Olympic BMX gold medalist Connor Fields is out from the intensive care unit but remains hospitalized following a scary crash at the Tokyo Olympics.

Fields was the favorite for the BMX title at the Olympics, five years after winning the first gold medal in BMX for the United States. Unfortunately, his title defense abruptly ended when he crashed head-first after tangling with Romain Mathieu of France during his semifinal matchup on July 29.

Fields was immediately seen by medical personnel and taken to the hospital. It was later revealed that he suffered a broken rib, bruised lung and a brain hemorrhage from his crash in the semifinals. 

USA Cycling confirmed on July 31 that the 28-year-old American has since not had any new bleeding or head injuries.

“The doctors reported that Fields sustained a brain hemorrhage at the venue. After a night in the ICU, the doctors are pleased to report that there has been no additional bleeding, and no new injuries were found,” the statement continued. “Fields has been moved out of the critical care unit and will remain in the hospital until cleared.”

Fields will remain in the hospital until he is cleared to leave. Fields’ father, Michael Fields, spoke to USA Today and gave more information about his son. “Cognitively, he’s doing well. He knows where he is. He knows his birthday. He recognizes people.” 

 Michael hopes that his son will be cleared in the next five days.

Xander Schauffele held on to win the fourth-ever men’s Olympic event with a final-round 4-under 67. It was Schauffele’s first win anywhere in the world since the 2019 Tournament of Champions on Maui.

“Just in shock,” Schauffele, 27, said afterward. “I was trying so hard to just stay calm. Hit a terrible drive on 18, had to make a sort of sloppy par, and fortunately hit it close enough to sort of have a high percentage putt at roughly four, five feet. But, man, it was stressful. And I made that putt, and it was just a huge weight lifted off my shoulders and just very relieved and happy, of course.”

Schauffele’s win was in peril with Rory Sabbatini, who set an Olympic record with a 61, with two bogeys on his card, that nearly was good enough for a sudden-death playoff for the gold. Schauffele held the lead but on the 14th hole with a two-shot lead, he drove the ball into a thicket of trees. He took an unplayable lie, thinned his third shot when he clipped a tree branch but escaped with a bogey after a clutch putt.

The putt for par and a 4-under 67 was stressful for the golfer. All he had to was score from four feet away to win gold for the U.S.

“I just reminded myself, this is just a 4-footer,” he said Sunday. “All you have to do is make it. No big deal.”

Schauffele took gold, Sabbatini, who represented Slovakia happily took silver, and C.T. Pan of Chinese Taipei won bronze.

Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus won gold in the women’s 200-meter freestyle, and she set a new Olympic record with a 1:53.50 time.

At first, it seemed like Titmus wouldn’t earn a medal at all as she was trailing the top three for the first 100 meters. However, Titmus is known for her lightning finishes, and the Australian swimmer dominated the final 50 meters to pull off the upset. Hong Kong’s Siobhan Bernadette Haughey held the lead until the final 20 meters. Haughey took silver while Canadian Penny Oleksiak earned bronze.

“I’m bloody exhausted,” Titmus said. “That was a tough one, I knew Siobhan really wanted this, I could tell by the way that she swam yesterday. So I knew it would be tough to beat her. Honestly, it’s not the time that I thought I could do this morning, but it’s the Olympics, and there’s a lot of other things going on, so it’s just about winning here. I’m very happy.”

Her victory gave the Australian women their third individual swimming gold. It was Titmus’ second gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. More importantly, it was also another victory for her over rival Katie Ledecky. Ledecky was unable to keep up and finished fifth in the event. It was the first time in Ledecky’s career that she didn’t medal.

Before this event, Titmus defeated Ledecky in the 400-meter freestyle to end Ledecky’s streak.

The chief of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee has not ruled out the looming threat of a last-minute cancelation of the Olympics. The possibility has become a focal point as more and more athletes have tested positive for COVID-19 and a number of sponsors plan to ditch the opening ceremony on Friday.

Toshiro Muto said he planned to keep an eye on infection numbers and plan accordingly when asked about the possibility of a cancelation during a press conference.

“We can’t predict what will happen with the number of coronavirus cases. So we will continue discussions if there is a spike in cases,” Muto said.

“We have agreed that based on the coronavirus situation, we will convene five-party talks again. At this point, the coronavirus cases may rise or fall, so we will think about what we should do when the situation arises.”

Tokyo has been subject to rising COVID-19 cases. The Olympics are scheduled to be played out in empty arenas, implementing a precautionary approach after the event’s cancelation a year ago. The decision for events to be carried out without spectators was to minimize health risks.

Since July, there have been 67 positive COVID-19 cases among the athletes competing in the games. This has created further complications since athletes have been arriving at the games during this time period.

Japan has had an underwhelming push for vaccines compared to other developed nations, which has played a major role in the uptick of cases and the rising death toll.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach and Olympic organizers have never considered the idea of cancelation and assured a “safe and secure” competition. However, experts have explained the potential gaps and liabilities of the “bubble” for the Olympics.

