London 2012, Day 3: Complete Results From Monday’s Events

If you watched the men’s gymnastics competition in primetime on NBC on Monday night, you probably saw a Japanese gymnastics coach hand over a form and a $100 bill, then saw Japan’s score get bumped up so that the country won silver. “Cheaters!” you may have thought to yourself. “The Olympics are the shadiest thing ever!”

It’s more complicated than that. And no, Japan was not bribing the judges.

Japan took the silver in the men’s team gymnastics competition on Monday, but they nearly finished fourth. Luckily for them, an appeal to the judges on Kohei Uchimura’s pommel horse held up and he was given a higher score. How does one appeal to the Olympic judges, you ask? With cold, hard cash.

Maggie Hendricks of Yahoo! Sports had a lot more information about the challenge, which had Twitter in an uproar as they saw the Japanese team just straight-up handing a crisp Benjamin to the judges. The money is to ensure that countries don’t just challenge willy-nilly all over the place, but this is still crazy to watch:

When the Unites States’ men’s gymnastics team finished first during the qualifying round, there were high hopes the US men could come away with a gold medal. Not only did that not happen, but the United States came away without a medal, finishing a disappointing fifth.

“There’s definitely disappointment,” US captain Jonathan Horton said, according to the Associated Press. “We are one of the best teams in the world.”

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings continued their Olympic dominance Monday, winning their preliminary-round match against the Czech Republic in straight sets.

The two-time gold medalists remained undefeated in Olympic play, winning their 16th straight match. May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings knocked off the Czech team 21-14, 21-19. Now in their third Olympic games, the duo has never lost a set in Olympic play.

Heading into the 2012 London Olympics, much of the focus on the United States swimming team was on the head-to-head battle between Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. On Monday, however, it was the other members of the US team stealing the show.

The United States added four more medals to their growing medal count Monday, including two gold medals. Missy Franklin, the 17-year-old from Colorado, captured the first gold medal of her career, winning the women’s 100-meter backstroke.

China and the United States extended their lead over everyone else in the medal count on Monday while simultaneously keeping neck-and-neck with each other. China captured gold medals in diving and men’s team gymnastics, with the United States grabbing a couple medals of their own in the former event. In the latter, the United States men, who were favorites for a medal, finished a disappointing fifth. Both teams were also able to pick up medals in swimming on Monday. Here’s the the top five in the medal count after Tuesday’s action.

For complete coverage of the 2012 London Olympics, visit SB Nation’s Summer Olympics hub.

A bizarre scene unfolded in the semifinals of the women’s épée fencing event at the Olympics on Monday as South Korean Shin A Lam sat alone on the piste -- the elevated surface where competition takes place -- while her match was under protest. Shin was in position to win her match against Britta Heidemann, only to see her hopes for gold fall by the wayside as a result of a confusing ruling at the end of the match.

With one second left on the clock, the match was tied -- Shin would’ve won on an advantage had the match ended tied. Heidemann attacked twice, and each time the touches were ruled simultaneous. On the third attempt -- the clock had not run down to zero on the previous two for some reason -- Heidemann was awarded a point after a back-and-forth exchange that surely took more than a second.

Following a delay due to a bizarre scene in the women’s fencing individual epee semifinal, the gold medal match finally got underway. Yana Shemyakina of Ukraine beat Germany’s Britta Heidemann in overtime to win the event, giving her country its first gold medal and third overall.

Shemyakina led, 3-2, following the second period, but Heidemann fought back to win a high-scoring third period, 6-5, to tie the match at 8-8 going into overtime. Shemyakina scored just once in the period, but it proved to be enough to take the match and the medal.

Records are falling fast in the weightlifting portion of the 2012 London Olympics. North Korea’s Kim Un Guk set a new world record in his gold medal performance in men’s 62kg weightlifting on Monday.

Kim lifted a new world record 327 kg across his snatch (153 kg, a new Olympic record) and clean and jerk (174 kg), outdoing his closest competitors by 10 kg. Colombia’s Oscar Albeiro Figueroa Mosqueda and Indonesia’s Irawan Eko Yuli tied for second at 317 kg, with Figueroa Mosqueda setting a new Olympic standard in the clean and jerk by lifting 177 kg.

Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania became the youngest swimmer to ever win the women’s 100m breaststroke, just edging out Rebecca Soni of Team USA at the wall Monday at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The 15-year-old held a significant lead at the turn, but was chased down hard over the final 50 meters by Soni. A few more meters and Soni might have had gold, but Meilutyte (1:05.47) held on to beat the American by 0.08 seconds.

Japan’s Satomi Suzuki earned bronze, but was nearly a full second back from from Meilutyte. Breeja Larson, the other American in the race, took sixth place with a time of 1:06.96 seconds. She was nearly disqualified after seemingly committing a false start. Judges ruled that the starter malfunctioned, however, giving Larson another chance to come off the block cleanly.

With a berth in the gold medal match of the women’s individual epee fencing match on the line, South Korea’s Shin A Lam and Germany’s Britta Heidemann were tied with a second left on the clock in overtime. But a controversial finish left both fencers in the middle of the 2012 Olympics’ most bizarre moment so far.

Shin had priority with :01 on the clock and the score tied in overtime, and would have, in theory, reached the gold medal final when time ran out without a clean touch. Three successive touches without a clean touch happened without the clock running out, however, and Heidemann scored on the fourth, earning her a 6-5 overtime victory and a berth in the final — but only after nearly a half-hour of deliberation by the judges.

Missy Franklin won the gold medal for Team USA in the 100m women’s backstroke final Monday at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The 17-year-old won the event just 14 minutes after qualifying for the finals in a 200m freestyle semifinal.

Franklin was down at the turn to Emily Seebohm of Australia and tied with Russia’s Anastasia Zueva. She found a second wind to close the gap in the last 50 meters, however. She was the only swimmer to go sub 20 seconds over the second half of the race, and finished with a time of 58.33 seconds. Seebohm took silver at 58.68 seconds and Japan’s Aya Terakawa took bronze at 58.83 seconds.

At the turn, Matt Grevers of Team USA was out of the lead in the men’s 100m backstroke final of the 2012 Olympics. Then Grevers left the field in his wake on the way to the U.S.‘s second gold medal of Tuesday in the pool and a new Olympic record.

Grevers exploded off the wall and finished with a time of 1:52.16, the new Olympic standard in the event. American Nick Thoman (1:52.92) won a tight race for second, out-touching Japan’s Ryosuke Irie (1:52.97) for silver, and giving the U.S. its first 1-2 finish of the London Olympics.

China has won the gold medal in the men’s gymnastics team final for a second consecutive Games, posting a score of 275.997 Monday afternoon at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Japan finished second (271.952) and Great Britain finished a surprising third (271.711) to earn the host country’s second bronze medal of the Games. Although, that’s not how it originally ended.

The immediate results had Japan fourth and Ukraine third, which would have been the first time Japan failed to medal in men’s team since 2000. But an inquiry to the judges regarding Kohei Uchimura’s pommel horse was accepted, changing his score from 13.466 to a 14.166. That alteration was enough to push Japan past Ukraine.

China and the United States seem likely to do battle for the top spot in the 2012 Olympics medal count for the better part of a fortnight. On Day Three, though, the Chinese are extending their lead.

On Day Three, China was dominant in the morning and midday events, taking gold in men’s 10m synchronized diving and women’s 58kg weightlifting to push its gold medal tally to eight. That was as many gold medals as Italy, France, Russia, and South Korea have combined, and five more than the United States.

Venus and Serena Williams have both seen their fair share of hardships since they won Olympic gold in Beijing, but they are back on the path to defend the women’s doubles crown.

The Williams began their gold medal defense with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over the Romanian team of Sorana Cirstea and Simona Halep. Venus and Serena successfully defended the four break points they faced and converted on four of six of their break opportunities. They should expect a much stiffer challenge in the second round where they are set up to face the German team of Angelique Kerber and Sabine Lisicki.

