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Let's Catch Up: U.S. Gold In Rifle Event; And A Badminton Bronze

American gold medalist Jamie Lynn Gray celebrates on the podium after winning the 50m rifle 3 positions women final at the Royal Artillery Barracks in London.
Marwan Naamani
/
AFP/Getty Images
American gold medalist Jamie Lynn Gray celebrates on the podium after winning the 50m rifle 3 positions women final at the Royal Artillery Barracks in London.

Good morning. As we start Day 8 of the London Olympics, big news is already happening. We posted earlier about Oscar Pistorius's historic run in the men's 400 meters, for instance. If you'd like to catch up on yesterday's events, check out our Day in Photos gallery. Here's what's been happening today:


- A 20-year gold medal drought was broken by U.S. shooter Jamie Lynn Gray Saturday, when she won gold in the 50-meter rifle three-position event. Gray's final shot is what we amateurs would call a bullseye. The scorers called it a 10.8, and Gray calls it a key to her new world record score of 691.9 points. Her husband is Staff Sgt. Henry Gray, who serves on the Army Marksmanship Unit based at Ft. Benning, Ga.

- The women's triathlon came down to a photo finish, after nearly two hours of swimming, cycling and running. But officials say that the Swiss Nicola Spirig barely edged Lisa Norden of Sweden, who was sprinting to the line after catching up with Spirig. After their 1500m swim, 26.7-mile bike ride and 10k run, the two top finishers fell to the ground with an identical time of 1:59.48. America's Sarah Groff finished fourth, after running down the lead group in the final kilometers.

- Sprinter Kim Collins carried the flag of St. Kitts and Nevis during last week's opening ceremony at Olympic Stadium. But the former world champion will not run a race there, after an apparent disagreement with his team for visiting his wife. The team has said it didn't know where Collins, 36, had been for the past three days.

- And in badminton news, the Russian doubles team of Valeria Sorokina and Nina Vislova saw their medal hopes rise, Phoenix-like, from the ashes earlier this week, when four teams were bounced from the Olympics for losing on purpose. Now they've won a bronze medal.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Bill Chappell is a writer and editor on the News Desk in the heart of NPR's newsroom in Washington, D.C.