Daily Edition – Day 5: Simone freakin’ Biles
From The GIST (hi@thegistsports.com)
Leveling The Playing Field
Bonjour!
Can you get dehydrated from crying while watching Olympians achieve their dreams? Asking for a friend while gulping down today’s news.
Country | 🥇 | 🥈 | 🥉 | Total |
| 🇯🇵 Japan | 7 | 2 | 4 | 13 |
| 🇫🇷 France | 6 | 9 | 4 | 19 |
| 🇨🇳 People’s Republic of China | 6 | 6 | 2 | 14 |
| 🇨🇦 Canada (9th) | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
🏉 After upsetting Australia in yesterday’s semis, the Canadian women’s sevens rugby team went on to collect the silver medal (their best-ever finish!), coming up just short 19–12 to the defending Olympic champions, New Zealand, in the gold medal match yesterday. Ruck yeah.
🏀 Thanks to a strong third quarter and another outstanding RJ Barrett performance, Canada men’s basketball beat Australia 93–83 to remain undefeated in group play.
3️⃣🏀 Plouffe, there it is. Canadian twin sisters Katherine and Michelle combined for 18 points in Team Canada 3x3 women’s basketball’s 22–14 opening win over Australia. Swish swish.
🤸 Making their first team final appearance in 12 years, Ellie Black and the Canadian women’s gymnastics team finished in fifth, matching their best showing in the event. Red, white, and proud.
🎾 Félix Auger-Aliassime is the lone Canadian left in the tennis singles competition after Leylah Annie Fernandez lost to Germany’s Angelique Kerber in the third round. Auger-Aliassime faces Daniil Medvedev in today’s third round.
- As for doubles action, Auger-Aliassime and Gabriela Dabrowski advanced to today’s mixed quarter-final, while Dabrowski and Fernandez are through to today’s women’s second round.
- And in non-Canadian news, Spain’s beloved duo of Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz looks strong heading into the men’s doubles quarter-final today at 1 p.m. ET.
🥋 World No. 2 Judoka Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard couldn’t defend her Tokyo 2020 bronze medal, losing the women's 63kg match to Kosovo’s Laura Fazliu.
🏊 Ontario’s Kylie Masse missed the podium by 0.31 seconds in yesterday’s women’s 100m backstroke final, finishing in fourth place behind Australia’s Kaylee McKeown and Americans Regan Smith and Katharine Berkoff. Fellow Canadian Ingrid Wilm finished in sixth.
🏄 Medals in Olympic surfing (which is taking place in Tahiti, over 15K kilometers from Paris) were supposed to be awarded tonight, but competition has been postponed to at least Thursday due to unfavorable weather conditions. Not so gnarly.
Women’s soccer
⚽ What a day to have a day
The GIST: By the end of the day, we’ll know who’s joining No. 1 Spain and the No. 5 USWNT in the women’s soccer knockout round, with six spots left and six stellar group stage finale games on deck beginning today at 11 a.m. ET. Let’s kick it.
How it works: As a quick refresher, the 12 competing squads were drawn into three groups (A, B, and C) and will play every team in their group once to earn a spot in the eight-team quarter-finals.
- A win is worth three points, a draw earns you one point, and no points are awarded for losses.
- The top two teams from each group advance to the knockouts, along with the two best third-place squads. Simple as that.
No. 8 CanWNT awaiting appeal verdict, faces No. 22 Colombia at 3 p.m. ET: At the time of publishing, the red and white are still contending with a six-point spy drone deduction that could cost the defending Olympic champs a place in the knockouts. A verdict in their formal appeal is expected before kickoff.
- If the deduction stands, Canada needs to beat Colombia and needs No. 28 New Zealand to either draw or lose to No. 2 France to qualify for the quarter-finals as a top-two team in Group A. They also still have a shot of making it as a third-place team.
- The odds are against them, but this CanWNT squad has been tenacious in France. They’re certainly not giving up just yet.
Together With adidas
🏠 Welcome to my adidas house
ICYMI, The GIST is coming to you live from the world’s biggest international competition this week, all thanks to our magnifique partnership with adidas.
- One of the can’t-miss sights? adidas house, a space exclusive for adidas athletes.
- Check out our behind-the-scenes adidas house tour, hosted by PWHL icons Natalie Spooner and Sarah Nurse. Shining bright like an adidas superstar.
Women’s Artistic Gymnastics
🤸 Joy, rediscovered
The GIST: Three years after devastation at the Tokyo Olympics, U.S. women’s gymnastics completed their “Redemption Tour” yesterday, winning gold in the team final in front of a star-studded crowd. Found out, indeed.
Biles is now the most decorated American Olympic gymnast of all time: The GOAT further cemented her reputation as the greatest gymnast ever, securing a record-setting eighth Olympic medal while dominating in all four events — vault, balance beam, uneven bars, and floor.
- Biles recorded the highest U.S. scores on both the vault and floor, catapulting Team USA to a massive first-place finish ahead of Italy (silver) and Brazil (bronze).
- Biles now has five Olympic golds, with another four chances to medal during upcoming individual competitions. We are not worthy.
A true team effort: Biles’ teammates Jordan Chiles (a friend of The GIST), Sunisa Lee, and Jade Carey all featured on that silver medal Tokyo squad and were eager to show the world they deserved to stand on top of the podium in Paris.
- All three excelled — Carey threw down on the vault, Lee shined on the uneven bars and balance beam (even outscoring Biles on both), and Chiles brought the heat in all four events, most notably delivering a powerful floor routine.
What’s next: Both Biles and Lee qualified for Thursday’s individual all-around final, making it the first time two Olympic all-around champs (Biles in 2016 and Lee in 2021) will go head-to-head for the gold. How lucky are we?
Event | ⏰ (ET) | 👀 |
| 🏅🤸 Men’s artistic gymnastics all-around final | 11:30 a.m. | 🇨🇦 Felix Dolci and Réne Cournoyer |
| 🏀 Women’s 3x3 basketball group play | 12 p.m. | 🇨🇦 Canada vs. 🇨🇳 People’s Republic of China |
| 🏖️ 🏐 Women’s beach volleyball group play | 3 p.m. | 🇨🇦 Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson |
Together With adidas
Summer is for athleisure — how about taking some fashion inspo from PWHL star Natalie Spooner, who gave The GIST an exclusive peek at how she curates her signature look with adidas.
- Our favorite part of Spooner’s ’fit? The Gazelle Bold Shoes. Slay like the pros and stay on trend by visiting adidas.ca today.
Recs from our roster!
👀 What to watch
PWHL stars Natalie Spooner and Sarah Nurse giving a tour of adidas house in Paris, a behind-the-scenes look at a space exclusive for adidas athletes. Oui oui.*
🫄 Who’s crushing it like a mother
Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez, who competed while seven months pregnant. Women are literally superheroes.
🤏 What dedication looks like
Australian field hockey player Matthew Dawson, who broke his right ring finger last month and chose to have it amputated rather than wait for it to heal and miss his third Olympics. Hardcore.
*P.S. This is a sponsored post. Magnifique.Today’s email was brought to you by Lauren Tuiskula, Alessandra Puccio, Marga Sison, and Katie Kehoe Foster. Fact-checking by Parul Kanwar. Ops by Briana Ekanem and Marga Sison. Ads by Katie Kehoe Foster and Alessandra Puccio. Managing edits by Lauren Tuiskula. Head of content Ellen Hyslop.