What to observe at Olympics in the present day: Simone Biles is again, LeBron James and Group USA face Serbia

Motion round France continues with a slate of noteworthy stars set to make their 2024 Olympic debuts on Sunday.

The U.S. girls’s gymnastics staff, headlined by Simone Biles, competes in {qualifications} early within the day. Later, the U.S. males’s basketball staff, led by LeBron James, performs Serbia and Nikola Jokić in a matchup of high NBA expertise.

Elsewhere, the U.S. girls’s nationwide soccer staff faces Germany as each groups purpose for the highest spot of their group, a French swimming sensation might go for gold and the browsing competitors rolls on in Tahiti.

Along with swimming, medal occasions in archery, kayaking, biking, fencing, judo, taking pictures and skateboarding will happen.

Right here’s what we’re following.

Occasions to observe

Biles makes Olympic return

Time: 5:40 a.m. ET, 11:40 a.m. in Paris
TV: E!/NBC and Peacock (reside)

What to observe for: Biles, a seven-time Olympic medalist, returns to the Video games after withdrawing from most of her occasions on the Tokyo Olympics as a result of twisties, a psychological block that may have an effect on gymnasts whereas performing an aerial maneuver.

She enters the Paris Video games as the first gymnast to beat, whereas the US is aiming for gold within the staff occasions. (Russia — the defending champion in each the lads’s and girls’s staff all-around — is banned from collaborating in staff sports activities on the Paris Olympics.)

Biles is joined by Olympic all-around champion Sunisa Lee, reigning flooring train champion Jade Carey, 2021 silver medal winner Jordan Chiles and 16-year-old Hezly Rivera on the U.S. staff.

Girls’s staff qualifying begins at 3:30 a.m. ET at Bercy Enviornment, with the U.S. up at 5:40 a.m. ET together with China and Italy. The ladies’s staff ultimate is about for 12:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

U.S. males’s basketball vs. Serbia

Time: 11:15 a.m. ET, 5:15 p.m. in Paris
TV: NBC and Peacock (reside)

What to observe for: Cease us should you’ve heard this earlier than: The U.S. males’s basketball staff is loaded with expertise — with James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant simply a few of the notable names on the roster — because the U.S. goes for a fifth straight Olympic gold. However the American staff isn’t the one one with an NBA pedigree. Three-time NBA MVP Jokić and Atlanta Hawks guard Bogdan Bogdanović star for Serbia, the primary staff the U.S. faces in group play.

The U.S. regarded dominant in opposition to Serbia in a pre-Olympic exhibition recreation earlier this month, however solely beat South Sudan by one level in an analogous tune-up.

Yet another factor: Durant — a three-time Olympic gold medalist — may lastly play after a calf harm sidelined him by the staff’s summer time exhibitions.

U.S. girls’s soccer vs. Germany

Time: 3 p.m. ET, 9 p.m. in Paris
TV: USA/Telemundo and Peacock (reside)

What to observe for: Each the People and the Germans received their first video games in Group B, with the U.S. beating Zambia 3-0 and Germany beating Australia by the identical rating. Each the U.S. and German sides are additionally looking for redemption in a significant worldwide event.

Germany (No. 4 on the earth in FIFA’s rankings) did not qualify for the final Olympics in 2021 and didn’t advance previous the group stage on the 2023 Girls’s World Cup in one of many greatest upsets within the event’s historical past. The USA (ranked No. 5) completed with a bronze medal on the Tokyo Video games and crashed out of the 2023 Girls’s World Cup within the spherical of 16, a significant disappointment for the four-time event champions that prompted a training change.

The winner of Group B will face the second-place finisher in Group C (Spain, Brazil, Japan or Nigeria) in a quarterfinal on Aug. 3. The U.S. girls’s staff wraps up group play with Australia on Wednesday.

A primary Olympic medal for the ‘French Michael Phelps’?

Time: 2:30 p.m. ET, 8:30 p.m. in Paris
TV: NBC and Peacock (reside)

What to observe for: Swimming continues Sunday with finals for the lads’s 400-meter particular person medley (2:30 p.m. ET), the ladies’s 100-meter butterfly (2:40 p.m.) and the lads’s 100-meter breaststroke (3:44 p.m. ET) at Paris La Défense Enviornment.

Headlining the lads’s 400-meter IM with the most effective odds for gold is Léon Marchand, or as some have dubbed him, the “French Michael Phelps.” Marchand, who trains with Phelps’ former coach and competes in the identical occasions because the swim legend, shattered Phelps’ 400-meter IM report by greater than a second final summer time.

The 22-year-old Frenchman can also be competing within the 200-meter IM, 200-meter butterfly and 200-meter breaststroke on the Paris Video games.

Within the girls’s 100 butterfly, two 21-year-old People — Gretchen Walsh, who holds the world report, and Torri Huske — have the most effective odds, per BetMGM. Within the males’s 100 breaststroke, China’s Qin Haiyang, Nice Britain’s Adam Peaty and the US’ Nic Fink have the most effective odds.

Olympic browsing in Tahiti

Time: 1 p.m. ET, 7 a.m. native
TV: Peacock (reside)

What to observe for: Whereas most athletes are competing in and round Paris for the Olympics, on the opposite facet of the world, the Olympic browsing competitors is being held on the French Polynesian island of Tahiti. The second rounds of the lads’s and girls’s occasions are Sunday (with the lads’s beginning at 11:48 p.m. ET/5:48 p.m. native after the ladies’s at 1 p.m. ET/7 a.m. native), climate allowing.

The fields, which started with 24 rivals on both sides, can be whittled down by three rounds earlier than the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals scheduled for Wednesday. There are additionally reserve days to account for poor wave and wind circumstances.

U.S. athletes to observe embrace 22-year-old sensation Caroline Marks and Carissa Moore, the defending Olympic gold medalist, on the ladies’s facet. For the U.S. males, John John Florence, a 31-year-old Hawaii native, is a notable title.

View the complete day’s Olympic schedule right here.

Saturday’s spotlight

TEAM USA STRIKES GOLD. 💪

CAELEB DRESSEL BRINGS IT HOME IN THE MEN’S 4X100 FREE RELAY. #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/rJwrSEWhps

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 27, 2024

The USA’ first gold medal of the Olympics got here within the pool.

Chris Guiliano, Jack Alexy, Hunter Armstrong and Caeleb Dressel mixed to guide the U.S. to a dominant victory within the males’s 4×100 freestyle relay, beating Australia (silver) and Italy (bronze). It’s the third consecutive Video games wherein the U.S. has received gold within the occasion.

Honorable point out goes to Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, the Spanish tennis gamers who received their first match as doubles companions.

Extra on the 2024 Paris Olympics

(Photograph: Naomi Baker / Getty Pictures)