Written by The USAToday Sports Staff
The second day of the Rio Olympics saw some of the best American athletes take center stage.Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles all competed, though for different stakes. Here’s what you might have missed:
Pool party!
That’s more or less what the Americans threw Sunday night in Rio. Katie Ledecky obliterated her own world record in the women’s 400-meter freestyle. The 19-year-old beat her previous record by almost two seconds. She’s the world-record holder in the 400, 800 and 1,500 freestyle events. To reiterate, she’s still a teenager.
You’re more than qualified
Simone Biles and the U.S. women’s gymnastics team, to the surprise of no one, routed the competition in qualifying. In a sport decided by tenths of points, the Americans seized a 9.979 lead over second-place China.
Forget asking if they will take gold, writes Nancy Armour, the question might simply be this: Is this team the greatest of all time?
Strange day on the hardcourt
Top seed Novak Djokovic was ousted in straight sets to Juan Martin del Potro, the powerful Argentine who was contemplating retirement. But from an American perspective, that was hardly the upset that mattered.
Venus and Serena entered Sunday a perfect 15-0 in Olympics doubles matches having won three gold medals. But they won’t be going home with any hardware this year after losing a first-round shocker.
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