August 1 Tokyo 2020 Olympics news and results

Rebeca Andrade won the gold medal in the vault competition on Sunday.

The Brazilian gymnast finished with a score of 15.083 average doing a Cheng and an Amanar, ahead of Team USA's MyKayla Skinner who had a score of 14.916.

The gold medal is Andrade's second medal of the Summer Games, after finishing just behind the US' Sunisa Lee in the individual all-around final to claim silver.

Andrade's gold is Brazil's first ever gold in women's gymnastics.

Skinner was Team USA's replacement for Simone Biles after she withdrew citing her focus on her mental health.

South Korea’s Yeo Seo-jeong won the bronze medal, the country’s first Olympic medal in women’s gymnastics. Her dad had won a silver in men’s vault in 1996.

Artem Dolgopyat won Israel's first gold medal of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, finishing first in men's floor exercise.

"It's my first Olympic Games, and from the age of six I have worked for this," Dolgopyat told the media. "I have wanted a medal since I was a little boy. I would like to dedicate it to all my friends, family and my girlfriend."

Dolgopyat and his Spanish counterpart Rayderley Zapata actually finished level on 14.933 points, with the Israeli gymnast winning gold due to a higher difficulty of performance.

"I feel really happy, everything is magic and fantastic. I didn't get the final (winning) result I wanted, but all the work I have put in until now has paid off," Zapata said afterward.

It's the first time since the 2004 Athens Games that two gymnasts have tied on the floor exercise -- Kyle Shewfelt from Canada and Marian Dragulescu of Romania finished tied on 9.787.

Dolgopyat had ranked first in the qualifying event after scoring 15.20.

One of the favorites, Nikita Nagornyy, finished seventh -- despite landing a triple pike in his warmup -- after he landed the same move out of bounds when it came to the competitive action.

China’s Xiao Ruoteng took the bronze medal.

This is Israel's first medal in the Tokyo Olympics that is not bronze, and their third overall.

Training in bubbles has become the norm during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The Olympic Village in Tokyo has essentially become a big bubble in an attempt to isolate and protect athletes from testing positive for Covid-19.

But in the early days of the pandemic, there was an elite group of BMX competitors congregated at Daniel Dhers' home in North Carolina where they all trained and prepared for the upcoming Summer Games in Tokyo.

The Venezuelan was speaking after winning a silver medal in the men’s cycling BMX freestyle at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on Sunday, where Australian rider Logan Martin won the gold medal.

“When the world ended last year, I did have a bunch of actual Olympians that are here today living in North Carolina and it was a bit crazy, but you know it’s my property, I can go," the 36-year-old told the media.

“So what we did was like, ‘OK guys, we don’t know what this pandemic is, we don’t know where the virus is, let’s just make sure we don’t have any contact with anyone and create our own bubble’, before bubbles were a thing.

“We kind of did it and we had that understanding because, at that point, the Olympics weren’t postponed, so we had to keep riding. We knew that was our No.1 priority, so we rode as much as we could.

“It was kind of crazy because we would go to the park, and we didn’t know if we were breaking the law or not, so we were just like, ‘OK everyone, just park in different spots,' so we were able to keep riding and if the police come, we’ll just tell them that we were kind of fixing a few things in the park.”

Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova secured a gold medal for the Czech Republic on Sunday after winning the women's doubles tennis tournament.

The top seeds coming into the Olympics, Krejcikova and Siniakova beat Belinda Bencic and Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland in straight sets -- 7-5 6-1 -- to claim the Czech Republic's fourth gold of Tokyo 2020.

In a tight opening set a break by the Czech du in the 11th game of the match pred decisive.

They went on to win six straight games to turn the screw in the second set, taking the decider in 37 minutes.

Bencic won the women's singles gold medal on Saturday, beating Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic in the final.

Bencic was aiming become the fourth women after Venus Williams, Nicolas Massu and Serena Williams to win two gold medals at a Games since tennis returned to the Olympics in 1988.

Team USA golfer Xander Schauffele won a thrilling gold medal in the men's golf on Sunday.

The 27-year-old, one of four American golfers in the field, carded a final-round 67 to finish 18-under for the tournament, a shot ahead of Slovakian Rory Sabbatini who claimed the silver medal.

Schauffele has come close to claiming a breakthrough victory before in his career, finishing tied second at both the Masters and the Open, as well as tied for third at the US Open.

However, he claimed a famous gold medal for Team USA, etching himself into golfing history with some steady golf interspersed with some brilliant play.

When asked whether it is the biggest victory of his career, Schauffele agreed.

"For me, I really wanted to win for my dad. I am sure he is crying somewhere right now. I kind of wanted this one more than any other. 

"First up, you are trying to represent your country to the best of your ability and then you add family stuff on top of that and, you know, I'm probably going to have a nice call with my grandparents tonight. I am sure they are back home, everyone is back home watching. I was feeling the love from San Diego and Las Vegas this whole time. 

