Major League Baseball’s 2024 trade deadline is Tuesday, July 30 at 6 p.m. ET, as teams scramble making deals to improve for the pennant race.

Here’s a look at all the deals in the days leading up to the deadline:

July 26: Orioles get Zach Eflin from Rays

The Baltimore Orioles, proving they won’t be satisfied with another playoff berth, are going for the jugular and a first World Series title since 1983, acquiring veteran starter ZachEflin and cash considerations from the Tampa Bay Rays for three prospects Friday.

The move came just hours after the Orioles landed veteran reliever Seranthony Dominguez from the Philadelphia Phillies for 2023 All-Star outfielder Austin Hays.

Follow every MLB game: Latest MLB scores, stats, schedules and standings.

– Bob Nightengale

July 26: Austin Hays to Phillies, Seranthony Domínguez to Orioles

In a deal that spins off a pair of extra parts from two of baseball’s best teams, the Philadelphia Phillies acquired outfielder Austin Hays from the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for reliever Seranthony Domínguez and outfielder Cristian Pache. 

Hays, 29, was an All-Star in 2023 for the Orioles but saw his playing time diminish with the emergence of power-hitting rookie Colton Cowser. After hitting 16 homers with a .769 OPS in 2023, he’s hit just three homers with a .711 OPS this year, while spending time on the injured list. 

– Gabe Lacques

July 26: Mariners get Yimi Garcia from Blue Jays

The Seattle Mariners acquired right-handed reliever Yimi Garcia from the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday in exchange for outfielder Jonatan Clase and minor league catcher Jacob Sharp.

Garcia, 33, is 3-0 with a 2.70 ERA in 29 games for Toronto this season and has converted 5-of-6 save opportunities. His .152 opponent batting average ranks fifth-best among American League relievers with at least 30 innings, while his 12.69 strikeouts per nine innings are seventh-best.

‘Yimi has been one of the best relievers in the American League this year — dominating the strike zone, missing bats and pitching in high leverage,’ Mariners general manager Justin Hollander said in a team release. ‘He has big-game experience and we’re excited to add him to our bullpen.’

– FIeld Level Media

July 26: Mets get Ryne Stanek from Rays

The Mets front office has moved quickly to fill a glaring need in the bullpen. On Friday night, the Mets acquired right-handed reliever Ryne Stanek in a trade with the Mariners in exchange for outfield prospect Rhylan Thomas.

‘He’s pitched in some big games,’ Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. ‘I saw it earlier in his career with the Rays and then as recent as last year with Houston. He’s got that ability to come in late in games, playoff experience, big games, and it’s a power arm. It’s 97, 98 (mph). There’s a splitter. I’ve seen him a lot. I’m glad he’s on my side now.’

– Andrew Treddinnick, NorthJersey.com

July 26: Mariners get Randy Arozarena from Rays

The Seattle Mariners acquired 2023 All-Star Randy Arozarena in a deal with the Tampa Bay Rays.

“Randy is a dynamic, high-energy all-around player who has excelled in the biggest moments on the biggest stages,” Mariners GM Justin Hollander said. “He’s going to be a great addition to our clubhouse and lineup.”

The Rays are 52-51, fourth place in the AL East and four games back of the Kansas City Royals for the final AL wild card spot. Coincidentally, the Rays are a half-game behind the Mariners in the wild-card standings.

They’ll also close the book on one of the more entertaining and explosive players in franchise history. Arozarena slugged 10 home runs in 18 games of the 2020 AL Division Series, Championship Series and World Series as Tampa Bay fell two wins shy of its first championship in franchise history.

Arozarena’s career postseason slash line in 33 games? .336/.414/.690.

The Mariners will get a chance to enhance those numbers – but they need to get to the playoffs, first. Arozarena is expected to play a big part in that effort.

– USA TODAY Sports

July 26: Red Sox get James Paxton from Dodgers

The Boston Red Sox welcomed back a familiar face on Friday by acquiring left-hander James Paxton from the Los Angeles Dodgers. Paxton, who spent the 2023 season with Boston, was designated for assignment by Los Angeles on Monday. He posted an 8-2 record with a 4.43 ERA in 18 starts with the Dodgers since signing a one-year, $7 million contract in the offseason.

