Bay Area Olympians: Stanford’s Fisher takes bronze in 5000m, Cardinal trio wins soccer gold

Stanford’s Grant Fisher was in bronze medal position for much of the 5,000-meter race Saturday in Paris before a number of other runners overtook him.

But down the backstretch, Fisher made the time back up. He passed three runners in the final 100 meters to take the bronze medal in the 5K.

Fisher grew up in Michigan and ran for Stanford from 2015-2019, where he was a 12-time All-American.

Elsewhere in track and field, Aptos’ Nikki Hiltz, the first open nonbinary person to make an Olympic final, placed seventh in the women’s 1,500 meters.

Australia’s Mackenzie Little finished 12th in the javelin. Little also competed for Stanford from 2015-2019 and won two NCAA javelin titles.

Stanford trio gets gold

The United States women’s national soccer team is back to winning major international competitions.

The Americans picked up a gold medal with a 1-0 win over Brazil at the Paris Olympics in the tournament’s final match on Saturday. Mallory Swanson scored the lone goal for the U.S., curling the ball past Brazilian goalkeeper Lorena in the 57th minute.

The gold is the first for former Stanford players Naomi Girma, Sophia Smith and Tierna Davidson. It is the first for the U.S. at large since the London 2012 games.

Brazilian legend Marta, who won a Women’s Professional Soccer championship with Hayward-based FC Gold Pride in 2010, earned a silver medal in her final competitive international match.

U.S. tops France in men’s basketball

The United States is still the best Olympic men’s basketball team in the world.

Two days after overcoming a scare from Serbia in the Olympic semifinals, Team USA took down France 98-87 in the gold medal game. It is the first gold medal for Warriors coach Steve Kerr and also the first for Warriors superstar guard Stephen Curry, who led the U.S. with 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting from 3-point range.

Curry added five assists, five turnovers, two steals and a rebound to his stat line. He closed out the contest with four clutch 3-pointers down the stretch.

The gold medal is the United States’ fifth straight, dating back to the “Redeem Team” at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Zhang falls out of medal position in women’s golf

Rose Zhang gave it a run, but she didn’t quite land on the medal stand after Saturday’s final golf round.

The two-time NCAA national champion at Stanford started the day in a tie for third place at 7 under par, but a 2-over round on Saturday moved her down to 5-under for the tournament and a tie for eighth.

Lydia Ko of New Zealand, the co-leader after Friday’s round, won the gold medal at 10 under par. Germany’s Esther Henseleit took silver at 8-under, and China’s Lin Xiyu grabbed bronze at 7-under.

Former Stanford player Albane Valenzuela of Switzerland tied for 13th at 3-under.

U.S. finishes without medal in water polo

A surprising defeat to Australia on Thursday wasn’t the end of the unexpected losses for Team USA women’s water polo at the Paris games.

Facing the Netherlands in the bronze medal game, the Americans lost 11-10. The U.S. led 7-3 at halftime, but the Dutch steadily cut into the deficit and tied the match 10-10 with 1:19 to go.

With one second left on the clock, Sabrina van der Sloot slotted home the winning goal for the bronze medalists. It was her sixth goal of the match and the fourth consecutive goal scored by the Netherlands.

Saturday’s loss may have been the last Olympic appearance of Maggie Steffens, USA water polo’s all-time leading goal scorer and a native of Danville. Steffens, the U.S. captain at 31 years old, finished with one shot on goal and no goals in her final Olympic appearance.

It is the first time since women’s water polo was introduced to the Olympics in 2000 that the United States team has not won a medal. The loss also snapped a streak of three consecutive gold medals for the U.S. women.

Elsewhere in the women’s water polo tournament, other former Stanford players were in action. Australia’s Danijela Jackovich earned a silver medal after the Stingers’ 11-9 loss to Spain in the gold medal game, and Canada’s Serena Browne finished out the tournament with a 19-10 loss to Greece in the seventh-place game.

In artistic swimming, 18-year-old Stanford commit Megumi Field took 10th in the duet free routine with partner Jaime Czarkowski.