With the Opening Ceremonies out of the way and a full weekend of competition under its belt, the 31st Olympiad is now in full swing. Nine members of the Syracuse Orange family made the trip to Rio to represent their countries and many have already begun their chase for gold.
Let’s start out with the ones you already know. Carmelo Anthony, Jim Boeheim and Mike Hopkins are all part of the USA basketball team which will (barring anything crazy) win gold in only a matter of time. In it’s first game, the U.S. demolished China by a score of 119-62, scoring at least 28 in each quarter. Remember, these are only 10-minute quarters. Anthony scored nine points in 20 minutes on the court, and the scoring was led by Kevin Durant’s 25. Team USA will embarrass Venezuela later this afternoon.
Michael Gbinije is also playing basketball in Rio, but he suits up for Nigeria. The Nigerian men were taken down by Argentina in its first test, 94-66. Gbinije played more than anyone in the game, but only scored six points. He did, however, have a pretty nasty dunk in the process. The Nigerian team next plays tomorrow against Lithuania (Nigeria is not in the same group as the States, luckily).
Natalie Mastracci, a 2010 ‘Cuse graduate, rows for Canada’s women’s eight squad. Team Canada finished third in its heat and will now have to race in the repechage for a chance to make the finals. This is an event the U.S. women have dominated for a long time, so most people are expecting it to be a race for silver.
2016 Syracuse graduate Alyssa Manley is on the USA women’s field hockey team, which has already won it’s first two games of pool play. The team took down Argentina 2-1 Friday, and earlier this morning upset Austrailia 2-1 to improve to 2-0. Next on the slate is Japan, who tied India 2-2 in its only competition so far.
In track and field, Uhunoma Osazuwa will compete in the heptathlon for Nigeria and Flings Owusu-Agyapong will run the 100m and 4 x 100 relay for Ghana later this week. Katie Zafared will represent the United States in the women’s triathlon on August 20.
Posted: Nathan Dickinson