– Field Level Media

July 25: Diamondbacks get A.J. Puk from Marlins

The Diamondbacks acquired left-hander A.J. Puk in exchange for a pair of prospects, a deal that gives the club another power-armed reliever that can slot into the bullpen in a late-inning role.

Puk, 29, has a 4.30 ERA in 44 innings, but those numbers are skewed by his struggles from early in the season when he was pitching in the rotation. Since moving back to the bullpen – and back into a role in which he has pitched well over the past two seasons – he owns a 2.08 ERA with six walks and 33 strikeouts in 30 ⅓ innings.

Puk comes with an addition two seasons of club control beyond this year, and the Diamondbacks could be viewing him as a potential heir apparent to the closer’s role with Paul Sewald set to hit free agency at the end of the year.

– Nick Piecoro, Arizona Republic

PARIS − If you’re planning on shaking hands with American triathlete Seth Rider anytime soon maybe think again − or at least ask him if he washed them when he last went to the bathroom. He admits he may not have.

Rider was among several U.S. Olympic triathlon team members who spoke to the media Saturday about new water-quality tests in the river Seine, which organizers want to use for the triathlon event. The results, released Friday, showed E. coli bacteria levels in the river fell back to below standards needed to authorize those competitions.

Scott Schnitzspahn, the team’s ‘high performance’ general manager, said he was getting updates on the Seine’s water quality each day at 4 a.m. He was also monitoring rainfall in Paris since weather, scientists say, is deeply linked to water quality. Friday’s opening ceremony was a spectacle. It was also rain-soaked.

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

Still, Rider and the other athletes had their own ideas about how best to prepare to swim in a body of water that’s known for snaking its way around Paris’ many attractions − from fashion to gastronomy, from art to culture − but isn’t exactly synonymous with getting wet, whether for leisure or in the interest of being an Olympic champion.

Taylor Spivey, 33, said she, like a lot of her teammates, was upping her intake of probiotics − live bacteria and yeasts that can aid good gut health and ‘help us withstand any kind of sickness that comes our way.’ Morgan Pearson, 30, said he’d heard consuming a lot of carbohydrates might be the answer to a dirty river.

Rider, 27, had a tactic that drew some chuckles from his teammates and a raised an eyebrow or two from the press.

‘We actually raced here last year in the test event,’ he said. ‘I don’t think anyone got sick after that, which can’t be said about all the races we do. In preparation for this race, I knew there was going to be some E.coli exposure. So I’ve been trying to increase my E.coli threshold by exposing myself to a bit of E.coli in day-to-day life.’

How does he do this?

‘It’s a proven method. Backed by science,’ he said. ‘It’s just little things, throughout your day. Like not washing your hands after you go to the bathroom and stuff like that,’ he said.

Rider appeared to be referring to a kind of E.coli micro-dosing regime, to build up his tolerance.

E. coli is found in many places like the intestines of people and animals. Most kinds of E. coli are harmless. Some can make you sick. People can get infected from E. coli through contaminated food or water or contact with animals, environments or other people. The best ways to prevent E coli infection is handwashing, proper food preparation and avoiding drinking unsafe water, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

If Schnitzspahn had thoughts on Rider’s method − whether it was a high-performance friendly one − he didn’t say. He said there is a Plan B if the river tests results don’t improve. Plan B is delaying the triathlon by one day.

There’s also a Plan C. The ‘tri’ in triathlon becomes a ‘du’ − the swim gets dropped.

‘We’ll be ready no matter what,’ said Schnitzspahn. ‘Athletes are flexible. These things happen in our sport.’

Spivey added she hoped there weren’t any ‘crazy rain storms’ before the triathlon events, which start July 30.

‘I also hope there’s no sharks like we saw in that Netflix (movie),’ she said, referring to ‘Under Paris.’ It’s about a deadly super shark rampaging in the river Seine and an international triathlon about to take place in the city.’

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.

Follow Kim Hjelmgaard on social media @khjelmgaard

PARIS – Antoine Dupont received the loudest ovation during pregame introductions, the crowd roared every time he entered the game, and his star is going to be even brighter now that he helped France become Olympic champions in men’s rugby sevens in front of an adoring home crowd.

