July 29 (UPI) — Nyjah Huston achieved redemption, while Jagger Eaton earned his second Olympic prize as the American skateboarders brought in two of the eight medals Team USA won Monday in Paris.
Team USA, which took over as the medal count leader Sunday, increased its total to 20 — four more than second-place France. China and Japan are tied for third place, with 12 medals apiece. Japan leads the Paris Olympics in gold medals with six.
Four of Team USA’s medals on Sunday came from swimming. The Americans added another medal with a drought-snapping bronze-medal finish in the artistic gymnastics men’s team final. Team USA earned another medal in fencing.
But Huston and Eaton were the first American medalists of the day, sharing the podium after the street final.
Huston, one of the most decorated skateboarders in history, posted a total score of 279.38 to earn a bronze medal in the event. Eaton (281.04) — a bronze medalist at Tokyo 2020 — placed second, behind defending gold medalist Yuto Horigome (281.14) of Japan.
“In the beginning, I was focusing on the medal, so I was just focusing on landing the tricks,” Horigome told NBC. “But Nyjah and Jagger were keeping such good scores, so I stopped focusing on the medal and just tried the best trick I could.”
Huston, who finished seventh at the 2020 Summer Games, held the lead in Monday’s event before runs by Eaton and Horigome.
Eaton proceeded to hit a 180 switch backside noseblunt slide on a ledge that leads down a stairway, pushing himself past his countryman on the leaderboard.
But Horigome answered, hitting his signature nollie 270 noseblunt slide. The execution of the move gave him the highest single-trick score (97.08) and moved him into first place.
Horigome’s gold was the third medal won by Japanese skateboarders so far in Paris. Coco Yoshizawa and Liz Akama placed first and second, respectively, in Sunday’s women’s street final. Brazil’s Leal Rayssa won bronze in that event.
The women’s and men’s park finals will be Aug. 6-7 at Place de la Concorde.
Later Monday, gymnasts Paul Juda, Brody Malone, Stephen Nedoroscik, Asher Hong and Frederick Richard won the Americans’ first Olympic medal in a men’s team final since 2008. They finished third behind first-place Japan and second-place China.
Swimmers Katie Grimes and Emma Weyant went on to add two more medals to the U.S. total, with respective silver and bronze medal finishes in the women’s 400-meter individual medley.
Canada’s Summer McIntosh won that event with a time of 4:27.71. Grimes and Weyant clocked respective times of 4:33.40 and 4:34.93.
American Luke Hobson earned a bronze medal in the men’s 200-meter freestyle final. Romania’s David Popovici won that event. Great Britain’s Matthew Richards finished second.
Ryan Murphy also swam to a bronze medal finish in the men’s 100-meter backstroke final. He trailed gold medalist Thomas Ceccon of Italy and second-place Xu Jiayu of China.
American fencer Nick Itkin beat Japan’s Kazuki Iimura in the men’s foil individual bronze medal bout for another addition to the U.S. total.
In non-medal events, the U.S. women’s basketball team trounced Japan 102-76 in a Group C game in Villeneuve-d’Ascq. A’Ja Wilson scored a game-high 24 points and logged 13 rebounds for the Americans. Brianna Stewart chipped in 22 points in the victory.
Team USA will face Belgium in another Group C game on Thursday in Villeneuve-d’Ascq.
