Did Suni Lee think she would be here at Paris 2024 given her recent battles with kidney disease?

“Absolutely not,” she said. “In the back of my head, I really thought that I was done.” Gymnastics “wasn’t even something that I wanted to do anymore. I was ready to move on with my life. I wanted to move across the country, and everyone’s like, ‘What are you talking about? Like you can’t make decisions when you’re sad,’” she added with a laugh.

The result, however, is a Games where she and her fellow Team USA gymnasts are clearly in a better place than at Tokyo 2021. “You could look back and see a lot of the girls not really having a lot of fun and not smiling,” she said. “And this time we’re celebrating after every turn, going up and hugging everybody.”

Beaming, she said that “gymnastics is a lot more fun when you’re having fun. So I’m just having a blast here.”

Lee also revealed the inspirational effect she’s had on others.

“The past couple of days I’ve been flooded with messages from people saying they’ve had chronic illnesses,” she said. “So it’s a really good feeling, knowing that I can inspire others, especially knowing I’ve spent a lot of months at my lowest. Having people who were there to uplift me and support me along the way was such a good feeling. And I think that’s such an important message: to just lean on your people when you need them.”

With its final group play game against Germany underway, the U.S. women’s basketball team aims to extend its remarkable streak of 57 straight Olympic wins, dating back to the 1992 Barcelona Games. But Germany is expected to be tough competition, as they also enter the matchup 2-0 with Dallas Wings star Satou Sabally leading the charge.

The winner of this game will emerge as the champion of Group C, though both the U.S. and Germany have already secured spots in the quarterfinals.

Boxer Cindy Ngamba not only earned her personal glory at the Paris Games, but the Cameroon-born athlete has guaranteed the Refugee Olympic Team its first medal.

She defeated France’s Davina Michel today, moving forward to a gold medal match in Women’s 75kg boxing. Ngamba is guaranteed a bronze medal regardless of how her next bout in the ring ends.

Ngamba left Cameroon for the U.K. with her mother and brother when she was just 11, where she said she struggled with the English-language. She is also openly gay, something she could not be in her country of origin as homosexuality is illegal in Cameroon.

At the end of her fight against Michel, which Ngamba won by unanimous decision, she grabbed a board and pointed to the Refugee Olympic Team name for the camera and the crowds.

After winning bronze in women’s uneven bars, Team USA’s Suni Lee told reporters that, after a challenging time battling kidney disease, her main goal today was redemption.

“I told myself that I was coming back to redeem myself on bars and that’s what I did this time; I really wanted to just put a good, clean routine together,” said Lee. “I saw that I could if I just did the routine that I did the past couple of days, then I could have meddled. I just wanted to go up there and prove to myself that I can do it.”

Some may think Lee had an advantage in going last because she knew what she needed to do. But she said “it’s a lot harder because I had to watch everybody in front of me, so it definitely put the pressure on.”

Lee’s teammate Simone Biles warned journalists earlier in the day to “stop asking athletes what’s next after they win a medal at the Olympics.” When NBC News asked Lee whether she could return at Los Angeles 2028, she locked her stare, gave a half smile, waited a beat and said, “No comment.”

The race for a vault medal came down to tenths of a point, the equivalent of a foot shuffle upon landing. Artur Davtyan earned Armenia their second ever Olympic gymnastics medal. The only other one also belongs to him.

1. Carlos Yulo, Philippines, 15.116
2. Artur Davtyan, Armenia, 14.966
3. Harry Hepworth, Great Britain, 14.949

24 hours after winning the first Olympic medal for Philippines, Carlos Yulo has won a second gold, this time in vault.

“I am happy that I won a gold medal and also a house,” he said after yesterday’s floor exercise win, referring to the nation’s policy of gifting Olympic gold medal winners a home.

He has yet to share whether this means he gets two houses.

Alcaraz fell 7-6, 7-6 to Novak Djokovic but still is proud of what he was able to accomplish.

“It is painful to lose the way that I lost this match,” he said on NBC after the defeat. “I had my opportunities … Novak is playing great. He deserved this. In the difficult moments, he increased his level. He played unbelievable.”

“I am a little bit disappointed but I’m going to leave the court with my head high. I gave everything that I had. Fighting for Spain was everything for me. I’m proud of the way I played today.”

The 37-year-old Serb, who had hinted that this would be his last Olympics, has finally added an elusive gold medal to his arsenal of grand slams and trophies.

It was his fifth attempt to take gold.

