ESPN Olympic Sports

ESPN.com's Prim Siripipat and Bonnie D. Ford with the latest from the London Games:

Sure, Usain Bolt can run 200 meters faster than anyone else in the world, but let’s see him do it on a broken leg.

Manteo Mitchell did exactly that when his left fibula cracked midway through his opening leg of the men’s 4x400 relay. He didn’t stop, and didn’t even slow down much, finishing his leg and helping the U.S. to a second-place finish while qualifying for Friday’s final.

Although he told reporters immediately after the race that he merely had a cramp, X-rays later revealed the fracture.

“Three days ago I was going up the stairs and I kind of missed one and landed awkwardly,” Mitchell said in a release from USA Track and Field. “I got treatment and I was fine. I did workouts, and when I warmed up today I felt really well. I felt I could go 44 (seconds)-low. I got out pretty slow, but I picked it up and when I got to the 100-meter mark it felt weird. I was thinking I just didn’t feel right.

“As soon as I took the first step past the 200-meter mark, I felt it break. I heard it. I even put out a little war cry, but the crowd was so loud you couldn’t hear it. I wanted to just lie down. It felt like somebody literally just snapped my leg in half.’’

Mitchell said that seeing the next American runner, Josh Mance, motioning for the baton handoff gave him the lift he needed to keep running hard. “I didn’t want to let those three guys down, or the team down, so I just ran on it,’’ he said. “It hurt so bad. I’m pretty amazed that I still split 45 seconds on a broken leg.”

This has been a tough Olympics for America in the 400-meter events. LaShawn Merritt, the 2008 gold medalist, pulled up with a hamstring strain in a heat and the U.S. wound up not having a runner in the 400 final for the first time ever. Now Mitchell, who made the relay pool after finishing fifth in the 400 at the U.S. trials, is out, too.

The U.S. has yet to announce its relay team for the final.

ESPN's George Smith looks at Usain Bolt's victory in the 200 meters and Ashton Eaton's gold-medal win in the decathlon:

Carmelo Anthony talks about why he chose to play for Team USA again, his pursuit of an NBA title and the Jeremy Lin saga:

LONDON -- After his South Africa 4x400 relay team crashed in Thursday afternoon’s semifinal, Oscar Pistorius sent out this tweet:

We have been so blessed to this point with a Silver at World Champs in 2011 and We were looking forward to the Final. We will be back soon!

He wasn’t kidding about "soon." Just five minutes later, he tweeted that track and field’s governing body had advanced the South African team to the relay final because it had been “severely damaged’’ when second leg runner Ofentse Mogawane was tripped by a Kenyan competitor.

Pistorius tweeted: IT'S ON!! We in the FINAL. Team management Protested as Ofentse was taken out and we have been given Lane 9!!

Pistorius said the day had been an emotional roller coaster, and indeed, it was such a roller coaster that it should have been marked by a six-foot cartoon figure holding a paw above his heads with the words: “Warning! You cannot ride this roller coaster unless you have already survived this level of mental and emotional strain.’’

But hey, Pistorius has been through it all, so what’s one more emotional churn? His legs were amputated shortly after birth and the IAAF once banned him from competition because it viewed his prosthetic legs as an unfair advantage. He fought through it all and finally reached the Olympics to inspire the world by running in the individual 400 meters last weekend.

Pistorius wants to do more than run and inspire, though. He wants to win a medal in the 4x400 relay, which is possible because South Africa was good enough to finish second at last summer’s world championships. For a while though, it looked like he wasn’t even going to be able to run in the semifinal, let alone for a medal.

Although Pistorius waited to run the third leg, Mogawane tripped with Kenya’s Vincent Kiilu around the last turn and fell to the track. Injured, he was not able to continue the race, so Pistorius instead stood at the exchange line waiting for a teammate who would never arrive.

