Good Morning! Today is Monday, August 12. Here’s what happened in the world of sports over the weekend.

OLYMPICS

Three final days of competition, and we’ve got eight bullet points. For one last time in Les Jeux Olympics, here we go:

• The French men’s basketball team battled hard all the way to the end, but LeBron, Steph, and KD were not to be denied their gold medal. Part of me wants to devote an entire Remix to this matchup– few basketball games will compare to the best players in the world playing at their highest level. In the time and space I do have, however, I’ll simply highlight Steph Curry’s fourth quarter performance, leading the US to another gold medal.

• The final few days on the track provided some great moments, too. Sha’Carri Richardson chased down the competition to bring home gold in the 4×100 relay. Masai Richardson won the 110 meter hurdles by .01 seconds. And both the American men and women won the 4×400 meter relay– the men’s finish was close, while the women practically basically lapped the other teams.

• It wasn’t all positives for Team USA over the weekend. For the first time since women’s water polo was introduced in 2000, the US failed to medal. In gymnastics, the bronze medal awarded to Jordan Chiles might be taken away due to some strange and arbitrary rules.

• Breaking was introduced as an Olympic sport for the first time, and some dancers were really great. Another, an Australian named Raygun, failed to register a single point. All of that is to say the following: there are a lot things in life that are extremely difficult. Not all those things should be in the Olympics.

• The US women’s soccer team won a gold medal on Sunday, beating Brazil 1-0. Goalie Alyssa Naher saved the game with this diving stop in the final moments, while Mallory Swanson scored the winning goal.

• Long-distance runner Sifan Hassan is re-defining what long distance really means. Hassan medaled in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters before winning gold in the women’s marathon on Sunday. No one in Olympic history has even attempted to compete in all three events in the same year.

• The US women’s basketball team escaped Paris with an eighth-straight gold medal. The heavy favorites going into these games, the US beat France 67-66, surviving after a last-second shot by the French was ruled a two-pointer instead of a three. A win is a win, though right? The dominant gold-medal streak continues.

• And finally, the closing ceremony passed the torch from Paris 24 to LA 28. It was a great mixing of the two cities– there was a golden man doing abstract dance, and Tom Cruise jumped off the roof of the stadium to carry the Olympic flag to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. 

MLB

That’s a lot of Olympic stuff. There are also some very impressive plays of the weekend below. Not to mention the next two weeks are going to be very, very baseball heavy. With all that in mind, The Remix is keeping things Sabrina Carpenter’s new album out on August 23rd (aka Short N’ Sweet) in today’s MLB section:

• Freddie Freeman hit his first home run since rejoining the Dodgers last week. The star first baseman had been away from the team to be with his son, who was hospitalized with a rare neurological disorder. With his son home and recovering, it’s great to see Freddie back on the field.

• There were quite a few walk-off wins this weekend, but none were better than the Diamondbacks' victory on Friday. Adrian Del Castillo hit a walk-off for his first career home run!

• If you want to be a successful young baseball player in 2024, you might want to change your name to Jackson. Over the weekend, Jackson Merrill launched another late-inning home run for the surging Padres, and Jackson Holliday continued his hot streak with a home run for the Orioles. You’ve also got Jackson Chourio in Milwaukee having a superb year. The hits just keep coming for the Jackson 3.

• Finally, the last game of the weekend was Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN in Seattle… for the first time in 20 years! The Mariners showed up for the occasion, beating the Mets 12-1.

NFL

This will be the only time you see NFL preseason highlights in The Remix, because this is 1) a pretty cool play, and 2) your official warning that we are less than one month away from the first game of the NFL season. Here is Rams backup QB and Georgia legend Stetson Bennett throwing an awesome game-winning touchdown pass:

Au revoir, Paris!

So much has happened at these Paris Olympics. Instead of Noteworthy News (or is Newsworthy Notes?) The Remix is providing one last Paris retrospective. There are two ways to recap the games. First, the final medal count (top ten):

Second, it is my great honor to present the All-Remix Olympic team. These are the most outstanding winners of the 2024 games (in no particular order):

GoldZone and Snoop Dog: We begin with the stars of the broadcast. NBC did an an outstanding job producing these games, with the whip-around coverage of GoldZone and Snoop’s unmatched charisma shining the brightest.

