As the first full week of the Olympics got underway, there were plenty of Tigers in action across a range of events, with a handful taking home medals.
Three current and former Tigers won gold for their respective countries, with junior foil Maia Weintraub bringing home a gold for Team USA fencing and Hannah Scott ’21 and Nick Mead ’17 winning golds in rowing for the United Kingdom and Team USA, respectively.
Here’s a catch-up on how other Tigers fared this week in events ranging from field hockey to swimming.
Fencing: Women’s Sabre, Individual
Rising sophomore Tatiana Nazlymov faced off against South Korean Choi Seb in the women’s individual sabre tournament. The two traded blows for most of the first period, with Choi heading into the break up by two — 8–6 — after two straight hits.
The eighteenth-seeded Choi widened her lead as the period started to 11–7, but that was just the spark Nazlymov needed to come back. After a 7–1 run, Nazlymov was up 14–12 on the South Korean, but unfortunately couldn’t hold on, as Choi, who went on to finish fourth overall, scored the next three hits to defeat Nazlymov 15–14 in a nail-biter.
Fencing: Men’s Foil, Individual
Facing thirtieth-seeded Jan Jurkiewicz of Poland, Mohamed Hamza ’23 opened up a quick 6–2 lead in his first-round bout, but Jurkiewicz came back quickly, taking a 10–8 lead into the end of the first period.
Hamza, the third overall seed, then dug in. Quickly evening the score at 10, he seized momentum to open up a decisive 14–11 lead, and Hamza was forced to eke out a nail-biting victory 15–14 after Jurkiewicz fought back.
In the round of 16, Hamza met fourteenth seed Carlos Llavador from Spain, engaging in an intense back-and-forth in the first period and heading into the break up 8–7. Just as in his last bout, Hamza played well out of the break, opening up a 14–10 lead. Here, Hamza was able to shut the door faster than against Jurkiewicz, winning 15–12 and advancing to the quarterfinals.
Unfortunately, Hamza’s string of wins soon came to an end. A one-period affair, the eleventh-seeded Italian Filippo Macchi jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, going up 6–2 en route to a demanding 12–3 lead. While Hamza clawed back to make it 14–9, that would be as close as it got, as Macchi then won 15–9 with 36 seconds still left in the first period.
Hamza lost to a strong opponent, as Macchi went on to cruise through the semifinals before winning silver after losing by one in the gold medal bout.
Fencing: Women’s Epee, Team
On a team led by Princeton’s Hadley Husisian ’27 and Katharine Holmes ’17, the Team USA women’s epee squad narrowly lost in their first-round matchup against Team Poland 31–29 after qualifying in sixth place.
Husisian opened up for Team USA, taking a 3–1 lead against Pole Martyna Swatowska-Wenglarczyk. She got the call again with the Americans up 7–6, losing the Americans’ small lead against Aleksandra Jarecka as the score leveled at 10.
Holmes got the call halfway through, substituting in for Margherita Guzzi Vincenti. She then held serve by leaving just as she came in with the United States up by three.
To close out for the Americans, it was Husisian’s turn yet again up 21–19, slipping a bit to hand it off to Holmes up 25–24. However, that was where the small American lead they had maintained during the rest of the bout evaporated, as Poland, led by Swatowska-Wenglarczyk, came back to win a tight battle, 31–29, ultimately going on to win the bronze medal.
Women’s Field Hockey
In their second match of group stage play, Team USA faced off against Spain in a low-scoring battle. The red, white, and blue got things started with a fourteenth minute goal from Sophia Gladieux, but Spain leveled right back in the second quarter to tie it at one apiece, where it would stay for the rest of the matchup. Junior Beth Yeager fired off two of the United States’s seven shots.
In their next group stage matchup, the Americans faced a tough Australian team who dealt them a 3–0 defeat. Australia outshot the United States by a score of 15–7, although three of those shots were fired by Yeager, demonstrating her robust involvement in the attack.
Team USA continued their round-robin play with a matchup against Great Britain. Sophie Hamilton gave the Brits an early 1–0 lead in the fourth minute, but Abigail Tamer answered right back for the United States. In the second, Team Great Britain added two more, and once again, Tamer responded. However, Tamer’s response would be the last Team USA could muster, as Great Britain added two more later to win 5–2.
Team USA then took down South Africa in their final game in Paris on Saturday in a 1–0 victory, marking the end of Yeager’s time on the world’s biggest stage.
Women’s Water Polo
Following a triumphant opening win against Greece, the United States had a tough battle with Spain. Taking a 3–2 lead at the end of the first quarter, Team USA faltered slightly in the second, heading to the half down 6–5, with their fifth goal coming from sophomore center Jovana Sekulic. In the third, Spain widened their lead to 10–6, and despite a valiant effort, the United States couldn’t come back, losing 13–10. Goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson ’17 did her part in the goal, making 13 saves for a 50 percent save percentage, far higher than Spain’s 38 percent.
Their third game was similar to the Greece matchup, as once again Team USA cruised to an easy victory. Johnson was once again dominant in goal, only letting in three goals on 12 shots. Sekulic did not score in this matchup, but there was no need for concern, as the United States won 10–3.
Team USA finished their group stage play on Friday versus France, with a decisive 17–5 victory over the hosts.
3x3 Men’s Basketball
The USA 3-on-3 Men’s Basketball is out of the Olympic Games after a crushing loss to the Netherlands, 21–6, on Sunday.
Kareem Maddox ’11 and the USA 3-on-3 Men’s Basketball team got off to a slow start in Paris, dropping their first four games. Maddox and company never lost faith, however, eking out a close 21–19 victory against the hometown French team.
Maddox, who was a forward for the Tigers, plays the big man role on the American team, along with three guards. In the five games, before the Netherlands loss, he averaged 4.2 points and 3.2 rebounds a game, with his highlight performance of five points and six boards coming in the 21–19 loss to Latvia — a game the Americans were leading for much of the matchup. The Americans in Paris secured another close victory on Friday, winning 21–17 against China.
Bad luck plagued Team USA’s play, and they were down to only three available players due to Jimmer Fredette’s injury ahead of their game against the Dutch. The Netherlands pulled away with a 5–4 lead,that only grew throughout the game as the Americans lost steam through the match. A technical foul issued after Maddox slammed Dutch player Worthy de Jong to the ground, held back the team from making gains on their opponents.
By the end of the game, Team USA was bounced out of the Olympics, a stark contrast from the winning 5-on-5 team. Maddox attributed the showing to Team USA's lack of dedication to the 3-on-3 game.
“It’s not visible except for every four years in the United States,” he said after the game, according to Yahoo sports. “There’s no professional-level tournaments there. The closest we get is probably Edmonton, Canada … The team we just played has been building and refining that very team for this very moment for seven years now, and we’re just in a little bit of a different situation. Those are all full-time 3x3 guys.”
Swimming
Adell Sabovic ’25, a member of the Princeton Swim and Dive team, represented Kosovo in the Men’s 100m freestyle on Tuesday. Sabovic swam a 51.77 in his heat, which was 58th overall and not enough to qualify for the semifinals.
Track and Field, Pole Vault
After clearing 5.75m, Sondre Guttormsen ’23 is one of twelve athletes to qualify for the Olympic pole vault final. Guttormsen, who failed to qualify for the final during his first Olympic games in Tokyo 2020, will finally get his shot at the podium on Monday, Aug. 5 at 1 p.m. ET.
Max Hines is a senior Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’
Harrison Blank is an assistant Sports editor at the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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