OLYMPICS ROUNDUP Tuesday’s other events

Wrestling: Freestyle wrestler Henry Cejudo, the son of illegal immigrants from Mexico, was 4 when he last saw his dad. His mom raised six kids and often struggled to make ends meet. The family moved more times than anyone remembers. He got into wrestling as a youngster because his older brother Angel was good at it, good enough to get invited to live at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. Only halfway through high school, Henry went with him. The kid became a national champ at 17, then defied conventional wisdom by blowing off college to study nothing but wrestling. Yet last year, at the world championship — his first senior-level international event — he didn’t win a single match. Now he’s the world’s best in the 55-kilogram division, the youngest American ever to win an Olympic wrestling gold medal. That’s saying something, because his was the 50th gold won by U.S. wrestlers; swimming and track and field are the only sports to produce more.

Women’s basketball: Not that there was much doubt, but the U.S. women are headed back to the Final Four of this tournament. Sylvia Fowles had 26 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Americans on their latest rout, a 104-60 victory over South Korea. The Americans have made the medal round in every Olympics they’ve entered, and have won 31 straight games since losing in the 1992 semifinals. The Americans will play Becky Hammon and Russia in the semifinals Thursday night. Russia rallied to beat Spain 84-65 Tuesday night. China plays Australia in the other semifinal. The Aussies advanced with a 79-46 victory over the Czech Republic. China moved on with a 77-62 victory over Belarus. It’s the first time the Chinese are in the medal round since taking silver in 1992.

Baseball: Despite losing its opener, losing one key player to a gruesome injury and seeing another key player get hurt, the U.S. is headed to the medal round. The Americans advanced with a 4-2 victory over Taiwan, powered by John Gall’s go-ahead homer and a solid outing by pitcher Brandon Knight. The final prelim test comes tonight against medal favorite Japan. The semifinals start Friday. South Korea and Cuba are advancing, too. Those teams squared off in a battle of unbeatens, and South Korea won 7-4.

Diving: China is up to 6-for-6 in its bid for all eight golds. He Chong easily won the men’s 3-meter springboard, getting 11 perfect marks of 10.0 in the six-round final. This is the fourth consecutive Olympics China has won this event. American Troy Dumais was sixth for the third straight Olympics. Teammate Chris Colwill was 12th and last.

Men’s soccer: The final is set: Argentina vs. Nigeria. Argentina is headed back to the Olympic final with the chance to become the first nation in 40 years to defend its title — and to avenge a loss to Nigeria in the 1996 finals. Sergio Aguero scored goals six minutes apart in the second half and later set up another to lead Argentina past Brazil 3-0. Nigeria advanced with a 4-1 victory over Belgium that included two scores from long distances.

Weightlifting: Germany’s Matthias Steiner won the men’s super heavyweight division, getting gold and the right to call himself the world’s strongest man. Steiner lifted a total of 461 kilograms (1,016.3 pounds), clinching the win with a clean and jerk of 258 kg (568.8 pounds).

Cycling: With Victoria Pendleton winning the women’s track sprint and Chris Hoy taking the men’s version, England won seven events and 12 medals in cycling, with Hoy claiming three golds. They were favored to also win the men’s madison, but Argentina took it. The Americans? Not a single medal in the five-day competition. Just like in Athens. It ended with Michael Friedman and Bobby Lea 16th in the Madison, and Jennie Reed seventh in the women’s sprint 5th-8th placement race.

Women’s volleyball: After a slow start, the U.S. took down Italy in five sets to advance to a semifinal matchup with undefeated Cuba. Afterward, the team celebrated with abandon. Ogonna Nnamani was joined by her teammate in a dance. They chanted “U-U-U-U-U-S-A!” And, of course, there were hugs all around. Brazil plays defending champion China in the other semifinal on Thursday.

Women’s water polo: The U.S. will be playing for gold, taking on the Netherlands on Thursday, but will do so without center forward Lauren Wenger. Wenger, the team’s most versatile player, broke her right hand in the closing minutes of a 9-8 semifinal victory over Australia. Brenda Villa scored three goals, including the winner with a minute left. The U.S. is guaranteed to keep alive its streak of winning a medal at every Olympics that has included women’s water polo. The Americans won silver in 2000 and bronze in 2004. The Dutch advanced by upsetting Hungary 8-7 in the other semifinal.

Beach volleyball: Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor — the winners of 107 straight matches, including the last Olympic title — are headed to the finals against the Chinese duo of Tian Jia and Wang Jie. The Americans easily beat a Brazilian tandem in the semifinals. Tian and Wang advanced by beating another team from China. The United States has now reached the podium in all four Olympics since beach volleyball was added to the games in 1996.

Men’s triathlon: Germany’s Jan Frodeno, who was seventh at last year’s world championship, worked his way past a pack of foes with more glittering resumes and won the gold medal. The top American was Hunter Kemper, who finished seventh. Jarrod Shoemaker was 18th, Matty Reed 32nd. Reed’s brother, Shane, competes for New Zealand and was 34th.

Boxing: A light heavyweight from Tajikistan was disqualified for biting his opponent on the shoulder — and Evander Holyfield, boxing’s most famous biting victim, just missed seeing it. Holyfield was at the arena for much of the evening card, but apparently was gone when Dzhakhon Kurbanov chomped on Kazakhstan’s Yerkebulan Shynaliyev during a clinch, drawing blood. Also, China clinched at least four medals after managing just one at all previous Olympics. Lightweight Alexey Tishchenko, one of three Russians left after their powerful team’s collapse, stayed in contention with a victory. He won the featherweight gold in Athens before moving up in class two years ago.

Associated Press