Raphielle Johnson

Raphielle has been writing about college sports for more than a decade for multiple outlets, including NBC Sports. Focuses have included game recaps, columns, features and recruiting stories. A native of the Northeast, he now calls Pac-12 country home. Raphielle can be followed on Twitter at @raphiellej.

USOC announces nominees for athletes, team of the Summer Olympics

By Raphielle JohnsonAug 21, 2016, 7:31 PM EDT

Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Sunday evening the United States Olympic Committee released its list of nominees for three post-Olympics awards: American Female Athlete of the Olympics, American Male Athlete of the Olympics and American Team of the Olympics. There are five nominees for each category, with voting being open to fans. Among the nominees are for Athlete of the Olympics are gymnast Simone Biles and swimmers Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps. As for the teams, all five are women’s teams including basketball and gymnastics.

Votes can be made on this page.

Female Athlete of the Olympic Games Nominees:
Simone Biles, gymnastics
Gwen Jorgensen, triathlon
Katie Ledecky, swimming
Helen Maroulis, wrestling
Claressa Shields, boxing

Male Athlete of the Olympic Games Nominees:
Carmelo Anthony, basketball
Matthew Centrowitz, track and field
Connor Fields, BMX
Michael Phelps, swimming
Kyle Snyder, wrestling

Team of the Olympic Games Nominees:
Women’s basketball
Women’s gymnastics
Women’s rowing eight
Women’s water polo
Women’s 4×100 relay

U.S. men blitz Serbia, win third consecutive Olympic gold medal

By Raphielle JohnsonAug 21, 2016, 4:50 PM EDT

Elsa/Getty Images

When Jerry Colangelo was handed the keys to USA Basketball in April 2005, he was entrusted with the task of rejuvenating a program that had been knocked from its perch as the most dominant force in international basketball. A bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens showed that the post-Dream Team practice of simply throwing together 12 All-Stars would no longer work against international teams that were improving and spending more time together playing in international competition.

One of Colangelo’s first moves was to hire Mike Krzyzewski as his head coach, and since that point USA Basketball has strengthened its position as the best in the world. Sunday, the Americans won their third consecutive Olympic gold medal with a 96-66 win over Serbia in Krzyzewski’s final game as head coach.

Against a team that they beat by just three points in pool play, the U.S. grabbed control of the game in the second quarter and didn’t look back. Kevin Durant got going offensively, finishing the game with 30 points on 10-for-19 shooting from the field, and Paul George’s defense on Serbian guard Milos Teodosic kept the silver medalists from getting much of anything done on the other end.

The U.S. led by 23 points at the half and by 36 after three quarters, leading by as much as 41 before Serbia managed to close the margin in the game’s final minutes. Nemanja Nedovic led Serbia, which had never won an Olympic medal in basketball as an independent nation, with 14 points.

DeMarcus Cousins added 13 points and Klay Thompson 12, and Carmelo Anthony scored seven points in his final game in international play as he announced his retirement from USA Basketball following the win.

But it was the defense, which was much-maligned during pool play, that turned what had the potential to be a competitive game into a rout. All three opponents in bracket play shot less than 40 percent from the field after the U.S. allowed their last three opponents in pool play (Australia, France and Serbia) to shoot better than 50 percent from the field. When the chips were down the U.S. raised their level of play, ensuring that one of the men responsible for the program’s resurgence would go out on top.

With Krzyzewski (88-1 as head coach; 24-0 in the Olympics) moving on, Colangelo will work with San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich to ensure that the U.S. not only remains on top but doesn’t take that status for granted. And given the work that’s been done over the last 11 years or so, it’s hard to imagine USA Basketball taking a step back anytime soon.

WATCH: Mongolian coaches protest wrestler’s loss in bronze medal match

By Raphielle JohnsonAug 21, 2016, 4:02 PM EDT

Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Moments away from his first Olympic medal, Mongolia’s Ganzorig Mandakhnaran missed out on the podium in one of the worst ways imaginable.

With a 7-6 lead over Ikhtiyor Navruzov of Uzbekistan in the final seconds of the 65 kg freestyle wrestling bronze medal match, Mandakhnaran began celebrating his apparent victory. The problem: one of Mandakhnaran’s coaches ran onto the mat before time had expired (two seconds early), resulting in Navruzov being awarded a penalty point that gave him the bronze medal. Mandakhnaran and his coaches celebrated, not realizing that they had actually lost the match.

Not realizing what happened until he looked at the scoreboard, Mandakhnaran protested the decision. But as was the case with the initial celebration, his coaches took things even further.

One coach began stripping off his jacket and shirt to the delight of the crowd, with the other doing the same (and removing his pants as well) after encouraging the crowd to cheer even louder. What a brutal way for an athlete to lose a medal, and in the case of those coaches it will be interesting to see what the consequences are for them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-kFg86S6ww