France’s men’s rugby team did the unthinkable playing in front of a raucous crowd at Stade de France. France got a hard-fought upset victory over gold-medal favorite Fiji to give the French its first Olympic gold medal in rugby sevens, winning the final 26-7. It’s the host country’s first gold medal of the 2024 Olympics.

Fiji took the lead initially, but France scored 28 unanswered points behind Dupont who had a team-best two tries in the win.

Team France rallied behind a home crowd that gave them emotional support and motivation throughout.

Get Olympics updates in your texts! Join USA TODAY Sports’ WhatsApp Channel

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

It’s was Fiji’s first loss in rugby sevens in Olympic competition.

France defeated Argentina in the quarterfinal and South Africa in the semifinal to advance to the gold-medal game.

Nicknamed “The Gifted”, Dupont is a star in rugby 15’s. He’s the team captain for his country and was named rugby 15’s player of the year in 2021. He decided to switch to rugby sevens to help France compete for a gold medal on their home soil.

Dupont delivered on his goal, and France are Olympic champions in rugby sevens for the first time ever.

Rugby sevens was first introduced as an Olympic sport in 2016. Fiji won Olympic gold at the Rio de Janeiro Games and the Tokyo Olympics. Saturday’s defeat was Fiji’s first loss in Olympic competition since rugby sevens Olympic competition began in 2016.

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.

Wade, making his game-calling debut at the 2024 Paris Olympics, appeared alongside play-by-play commentator Noah Eagle on the NBC family of networks’ coverage of Olympics basketball on Saturday. Fans were instantly enamored with Wade’s commentary during a matchup between France and Brazil.

Wade, who will call Team USA games alongside Eagle during the Paris Games, delivered plenty of high-energy moments, like yelling ‘Yabusele’ during a Gabriel Yabusele dunk. He even gave solid analysis on French phenom Victor Wembanyama, who was the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2023-24.

“(Wembanyama) is electrifying and that’s not even a big enough word for what he brings,’ Wade said. ‘But what I love most about him … it’s the patience of this player … to make sure that his teammates get involved and get into the game first.”

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

NBC Olympics president and executive producer Molly Solomon told USA TODAY in June that Wade’s experience of having previously competed in international games — while also having a relationship with multiple players on the team, including LeBron James, with whom he won two NBA championships — was part of the reason he was selected for the role, despite having limited game-calling experience.

Eagle and Wade could also be a sign of things to come, as NBC, along with Amazon and ESPN, recently acquired the media rights to broadcast NBA games starting in 2025-26.

The former Miami Heat guard was a 13-time NBA All-Star and represented the United States at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, where he won a bronze and a gold medal, respectively.

Here’s how social media reacted to Wade’s game-calling duties on Saturday:

Dwyane Wade Olympics broadcasting: Social media reacts

Here’s how social media reacted to Wade working on NBC’s broadcast team for France vs. Brazil basketball on Saturday:

PARIS – The Eiffel Tower proved mortal Friday night.

It sparkled, dazzled and delighted during a light show near the end of the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympics. But it could not stop the rain – or stop the grumbling among hordes of people who gathered near the tower’s base on the left bank of the Seine for the much-awaited opening ceremony.

The major gripe: You couldn’t see a darn thing.

A secure perimeter at the tower prevented those without VIP passes from witnessing the athletes’ boat parade on the Seine River or the stage show on the other side of the tower from where the unticketed masses stood.

“A problem,’ one man grunted, and soon he was seen exiting with five small children.

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

The news was just as grim for those who expected to be able to take an elevator to the top of the 984-foot tower itself.

“Unpleasantly surprised,’ is how Mikaela Gibson of Los Angeles described the experience.

Here are the winners and losers from the opening ceremony.

WINNERS

The Eiffel Tower

It rained. People grumbled. And through it all, the tower stood tall and shined.

At 10:57 p.m., the light show commenced.

The tower sparkled.

Then looked blood red.

Moments later looked ice blue.

Then resembled a haunted house as light and shadow mixed within the awesome structure.

Also, over the course of four hours, the crowd must have taken thousands of selfies – and the Eiffel Tower never asked for a dime.