“I took my eyes off the screen and looked down the straightaway and just as I took them off, it must have happened, because I looked down the straight and I was waiting for him,’’ Pistorius said. “He’s not the biggest of guys, so initially I thought he was pushed behind someone. And then I kept on looking and kept on looking -- and obviously he didn’t come on.’’

Replays appeared to show Kiilu cut in front of Mogawane, or at least drift into his lane. Both runners went down in a heap. Kiilu was able to get back up and struggle ahead, but Mogawane could not.

Kiilu insisted that he was not to blame for the fall. “I wasn’t at fault -- somebody spiked me from behind,’’ he said, showing the spike mark on his shoe. “I was in front and then he spiked me from behind.’’

The IAAF Jury of Appeal disagreed, ruling Kiilu had obstructed his South African rival. Initially, Pistorius said the team would not protest because it would provide no consolation. He said his disappointment and frustration would rank 11 on a scale of 10, and that he would grow even sadder when what happened sunk into his head.

Before that happened, though, his team had been reinstated and Pistorius was tweeting photos of himself running.

Will be up on the 3rd leg tomorrow for the Final! Really can't wait!

This was high jumper Amy Acuff’s fifth time at the Summer Olympics, and, for once, there was also summerlike weather Thursday to go along with it.

“I had to come to London to get a day that it wasn’t pouring rain,’’ Acuff said. “Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, Beijing -- all pouring rain for the qualification for the high jump. But London! Sunny, perfect!’’

Well, perfect except for one minor detail. Her performance. Acuff missed three times at 1.9 meters and did not qualify for the final.

“The performance was a disaster,’’ she said. “The first day off the plane, I dragged myself out and jumped higher than that. I don’t understand what the deal was out there. Sometimes that happens in the high jump. Rarely me, though.

“I’m sure some people will say, ‘Oh, she’s old; she’s decaying.’ But the irony here is I was in really, really good form. The world will never see it, though.’’

Despite competing in five Olympics, Acuff has never won a medal. “You always want what you don’t have, and I was really hoping for a medal here,’’ she said. “My practices had been going so well, and I really can’t understand why I couldn’t do such a basic height today.’’

Beijing looked as if it would be Acuff’s last Olympics when she retired to have a child (a daughter, Elsa). But a year later, she got the itch to compete and decided to come back. Despite her age, 37, she was jumping as well as ever. Until Thursday.

“Her career has been phenomenal,’’ said Chaunte Lowe, who qualified for the final with fellow American Brigetta Barrett by jumping 1.93. “She has five Olympic teams under her belt, and, from the looks of it, she can go another one if she wants.’’

Acuff, however, said she isn’t sure about Rio -- or anything else in her future, for that matter. “I haven’t thought that far ahead. I was still thinking about Saturday and being in the finals.’’

Julie Foudy catches up with U.S. women's soccer co-captains Abby Wambach and Christie Rampone to get the inside scoop on the Americans' gold-medal match against Japan:

U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski reviews Wednesday's game and looks ahead to Friday's semifinals against Argentina:

ESPN's George Smith looks at Allyson Felix's gold in the 200, Usian Bolt advancing to the men's 200 final and Ashton Eaton leading in the decathlon:

Some at-the-buzzer instant analysis from Team USA's 119-86 victory over Australia in Wednesday night's Olympic quarterfinals:

How it happened: When LeBron James rebounded an errant Kobe Bryant 3-pointer in the third quarter, levitated over everyone else in the vicinity and banked in a one-handed pumping layup at his leisure, we were provided a pretty handy snapshot of this quarterfinal matchup.

Because James' presence hung over this game.

It took until the fourth quarter for the United States to get significant separation from the typically plucky Aussies, thanks to Kobe's spree of four 3s in 60-odd seconds, but James also made sure Team USA was never really threatened. The NBA's reigning MVP racked up 11 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists in 30 minutes to register a comfortable triple-double that steered the Americans into Friday night's semifinals against Argentina.

