Olympic action continues on final day in Tokyo: LIVE UPDATES

The Tokyo Olympics are officially over.

IOC President Thomas Bach declared the Games closed after the French flag was raised inside Olympic Stadium for the transition to Paris 2024. After a short performance in the stadium, the cauldron closed around the Olympic flame, extinguishing it.

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Thousands of people, including medalists who have returned from Tokyo, gathered near the Eiffel Tower to welcome the handover of the Olympic flag to Paris, which will host the Games in 2024.

A flyover by jets from the Patrouille de France ("Patrol of France") released blue, white and red smoke — the colors of the French flag — in the sky of the capital.

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Despite the pandemic, the one-year delay and the soaring costs, the Japanese public may still find a sweet spot for the Tokyo Olympics, the way it did for the storied 1964 Games.

Why? A historic haul of medals.

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They set records everyone saw coming and others that surprised the experts.

They suffered, and battled, and spoke their truth in ways that hadn't been heard before.

Over nine days at the near-empty Olympic Stadium, the women of track and field delivered a memorable show, both inside the lines and out.

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USA women's Basketball beat Japan on Sunday for the team's seventh consecutive gold medal,  matching the country’s men’s program for the most ever in a row. The men did it from 1936-68.

The Americans are on a 55-game Olympic winning streak dating back to the bronze medal game of the 1992 Barcelona Games.

The Americans jumped out to a 18-5 lead behind a dominant first quarter by Brittney Griner. The team lead 23-14 after one as Griner had 10 points, taking advantage of the undersized Japanese team.

Japan was able to get within six in the second quarter before the Americans went up 11 at the half and never looked back.

As the final buzzer sounded, Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi embraced and then proceeded to hug all of their teammates and the coaching staff. Griner finished with 30 points, making 14 of her 18 shots. It was the most points ever by a U.S. player in a gold medal game, surpassing the 29 by Lisa Leslie in 1996.

The U.S. has won its third consecutive gold medal in women’s water polo, pounding Spain 14-5 in the final at the Tokyo Olympics.

Maddie Musselman scored three times and Ashleigh Johnson made 11 saves as the U.S. improved to 134-4 since it won gold at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

After falling 10-9 to Hungary in group play in its first loss at the Olympics since the 2008 final, the U.S. ripped off four straight wins by a combined score of 63-26.

The U.S. joins the men’s teams from Britain (1908-1920) and Hungary (2000-2008) as the only countries to win at least three straight water polo titles at the Olympics. The U.S. is the only team to medal in each of the six editions of the women’s tournament at the Games.

Brazil’s Hebert Sousa won the men’s middleweight boxing gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in shocking fashion when his bout with Ukraine’s Oleksandr Khyzhniak was stopped by a third-round knockdown.

The top-seeded Khyzhniak thoroughly dominated Sousa for the first two rounds and appeared to be cruising to Ukraine’s fifth-ever boxing gold.

But Sousa caught Khyzhniak with a counter left hook during an exchange in the third, and Khyzhniak went to the canvas hard.

The referee waved off the bout while Khyzhniak got up begged to continue, adding another instance to a series of Tokyo stoppages that would be considered far too early in professional bouts.

Sousa, who beat second-seeded Gleb Bakshi of Russia in the semifinal, joins lightweight Robson Conceição as the only boxing gold medalists in Brazil’s Olympic history. Conceição won his historic gold at home in Rio de Janeiro.

The U.S. men’s basketball team won its fourth consecutive gold medal Saturday after narrowly defeating France 87-82, extending the Americans' second-longest Olympic streak since 1968. 

Kevin Durant dominated the court, scoring 29 points, with Tayson Tatum adding 19 and Damian Lillard and Jrue Holiday each scoring 11. Durant now joins Carmelo Anthony as the only three-time men’s basketball gold medalists in Olympic history.

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Saturday night will be huge in terms of the Olympic medal count.

The United States has the overall lead with 98 total medals but trails China in the gold medal count.

China has 36 gold medals going into Saturday. The U.S. has 31.

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Julia Grosso converted her kick from the spot and Canada clinched the Olympic gold medal in women’s soccer by winning a penalty shootout 3-2 against Sweden after Friday's final ended in a 1-1 draw.