The hardy

The opening ceremony ended at 11:30 p.m., but the crowd looked to be in no hurry to leave. Anwar Hussain Nobin, 25, stood under the Ma Douce awning and said, ‘Everyone’s waiting until 12 o’clock.’

Midnight, he explained, was when a potential fireworks show would begin. An Olympic-sized fireworks show, that is.

There were no fireworks, but there were cheers – a sound that filled the air when at midnight, the Eiffel Tower sparkled again for about five delicious minutes.

Ma Douce

The snack stand was a beacon of nourishment – at least for those not committed to a low-carb diet. Warm waffles drizzled with chocolate sauce. Beignets, crepes and pancakes. Nutella galore.

All and more were among the offerings – perhaps enough to briefly pacify those unhappy spectators who couldn’t see the dang opening ceremony as they’d been promised, and spent months dreaming they would!

The two proprietors selling the food looked as pleased as those consuming it as euros traded hands.

Seven euros for the crepes.

Six euros for fromage (pancakes filled with cheese, strawberries and bananas).

Five euros for chocolat viennois (think nespresso).

LOSERS

The Misinformed

Claudio Lima Filho of Brazil snuggled next to his girlfriend under an umbrella near the base of the Eiffel Tower. The romantic-looking moment belied Filho’s feelings while he was unable to watch the ceremony.

He said he would not have come to Paris if he’d known in advance.

“I’ve been to Paris four times, and every time I don’t like it,’ he said. “Now I hate it.’

Yes, Filho and his girlfriend could have bought tickets. But even many ticket-holders were seen leaving the ceremony early, and one father and son told USA TODAY Sports that their view of the boat parade was limited and the umbrellas made it even more difficult to see.

Ma Douce

When the rain fell harder, sales appeared to drop. Not because the food was any less delicious, but because spectators huddled under the snack stand’s awning to stay dry.

PARIS – When the Chinese duo turned up afterward, Olympic gold medals around their necks, one of the morning’s silver medalists greeted them with cheers and a fist bump.

American diver Kassidy Cook, truly, couldn’t have seemed happier.

Some of that was Cook, who wears a shining, wide-eyed personality that would light up any room. Some of it was a sign of how close-knit and friendly diving can be at the highest level.

But such a moment, too, spoke to a cemented reality in international diving: There is China – and then there’s everyone else vying for second place.

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

Such was the case in Saturday’s synchronized springboard competition at the Aquatics Center, during which Cook and teammate Sarah Bacon performed well and won the race for second. They didn’t have a mishap in five dives. They beat out six other tandems and claimed Team USA’s first medals of the Paris Games.

But their score of 314.64 finished far behind Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen (337.68), who batted leadoff in the diving order – one spot in front of Cook and Bacon – during each round and as expected, smoothly extended China’s 20-year dominance of the sport into a new Olympics.

“The performance was normal,” Yani said afterward through a translator, a shoulder-shrug of an assessment that could have come across as arrogant if it wasn’t so true.

This was normal for China, which has won every Olympic gold medal in women’s diving since 2004.

“They kind of set the tone for the competition and maybe pushed me and Sarah to put together five solid dives,” Cook said. “I don’t think we had our all-time best performance out there today, but we had a really solid performance, and it’s something that I’m very proud of. I’m very pleased with the silver medal. … This thing is pretty heavy, but I’m going to be wearing it all day.”

The Americans were in the top three all morning, but they weren’t assured of silver until Australian Anabelle Smith “landed on the side of the board” on approach, causing her to flub her final dive.

Needing only a 71.05 to pass the U.S. for silver (and having topped that score in their previous two dives), Smith and Maddison Keeney instead posted a 48.6, dropping them to fifth and allowing Great Britain’s Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen (302.28) to jump onto the podium instead.

Smith screamed underwater at what had just befallen her team.

“Pretty brutal,” she said. “I can’t change it now, so no point dwelling on it. … That stuff happens. It happens to the best of the best, and unfortunately it was my day today.”

Silver, meanwhile, made for the best U.S. finish in women’s synchronized springboard since Kelci Bryant and Abby Johnston did the same in 2012.

They have a good story, Cook and Bacon missed the previous Olympics largely because of a shoulder injury that hampered Cook during the 2021 U.S. trials. Bacon was planning to retire if she’d made it then. But she didn’t, and the two best friends kept working for a moment that arrived Saturday.

