Team USA has a potential show-stopping Saturday in front of it at the Paris Olympics, one that could be full of gold medals.
And it will be led by a trio of women: Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky and Sha’Carri Richardson.
Biles will start the day in the women’s gymnastics vault final at 10:20 a.m.
She will be chasing her third gold medal in Paris, having won the team final Tuesday and all-around final Thursday, earning redemption after she withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Biles’ margin of victory in the vault was larger than it was in floor exercise in 2016, per Sporting News.
Her margin also was larger in the vault than the floor in the individual all-around finals in Paris.
She scored the highest score in three out of the four events in the group all-around finals competition, falling short only on the uneven bars.
Following Biles, Ledecky will look to make more history in the 800m freestyle final, one of the events in which she holds the world record, at 3:08 p.m.
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On Thursday, the 27-year-old Bethesda, Md., native won silver in the 4x200m relay, her 13th Olympic medal that made her the most decorated American female athlete in history.
Ledecky has won a medal in each of her three Paris Olympics events thus far.
She won her seventh gold medal in a dominant 1500m freestyle finish Tuesday and also earned a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle final.
A gold from Ledecky would help the U.S. move ahead of Australia in that category.
The Americans hold 21 medals in the pool while the Aussies trail with 13, but hold more gold medals (7-4).
In her Olympic debut, Richardson, 24, is hungry for gold and is favored to win the 100m sprint.
She will compete in Saturday’s semifinals at 1:50 p.m., likely followed by the final, set for 3:20 p.m.
It’s a race Richardson had qualified to compete in three years ago in Tokyo before she was suspended for testing positive for THC (cannabis), which is a banned substance under World Anti-Doping Agency Rules.
The Dallas native, who is the reigning world champion in the event after a 10.71-second sprint at the U.S. trials last month (the fastest time by any woman in the world this year), stifled the competition in the opening-round heat Friday with a time of 10.94 seconds.
A gold medal from each of these three women would help the U.S. cut into China’s lead in the overall gold-medal count of the Paris Olympics.
China leads with 13 while France and Australia are tied for second with 11, and the U.S. and Great Britain are tied for fourth with nine.
