2024 Olympics: Athletes, events to watch on Friday

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The first week of the 2024 Paris Games closes out with Sha’Carri Richardson on the track and two of Team USA’s top swimmers returning to the pool.

Richardson’s long-awaited Olympic debut will come during the women’s 100m preliminary round. Richardson won the event at the 2023 world championships.

After becoming the most decorated woman in U.S. Olympic history on Thursday, Katie Ledecky is back in the pool on Friday for the women’s 800m freestyle heat. It’s the final event for Ledecky in Paris and last chance to earn her ninth Olympic gold medal, which would tie her with Larisa Latynina, a gymnast from the Soviet Union, for the most golds ever by a female Olympian.

Caeleb Dressel has already won a gold medal as part of the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay. He can add another on Friday as he races in the 50m freestyle final, which he won in Tokyo. Dressel will also compete in the men’s 100m butterfly heat.

The U.S. Olympic men’s soccer team faces Morocco in its first quarterfinal matchup since the 2000 Sydney Games. Team USA finished in fourth place that year, their best-ever result in the Olympics.

There are key matchups in tennis too. Novak Djokovic’s quest for his first gold medal continues with a men’s singles semifinal meeting against Lorenzo Musetti, while Carlos Alcaraz faces Felix Auger-Aliassime on the other side. The women’s bronze medal match will also take place, alongside the bronze and gold medal matches for mixed doubles.

Here is Friday’s schedule.

12:27 p.m. ET — Budinger, Evans move on

Former NBA player Chase Budinger and his partner Miles Evans finished third in their beach volleyball pool and have avoided outright elimination. They’ll play one more matchup to determine if they’ll earn the 15th or 16th seed in the Round of 16.

11:34 a.m. ET — Morocco stuns Team USA men’s soccer

The medal hopes of the U.S. Olympic men’s soccer team were dashed after Morocco downed the Americans 4-0. Though U.S. goalkeeper Patrick Schulte did a great job of defending early, Nathan Harriel gave away a penalty before Soufiane Rahimi found an opening to slot the ball into the net.

Morocco continued to capitalize on U.S. errors by adding goals shortly after the 59th and 70th minutes of the match. El Mehdi Maouhoub sealed the deal after scoring a penalty goal in the 91st minute.

10:32 a.m. ET — Family comes first for LeBron James

After Team USA men’s basketball defeated South Sudan, the guys had some down time. While some spent their time watching Simone Biles and Suni Lee win gold and bronze medals in the women’s all-around gymnastics event, LeBron James, his wife Savannah James and their daughter Zhuri James caught U.S. women’s beach volleyball in their final pool play match against China.

The American duo, Taryn Kloth and Krtisten Nuss, lost the first set 21-15 but redeemed themselves in the second set 21-16 before rain began to pour. Lighting was detected nearby in the third set, resulting in a rain delay. Though most fans departed from Eiffel Tower Stadium, the James family stayed present to cheer on the Americans.

As LeBron cheered on the duo to their 15-12 third set win, he busted out his fatherly dance moves that left Zuhri with her face in her hands.

9:59 a.m. ET — Netherlands skiff gold medal comes in bizzare fashion

Sometimes, a wrong turn won’t determine your fate. That was the case for Netherlands sailors Odile van Aanholt and Annettee Duetz when they misinterpreted where the finish line was in the women’s skiff final. The world championed sailors seemingly had the win locked in until the Dutch realized the finish line was a distance away, forcing them to alter the course. The mishap allowed Sweden’s Vilma Bobeck and Rebecca Netzler to win the race and a silver medal. The Netherlands, though, still won gold in the event. — READ MORE

8:51 a.m. ET — Vashti Cunningham advances to women’s high jump final

Vashti Cunningham asked to see the phone again. She just had to make sure she had seen correctly.

Indeed, there on a reporter’s phone, was a “Q” next to her name. The American high jumper had qualified out of the first round, and was moving on to the finals.

“I’m sweating right now,” Cunningham said. “Like, full-body sweat.

“I didn’t know it was going to look like this. Third-time clearances, scraping to get into the finals. But I’m just blessed.”

The 26-year-old will be jumping in her third Olympics final on Sunday. It comes after she made the finals at the Rio Games in 2016, and in Tokyo three years ago. The highest she’s finished at the Olympics was sixth in Tokyo.

“It means that I’m healthy,” Cunningham said of moving on again. “It’s not easy to be at this level, especially starting so young to being here now. I keep hearing ‘you’re not old,’ but I feel old. And I know I’m not old, but it’s like, man, it’s just not the same as when I was younger and I was so dumb going into it.”

The daughter of former Pro Bowl quarterback Randall Cunningham, has also heard criticism from those who question training under her father’s guidance.. But she’s continuing to push her career along in spite of it.

Of the qualifiers who made it out of her heat, Cunningham was the only one who needed third and final jumps at 1.88 and 1.92 meters in order to advance.

Only two of the six qualifiers from her heat were able to clear the 1.95-meter mark. She was not one of them.