“Our Olympic trials is a lot more stressful than it is here,” Bacon said. “We’ve competed against these girls internationally before, so we knew that we were capable of being on that podium. So we were able to just get out there, relax, have fun and dive our best.”

In doing so, they raised awareness about one of the best nicknames – Cook ‘n Bacon – you’ll find in American sports.

U.S. fans in the seats here Saturday wore shirts hyping the nickname. One even wore a bacon suit, complete with a chef’s hat and a spatula. Though that was Marissa Cicione, Cook’s friend from college, who’d brought it to the Olympic trials, too.

“She’s probably one of the most supportive/funniest people I know,” Cook said. “I’m so happy she was able to make it out here.”

Cicione was able to be in Paris to watch Cook and Bacon win silver, attending alongside Cook’s boyfriend Ryan Swingle. Both are from Philadelphia. “We booked our tickets before she even qualified,” Swingle said.

Now done for the 2024 Olympics after the first few hours, Cook plans to stay in Paris and cheer on teammates. That’ll include Bacon, who’s set to compete in the individual springboard.

This was a great day for both. A celebration for two Americans who’d earned it.

But technically, it wasn’t an Olympic victory.

In women’s diving, for now at least, it seems only one nation gets to enjoy those.

“The Chinese have been the gold standard in diving for decades now,” Cook said. “We study a lot of their film. We love watching them. But we’re also peers with them, and the goal is to beat them one day.”

Reach Gentry Estes at gestes@gannett.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @Gentry_Estes.

PARIS – Beach volleyball, since its debut as an Olympic sport at the 1996 Atlanta Games, has been held in iconic venues across the world prior to the 2024 Paris Olympics. 

In Australia 24 years ago, Bondi Beach was the site of the tournament. In London 12 years ago, Horse Guard Parade hosted the sport. In Rio in 2016, beach volleyballers competed at Rio’s Copacabana beach. 

The 2024 setup – a 12,000-person temporary stadium in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower on the Champ de Mars – might just be the most aesthetically pleasing, said some the players who had the fortune of participating in the first match of the tournament Saturday. 

That included the American team of Miles Partain and Andrew Benesh. They fell to Noslen Diaz Amaro and Jorge Luis Alayo Moliner of Cuba in two sets, 21-18, 21-18. 

“Definitely one of the most – I think the most – iconic venue that we’ve had for our sport,” Benesh said. “It’s a blessing to have the opportunity.” 

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

Get Olympics updates in your texts! Join USA TODAY Sports’ WhatsApp Channel

Despite the rainy and cool conditions, far from an ideal “beach day,” the stadium was nearly full. About two-thirds of the fans can see all of the Eiffel Tower above the top of the stadium, while the rest face the École Militaire on the opposite side of the Champ de Mars.

And wait until the sun goes down.  

“What a setting, right?” NBC beach volleyball analyst and three-time Olympic gold medalist Misty May-Treanor said. “I feel I got lucky because my last Games were at Horse Guards (Parade). That was quite the venue. But this one, the night matches are going to be spectacular.” 

On Saturday, the crowd quickly took the Cubans’ side and both Diaz and Alayo played into their reactions and called for more noise and cheering throughout the match. Fans threw their hands in the air to celebrate blocks and stomped their feet on the makeshift grandstands to make it sound like the metro was about to rumble through the stadium.  

“I think that’s probably the biggest crowd I’ve ever played in front of, so that was really cool,” Benesh said. 

Over the past week, teams had been practicing inside the stadium, which will also host blind volleyball during the Paralympic Games, which allowed players to soak in the setting without the pressure of a match, Benesh said. 

“You take it in a little bit … I felt pretty locked into the match, so sometimes I’m in my own world, but there’s definitely a couple moments where I was able to look around and see how many great fans were there,” Benesh said. “The energy was great, especially with it raining today, it was really cool to see everyone show up.” 

The playing surface of “Centre Court” held up in the rain and players said it was similar to any other place they play. The balls didn’t become heavy in the rain, Benesh said. 

“The atmosphere is very, very nice. For me, being beside the Eiffel Tower is something great,” Diaz said in Spanish. “I thought I would play under a very hot sun.” 