After winning two sets against Carlos Alcaraz, each with a neck-and-neck tiebreaker, Djokovic did it, defeating his Spanish opponent 7-6, 7-6.

Kaylia Nemour’s uneven bars gold is the first ever Olympic gymnastics medal for an African country.

Nemour was born and raised France, but is representing her father’s Algeria in Paris due to a dispute with her home country’s federation. She switched nationalities last year and qualified to the Paris Games despite Algeria not fielding a full gymnastics team.

The French team is sure to be lamenting burned bridges with Nemour this week. They had a disastrous showing in front of home crowd in qualifying and failed to advance to any finals.

Novak Djokovic is three games away from a gold medal. But he’s fighting tooth and nail to get there.

With the second set underway, the Serb and the Spaniard are tied 4-4.

As the Paris heat beats down on them, it’s clear Carlos Alcaraz is losing focus.

Meanwhile, Djokovic has just about every honor in tennis except Olympic gold. He is halfway there to getting it, but facing an uphill climb as winning each point becomes a Herculean task for either player.

Team USA’s Austen Smith has won bronze in the women’s skeet shooting event.

This is 23-year-old Smith’s second Olympic Games, finishing 10th in this event in Tokyo, and her medal follows yesterday’s men’s skeet event in which Team USA’s Vincent Hancock and Conner Prince took gold and silver.

Ahead of Team USA’s big hope in the uneven bars, the stadium built to a crescendo roar before dying back down to almost complete silence as Suni Lee began her routine. Shouts of “come on, Suni!” could be heard from the crowd, which erupted when she landed on the mat.

When her score came through on the big screen, enough to gain a bronze medal, Lee visibly gasped, the audience saluting her with rapturous applause.

Lee’s suitcase is getting heavy in Paris. She claimed the bronze in Sunday’s bars final, her third medal of these Olympics and sixth total.

She had the advantage of going last, which gave her the opportunity to perform the most strategic routine possible. Lee earned a 14.800 with a slightly more conservative routine, clinching her second consecutive bronze in the event.

Upon landing her dismount on her signature event, Kaylia Nemour couldn’t keep the emotion from her face.

Her road to Paris was a long one. She weathered a dispute with her home country of France that led to a switch in national delegation to her father’s Algeria. She is representing Algeria here and is now in a position to secure the country their first medal in gymnastics.

It’s likely to be gold. She earned a 15.700, the highest score on the event of the entire Olympics.

The uneven bars podium has a new leader: Qiu Qiyuan of China.

Qiyuan has struggled with consistency in Paris, falling in Thursday’s all-around final, but not today. She earned a 15.500, putting her in first place by a wide margin ahead of the reigning Olympic champion, Nina Derwael.

Becky Downie is a three time Olympian, but an Olympic medal continues to elude her.

She is a world medalist on bars, but fell on her routine in Sunday’s final, an error that will keep her from the podium.

Competing in Paris at all is a triumph for Downie, who suddenly lost her brother ahead of the Tokyo trials and failed to make the team that went onto win a historic team bronze. Simone Biles could be seen covering her face in the crowd after Downie’s mistake, a testament to Downie’s international popularity in the sport.

The Bercy Arena let out a collective gasp as Team GB’s Rebecca Downie lost her grip and fell onto the matt during her uneven bars final routine. She scored 13.633, putting her in third place so far.

Belgium’s Nina Derwael, who won the uneven bars gold medal in Tokyo, narrowly earned a Paris berth after dislocating her shoulder.

Her 14.766 will overtake Alice D’Amato, but she has yet to return to peak form.

She had to qualify on her weaker event, the balance beam, to make it to Paris, but easily earned her spot in this bar final.

After narrowly missing the all-around podium Thursday, Italy’s Alice D’Amato had a strong showing in Sunday’s uneven bars final, earning a 14.733.

She’s in first for now, but many contenders have yet to go, including Suni Lee and Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour, who is favored for gold.

The gold medal match between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic is neck and neck. It’s a rematch of last month’s Wimbledon final, from which Alcaraz walked away victorious.

After 13 unsuccessful break points, the first set moved into a tiebreaker, during which the players alternated scoring. Djokovic was on the attack, going for winners more than once during points sometimes. Alcaraz had a number of unforced errors that flopped on execution. But at moments, you could see the 21-year-old Spaniard getting under Djokovic’s skin, as he got frustrated with the closeness of the set.

Ultimately, Djokovic won the tiebreaker and took the first set after more than 90 minutes of battling. Whoever takes the best of 3 will take home the gold.

