The Tokyo Olympics were delayed a year, but for galore with Las Vegas ties, the timing was conscionable right.
They made a large interaction successful the Games, from the Sandpipers of Nevada winning 3 medals to 4 Aces players bringing location golden successful 2 events.
The Sandpipers lived up to the pre-Olympics hype, with Bowe Becker claiming a golden medal and Erica Sullivan and Bella Sims each taking silver. Then determination was 15-year-old Katie Grimes coming adjacent with a fourth-place finish.
Sullivan heads to Texas, and Becker was an All-American astatine Minnesota. Sims, 16, and Grimes instrumentality to the Sandpipers with the 2024 Games successful Paris successful their sights.
“We had known they had a accidental to marque the (Olympic) team, but adjacent better, they made the champion of it,” Sandpipers manager Ron Aitken said successful a substance message. “The aboriginal is agleam for some of them, and I look guardant to carving retired a program for past implicit the adjacent 3 years.
“2024 is lone 3 years away, and determination is simply a batch of momentum successful the programme and can’t privation to spot who volition beryllium next!”
Here is simply a look astatine the astir notable performances:
Gold medal winners
Bowe Becker
Sport: Swimming
Country: United States
Local connection: Faith Lutheran High School, Sandpipers of Nevada
Performance: He swam the 3rd limb of the 4×100-meter relay, extending the U.S. pb and helping the Americans repetition the gold won 5 years earlier successful Rio de Janeiro. The clip of 3 minutes, 8.97 seconds was the 3rd fastest successful history.
Chelsea Gray
Sport: Basketball
Country: United States
Local connection: Aces
Performance: She was the backup constituent defender to Sue Bird, averaging 7.3 points and 3.2 assists successful six games. As she does with the Aces, Gray masterfully and efficiently ran the U.S. offense.
Kelsey Plum
Sport: 3-on-3 basketball
Country: United States
Local connection: Aces
Performance: Plum led the U.S. squad with 55 points successful 9 games successful an lawsuit making its Olympic debut. She scored 5 points in the golden medal game, an 18-15 triumph implicit the Russian Olympic Committee.
Xander Schauffele
Sport: Golf
Country: United States
Local connection: Las Vegas resident
Performance: Two cardinal putts helped Schauffele locomotion distant with the gold. He changeable 4-under 67 successful the last circular to decorativeness astatine 18 under, edging Slovakia’s Rory Sabbatini — who closed with a 61 — by 1 shot.
A’ja Wilson
Sport: Basketball
Country: United States
Local connection: Aces
Performance: Wilson asserted herself arsenic the person of the undefeated team, averaging 16.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.8 blocked shots successful six games. She led the U.S. successful scoring.
Jackie Young
Sport: 3-on-3 basketball
Country: United States
Local connection: Aces
Performance: Young was a precocious summation to the squad and made the astir of her opportunity, playing outstanding defence during the Americans’ run. She scored 18 points successful 9 games.
Silver medal winners
Bella Sims
Sport: Swimming
Country: United States
Local connection: Sandpipers of Nevada
Performance: She was part of the 4×200-meter freestyle relay team that qualified for the final. Katie Ledecky replaced Sims successful the last and helped acceptable an American grounds with a clip of 7 minutes, 40.73 seconds, earning Sims the silver.
Erica Sullivan
Sport: Swimming
Country: United States
Local connection: Palo Verde High School, Sandpipers of Nevada
Performance: She rallied from 5th to decorativeness 2nd successful the 1,500-meter freestyle successful 15 minutes, 41.41 seconds, down Katie Ledecky’s 15:37.34.
Other notable performances
Vashti Cunningham
Sport: Track and field
Country: United States
Local connection: Bishop Gorman High School
Performance: Cunningham tied for sixth successful the precocious jump, clearing a tallness of 1.96 meters (6 feet, 4.3 inches).
Katie Grimes
Sport: Swimming
Country: United States
Local connection: Sandpipers of Nevada
Performance: The 15-year-old, the astonishment of the U.S. Olympic Trials, conscionable missed medaling with a fourth-place finish successful the 800-meter freestyle astatine 8 minutes, 19.38 seconds.
Collin Morikawa
Sport: Golf
Country: United States
Local connection: Las Vegas resident
Performance: He closed beardown with an 8-under 63 to get into a seven-way playoff for bronze. Morikawa became 1 of the past 2 standing, but mislaid to Chinese Taipei’s CT Pan.
Kasia Wasick
Sport: Swimming
Country: Poland
Local connection: UNLV unpaid adjunct coach
Performance: Wasick qualified for the last and finished 5th successful 24.32 seconds, missing retired connected a medal by .11.
Contact newsman Mark Anderson astatine manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 connected Twitter.