FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • THUrsday, JULy 29, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
OLYMPICS
Team
USA
China
Russia
Japan
Australia
13
13
7
13
7
12
6
11
4
2
T
10 35
9 28
7 25
5 22
9 18
Prep sports | water polo
Returning to the pool
Results as of 8 p.m. Wednesday
Swim: Dressel,
Finke win golds
Living up to the hype,
American swimmer Cae-
leb Dressel claimed the
first individual Olympic
gold medal of his career
Thursday in the 100-meter
freestyle.
Dressel held off the
defending Olympic cham-
pion, Australia’s Kyle
Chalmers, with a furious
sprint to the wall. The win-
ning time was an Olympic
record of 47.02 seconds.
Dressel beat Chalmers
by a mere six-hundredths
of a second, leaving the
2016 winner with a silver
medal. The bronze was
claimed by Russia’s Kli-
ment Kolesenikov.
Earlier Thursday, Bobby
Finke of the United States
captured gold in the debut
of the men’s 800-meter
freestyle. Italy’s Gregorio
Paltrinieri grabbed the sil-
ver after leading most of
the race, while the bronze
went to Mykhailo Roma-
chuk of Ukraine.
It was a thrilling finish.
Germany’s Florian Well-
brock grabbed the lead
from Paltrinieri on the
final flip, with Finke lurk-
ing back in fourth. But
the American turned on a
dazzling burst of speed at
the end of the 16-lap race,
passing all three swim-
mers ahead of him to take
the gold.
High school water polo practice is underway at Juniper
Swim & Fitness Center in Bend. Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
Gymnastics: Teen
wins gold for Japan
After no season of any kind last year, local high school water polo players are excited for fall matches
Japanese teenager
Daiki Hashimoto won a
gold medal in men’s all-
around Wednesday.
The 19-year-old
Hashimoto used a thrilling
high bar routine during
the final rotation to edge
Xiao Ruoteng of China
and reigning world cham-
pion Nikita Nagornyy.
Hashimoto’s all-around
total of 88.465 points
included a 14.933 on
high bar. That was good
enough for him to surge
past Xiao and into the top
spot. The gold is the third
straight Olympic title for
the Japanese gymnast.
Kohei Uchimura won in
2012 and 2016.
The win was also a
bit of redemption for
Hashimoto. He thought
his high bar set during the
team final lifted Japan to
gold but Nagornyy’s rock-
solid floor exercise did just
enough to give the Rus-
sian Olympic Committee
the title.
BY BRIAN RATHBONE
The Bulletin
Men’s basketball:
U.S. routs Iran
It wasn’t just that the
U.S. had been losing. It was
that the level of play was
practically un-American.
Playing passively and
passing up open shots
isn’t the way its players
became basketball’s best.
And when it resulted
in them dropping their
Olympic opener, the
Americans decided to do
something about it.
“After that loss we
came together,” guard Da-
mian Lillard said. “It was
a lot of communication
between then and now
where it’s like, ’All right. It’s
time to start looking like
Team USA.’”
Lillard scored 21 points
and the Americans got
back to winning with their
first victory of these Olym-
pics, romping past Iran
120-66 on Wednesday.
—Associated Press
I
t was a year of drawing short straws for
Oregon high school sports in 2020-21.
Perhaps no sport drew a shorter straw
than water polo.
While most sports over the past aca-
demic year endured postponed and shortened
seasons played during atypical times of the year,
water polo was left on the deck without any sort
of season.
But since the first week of June, Central Or-
egon water polo players have been back at the
Juniper Swim & Fitness Center in Bend getting
ready for a normal fall high school season that is
quickly approaching.
“I was bummed about it — all the other sports
were doing something,” said Summit junior Eric
Verheyden. “I was really happy when I heard it
was starting back up because I could get back in
the pool and get back in shape for the upcoming
season.”
Bend High senior Evan MacFarland shared a
similar sentiment.
“I was looking forward to it because I was
needing a way to get exercise,” MacFarland said.
The last time that MacFarland and Verheyden
suited up for their respective teams was fall 2019.
Water polo is not sanctioned by the Ore-
gon School Activities Association, so when the
OSAA would meet to put together a plan for the
return of high school sports, water polo was not
part of those discussions. That, combined with
the restrictions on pool usage due to COVID-19,
led to no water polo season being held last year.
PAC-12 FOOTBALL
Tokyo Games
FOR BILES, PEACE COMES
WITH A PRICE — THE GOLD
BY WILL GRAVES
Associated Press
TOKYO — When you spend the
better part of a decade redefining
the possible within your sport, the
standards change. Good is no lon-
ger good enough. Sometimes, great
isn’t either.
Simone Biles received a crash
course on it five years ago in Rio de
Janeiro.
The American gymnastics star
had already won three gold med-
als at the 2016 Olympics when she
began her routine in the beam fi-
nals. Midway through her set, the
then 19-year-old lost her balance,
as tends to happen when trying to
execute world-class skills on a piece
of wood narrower than the average
iPhone. She reached down to steady
herself, preserving a bronze in the
process.
She was pumped. Others weren’t.
“People were really upset,” Biles
told The Associated Press in May.
“I’m like, ‘Guys it’s still a medal for
the country and it’s still a medal for
myself.’ If anybody else was going
to get bronze they would have been
cheering but it was Simone so they
were, like, pissed.”
Fast forward to team finals in
See Water polo / A7
Beavers have
depth at QB,
but who will
start season?
BY STEVE GRESS
Corvallis Gazette-Times
knew for myself that I had to take a
step back.”
Biles also withdrew from Thurs-
day’s all-around competition to fo-
cus on her mental well-being.
USA Gymnastics said in a state-
ment on Wednesday that the
24-year-old is opting to not com-
pete. Jade Carey, who finished ninth
in qualifying and is enrolled at Ore-
gon State University, will take Biles’
place in the all-around.
Oregon State head football coach Jona-
than Smith believes that competition helps
bring out the best in players.
He anticipates that will be the case in the
quarterback room, where the Beavers have
several candidates to take over the starting
job for this coming season.
Training camp gets started at the end of
next week and the Beavers will be looking to
see which quarterback emerges as the leader
of the offense.
The Beavers return two quarterbacks who
saw extended action last season.
Tristan Gebbia started the first four games
before suffering a season-ending leg injury.
He completed 80 of 129 passes for 824 yards
with three touchdowns and three inter-
ceptions and helped lead the Beavers to an
upset of Oregon before he was hurt on the
game-winning drive.
Smith said Gebbia should be ready to go
when camp starts.
“I think he’s got a great skill set,” Smith
said at the Pac-12’s media day on Tuesday.
“Understands the scheme, good leader. Has
won games for us.”
See Biles / A6
See Beavers / A7
Ashley Landis/AP
Simone Biles, of the United States, watches gymnasts perform after she exited
the team final at the 2020 Summer Olympics Tuesday in Tokyo.
Tokyo on Tuesday night, when the
“demons” Biles has been grappling
with for years proved to be too
much. Spooked when she couldn’t
get comfortable on vault and bur-
dened by what she described as the
“weight of the world,” the 24-year-
old instead took herself out of com-
petition.
“I didn’t want to go out there and
do something dumb and get hurt
and be negligent,” she said after the
Americans took the silver. “So, I