After setting a new world record in the men’s discus throw in April, Cal junior Mykolas Alekna entered the Summer Olympics as a gold medal favorite.
And for a little while on Wednesday morning, it looked like the Lithuanian was going to capture it.
Alekna, 21, threw a toss of 69.97 meters, breaking a 20-year-old Olympic record of 69.89 meters, set by his own father, Virgilijus Alekna.
It moved Mykolas into first place temporarily, but Jamaica’s Roje Stona then broke the record again with a hurl of 70 meters to capture the gold medal.
Mykolas finished with the silver medal.
It was a remarkable showing by both men, as the discus records have been difficult to break.
The world record, which Mykolas broke in April with a toss of 74.35 meters, had been previously held for 38 years.
His father, Virgilijus, won Olympic gold medals in Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004, also adding a bronze in Beijing in 2008.
And Mykolas’ brother, Martynas, is also a discus thrower who represented Lithuania in the Paris Olympics. Martynas’ best throw of 58.66 was the second-lowest in the field and he did not advance to Wednesday’s final.
Goalie comes up huge
Given his Cal education, Adrian Weinberg knows how to use his head.
Wednesday, Weinberg used all of it as he stuck out his face to block a key penalty shot, one of two saves in a shootout that helped Team USA advance over Australia, 11-10, in men’s water polo.
With a win, the Americans clinched a spot in the semifinals for the first time since 2008, when they won a silver medal.
Weinberg, who won three national championships as the goalie at Cal, finished with 11 saves in a nail-biting finish in which the Americans nearly lost in the game’s final minute.
Australia tied the game, then took a lead with a pair of goals in a 52-second span in the fourth quarter.
But with the U.S. down to its final possession, former Stanford star Alex Bowen scored to tie the game with 32 seconds left and force penalty shots.
That’s where Weinberg made two key blocks, including a hard shot he saved with his face, to send the Americans through.
Team USA will now face a big test in two-time defending gold medalists from Serbia in a semifinal match on Friday.
Seven of the 13 players on the U.S. men’s roster have Bay Area ties.
One and done for Parrish
Scotts Valley native Dominique Parrish went into her first Summer Olympics with big dreams, but the 28-year-old was quickly dispatched in the opening rounds of the women’s freestyle competition on Wednesday morning.
Parrish had a difficult draw against Japan’s Akari Fujinami, a two-time world champion (2021 and 2023). Fujinami outscored Parrish 6-0 in a victory by fall. The match took 2 minutes, 5 seconds.
For Parrish, it was an accomplishment just to make it to Paris.
She was a training partner for the Olympics in Tokyo in 2021. And in 2022, she won gold at the Pan American Games and captured a world championship.
“I’ve got a lot to be grateful for,” she said in June.
Doctor looking to medal for Australia
After winning two NCAA titles for Stanford in the javelin competition, Mackenzie Little returned home to Australia, studied medicine at Sydney University, graduated with a doctorate and is now a practicing doctor at an Australian hospital.
On Wednesday, she was also the second-best at the javelin competition in Paris.
Little’s throw of 62.82 meters was good enough to send her into the finals, which take place on Saturday.
Little studied medicine at Stanford while also being named a four-time All-American.
She previously competed in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and made it to the final with a throw of 62.37 meters, but she finished in eighth place.
Her career best throw is 66.12 meters.
Fisher going for the double
Five days after capturing a bronze medal in the men’s 10,000-meter race, becoming the second American in 56 years to medal in the event, former Stanford runner Grant Fisher punched his ticket to another final at the Summer Olympics.
In the first 5,000-meter heat on Wednesday, Fisher finished fourth with a time of 13:52.44, good enough to send him to the final on Saturday.
While at Stanford from 2015 to 2019, Fisher won a national title in the 5,000 as a sophomore.
Zhang behind after one day of golf
Rose Zhang hit the links in France on Wednesday as she looks to add to her storied young career in women’s golf.
Zhang, 21, shot an even-par 72 in her opening round, putting her in a tie for 13th place with three rounds to go. She’ll have to make up a lot of ground on France’s Celine Boutier, who had a remarkable seven-under 65 to begin her gold medal pursuit.
But Zhang has been known to make big comebacks on the final days of tournament play. And she’s coming off a 2023 season in which she won her second consecutive NCAA title at Stanford, then turned pro and became the first golfer to win her first event on the LPGA tour since 1951.
Zhang is currently ranked No. 9 in the world.
The No. 1-ranked player, American Nelly Korda, also shot an even-par 72 on Wednesday.
Pole vaulter comes up short
Katerina Stefanidi, a former Stanford pole vaulter who captured gold at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, finished in ninth place in the same event on Wednesday.
Representing Greece, she reached as high as 4.70 meters, but Australia’s Nina Kennedy won gold with a jump of 4.90 meters.
Not enough wind
Due to low-wind conditions in Marseille, the women’s kitesurfing event was canceled on Wednesday.
Lafayette’s Daniela Moroz is in third place and in good position to make a run at the finals when racing resumes.
Moroz, who learned how to surf on Crissy Field, had said she was hoping for terrible conditions akin to those she practiced in while surfing underneath the Golden Gate Bridge.
The 23-year-old is a six-time world champion. This is the first Olympics featuring kitesurfing as an event.
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