"I'm a little speechless right now, quite honestly."

Schauffele's father Stefan, who is also his coach, described being "very, very proud" watching his son claim the gold medal at the Kasumigaseki Country Club.

"This is going to take a while to settle in. I was pretty stone cold out there, to be honest with you. It was just a process we were observing. But when I talked about the podium and the anthem, I got choked up. I describe today as definitely needing a towel moment (to hide his emotions). I am very, very proud."

While Sabbatini won the silver, the bronze medal went down to a remarkable seven player playoff between C.T. Pan, Collin Morikawa, Mito Pereira, Paul Casey, Sebastian Munoz, Rory McIlroy, and Hideki Matsuyama. That septet encompassed seven different nationalities.

It's been quite a ride for Team GB BMX rider Charlotte Worthington over the last three years.

In 2018, Worthington was working full-time as a chef in a restaurant before she decided to commit 100% to her dream of becoming a BMX rider.

On Sunday, the 25-year-old recovered from a fall on her first run to win a gold medal in the women's BMX park freestyle Olympic final with a score of 97.50 on her second run to finish first.

"In 2018 I went to a couple of events and contests and got speaking to people and found out about BMX being in the Olympics and British cycling putting together a team," Worthington told reporters after winning her first Olympics gold medal.

“So at the time I was just taking a lot of really cool opportunities that I enjoyed doing, and it just kind of snowballed from there. It was something I found out I was really passionate about, and I really enjoyed it, so I’ll never look back at the days of working in a kitchen.”

Worthington won her gold in thrilling style.

She fell during her open run attempting a 360-degree backflip.

Undeterred she landed the trick in her final run, becoming the first woman to land a 360-degree backflip in competition.

Afterwards, she said she was "super proud" to successfully land the trick.

“I’ve not been doing that trick that long, so it was probably one of my biggest goals coming here. This week was my first time doing it, the first female in the world to do it. It’s been super-tight turnaround as well, because I was dealing with a little injury a few weeks ago.

“I just had to have faith that it was ingrained in my body with the amount of work that we’ve been putting into it.

"Going out there the second time I just ready to give it my all again. Once I landed that trick I knew that it was on. I pretty much zoned out for the rest of the run.”

Taiwan’s flag anthem was played in front of Chinese athletes for the first time in the history of the Olympics on Saturday, when the Taiwanese team beat China in the badminton men's doubles final.

Taiwanese badminton duo Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin beat the Chinese team by 21-18 and 21-12, clinching the second gold medal for the self-governing island at the Tokyo 2020 Games. China took home silver with the loss.

Both teams attended the medal ceremony and listened as Taiwan's flag anthem was played. Taiwan has both an anthem and a flag anthem, the latter of which is commonly played at international sporting events.

Taiwan’s athletes compete in the Olympics under the name "Chinese Taipei" because of the political and historical sensitivities surrounding the democratic island's relationship with mainland China. Despite being governed separately for more than seven decades since the end of a civil war, Beijing considers Taiwan to be a breakaway province.

Taiwan's team has won two gold medals, two silver medals and three bronze medals so far in Tokyo.

Athletes in Tokyo have been instructed to wear masks at all times, except when training, competing, eating and drinking, and during interviews. For Team USA's Raven Saunders, that’s been an opportunity to don perhaps the most eye-catching mask of the Olympics so far.

That’s not the only unique fashion choice Saunders has made at the Games — she’s also been sporting purple and green hair and some no-nonsense shades.

Her colorful dress code aside, Saunders has also bagged her first Olympic medal in Tokyo — a silver in the women’s shot put on Sunday with a distance of 19.79 meters. She finished fifth at Rio 2016.

Saunders' personal battle: Between Rio and Tokyo, Saunders has faced difficult personal challenges, suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts. She spoke with CNN earlier this year about a time “it all boiled over” and how she found support through therapy, meditation and reaching out to close friends.

Now, she wants to encourage others who are struggling with their mental health to get the support they need.

Whether watching bikers fly through the air from a bridge hundreds of feet away or lining up on the street to take in a triathlon, Tokyo's eager fans are increasingly finding ways to enjoy the Olympics in person — despite the ban on spectators inside venues.

Hundreds of people were seen crowded along a bridge close to the BMX freestyle venue trying to catch a glimpse of the final competitions on Sunday. Crowds lined the streets to watch cyclists competing in the mixed triathlon event on Saturday morning, and many defied requests from police to leave the area.

With Covid-19 cases surging to new records in Tokyo and Japan's capital under a state of emergency, the Olympics are effectively operating in a bubble, with residents on the outside looking in.

While public-facing events give spectators a chance to get a glimpse of the Games, the pandemic makes it risky. Tokyo's daily case numbers keep hitting new records, and doctors have warned that health care systems are facing a tremendous burden that is at risk of being overwhelmed.