Good morning! Here are the plays everybody will be talking about on Monday:
Simone Biles vaults to another gold and it was no big deal. Biles is now 3-for-3 in gold medals at the Rio Olympics after winning the vault on Sunday. She still has two events left, including the beam, and arguably her best event, the floor exercise. At this point, it will be more surprising if Biles doesn't win gold and even she is competing with extreme confidence right now. After seeing her score in the vault, easily good enough for the gold, she just shrugged her shoulders and grinned. Here is one of her two vaults in slow motion.
Now that is an Olympic alley-oop. The Not-So-Dreamy Team had yet another close call at the Olympics, squeaking by France 100-97. The U.S. did get a little bit of breathing room late in the fourth quarter when France missed a shot that would have cut the lead to two and the U.S. answered with an alley-oop in which Kyrie Irving hit Kevin Durant with the pass even though Irving was falling down.
Kerri Walsh Jennings uses the entire court to beat Australia. Walsh Jennings and her new partner, April Ross, beat Australia in straight sets and are now 4-0 at the Olympics. Up next are the reigning world champions Agatha and Barbara of Brazil. That match-up won't be easy, but if Walsh Jennings keeps pulling shots like this out of the sand, they have a good shot. And yes, you can go to the other side of the court in volleyball, just make sure you don't touch the net or hit the ball inside the upright antenna on the net.
Olympic fail bonus. Justin Rose beat Henrik Stenson with a beautiful chip shot on the final hole to capture the gold. Before that, Rose hit a wayward tee shot and one unfortunate fan thought she had a souvenir. This entire scene is great: 1) she eagerly picks up the ball; 2) about 7-8 fans around here immediately start freaking out and yelling at her to drop the ball; 3) she immediately regrets her decision and not-so-subtly tosses the ball away; and 4) the look of shock on her face at the realization of what just happened.