The athletes are out warming up for the uneven bars, and Team USA’s big hope, Suni Lee, just got a huge reaction from the Stars and Stripes-waving section of the crowd when her name was called out.

China secured some redemption in today’s men’s still rings final after narrowly losing the top stop in the all-around and team finals to Japan.

1. Liu Yang, China, 15.300
2. Zou Jingyuan, China, 15.233
3. Eleftherios Petrounias, Greece, 15.100

Team USA has one chance to medal on the uneven bars final today, and that one chance is named Suni Lee.

Lee is in third after qualifiers with a score of 14.866, trailing Kaylia Nemour in first and Qiu Qiyuan in second.

Nemour is the gold medal favorite today, and while both Qiu and Lee are expected to medal, it’s unclear who will grab silver and who will take bronze.

Qiu was the likely contender for silver heading into Paris, but she’s struggled with consistency throughout these Games, notably falling in the all-around final Thursday in her signature event.

Lee has been stunning in all of her bars performances so far, one of which helped her team win the gold medal on Tuesday and the other earning her a bronze in the all-around on Thursday.

Five millimeters is all that separated Team USA’s Brady Ellison from achieving his dream of an Olympic gold medal, but the Arizona native will have to settle for silver after losing to South Korea’s Kim Woojin by the tiniest of margins.

With the scores level after five sets, the gold came down to a one-arrow shootoff with whoever’s arrow landing closer to the center of the target taking the gold. Kim went first, landing his arrow on the outer edge of the 10, but in response, Ellison’s arrow was heartbreakingly just five millimeters further away from the center.

The result means Ellison takes silver, his second medal of these Games and the fifth of his career — his tally now standing at three silvers and two bronzes.

Carlos Alcaraz has fought back to make it even at 3-3 in the first set of the gold medal match against Novak Djokovic.

Novak Djokovic has an early advantage in the first set, 2-1, over Carlos Alcaraz as the two men battle for gold.

Team USA’s Brady Ellison is into the gold medal match of the men’s individual archery competition after beating Germany’s Florian Unruh 7-3 in the semifinals.

Ellison claimed his fourth career Olympic medal with a bronze in the mixed competition alongside Casey Kaufhold earlier in the Games. Now in his fifth Olympics, the Arizona native has two Olympic silvers and two bronzes to his name. At a minimum, he will add another silver to his haul, but he will now have the chance to secure the elusive Olympic gold.

Ellison has been in hot form all day, earlier beating South Korean second seed Kim Je Doek 6-0. He will now face top seed Kim Woojin, also from South Korea, in the gold medal match shortly at around 8:45 a.m. ET. Kim is searching for his third gold medal of these Games having already taken the men’s team and mixed team titles.

Watch the MVP of these Olympic Games, Snoop Dogg, attempt to weightlift with Team USA.

The packed house at Roland Garros’ Court Philippe-Chatrier erupted moments earlier when Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic made their way onto the court.

The duo, who just faced off last month at the Wimbledon final with Alcaraz prevailing, will compete for the gold medal.

Cyclist Kristen Faulkner is set to compete in the women’s road race this morning, but her journey to the Olympics is surprising.

She didn’t even start cycling until after college. But her hobby of taking rides in New York City’s Central Park quickly turned into a competitive passion that landed her on Team USA.

The leading pack are in the early stages of the final round of the golf competition, and Team USA’s Scottie Scheffler has started the day brilliantly, birdieing the first three holes.

He is currently tied for third on the leaderboard, one shot behind joint leaders Xander Schauffele and Jon Rahm.

The duo of Cristina Busca and Sara Sorribes Tormo took home the bronze in straight sets today at Roland Garros against Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova from Czechia.

The Spanish pair won both sets 6-2 in just over an hour to capture the medal.

Up next here at the famed Court Philippe-Chatrier is the highly anticipated men’s gold medal match between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic.

The match-up between Team USA’s Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and the Netherlands’ Femke Bol is one of the most anticipated rivalries on the track of these Games.

Both are safely through to Tuesday’s semifinals with McLaughlin-Levrone taking it very easy, strolling over the line in 53.60s. Bol, fresh from making headlines last night after overhauling three runners in the 4x400m mixed relay to take gold in an epic race, took her heat in 53.38s.

McLaughlin-Levrone, the defending Olympic champion, has rewritten the record books in this event, breaking her own world record at the U.S. Olympic trials earlier this year. Bol then went on to run the third-fastest time ever in the event last month, setting up a tantalizing clash at these Games.