There is no doubt that Minnesota Timberwolves guard and Team USA basketball player Anthony Edwards is a confident athlete.

Whether it is dunking on his 2024 Paris Olympics teammates or claiming he is the best swimmer on the basketball team, Edwards may have finally met his match.

Before Friday’s opening ceremonies in Paris, Stephen Curry did his best to instigate a matchup between Edwards and the U.S. women’s table tennis team.

‘They said they could smack you 21 nothing,’ Curry said in a social media post by Team USA.

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

Get Olympics updates in your texts! Join USA TODAY Sports’ WhatsApp Channel

‘I got some people here that say they gonna beat me in ping-pong, 21-0,’ Edwards said. ‘I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it. I’m not having it. I’m not having it. Eleven to zero, I’m scoring one point.

‘Okay. How? When’re we going to do that? Whenever,’ said Edwards, accepting the challenge.

Before Edwards can showcase his table tennis skills, the U.S. men’s basketball team has other business to attend to when they open Olympic play on Sunday against Serbia seeking their fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal.

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast.Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.

PARIS − Chloe Dygert finished third in the race, and it probably shouldn’t be a surprise that she was third to the medalist press conference, too.

The Team USA cyclist earned a bronze medal Saturday in the women’s road cycling individual time trial with a clocking of 41:10.70, held at the Paris Olympics’ Pont Alexandre III venue. And when it was time to take the microphone, she hobbled in with a pronounced limp behind gold medalist Grace Brown of Australia (39:38:24) and silver medalist Anna Henderson (41:09.83) of Britain, as well.

As she took her seat, Dygert grimaced; even sitting was painful. Just before the second time check, she crashed while executing a left turn; it had rained all day, and she slipped and fell on her left side on a cobblestone stretch of the 32.4-km course. She wasn’t alone, as there were plenty of spills on the wet course − her teammate Taylor Knibb crashed three times and finished 19th − but perhaps no rider in the field is more accustomed to pain than Dygert.

Four years ago, she endured a gruesome crash in Italy that severely lacerated her left leg, threatening her career and requiring multiple surgeries, resulting in nine months off the bike. But that doesn’t begin to summarize all that she’s overcome: an ACL tear to her knee, a torn hip labrum, injuries to her back and Achilles tendon, heart surgery, a bout with Epstein-Barr virus, and more recently, a bout with COVID during her Olympic training.

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

Just competing in Paris would’ve marked a remarkable comeback, let alone medaling. She clearly wasn’t pleased about missing out on gold, but the 27-year-old wasn’t about to blame the crash after all she had to overcome just to reach the Games.

‘Everything has come with a mental challenge, but I’ve been blessed in that God has given me the ability to overcome a lot of different obstacles on and off the bike. Even today with the crash, a lot of girls had crashes, but with the crash I was able to get back on the bike and still fight for a podium spot,’ Dygert said. ‘It’s always hard to have to deal with an injury or a setback but it’s part of the game, part of the sport, and we’re all here to fight for that gold medal. It was just what the day brought.’

The day also brought plenty more of the rain that soaked the Paris Games opening ceremony on Friday. Dygert said she’s comfortable racing in rain, however, and embraced the conditions.

‘It just didn’t work out for me today, but I really do enjoy these conditions. I think if we were in Britain, these (conditions) would be absolutely perfect. The roads are better to take corners on, whereas when we’re in Spain, France or Italy, I feel it’s a little more icy,’ she said. ‘I think it definitely factors into the race itself and it totally changed the ballgame today. But for me, I enjoy these conditions.’

The medal marked Dygert’s third in Olympic competition, but her first in the individual time trial. She has also won a silver (2016, Rio de Janeiro) and a bronze (2021, Tokyo) in the women’s team pursuit. Dygert’s attention now turns to the women’s road race, which will be held Sunday, Aug. 4, on a much longer track of 130-160km, against a much deeper field of 90 riders.

Shortly after Dygert’s medal finish Team USA cyclist Brandon McNulty took fifth place in the men’s individual time trial, clocking in at 37:16:60, less than 40 seconds behind men’s bronze winner Wout van Aert of Belgium, and 1:04 behind gold medalist Remco Evenepoel (36:12:16), also of Belgium.

Reach Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X @chasegoodbread.