Simone Biles is Captain America

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Good morning, Winners! Thanks so much for tapping in with The Morning Win today. We appreciate you for giving us a bit of your time.

Here’s your Monday morning Olympic medal count:

— United States: 12 (3 gold, 6 silver, 3 bronze)

— France: 10 (3 gold, 5 silver, 2 bronze)

— China: 9 (5 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze)

— Japan: 8 (4 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze)

— Republic of Korea: 7 (4 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze)

Simone Biles is truly the best of us

Have you ever watched the Avengers in the MCU? Of course, you have. And you’re probably a big fan of Steve Rogers, aka Captain America.

Do you know why you’re a fan? It’s probably not the super strength or super speed. It’s not the heroic quips he gives us. It’s not even America’s [expletive].

It’s what he represents. And, no, I don’t mean the flag. I mean his mentality.

No matter what the odds are, he never gives up. Everything might be working against him. But, still, in the face of it all he remains unphased. “I can do this all day,” he’ll say, as he peels himself up off the ground for the umpteenth time.

To me, that’s who Simone Biles is today.

Learning about Biles’ injury was certainly a scary moment. She hurt her leg while going through her jaw-dropping beam routine, according to USA Today Sports’ Tom Schad.

“Not again,” I thought, as flashbacks to her twisties scare rushed back into my mind. “Not like this.” 

It’d be one thing for Biles to lose. If she doesn’t win gold at this year’s Olympics, that’s fine. But if she were to lose, we all want to see her go down swinging. What we don’t want are circumstances out of her control ruining her run. Not for a second consecutive Games.

Luckily for us, she seems just fine. Or, at least, as good as can be considering the injury, she told the crowd. In other words, she can do this all day. And by “this” I mean absolutely shattering the sport of gymnastics.

Biles’ routines are still so good that it doesn’t even matter when she gets dinged on execution. The difficulty is so great on her skills that she still achieves heights that no one else can. That’s what makes her special. That’s what makes her one of the greatest athletes we’ve ever seen.

Oh, captain. My captain. Please, keep cooking.

France’s new phenom

Here’s our daily word from Michelle Martinelli, with boots on the ground in France. Today, she shares what it was like to witness the ascension of France’s new superstar, Léon Marchand. 

NANTERRE, France — French swimming superstar Léon Marchand winning his first gold medal in the men’s 400-meter individual medley wasn’t a surprise Sunday night. He’s the world record holder and was the clear favorite.

But his first final electrified the crowd at Paris La Défense Arena, which was filled with French fans and flags.

“I’m not sure there’s been anything like this [atmosphere],” said Bob Bowman, Michael Phelps’ longtime coach who now coaches Marchand. “It was amazing really to have that home-team advantage — not an advantage, but just energy, right? It’s crazy. I feel like it was something that I haven’t really seen in a meet.”

Can’t say I’ve seen anything like it either! It felt like the arena might crumble.

Paris La Défense Arena went wild for French swimmer Léon Marchand, who totally dominated the 400 IM and won his first gold. 4:02.95 is an Olympic record and .45 of a second shy of his WR

Unquestionably the loudest this place has been so far pic.twitter.com/zXwjLy7s3j

— Michelle R. Martinelli (@MMartinelli4) July 28, 2024

Fans couldn’t get enough of Marchand — who swam at Arizona State for three seasons, and was a three-time Pac-12 (RIP) Men’s Swimmer of the Year, before turning pro this year — as he absolutely dominated. Their enthusiasm was intoxicating.

“I opened my eyes, I listened to everything going on around me, and that really pushed me to do a good race,” Marchand said.

Every time he hit the wall and fans saw his splits, they got louder. And he ran away with the victory, ahead of American first-time Olympian Carson Foster, who won bronze.

No worries if you missed Marchand’s first race because he’ll likely have three more finals with the 200-meter IM, 200-meter breaststroke and 200-meter butterfly. I don’t know if the crowd’s energy comes across well on TV, but I expect it to be just as loud in person anytime he races.

Benching Jayson Tatum was FINE

There are a bunch of angry Celtics fans on my Twitter timeline because Steve Kerr benched Jayson Tatum in Team USA’s opening basketball game against Serbia.

But, listen. When those same Celtics fans can tell me who they’d have benched to put Tatum in the game, we’ll talk.

Prince Grimes has more on it here:

“But did they win though?

Many coaching decisions that fall under public scrutiny can be put to bed that simply for me. If it worked, let’s move on.

That’s where I stand when it comes do Steve Kerr’s decision to bench Jayson Tatum Sunday for all of Team USA’s win over Serbia in group play of the Paris Olympics. Many people found it to be disrespectful to a First Team All-NBA player fresh off leading his team to a championship — especially given two of his Boston Celtics teammates combined for almost 40 minutes in the game. But as Kerr explained after the win, the matchup and Kevin Durant’s return from injury dictated Tatum sit.

The results speak for themselves. USA won by 26 points. Let’s move on. The only thing owed to Tatum was a conversation about the decision. Kerr said that took place prior to the game.”

Eyes on the prize, people.

READ MORE: Kevin Durant is exactly what Team USA was missing.

Quick hits: Dawn Staley thinks Caitlin Clark could’ve been an Olympian … Meet Bob, the catcher … and more

— Dawn Staley says Caitlin Clark probably could’ve been an Olympian. Here’s Robert Zeglinski with more.

— Bob the Cap Catcher is taking the Olympics by storm. Here’s Charles Curtis with more.

— Javy Baéz really needs to chill LOL. Andrew Joseph has more.

— GMFB is BACK! Here’s Charles again with more.

— Here’s Robert on why fans are booing Joel Embiid at the Olympics

— Here’s Michelle with a day-in-the-life piece on Olympic swimmers. This is awesome.

That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for reading. Let’s do this again tomorrow. Until then! Peace.

-Sykes