China’s Li Xueying established two new Olympic records en route to the gold medal in women’s 56kg weightlifting at the 2012 Olympic Games on Monday.

Li lifted 108 kg in the snatch, setting a new Olympic mark, and lifted a total of 246 kg to finish first in the event and secure China’s second gold medal in weightlifting this Games. She also lifted 138 kg to lead all competitors in the clean and jerk.

Ryan Lochte didn’t pull through at the end of the men’s 4x100 relay on Sunday at the 2012 Summer Olympics. He’ll have a chance to redeem himself on Day Three, with an event he’s favored to medal in leading off swimming’s afternoon session in the Aquatics Center at 2:30 p.m. ET.

The men’s 200m freestyle, which is the first of four finals, will not be shown on American TV until NBC’s primetime coverage, which begins Monday night at 8 p.m. ET., but a live Olympics swimming stream is available via NBC Live Extra. Here’s the schedule for the four medal finals in the pool on Monday.

Mansur Isaev of Russia captured the gold medal in men’s lightweight judo (73kg - approximately 161 lbs), defeating defending world champion Riki Nakaya of Japan in a close final match scoring by way of yuko.

In addition to defeating the defending world champion, Isaev also beat the world top-ranked fighter, Wang Ki-Chun of South Korea, in the semifinals. Top-ranked Wang lost his bronze medal final to Ugo Legrand of France. In the second bronze medal final Mongolia’s Nyam-Ochir Sainjargal defeated Dex Elmonth of the Netherlands. The top finisher from the United States was Nick Delpopolo, who lost to Sainjargal in the repechage (of which the winner advances to a bronze medal match against a semifinal loser).

The Australian women’s basketball team has been the second best team in the world for a long time. In fact, they hadn’t lost to a team besides the United States since 1996. Against France on Monday, that streak came to an end after Lauren Jackson, their best player, fouled out before the end of regulation. Australia went down swinging, however, thanks to a miracle buzzer beater from Belinda Snell, from about 55 feet away, surrounded by defenders. And off the wrong foot.

Australia would wind up losing, 74-70, and France would prove that they’re for real, especially after having beaten another of the medal favorites, Brazil, over the weekend. This moment, though, is the best from Olympic basketball so far. And, because it’s who we are, here’s the lovely GIF:

In the gold medal match, Japan’s Kaori Matsumoto took the first gold medal won by an Asian competitor in the women’s lightweight class by defeating Romania’s Corina Caprioriu in just 17 seconds of Golden Score sudden death. Caprioriu was charged with a hansoku make, ending the match and giving Matsumoto the victory by ippon.

Automne Pavia of France took the other bronze medal awarded in the event.

The team of David Boudia and Nick McCrory earned the bronze medal in the men’s synchronized 10m platform on Monday, earning the United States its first-ever medal in men’s synchronized diving.

The favored Chinese team of Cao and Zhang took the gold medal scoring nearly 20 points higher than the silver medalist Mexican team. The Chinese have dominated synchronized diving since its inclusion in the Olympics in 2000. This is their third consecutive gold in men’s synchronized 10m platform and their second gold in synchronized diving at the London Olympics.

The first major medal event in gymnastics at the 2012 London Olympics will take place Monday with the men’s team event going down at 11:30 a.m ET. The event will be streamed here live, but won’t air on TV until primetime for NBC’s network coverage.

Eight countries will square off in the team event: the United States, host country Great Britain, Russia, China, Japan, France, Ukraine and Germany. Six of these teams competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, with Great Britain and Ukraine taking the spots of South Korea and Romania.

Serena Williams continued her quest for gold at Wimbledon Monday with a 6-2, 6-3 second round victory over Poland’s Urszula Radwanska.

Williams was impressive, notching eight aces and 26 total winners to only 16 unforced errors, and was never in danger throughout the match. Williams converted on four of five break opportunities and only gave up one break herself. She will advance to take on Russia’s Vera Zvonareva in the third round.

Besides the “jump over that thing in our way, horse” part, I really do not understand the equestrian. But that’s OK, because slo-mo replays make for some great GIFs.