Anna Cockrell and NCAA champion Jasmine Jones both won their heats to ensure all three Americans in this event progress.

When Novak Djokovic takes to the court to face off with Carlos Alcaraz at Roland-Garros today, he will be looking to win the one title that has eluded him his entire career — Olympic gold.

Victory would see 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic complete what is known in tennis as the “Golden Slam” — winning all four Grand Slam titles and Olympic gold across a career. He would be joining the illustrious company of Steffi Graff, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams in the record books.

“This dream is long lived and fought for,” Djokovic posted on X after his semifinal victory against Lorenzo Musetti Friday, which saw Djokovic at his glittering best despite concerns over his knee. Certainly, the Olympics have been a brutal beast for the Serbian icon — a bronze in 2008 was the only Olympic medal to his name before today. At 37-years-old, this may well be Djokovic’s last chance to put his Olympic demons to rest.

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Grant Holloway, the three-time reigning World Champion, is safely through to the semifinals of the men’s 110m hurdles, but there was a bizarre moment involving one of his Team USA teammates.

Holloway narrowly missed out on gold in Tokyo and is the heavy favorite to earn redemption this time around. He dominated his heat to qualify fastest in 13.01s, the fastest time by more than two-tenths of a second in the heats.

Daniel Roberts scraped through to Wednesday’s semifinals, taking a three-way photo finish to scrape through his heat in third.

Freddie Crittenden, who came fourth at last year’s World Championships, strangely jogged his heat, saying afterwards he strategically chose to take it easy after tweaking something in the build-up. He came in dead last and will now have until Tuesday to recover when he will have a second chance to make the semifinals in the repechage, essentially a second stage of heats for those who failed to qualify first time around.

Holloway, Roberts and Crittenden have run the three quickest times in the world this year, and there is hope that Team USA could sweep the podium in this event.

Cristina Busca and Sara Sorribes Tormo took the first set 6-2 from Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova of Czechia in the bronze medal match of women’s doubles.

Busca and Tormo got off to a similar start in the second set and took the first two games there as well.

Julien Alfred, 20, stunned Sha’Carri Richardson in the women’s 100m final, winning St. Lucia’s first Olympic medal with a run of 10.72 seconds. 

The final heat of the women’s 200-meter has just wrapped and all three Americans competing in the event have progressed to tomorrow evening’s semifinals, with Gabby Thomas with the fastest overall time.

Thomas, who won the bronze medal for this event in Tokyo, will be joined in the semifinals by 2019 world silver medalist Brittany Brown. Thomas’ 22.20s was the quickest time in this morning’s heats with Brown fourth fastest, winning her heat in 22.38s.

McKenzie Long also won her heat, finishing in 22.55s to qualify with the eighth fastest time.

Lin Yu-ting won her quarterfinal bout against Bulgarian Svetlana Staneva in a unanimous decision that assured a medal for the featherweight representing Chinese Taipei.

Lin and Algeria’s Imane Khelif have faced withering scrutiny during these Olympics, based on a 2023 disqualifications by the Russian-led International Boxing Association which claimed that unspecified tests called the boxers’ gender into question. 

IOC has staunchly defended the boxers, saying concerns over their gender are baseless. The IBA has since been called into question, with USA Boxing terminated its relationship with the body last year.

Read the full story here

Huge news from the Stade de France with Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson pulling out of the 200-meter, minutes before the heats this morning.

Jackson, who has won back-to-back world titles in this event, had pulled out of the 100-meter earlier this week. No official reason has been given for her withdrawal from this event yet, though she had been struggling with an injury coming into the Games after pulling up at the Hungarian Grand Prix three-weeks ago.

It is another blow for Jamaica after Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce withdrew from her 100-meter semifinal last night because of an injury.

Team USA’s Gabby Thomas is safely through to tomorrow’s semifinal, winning her heat in a time of 22.20s. Jackson was set to be her main competition for gold in this event, and her withdrawal really opens up the competition for the rest of the field. Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred, fresh from winning gold in the 100-meter last night, eased into victory in her heat in 22.41s to also progress into the semifinal.

Team USA’s Gabby Thomas is involved in this morning’s 200-meter heats, which are about to get underway at the Stade de France.

Thomas, who took bronze in Tokyo, is in the second of the six heats.

Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson has been the woman to beat in this event in recent years and is Thomas’ main rival for gold. She goes in the third heat.