It was the first major tournament title for the Canadians, who were the bronze medalists at London in 2012 and in Rio de Janeiro five years ago.

Canadian goalkeeper Stephanie Labbe stopped Jonna Andersson to make way for Grosso, a 20-year-old player for the University of Texas, who beat Sweden goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl.

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Olympic wrestler Gable Steveson may have had the most clutch moment of the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Steveson was facing off against Georgian Geno Petriashvili in the 125-kilogram freestyle category on Friday. He was down three points with 23 seconds remaining in the match. He somehow managed to score five points as time expired to pick up the gold medal for the U.S.

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American Olympian Allyson Felix made history at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday.

Felix finished with a bronze medal in the women’s 400-meter, giving her 10 track and field Olympic medals and making her the most decorated female Olympic track and field athlete of all time.

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Soon after the U.S. women finished off Serbia to reach the Olympic gold medal game, members of the Japanese military honor guard started practicing for the medal ceremony.

The U.S. already knows that drill.

Brittney Griner had 15 points and 12 rebounds to help the Americans beat the Serbians 79-59 on Friday to advance to title game.

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Mike Scioscia is one win from matching mentor Tommy Lasorda, the only manager to lead the United States to a baseball gold medal.

Host Japan, which stopped its major league season during the Tokyo Olympics, is the favorite in Saturday's gold medal game (6 a.m. EDT).

Scioscia's team, a mixture of prospects mostly from Double-A, career minor leaguers and released veterans, overcame a blown ninth-inning lead in a 7-6, 10-inning loss to Japan to reach the final by beating the Dominican Republic 3-1 and South Korea 7-2.

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Nerves once were Alberto Ginés Lopéz's biggest obstacle on the climbing wall. Didn't matter if he was in the finals or well down the standings, the fear of climbing in front of other people left him locked up.

The Spanish teenager not only overcame those jitters, he conquered the world's best climbers on the sport's biggest stage.

At ease in front of a worldwide audience, Ginés Lopéz won the first Olympic gold medal in sport climbing, riding a victory in the speed discipline to the top of the podium Thursday at the Tokyo Games.

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Tokyo Olympics officials removed a statue of a sumo wrestler from the equestrian jumping course on Friday as questions surfaced over whether it scared horses competing in the event.

The sumo wrestler was swapped out before the start of Friday night’s competition. Officials said designer Santiago Varela had planned on removing the statue before riders had wondered whether their horses were being startled by the item.

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Simone Biles’ boyfriend, Houston Texans safety Jonathan Owens, said Thursday he tried his best to keep the superstar American gymnast’s head held high while she dealt with the "twisties" and other mental hurdles a world away at the Tokyo Olympics.

Owens did the best to comfort Biles the best he could. Biles would continue her work at a gym at a Japanese university to work and work and work until she got over what was ailing her. He told the Houston Chronicle he was "sick" watching his girlfriend struggle on the global stage like that.

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The U.S. women's volleyball team made it to the gold medal match for the fourth time ever by avenging a semifinal loss five years ago to Serbia with a 25-19, 25-15, 25-23 victory Friday.

The Americans easily dispatched the team that denied them a chance at their elusive first gold medal in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. They advanced to the gold medal match against the winner of the Brazil-South Korea semifinal. Serbia will play the loser for the bronze.

Americans April Ross and Alix Klineman beat out Australia to claim Olympic gold in beach volleyball on Friday.

The team bested Aussies Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy 21-15 and 21-16.

The Americans lost only one set in seven matches in Tokyo.

Klineman, a first-time Olympian, and Ross, who has three medals in as many trips to the Summer Games, needed just 20 minutes to claim the first set. They fell behind 2-0 in the second before scoring 10 straight points to pull away.

After defeating South Korea in an Olympic baseball semi-final game Thursday night in Yokohama, Eddy Alvarez is poised to become the third American and sixth Olympian in the game’s history to win a medal at the both the winter and summer Olympics.

The former speedskater won a silver medal at the 2014 Sochi Games and is guaranteed a medal when he plays in the gold medal game against Japan on Saturday.

“I got emotional because it was a lot of sacrifice,” he said after the game and a good cry. “I still can't believe it. I know the job’s not done yet because at the end of the day, one of the only reasons why I came out here is for redemption, to win a gold medal."