Team USA again appeared to fall well short of its defensive potential by sloppily surrendering the first 11 points of the second half to cut a 14-point lead down to three in a matter of seconds. The Yanks also couldn't prevent San Antonio Spurs guard Patty Mills, who emerged from group play as the tournament's co-leading scorer with Spain's Pau Gasol at 20.6 points per game, from dropping another 26.

Yet the Americans never were in any lasting danger against a group of Aussies who couldn't afford to miss eight of 21 free throws and the handful of inside chances they did have. Not when they didn't have Andrew Bogut in the lineup to punish the Americans more for their intermittment focus.

"If Bogut's playing, it's different," Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "It's just different."

What it means: Team USA will play Argentina on Friday night for the third time in a span of 17 days, with the winner advancing to the gold-medal game against the winner of Russia-Spain.

Team USA now has won 48 consecutive games in international play, dating back to a loss to Greece in the semifinals of the 2006 Worlds in Japan.

The last team to beat the Americans on the Olympic stage? Argentina in the 2004 semifinals.

Team USA's Olympic win streak is up to 15 now.

Player of the game: In case we weren't clear before ...

Eleven points. Fourteen rebounds. Twelve assists.

Need we say more?

Kobe had all 20 of his points in the second half -- 18 coming on his six 3s after interimssion -- and Kevin Love finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds, eight of those boards coming on the offensive end. Deron Williams and Carmelo Anthony also quietly totaled 18 and 17 points, respectively.

Those performances, though, were complements to what James did as a tone-setter.

Play of the game: Pick your favorite no-look pass from James.

The ball he bounced through Aron Baynes' legs in the key to set up an early three-point play for Melo that LeBron celebrated as vigorously as any play he's made in these Olympics?

Another no-looker amid a lot of traffic in the paint to free up Russell Westbrook for a late layup in the first?

Or the much longer no-looker he zipped inside to make an easy bucket for Love?

On this night, it was hard to take your eyes off James, who almost had his triple-double (seven points, 10 boards and six assists) by halftime.

By the numbers: With 19 more 3-pointers in its sixth straight victory at London 2012, Team USA has 96 3s as a group for the tournament.

The Americans went into Wednesday night's play with 77, matching the 77 they drained in eight games at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

James, meanwhile, needed 56 points in Team USA's final games to overtake David Robinson as the program's leading all-time scorer in Olympic play. He's now 45 points away entering Friday's semifinals against Argentina.

ESPN.com's Prim Siripipat and Bonnie D. Ford discuss Claressa Shields' attempt to win gold in women's boxing, the men's 5,000-meter final and women's soccer final against Japan:

While America’s women sprinters have combined for a gold, two silvers and two bronze medals heading into their 200 meter final, the male sprinters have just two medals -- Justin Gatlin’s bronze in the 100 and Michael Tinley’s silver in the 400 hurdles -- and have been surpassed by their teammates in the distance events.

On Saturday, Galen Rupp became the first American to win a medal in the 10,000 meter run since 1964. On Tuesday, Leo Manzano became the first to win a medal in the 1,500 since 1968, and Matt Centrowitz finished just four one-hundreths of a second shy of the bronze.

The Americans will look to continue their strong run in distance events Thursday in the men’s 5,000 meters, where Rupp, Bernard Lagat and Lopez Lomong will represent the U.S.

Why the distance success here after so many years?

“It’s because they believe now that we can do it,’’ said Lagat, who ran for Kenya before becoming a U.S. citizen. “They don’t look at Africans or Kenyans and Ethiopians and say, ‘Those are the guys who are supposed to be winning.’ No. They know now that we belong to the very top.

“This started a long time ago. And then Centrowitz last year (winning bronze at the world championships) and we saw Galen Rupp do an amazing job in the 10,000. And then last night in the 1,500 we had Leo Manzano. These are the guys who are believing they can do well, and the ladies, too.’’

The 5,000 meters should be a great race. In addition to the Americans, Mo Farah, the gold medalist in the 10K, will run. He ran a relatively slow 13:25.23 in the first heat Wednesday to qualify and said that the 10,000 took more out of him than he expected.