A typical day for U.S. track and field athlete Gabby Thomas is a full 24 hours. During the day, she trains three to six hours in anticipation of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

But at night, she works at an Austin, Texas, volunteer health care clinic for people without insurance.

How does one of the fastest athletes in her sport find the time to do it all? She attributes that work ethic to her mother. When Thomas and her twin brother were young, their mom waitressed and took classes to become a professor. 

“She showed me in real time growing up what it’s like to go after your dreams and to achieve them, and to become successful,” Thomas, 27, told NBC News. “I watched her just achieve all of that by herself and while raising us.”

Read the full story here.

With 20 gold medals due to be handed out today, Team USA is hoping to bring in a big medal haul with superstar Noah Lyles headlining one of the most eagerly-anticipated events of the Games — the men’s 100-meters.

Lyles has claimed throughout the build-up to the Olympics he is the fastest man on the planet after winning the world title last year, but with Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson and Oblique Seville also in the mix, this looks set to be one of the most hyped and competitive 100-metre races since the days of Usain Bolt.

It’s the final day in the pool, and the U.S.-Australia rivalry is on a knife edge. Team USA has already guaranteed they will walk away from the pool with the most total medals — 25 and counting — but in terms of golds, Australia are narrowly in front with seven golds to the U.S.’s six.

There are some very strong events in the pool for Team USA today though; the U.S. has won every gold medal in the men’s 4x100m medley relay since 1960 (except for the boycotted 1980 Games) and will be the favorites for gold again.

Bobby Finke goes in the men’s 1500m freestyle as he looks to defend his Olympic title. Team USA and Australia are also expected to clash for gold in the women’s 50m freestyle and the women’s 4x100m medley relay.

Elsewhere, Suni Lee is involved in the women’s uneven bars final, Xander Schauffele is tied for the lead in the men’s golf heading into the final round and Team USA are expected to be in the medal mix in fencing’s men’s team foil event.

The men’s team foil medal bouts in fencing take place today.

Like the pommel horse, fencing also has its origins in military training before slowly evolving into a sport.

The earliest depiction of swordplay is a relief in the temple of Medīnat Habu, built by Egyptian pharaoh Ramses III in about 1190 BCE, near to the Egyptian city of Luxor.

But it wasn’t until two-and-a-half thousand years later that it became a sport.

Inspired by the Italian, German and French fencing masters of the early 15th century, it made the transition from a form of military training to sport. German fencing masters then began organizing the first guilds, including the famous Marxbrueder of Frankfurt in 1478.

By the 17th and 18th centuries, the sport of fencing had already begun to resemble what is seen at the Olympics today, with the invention of the flat-tipped foil weapon and wire-mesh masks, as well as rules governing procedure and target area.

The stage is set for an epic finale in the men’s golf competition with Team USA’s Xander Schauffele tied with Jon Rahm at the top of the leaderboard heading into today’s finely-poised final round at Le Golf National.

Schauffele and Rahm are level on 14-under-par with 18 holes left to play, and some of the biggest names in the sport are close behind in the chasing pack.

Great Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood is just one shot back, while Team USA’s Scottie Scheffler, Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama are all in the top 10 and can propel themselves into medal contention with strong final rounds.

The final round is already underway with the leading trio of Schauffele, Rahm and Fleetwood the last to tee off for the day at 6:39 a.m. ET.

Saturday was a historic day for Team USA, who added five golds, six silvers and seven bronze medals — the most medals won by U.S. athletes in a single day since the Seoul Games in 1988.

Among them, Simone Biles won her seventh career Olympic gold in the vault. Vincent Hancock and Katie Ledecky made history by becoming just the sixth and seventh Olympians to win four gold medals in the same individual event — Hancock doing so in the men’s skeet shooting and Ledecky winning her fourth career 800m freestyle gold. Ryan Crouser took his third consecutive gold medal in the men’s shot put.

Gymnasts never fail to deliver mesmerizing performances, seamlessly pairing athleticism with grace. The best moves from Simone Biles, Suni Lee and others in the women’s individual all-around are even more epic in slow motion.

When Simone Biles does the Yurchenko double pike, the most difficult vault ever done by a female gymnast, the whole world watches in awe. Relive the two phenomenal vaults that earned Biles her 10th Olympic medal.

Day 8 of the Olympics was jam-packed with action. We saw legends in their sport add to their gold-medal counts, thrilling finishes on the track and much more. Let’s dive into the day’s biggest events.

Read the full story here.