Best moments from bonkers Olympic Sunday, plus the White Sox's sad place in history

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Top Five: A delightfully dizzying Sunday in Paris

The Olympics have been great so far. No doubt about that. But yesterday, the worldwide obsession flexed. The top five wildest moments, plus some honorable mentions:

5. Team USA’s medley relay record
The U.S. women ended their Olympic run with an incredible showing in the 4×100-meter medley relay, a race that went from tight to blowout quickly. Regan Smith, Lilly King, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske finished in 3:49.63, a world record, and beat the field by more than three seconds. Maybe just as shocking: the Chinese men winning their 4×100-meter relay, marking the American men’s first-ever loss in the event. The upset brought more attention to a doping controversy, too.

4. Kristen Faulkner’s breakaway win
Since 1984, no American woman had won an Olympic road racing gold medal until yesterday. Faulkner — a replacement athlete in these Games, no less — broke away from the field with three kilometers to go to claim top honors. Faulkner’s road here is even wilder: from venture capitalist in 2020 to Olympic gold medalist in 2024.

3. Scottie Scheffler’s incredible back nine
It has been a dumbfounding year for Scheffler, who won the Masters, welcomed his first child, got arrested before a major tournament and still played … and is now an Olympic gold medalist, posting a 29 on the home stretch to win after Jon Rahm collapsed. It was touching to see Scheffler, famously stoic, get emotional on the podium.

Andrew Redington / Getty Images2. Bobby Finke’s unbelievable stamina
Every Olympics, I watch the 1500-meter swim and wonder how anyone survives. It is a long event by Olympic swimming standards, but instead of boring you, each lap ratchets up tension as you watch a person keep swimming faster than you ever could. That was Finke yesterday, leading wire-to-wire in the sport’s most grueling event. His gold medal is the only individual male swimming gold won by an American in these Olympics.

1. Noah Lyles, of course
More than 24 hours have passed since the 27-year-old’s shocking victory in the 100-meter dash yesterday, and you could still convince me he maybe didn’t win. That’s how close this race was, with the top four runners finishing within one-tenth of a second of each other. Just look at this:

Rodolfo Buhrer / Eurasia Sport Images / Getty Images

Lyles’ win — the first for an American in this event in 20 years — was even more impressive, considering his poor start. He didn’t lead a second of this race until he crossed the finish line, and that’s after weeks’ worth of his bravado. As Marcus Thompson III wrote, Lyles’ mouth wrote the check before the Olympics — and his feet cashed it.

Honorable mentions from yesterday: 

News to Know

Michigan coach could face NCAA penalty
New Michigan football head coach Sherrone Moore could be subject to a Level II charge from the NCAA in connection to the school’s spying scandal last season, sources confirmed to The Athletic’s Austin Meek. Moore allegedly deleted text messages with former Wolverines assistant Connor Stalions, the center of the supposed spying operation, instead of handing them over to the NCAA. All this information comes from a draft notice of allegations, which Michigan received yesterday. See the full report here.

Freeman’s son discharged
Freddie Freeman’s son Maximus was discharged from the hospital after an eight-day stay, according to a post on Instagram from Freeman’s wife, Chelsea. Last week, Chelsea disclosed that Maximus had been diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare neurological condition in which the body’s immune system attacks its nervous system. According to Chelsea’s post, Maximus will have to learn how to walk again. More details here.

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