Kenji Shibuya, former director of the Institute for Population Health at King’s College London, has been critical of the Olympic “bubble” and explained that it already seems to be broken.

“My biggest concern is, of course, there will be a cluster of infections in the athlete’s village or some of the accommodation and interaction with local people,” Shibuya added.

Seiko Hashimoto, organizing committee president, has recognized that measures taken to keep the Japanese public safe have not been effective and the widespread support for the Olympics has dropped drastically.

“I really want to apologize from my heart for the accumulation of frustrations and concerns that the public has been feeling towards the Olympics,” said Hashimoto.

Hashimoto also explained the public is uneasy “because they feel that the current situation appears to show that the playbooks that were meant to guarantee security is not providing a sense of safety.”

In a recent poll, 68% of respondents expressed doubt in the Olympic committee’s ability to control the spread of the virus and 55% of respondents expressed opposition to the Olympics going forward.

Three South African soccer players became the first athletes inside the Olympic Village to test positive for COVID-19, and other cases connected to the Tokyo Games were also confirmed Sunday. This comes amid IOC president Thomas Bach‘s claim that the Olympics will have “zero risks.”

Now that claim is being tested as there is now a COVID-19 outbreak. The positive tests started rising as many of the 11,00 athletes and thousands of more team officials expected from across the globe began arriving. The arriving athletes and team officials will live in close quarters in Olympic Village on Tokyo Bay over the next three weeks.

The positive tests continue to stroke fear in the Japanese public. There have been fears by the public that the Olympics would become a super-spreader event and causes a spike in infections among Japanese people.

On Sunday, three South African soccer team members became the first positive cases at Olympic Village. Because of the positive tests on the soccer team, a total of 21 members of the South African men’s soccer team for the Tokyo Olympics have been identified as close contacts, the games organizing committee said Monday.

The South African soccer team is scheduled to face Japan on Thursday. The South Africans identified as close contacts are allowed to play if they test negative in their polymerase chain reaction tests conducted within six hours before the match.

Team South Africa also confirmed the coach of their rugby sevens team, Neil Powell, tested positive at a pre-Olympics training camp in the southern Japanese city of Kagoshima. He is in isolation and will coach the team remotely during their July 26-28 Olympic campaign.

Brian McCloskey, a health expert advising the International Olympic Committee, said at a press conference on Monday that the athletes’ village is safe because people staying there are being tested for the virus regularly.

However, that is now being tested with the increase of positive tests among athletes. On Monday morning, the USOPC announced that an alternate on the U.S. women’s gymnastics team tested positive for COVID-19. Kara Eaker, 18, tested positive in Inzai, a Japanese city in the prefecture where the women’s gymnastics team recently held a training camp before the start of the Olympics.

United States tennis star Coco Gauff also recently pulled out of the Olympics after a positive COVID-19 test.

Organizers say that 55 people linked to the Olympics in Japan have reported positive tests since July 1, but that figure does not include athletes or others who may have arrived for training camps but are not yet under the “jurisdiction” of the organizing committee.

Stay tuned for more updates on this developing story.

Olympic athlete Katie Ledecky talks about her excitement towards the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. The Olympics were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the swimmer mentioned that the event was canceled before reaching the 100-day mark.

Olympic track-and-field athlete, Allyson Felix opens up about her mental health during the COVID-19 lockdown and the challenges she faced when she first found out she would not be going to the Olympics in 2020.

The 2020 Summer Olympics have already been pushed back to 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic, but there is still doubt among some athletes that the games will take place in 2021.

In speaking with CNN, US Women’s National Team co-captain Megan Rapinoe said that she is not entirely sure that the Olympics will happen given the current state of the world. “Frankly, I think the Olympics are in doubt next year,” Rapinoe said. “The more I think about it logistically, just bringing everybody together like that with the absence of drug therapies or anything like that just seems difficult.”

Rapinoe previously played for the U.S. team during both the 2012 London Games and 2016 Rio Game, where the U.S. won gold in 2012 and failed to make it out of the group stage in 2016. She has also played on three World Cup teams for the United States, coming in second in 2011, and winning it all in both 2015 and 2019. 

Rapinoe has also been very vocal in regards to the wage disparity between the U.S. men’s soccer team, and the women’s team, despite how much more success the women have had versus the men since the turn of the century. “To signal to not only the boys that they are just innately better, but to the girls that they’re innately lesser was just, I mean, it was stupid,” she said. 

As it pertains to the Olympics in 2021, the now 34-year old Rapinoe has hinted that next year’s games will most likely be the final time she, and long time girlfriend Sue Bird will play in the Olympics for Team USA. “If it happens that, you know, we can’t play sports for or a number of years or whatever it may be, you know, this situation will be what it is,” Rapinoe said. “And I think we’ll be at peace with that. But I think we’re definitely both hoping to be able to play in the Olympics.”

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