Ryan Crouser and Valarie Allman: Crouser won his third gold medal in a row in shot put, while Allman won her second straight gold in discus. Pretty impressive.

Katie Ledecky, Leon Marchand, and Summer McIntosh: The three stars of the Paris pool. Ledecky continued her dominance in the long-distance freestyle swims, while newcomers McIntosh and Marchand won multiple medals in their first ever Olympic appearances. Marchand might also be the new king of France.

Dutch field hockey goalies: Both the men’s and women’s teams won gold medal games in shootouts. How cool is that?

LeBron James and Steph Curry: Two of the all-time greats. Do I need to say anything else?

Mando Duplantis: Speaking of all-time greats, how about breaking your own world record for the ninth time? Mando is not just a pole vault legend, he’s one of the best athletes in the world.

Triple Espresso: That’s the self-given nickname of Sophia Smith, Mallory Swanson, and Trinity Rodman, the forward group for the US women’s soccer team. All three were crucial in winning the gold medal.

Ilona Maher: From the stiff-arm heard round the world to her growing social media following, it’s safe to say no one has done more for women’s rugby than Maher. She was uber-successful in all aspects of these Olympics.

Novak Djokovic: There’s nothing else left to accomplish for Novak. A hard-fought victory in the gold medal match has filled in the final spot of his trophy cabinet.

Simone Biles and Stephen Nedoroscik: The greatest gymnast we’ve ever seen and a pommel horse specialist who captured the nation. These two were the standouts from the gymnastics competition in Paris, each in their own unique way.

Combat sport athletes who never lose: French legend Teddy Riner dominated again in judo, 20-year old American Amit Elor continued her unbeaten streak in wrestling, and Mijain Lopez retired as the first athlete ever to win five golds in the same event.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone: There are a lot of track events, and each is won by someone super fast. None separated from the pack like McLaughlin-Levrone, who won the 400 meter hurdles and the 4×400 relay.

Handball and Beach Volleyball: I think these two emerged as my favorite sports to watch at this year’s games. So much fun.

And with that, the book is closed on the 2024 Olympics! See you all in LA in four years!

TOP PLAYS OF THE WEEKEND

10: We begin with a reminder that pitchers are athletes, too. Dodgers rookie River Ryan made this impressive play.

9: Next up is a crazy winner from the US men’s volleyball team. I had to watch the point a few times to understand what happened.

8: Two veteran gold glovers share this spot. First, Matt Chapman went over his shoulder to make a grab. Then, Jason Heyward ran a long way before sliding into a nice catch.

7: Once again, I’m cheating a bit and counting these two fantastic golf shots as one play. First, Nelly Korda for birdie. And equally impressive, Hannah Green for eagle.

6: The first of two entires from the Mariners on this list, check out this acrobatic double-play. The expression is “turn two”, but they might as well have turned four or six!

5: It’s been an awesome summer of soccer for Spain, who followed up winning the Euros with a gold medal. The entire gold medal game against France was remarkable, but Spain’s 5-3 victory was highlighted by this free-kick goal.

4: Randy Orton is famous for his “RKO outta nowhere” move. How about Randy Arozarena outta nowhere to make this diving catch?

3: Have you seen the new Deadpool movie? It’s good, but nowhere close to as impressive as this goal from Ryan Reynolds’ soccer team, AFC Wrexham.

2: We all know who got the last laugh, but that takes nothing away from Guerschon Yabusele and his incredible dunk on LeBron James.

Speaking of the last laugh, NUMBER ONE is the greatest shooter of all-time, making one of the greatest three-pointers of his career:

TODAY’S BIG GAMES (all times Eastern)

MLB: Royals @ Twins, 7:40 PM; Dodgers @ Brewers, 8:10 PM; Braves @ Giants, 9:45 PM

• Three series begin tonight with massive playoff implications. First, two AL Central teams separated by half a game square off in Minnesota. Next, the NL West and Central leaders go head-to-head in Milwaukee. To round it out, the Giants and Braves are 1.5 games apart in a packed NL wild card race, and they face off in San Francisco. Here we go! The playoff push is heating up!

And that’s a Remix. Have a great Monday!