In addition to listening to her father, Cunningham said she has a support system of friends who she knew were watching her back home in Las Vegas.

“They’re probably up for the rest of night, just wired off of me stressing them out,” Cunningham said. — Coley Harvey

8:41 a.m. ET — American sprinters Jefferson, Terry ‘locked in’

It was easily the biggest stage American sprinters Melissa Jefferson and Twanisha Terry had ever competed on.

That’s why their acclaimed track and field coach, Dennis Mitchell, offered one key piece of advice before the 100-meter runners walked onto the track at the Stade de France: “Stay locked in.”

With nearly 80,000 raucously cheering fans, the Friday morning scene was unlike anything the two Olympic rookies had ever witnessed.

“Our coach told us, ‘When you go out down there, just look down the track and stay focused. Don’t look up and try to find people and this and that,'” Terry said. “So we can zone in and lock in.”

Jefferson said it was a little surprising to feel the crowd’s sustained passionate energy because of how early the heats were beginning (10 a.m. local time). She said her surprise also stemmed from not being used to competing in similarly large venues back home.

“Even though in the States it’s kind of hard as far as getting the support and getting the people to come out,” Jefferson said. “Track and field is one sport where you can count on everyone coming together to root for everyone, no matter in what circumstances that may be.”

Both sprinters followed their coach’s advice and maintained their focus through two strong showings in the first round. They advanced to Saturday’s semifinals, along with fellow American and training teammate, Sha’Carri Richardson. Terry ran 11.15 seconds, while Jefferson posted a 10.96-second time that was just behind Richardson’s 10.94.

“It’s a great feeling to have moral support, other than our coaches and our families,” Terry said. “Having other teammates here to be able to train with you, to have that extra support, to push each other through these, because when one of us is down, the other two may be up.”

Although she was able to maintain focus during the race, Terry did enjoy the stadium experience after she was done.

“I definitely did take a moment to soak in and skim around the stadium,” Terry said. “I was luckily able to find my dad. I heard his voice calling to me, and I heard one of my other people’s on the other side, just at the start. Just the distinction of her voice; that was amazing.” — Coley Harvey

8:29 a.m. ET — Final pool play game for U.S. men’s beach volleyball

Chase Budinger and Miles Evans will compete in their final pool play match against Spain on Friday. Budinger, who spent seven seasons in the NBA, made a huge transition to compete on the biggest stage of beach volleyball. — READ MORE

8:12 a.m. ET — Richardson ‘eager’ to compete on Olympic stage

With an energetic smile and a bounce to her step, Sha’Carri Richardson walked through the media mixed zone at Stade de France and politely offered two words to waiting reporters.

“Hi. Hello,” she said.

That was the extent of her comments to non-NBC reporters. It’s likely all she’ll say to them until late Saturday night, following the women’s 100-meter finals. It’s an event she’s almost certain to be in after a strong showing in her first-round heat Friday morning.

At 10.94 seconds, she cruised to an easy win in the opening heat of the 100, beating second-place finisher Patrizia van der Weken of Luxembourg by two-tenths of a second.

When all eight heats were complete, Richardson held the fourth-fastest time of the day. The Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith had the best time with a 10.87-second finish to win her heat. Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Daryll Nieta of Great Britain ran 10.92 seconds.

Richardson’s solid showing came as she made her Olympics debut in front of a completely full stadium. As ovations go, her introduction brought some of the loudest applause from those who packed the 77,000-seat venue, as they eagerly awaited her long-anticipated Summer Games debut.

While she didn’t address media in the mixed zone, Richardson did conduct an on-track interview with an NBC Olympics broadcaster.

“To be at the Olympics is a phenomenal feeling, to be an athlete here, competing with the energy, with a great appreciation for track and field … I’m super excited and eager to compete on the Olympic stage,” she said. — Coley Harvey

7:26 a.m. ET — Rory McIlroy is spot on

Accuracy is a virtue for world No. 3 ranked Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland. From 260 yards out, McIlroy managed to hit the flagstick, leaving a short eagle putt.

7:03 a.m. ET — Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce cruises onto the next round

Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is not taking her fifth and final Olympic Games for granted. Fraser-Pryce had one of the fastest and strongest start in the 100 meters, advancing to the semifinals with a second-place time of 10.92 seconds. Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith won the heat with a season’s-best time of 10.87 seconds.

6:48 a.m. ET — Just a breeze for TeeTee Terry

Also making her Olympic debut, Twanisha Terry breezed her way to the semifinals with a win in her women’s 100-meter dash heat. Terry had an explosive start out of the blocks which allowed her to ease up toward the end of the heat, clocking 11.15 seconds.

6:23 a.m. ET — Ladies and gentlemen, Sha’Carri Richardson

The fastest woman in America made her debut as an Olympian after missing the 2020 Tokyo Games and is showing that she deserves to be in Paris. In the first round of the women’s 100-meter dash, Richardson cruised to the semifinals after winning her heat with a time of 10.94 seconds.