Ethiopians Dejen Gebremeskel and Yenew Alamirew had the day’s best times at 13:15.15 and 13:15.39. Lagat and Rupp were close behind at 13:15.45 and 13:17.56.

Lagat, the American record-holder in the 5,000, won a bronze medal for Kenya in the 1,500 at the 2000 Olympics and silver in that event in 2004. Hampered by injuries, he didn’t finish in the top three when he ran for the U.S. in the 2008 Olympics but said he is healthy now.

“I was just telling somebody that this is the best part of it,’’ Lagat said. “Now I feel relaxed and my mind is relaxed. I don’t have to worry about injury or anything like that. I’m feeling strong, I’ve been training so well and this is the best position I can be in.’’

LONDON -- Allyson Felix was talking to a couple of reporters about winning her 200-meter semifinal Tuesday evening when she was interrupted by the loud, repeated squeals of France's Myriam Soumare.

Soumare wasn't hurt or scared or in danger. She was standing at the top of a stairway looking out toward the track's scoreboard and she had just seen that her time in the semifinal had qualified her for Wednesday's final. "Wheeee! Wheeee!!!'' she screamed again and again while jumping up and down and hugging a fellow runner.

Evidently, she was very happy to earn a spot in the final.

And why not? Wednesday's final boasts an illustrious field. In addition to Felix, there is 400-meter gold medalist Sanya Richards-Ross, 100-meter gold medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica, 100 silver medalist Carmelita Jeter and Jamaican 100 bronze medalist Veronica Campbell-Brown.

The pressure is on Felix, who did not medal in the 100 but is the race favorite in the 200. She coasted to an easy victory in her semifinal and said she was feeling good.

"I know what she's experiencing because I went through the same thing in the 400," Richards-Ross said.

Richards-Ross was comfortably in second place behind Fraser-Pryce as they came around the turn in their semifinal and could have coasted home and still be guaranteed a spot. Instead, she kicked it up a notch and passed Fraser-Pryce down the stretch to win.

She said she was not sending a message, just trying to secure a good lane for the final and give herself the best chance at a medal. She said her gold medal in the 400 has taken off any pressure for the 200.

"It's all gravy now. No pressure out here," Richards-Ross said. "This is a lot of fun for me and I really do want to grab a medal tomorrow, but either way I'm still an Olympic champion."

Updating ESPN's Olympic Power Rankings as the tournament moves into the knockout stage:

1. UNITED STATES

Even with all the injuries, even amid the spells of vulnerability, you'll note that only one team in the tournament got through group play unbeaten. Oh, yeah: Team USA is shooting 54 percent from the floor as a team, 46 percent on 3-pointers and averaging 117.8 points.

2. RUSSIA

The only game the Russians lost, on a buzzer-beating 3 by Australia's Patty Mills, came after they had already wrapped up Group B with wins over Brazil and Spain. "What we've done these last seven years," coach David Blatt says, "is create the identity for Russian basketball."

3. SPAIN

Up here on reputation? Fair comment. Spain hasn't looked like Spain yet, even in its three wins. Europe's reigning champs, though, realistically still rank as the biggest threat to Team USA. And they should get another shot at Russia in the semis to avenge their pool-play defeat.

4. BRAZIL

Shouldn't Brazil be higher than Spain after beating Spain, not to mention that it placed No. 3 in the pre-tournament rankings? Fair points. Yet I can't shake the suspicion that this emotional quarterfinal against Argentina is going to be harder than it should be when you look at the rosters.

5. FRANCE

Opening up against Team USA, when Tony Parker clearly wasn't back to being Tony Parker yet, couldn't have worked out better. Everything else, including the critical win over Argentina to snag the No. 2 spot in Group A despite a negative point differential, was easier by comparison.

6. ARGENTINA

It's an undeniable shock to the system to see Argentina this low. But there's nowhere else to put then after two losses in pool play. Trust me: It's been no treat for the committee (of one) to hear the told-you-so cackling from one of our trusted European consultants who urged us to put Russia higher from the start.

