Olympics 2012: Danell Leyva hoping bronze sparks rivalry

LONDON — Like pretty much everybody, Danell Leyva thinks Kohei Uchimura is the greatest male gymnast who’s ever lived. For now.

While the three-time world champion was solidifying his exalted status with the Olympic title Wednesday, all but wrapping up the gold midway through the meet, Leyva gave a glimpse of what the young American hopes could be the sport’s next great rivalry. Closing with perhaps the two most spectacular routines of the night, the 20-year-old rallied to land in third place.

It was only the second all-around medal for a U.S. man since 1984, and added yet another chapter to Leyva’s incredible story. He fled Cuba as a sickly toddler with his mother and older sister, making their way to Miami through Peru and Venezuela.

“I’m going to keep working to beat him,” Leyva said. “His gymnastics is just so beautiful. I’m not trying to copy his style. I have my own style. I need to perfect me more to beat him.”

Uchimura finished with 92.690 points, almost two in front of Leyva. Marcel Nguyen won the silver, giving Germany its first Olympic medal in the men’s all-around since 1936.

“I have been a world champion three times, three years in a row,” Uchimura said. “But this is different. It’s once in four years, and the wait was there. I felt like the demon was chasing me this time.”

Beach Volleyball: American duo loses first-ever set but rallies for victory

One streak is over, but the winning streak continues for two-time defending Olympic beach volleyball gold medalists Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor.

The Americans lost the first set of their preliminary round match against Austria 21-17 on Wednesday night — the first time they’ve dropped a set in three Olympics.

But they came back to win the second 21-8 and took the third 15-10 to remain unbeaten in this and every other trip to the Olympic Games.

Women’s Basketball: McCoughtry leads U.S. to easy win over Turkey

Angel McCoughtry scored 18 points and Tina Charles added 16 to lead the United States to an 89-58 victory over Turkey on Wednesday night.

The Turks entered the game unbeaten and were expected to give the Americans their toughest test in the Olympics so far. They had looked impressive in their first Olympic appearance and said they weren’t intimidated despite the U.S. winning its first two games by an average of 38.5 points.

Turkey was able to hang with the U.S. (3-0) early, but the Americans built a 15-point advantage by the half.

Synchronized Diving: Dumais finally gets medal for U.S.

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