Olympics Live Updates: U.S. Has One Last Day to Catch China in Gold Medal Race

TOKYO — The final day of the Tokyo Olympics begins early, with the men’s marathon at 7 a.m. on Sunday, Tokyo time (Saturday at 6 p.m. Eastern time). The race will be held in the northern city of Sapporo in an effort to avoid the worst of Tokyo’s summer heat.

The United States, which trails China 36-38 in the gold medal race, still has a chance to catch up, with several championships on the line. The U.S. fell behind when it did not win enough golds in sports it usually dominates, like women’s soccer, gymnastics and track and field.

But several gold medal games remain.

The U.S. women’s basketball team has been cruising toward the gold so far. Its final opponent, in a surprise, is Japan. The gold medal game is at 11:30 a.m. in Tokyo (10:30 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday).

Two hours later, the U.S. women’s indoor volleyball team will also play for gold against Brazil.

In the Tokyo afternoon, two American boxers will fight for gold: Keyshawn Davis at lightweight and Richard Torrez Jr. at super heavyweight.

And when it’s all wrapped up, the closing ceremony, again without fans, starts at 8 p.m. in Tokyo, 7 a.m. Eastern time.

TOKYO — The United States men’s basketball team lost to France in the group stages, but beat that team when it counted most, on Saturday in the gold medal game, 87-82. Kevin Durant had 29 points.

A third-inning solo shot by Munetaka Murakami of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows was all Japan ended up needing in its 2-0 victory over the U.S. in the baseball gold medal game.

In track, the United States swept the 4×400-meter relays, with Allyson Felix winning medal No. 11, surpassing Carl Lewis for the American record in the sport.

The U.S. men followed suit by winning their 4×400-meter race, two days after they failed to make the final of the 4×100 relay thanks to a flubbed baton pass.

Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands added the 10,000 meters to her earlier victory in the 5,000. Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway won the men’s 1,500.

Nelly Korda, fresh off a win at the Women’s P.G.A. Championship, won the women’s golf event, completing an American sweep of golf at these Games.

Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya won the women’s marathon, with Molly Seidel of the United States getting a bronze.

The U.S. women’s water polo team won its third straight gold medal, defeating Spain.

Gold medals went to Brazil in men’s soccer and to France in men’s handball and men’s volleyball.

Russia won the artistic (formerly synchronized) swimming group gold.

And Jessica Springsteen and the U.S. show jumping team won a silver medal.

India has at last won gold in track and field at the Olympics.

Neeraj Chopra won the men’s javelin on Saturday with a throw of 87.58 meters, nearly a foot farther than the silver medalist, Jakub Vadlejch of Czech Republic.

“It feels unbelievable,” Chopra said, according to Reuters. “This is our first Olympic medal for a very long time, and in athletics it is the first time we have gold, so it’s a proud moment for me and my country.”

The gold medal is India’s first at the Tokyo Games and only its second ever at a Summer Games. Abhinav Bindra, who won the 10-meter air rifle competition in Beijing in 2008, was India’s only other Olympic gold medalist in an individual competition.

In 2018, Chopra won gold at the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games, but an elbow injury that required surgery caused him to miss nearly a year of competition. Then came the coronavirus pandemic, which disrupted his comeback.

“Take a bow, young man! You have fulfilled a nation’s dream. Thank you!” Bindra wrote on Twitter. “Also, welcome to the club — a much needed addition!”

India, the world’s second-most-populous country, has been trying to improve its underwhelming Olympic game, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been keen to use sports to raise its global profile.

Modi has been tweeting congratulations to several Indian athletes during the Games, including Chopra. “History has been scripted at Tokyo!” Modi wrote. “The young Neeraj has done exceptionally well. He played with remarkable passion and showed unparalleled grit.”

After India’s substandard performance at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro — one silver and one bronze — the government began funneling money to a sports bureaucracy that was underfunded for decades and stained by corruption. Private ventures stepped in, training elite athletes whose upward trajectory they might be able to harness. And state money has started to trickle to grass-roots sports, too.

There has been some jubilation in India during these Games, where it has won seven medals. It defeated Germany to win bronze in men’s field hockey, the team’s first medal in that sport in more than 40 years. The women’s hockey team came close, falling to Britain for bronze.

The badminton star P.V. Sindhu won a bronze medal in women’s singles badminton, becoming the first Indian woman and only the second Indian athlete to win two individual Olympic medals after winning a silver in Rio.

Aditi Ashok narrowly missed a medal in women’s golf, losing out on a bronze by a single shot.

India’s other medals came in weight lifting, wrestling and boxing.

TOKYO — After winning a gold medal at the Summer Olympics, the U.S. wrestler Tamyra Mensah-Stock had big plans for the bonus money that comes with it: buying her mother a $30,000 food truck.

Tamerlan Bashaev, 25, a Russian judoka who claimed a bronze medal, wants to use his money to get married and go on a honeymoon. Andrea Proske, a rower who helped Canada win its first gold medal in the women’s eight since 1992, can’t wait to take her mother on vacation to London.

“I haven’t been able to see her,” said Proske, 35, who will get $20,000 Canadian dollars, roughly $16,000 U.S. dollars. “We’ve all been really in our own bubble. So just to be able to hug my mom for the first time since we return post Covid is going to be special.”

Winning an Olympic medal is often the crowning achievement of an athlete’s career. Most Olympians, though, aren’t multimillionaire athletes like Naomi Osaka, Rory McIlroy or Kevin Durant, so competing at this elite level can be a financial struggle.

But many Olympic medalists are leaving Tokyo with more than just prizes dangling from their necks. They are given an extra behind-the-scenes boost in the form of bonuses. Winning pads the wallet nicely in certain countries — a fact that sparks some awe and even a little envy among the medalists.

Some of the bonuses are substantial: Singapore’s $1 million in local currency (roughly $740,000 in the United States) for a gold medal is the largest known reward. Some are more modest: A United States medalist receives $37,500 for gold, $22,500 for silver and $15,000 for bronze. Other bonuses are nonexistent, such as those for medalists from Britain, New Zealand and Norway.