one of the most dominant teams at the Olympics these last couple of decades, lost in the bronze medal match this morning, so they're going to go home empty-handed.
So in women's soccer, this is a redemption for the U.S. women's team after they got bounced early out of the FIFA Women's World Cup last year. They are playing Brazil today. It would be the first gold medal in women's soccer since 2012.
And then for Team USA men's basketball - as you say, a huge game tonight against the hosts, France. The crowd is going to be absolutely electric. The U.S. team came very close to losing a couple nights ago...
SIMON: Yeah.
SULLIVAN: ...Against Serbia. They were down almost the whole game until the last couple of minutes when finally, these NBA MVPs - Steph Curry, Lebron James, Kevin Durant - each did their thing to seize that victory back. And I was there, Scott. And I got to say, it was one of the best basketball games I've ever seen in my life, and I am going to...
SIMON: One of?
SULLIVAN: ...Be there tonight and...
SIMON: One of?
SULLIVAN: ...I cannot wait.
SIMON: One of - my gosh.
SULLIVAN: One of (laughter).
SIMON: NPR sports correspondent Becky Sullivan in Paris. Thanks so much, Becky.
SULLIVAN: You are welcome, Scott.
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