Busy day of Swimming for Paris Calympians on Wednesday
USA Table Tennis Calympian Lily Zhang plays her Round of 16 match at 11 AM PT
In Case You Missed It,
Men’s 100m Backstroke Final:
Two Cal Bears raced in the Men’s 100m Backstroke Final on Monday: Ryan Murphy (USA) and Hugo Gonzalez (Spain).
Ryan Murphy continues to medal in every individual event of his Olympic career thus far. Murphy took the Bronze in 100m Back for the second consecutive Olympic Games. “Murph” now has 4 Golds, 1 Silvers, and 2 Bronzes in his Olympic career with the chance to win more medals.
Of course, the two-time individual Gold medalist in the 2016 Rio Games for both 100m Back and 200m Back is even stronger in 200m Backstroke.
Cal Swimming
The Wednesday evening (mid-day for those of us on the West Coast) session is a busy one for our Paris Calympians.
11:45 AM PT - Women’s 200m Butterfly Semifinals
2025 Cal commit Alex Shackell (USA) had the 5th-best prelim time (2:07.49) on Wednesday morning to earn a lane in the semifinals. It might be too much, too soon to expect a medal from the teenage phenom but a realistic result is a lane in an individual final like her future Cal teammate Claire Weinstein (USA) got in 200m Free.
12:47 PM PT - Men’s 200m Backstroke Semifinals
Four Cal Bears are racing for the eight spots in tomorrow’s final. Ryan Murphy (USA) had the 5th-best time (1:57.03) in the prelim, followed just by fellow Cal alum Hugo Gonzalez (Spain) at 6th (1:57.08). Cal rising sophomore Keaton Jones (USA) will also get a semifinal final lane with the 11th-best time (1:57.54). His Cal teammate next year Mewan Tomac (France) also has a lane with the 13th-best prelim swim (1:57.62).
By the way, South African swimmer Pieter Coetze has the 3rd best prelim time. Coetze once committed to swim collegiately at Cal before opting to not do NCAA swimming.
*1:39 PM PT - Men’s 100m Freestyle Final
If you watch any swimming today, you should spend the minute checking out the always exciting sprint that is the 100m Freestyle. Cal rising senior Jack Alexy has already got a Gold from the USA 4x100m Free Relay. He is in the mix for a medal in this final.
Jack Alexy had the top time in the prelim (47.57) before getting the 6th-best semifinal time (47.68) to earn a spot in this final. A silver medalist at the 2023 World Championships where he broke out on the international scene, Alexy certainly got the speed to get on his first individual podium.
USA Table Tennis Calympian Lily Zhang in Women’s Single Round of 16
11:00 AM PT - Lily Zhang (USA) vs. Y.B. Shin (South Korea)
https://x.com/WTTGlobal/status/1818027822717575442
It was an emotional win for four-time Olympian Lily Zhang after her Round of 32 win. Zhang is through to her first Olympic Games Round of 16. By ranking, it was a slight upset for the 29th-ranked Lily Zhang to defeat the 20th-ranked Bruna Takahashi of Brazil, but Takahashi also won 3 of the 4 encounters in the past year against Zhang.
“Especially with Bruna we’ve played so many times in the past. I’ve always struggled against her, especially mentally, especially at 7-7 and 8-8, I wasn’t able to overcome her. Today at 7-7 in the 6th, I said screw it I have to go for it, and if I don’t risk it then I’m not going to win anyways, so might as well try,” Lily Zhang said. “This is something I’ve wanted for so long; I’ve worked so hard for. This is the furthest I’ve had for my 4 Olympics. [After I won] I wanted to raise my arms, but my knees just buckled, and I fell to the floor and everything just released and I was full of emotion.” (From USATT.org)
After challenging NBA star Anthony Edwards during the Opening Ceremony (assist to Steph Curry) in a clip that has gone viral. Lily Zhang got the Team USA Men’s Basketball star to root her on.
Anthony Edwards had to go support USA's Lily Zhang after Steph Curry said he'd lose 21-0 to the U.S. table tennis team
https://x.com/SportsCenter/status/1818044280180559902
The Wall Street Journal also has a feature article on Lily Zhang that got a lot of online attention.
Lily Zhang now faces an even tougher opponent in South Korean Yu-Bin Shin who is ranked 8th individually. Shin is coming off a Bronze medal in mixed double just yesterday.
The top-ranked American women’s table tennis player for the last decade, Lily Zhang is still trying to be the first American to medal at the Olympics in Table Tennis. Stranger things had happened in these single-elimination Olympic tournaments, just looking at tennis.
Cal Rowing going for Medals on Thursday early morning
Since it would take some planning for those interested in watching these races live, Cal fans should know that several Calympians will be racing for medals on Thursday.
Thursday, August 1st
12:40 AM Women’s Single Sculls Semifinal
Kara Kohler (USA) will be racing for a lane in the single sculls final.
*2:18 AM Women’s Double Sculls Final
Inger Kavlie (Norway) has a lane in the race for a medal after going through the repechage. Kavlie and her partner Helseth then placed 3rd in their semifinal to earn one of six lanes in this final.
*3:10 AM Men’s Coxless Four Final
Two Calympians will be racing for the podium in this final. Ollie Maclean (New Zealand) and Jack Robertson (Australia) and their respective crews have both made the final directly from the heats on Sunday. The New Zealand four won their heat while the Australian four placed 2nd in their heat.
Cal Medal Count:
GOLD — 1 (Jack Alexy, USA, Men’s Swimming, Men’s 4x100m Free Relay)
SILVER — 1 (Abbey Weitzeil, USA, Women’s Swimming, Women’s 4x100m Free Relay - swam the prelim)
BRONZE — 1 (Ryan Murphy, USA, Men’s Swimming, Men’s 100m Backstroke)
Affiliated Medals - GOLD 1 (Hunter Armstrong - USA Men’s 4x100m Free Relay), BRONZE 1 (Brooks Curry - USA Men’s 4x200m Free Relay - prelim swim)
GO BEARS!
Shackell looked great in the semifinals just now. Finished second behind the favorite. On to the final! Both she and her her brother now have an opportunity to medal.