7. LITHUANIA

Wanted to put the Lithuanians higher after the way they thoroughly discombobulated the tournament's overwhelming favorites. The problem? Can't overlook the fact that Kleiza, Jasikevicius, Songaila & Co. didn't look nearly that dangerous in any of the other four games they played.

8. AUSTRALIA

The Aussies reeled off wins over China, Great Britain and Russia in their final three group games to post a pretty strong record (3-2) for a fourth-place team. Which wouldn't have surprised you if you saw how pesky they looked in the games they lost to Brazil and Spain to open the tournament.

9. GREAT BRITAIN

Still can't explain Team GB's almighty second-half collapse against Australia that ruled out any hope of setting up a dream quarterfinal against Team USA for the swarmed-at-all-times Luol Deng. Yet we won't soon forget all the problems that the hosts gave Brazil and especially Spain.

10. TUNISIA

Everyone's favorite no-hopers. They didn't have the depth to play a four-quarter game, but the Tunisians -- especially when plucky guard Marouan Kechrid was healthy -- were competitive (and entertaining) for a half no matter which opponent they faced. As some humbled Yanks could tell you.

11. NIGERIA

I know, I know: Nigeria edged Tunisia in the Group A opener for both teams, so Ike Diogu & Co. have a case for the No. 10 slot. But Tunisia, for me, played the consistently better ball after its dreadful first half in that first game. An 83-point loss is tough for the committee to overlook, too.

12. CHINA

Remember when we said that just getting to the Olympics was the medal for China? Turns out American coach Bob Donewald had even less to work with, post-Yao Ming, than we expected. Especially when Yi Jianlian and Wang Zhi-Zhi started picking up injuries along the way.

Track cyclist Sarah Hammer’s best chance at a gold medal evaporated three years ago when the International Olympic Committee dropped the individual pursuit, the event in which she has been world champion since 2008.

“It’s my pet event, what I love, and I thought it was a great Olympic event,’’ she said. “But once it was over and done with, it was over and done with. I moved on, and I would say I moved on pretty well.’’

She did. Hammer powered the U.S. to a silver medal in the team pursuit this past weekend and took home another silver medal in the six-race omnium that concluded Tuesday afternoon.

“Everything that I had been dreaming of and wanting for the last two years had been dedicated to this omnium event,’’ she said. “I am now the proud owner of two of these silver medals. It’s an amazing dream I’ve been dreaming about since I was 10 years old. Now I get to go home and share this with my family and friends.’’

Hammer came close to winning gold Tuesday, holding a two-point lead over Great Britain’s Laura Trott heading into the final race. In the omnium, riders receive points based on their order of finish in each race. You get one point for finishing first, two for second, three for third and so on, with the lowest cumulative score winning. That meant that, to win gold, Hammer had to finish within two places of Trott in the final 500-meter time trial.

Unfortunately, the 500 meters is probably Hammer’s weakest event in the omnium. “I’m not as naturally explosive from the start,’’ she said. “Once I get rolling, I’m good, but to get off the line and ready to go [is the issue]. But I’ve been in the gym training because I knew that was going to make the difference in the Olympic medal.’’

It did. Hammer rode a personal best 35.90, but that was only good enough for fourth place in the event. Trott, meanwhile, finished with the best time to win the gold medal.

Hammer was clearly disappointed at missing gold, but these Olympics went far better than in 2008, when she and three fellow U.S. track riders were left out to hang after they inadvertently caused an incident by wearing masks upon their arrival in Beijing -- as they had been instructed to do to protect against pollution. She went home without a medal from Beijing but has two medals as souvenirs this time.

Hammer, who turns 30 this month, said that she isn’t sure whether she will try to compete in Rio in 2016 but that she definitely will keep riding a bike. “The great thing is my whole family rides. My husband, my mom, my dad. Now I get to go back home and we all get to ride together.’’