US women dominate volleyball with beach gold and indoor semifinal wins womens hoops to play for gold

The U.S. women have been golden on center stage Friday at the Tokyo Olympics.

It was a A+ effort for the "A Team" as Americans April Ross and Alix Klineman cruised on their way to winning women's beach volleyball gold against Australia’s Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy.

The U.S. pair entered the match yet to lose a set in their three prior elimination matches, and Friday was no different as they won 21-15, 21-16 to become the first American women at the beach to win gold since Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings in 2012.

The dominance in volleyball wasn't limited to the beach either; the women of Team USA won the indoor volleyball semifinal with a straight sets victory over Serbia. The U.S. will play the winner of the Brazil-Korea match for the gold medal on Sunday

The U.S. women's basketball team rolled against Serbia as they extended their Olympic winning streak to 54 games. The Americans haven't lost in women's hoops since the semifinals at the 1992 Games in Barcelona. The gold medal game is Sunday.

Finally, the University of Minnesota's Gable Steveson will wrestle for gold in the men’s freestyle 125kg division. If he wins, Steveson could be in for a huge payday, even if he decides to return to school.

American climber Brooke Raboutou advances to final

American Brooke Raboutou will compete this evening in the women’s sport climbing combined final with seven other competitors.

A field of eight climbers will begin with the speed discipline, followed by bouldering and then lead. The rankings from each segment are multiplied together for a final score. The lower the score, the better. 

In the quarterfinals for speed, Raboutou will face Japan’s Miho Nonanka in a head-to-head race up a 15-meter wall. The winner will advance to the semifinals for a chance to rank one to four.

For Raboutou, 20, climbing is in her blood. She is the child of two world-class competition climbers and grew up climbing in the elite ABC climbing gym in Boulder, Colorado, which is owned and operated by her parents. Recently, Raboutou won second in lead at the Innsbruk, Austria World Cup and made the podium in back-to-back bouldering World Cups in Salt Lake City, Utah.

he favorite to stand atop the podium tonight is Janja Garnret of Slovenia. She swept the 2019 bouldering World Cup season – the first to ever do so – and won the 2019 combined World Championship in Hachioji, Japan. Garnbret easily topped all four boulders during Wednesday’s qualifying and finished first with 56.00 combined points. 

American Nathaniel Coleman took home silver in Thursday’s men’s combined final.