Bucks guard Jrue Holiday will try to add to the family gold medal count as a member of the U.S. men’s basketball team at the Tokyo Games. His wife, Lauren Holiday, won a gold medal in women’s soccer in 2012. Kathy Willens/Associated Press
Jrue Holiday is planning to try to follow in his wife’s footsteps and win an Olympic gold medal.
Holiday has committed to USA Basketball for next month’s Tokyo Games, along with his Milwaukee teammate Khris Middleton and Cleveland forward Kevin Love, said to a person with knowledge of the decisions.
Holiday and Middleton are planning to play at this point even if the Bucks make the NBA finals, the person said. The person spoke to The Associated Press on Tuesday on condition of anonymity because the team has not yet publicly released the roster.
It would be the first Olympics for Holiday and Middleton, and the second for Love – who was on the U.S. team that won gold at the 2012 London Games.
Another gold medalist from 2012 was the player then known as Lauren Cheney, who won her second consecutive Olympic gold as part of the U.S. women’s soccer team. She’s now known as Lauren Holiday, after marrying Jrue in 2013.
And now, it’s her husband who is pursuing the gold medal.
Jrue Holiday was part of the select team that helped the 2012 team prepare for the Olympics, and has been part of other USA Basketball experiences along the way – but never anything as significant as the chance to play in Tokyo.
Middleton was part of the most recent U.S. men’s senior national team, playing for Coach Gregg Popovich – who’ll also lead the Olympic team – at the 2019 Basketball World Cup in China, where the Americans were a disappointing seventh.
The additions of Middleton, Holiday and Love put the Americans relatively close to having a full roster for the Tokyo Games. Others who have committed so far: Miami’s Bam Adebayo, Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant, Golden State’s Draymond Green, Washington’s Bradley Beal, Boston’s Jayson Tatum, Phoenix’s Devin Booker and Portland’s Damian Lillard.
Brooklyn’s James Harden also intends to play and has made that commitment to USA Basketball, though there is concern over whether his hamstring injury — which sidelined and slowed him at times during the Nets’ postseason run — will actually allow him to be part of the team.
The Americans start training camp in Las Vegas on July 6.
GOLF: Four of the top 10 men in the world golf ranking are not going to Japan for the Olympics, only one of them by choice.
The 60-man field was set based on the world ranking with a half-dozen late withdrawals, a list that included U.S. Open runner-up Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa, Tyrrell Hatton of England and Sergio Garcia of Spain.
Dustin Johnson, the No. 2 player in the world, had already said he would not be going because the Tokyo Olympics on July 29 through Aug. 1 are crammed into an already busy golf schedule.
Even so, it was a strong turnaround from Rio de Janeiro when golf returned to the Olympic program for the first time in a century and the world’s best stayed home. Five years ago, with concerns over the Zika virus and security, men’s golf was missing the top four players in the world who had combined to win six of the previous eight majors.
The Tokyo Games have already been postponed once, for a year, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. They are now scheduled for July 23-Aug. 8 with restrictions on athletes’ movement and where they can stay.
American Bryson DeChambeau said he’ll be there – as long as the games go on.
“As of right now, I definitely am going,” he said on Tuesday. “If something was crazy to happen, obviously, we all wouldn’t be going.”
The men’s field still has four of the top five in the world ranking, and five of the past six major champions. That includes Hideki Matsuyama, the first Japanese player to win the Masters.
The women’s field will be set next week.
Jon Rahm of Spain, who returned to No. 1 in the world with his U.S. Open victory, led the qualifiers. He was followed by four Americans — Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele and DeChambeau.
SURFING: An overheated day in the Central Valley found the greatest surfer in history walking barefoot around a sprawling facility that manufactures a perfectly sculpted wave.
Kelly Slater, 49, was in his element at the Jeep Surf Ranch Pro, the last competition before the Summer Games in Japan.
An unexpected turn of events has led to the possibility that the 11-time world champion will enter a new arena next month in Tokyo, a twist that could draw more attention to an outdoor adventure sport making an Olympic debut.
Slater is on standby after injuries to America’s two qualifiers this year left an opening for the team’s famous alternate.
A lot has to happen before Slater can paddle for gold at Tsurigasaki Beach in Chiba, Japan. But his presence would add a celebrity vibe to the waves.
“I don’t want to make it that way,” Slater said. “But if that is what it is I’ll take my spot.”
Surfing was a niche sport for Slater’s generation well before Olympic officials saw the need to attract X Games crowds to energize flagging viewership.
“Not to minimalize it, it is more for kids in the future,” Slater said of the Olympics.
Slater failed to qualify by the slightest margins in the 2019 World Surf League finale in Hawaii. Now his status depends on the recoveries of Olympic qualifiers Kolohoe Andino and John John Florence.
Andino has resumed training at a surf break near his San Clemente home while still recovering from two ankle sprains.
Florence, a two-time world champion from Hawaii, injured his left knee in early May during a competition in Australia. Florence had surgery to repair the damage and needs recovery to go well to compete in Japan.
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