Tokyo Olympics

5 to Watch: U.S. Takes Gold Medals in Skeet Shooting, Stanford and UC Berkeley Compete in Swimming

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The Olympic Games continue to have us glued to the screen, celebrate when our teams take the win and hope for the best when the outcome is not as great.

Good news is, Monday morning started with two Americans - Amber English and Vincent Hancock - taking gold medals back home thanks to their win in skeet shooting. In the swimming world, two American world record holders are defending their Olympic crowns.

Let's dive right into what you need to look out for today:

Two American world record holders headline swimming finals

Lilly King and Ryan Murphy will look to defend their Olympic crowns Monday night.

King will race in the final for the women’s 100m breaststroke, an event where she set the world record in 2017. She finished with the third-fastest time in Sunday’s qualifying, trailing fellow American Lydia Jacoby and South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker, who broke King’s Olympic record with a time of 1:04.82.

Murphy, on the other hand, set the world record in the men’s 100m backstroke at the 2016 Rio Olympics. After finishing tied for seventh overall in Sunday’s heats, he posted the top time in the semifinals, putting him in line to repeat in the event.

The women’s 100m backstroke will also be an intriguing final after the Olympic record was broken in three consecutive heats on Sunday. Canadian Kylie Masse and American teenager Regan Smith each owned the record for exactly one heat before Australian Kaylee McKeown raised the bar in the final race.

The other final taking place on Monday is the men’s 200m freestyle. Kieran Smith, who already won bronze in the men’s 400m freestyle, will battle against Great Britain’s Duncan Scott.

Monday night’s action will also feature semifinal races for the women’s 200m freestyle, men’s 200m butterfly and women’s 200m individual medley.

Watch live in NBC’s primetime coverage, or stream live here.

Simone Biles leads USA Gymnastics into women’s team final

The GOAT of gymnastics will have her first chance to earn a medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Simone Biles earned the top all-around score in qualifying, but there’s work to be done if she wants to come out on top in the women’s team final, which begins at 3:45 a.m. PT on Tuesday. Team USA finished with an overall score of 170.562 in qualifying, good for second place behind the Russian Olympic Committee’s 171.629. China, France and Belgium finished qualifying in third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

Biles will be joined by 20-year-old Jordan Chiles, 18-year-old Suni Lee and 18-year-old Grace McCallum in the team event. Lee finished third in qualifying with an all-around score of 57.166, while McCallum and Chiles finished 13th and 40th, respectively. While the U.S. owns two of the top three spots for all-around scores, ROC has the fourth, fifth and sixth-highest scores on its team.

Watch the women’s gymnastics team final live on the Olympic channel. You can stream full coverage here or with the Team USA tracker here.

Undefeated Team USA takes on Japan in softball gold medal game

After a walk-off win against Japan on Sunday, Team USA will once again face the host nation in the softball gold medal game at 4 a.m. PT on Tuesday.

Both teams were 4-0 entering Sunday’s matchup and had clinched their spots in the gold medal game before facing one another in the final game of round-robin play.

The Americans have been led by outstanding pitching from Cat Osterman and Salinas native Monica Abbott. Neither pitcher conceded a run over the first three games of the tournament. The team has also seen some timely hitting, as Amanda Chidester walked it off with a two-run single in the eighth inning against Australia on Saturday and Kelsey Stewart hit a walk-off home run against Japan on Sunday.

The game is a rematch of the 2008 gold medal game at the Beijing Olympics, where Japan became the first and only team to keep Team USA off the top of the podium in softball.

Watch the game live on NBCSN or stream it at NBCOlympics.com.  

Santa Cruz's own competes in women's triathlon

Santa Cruz’s Katie Zaferes competes in the individual women’s event beginning at 2:30 p.m. Watch the livestream at NBCOlympics.com.

Stanford's Katie Ledecky and UC Berkeley's Ryan Murphy compete for swimming win

Stanford’s Katie Ledecky competed in the women’s 200m free qualifying at 3:05 a.m. Monday She races again during NBC’s primetime coverage beginning at 6:30 p.m. You can watch her here.

UC Berkeley’s Ryan Murphy will race in the finals of the 100m backstroke at 6:59 p.m. You can watch both races on NBC or see them streamed live here.

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