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Let's Catch Up: U.S. Rowers End Drought, Phelps And Lochte Reload

Adrienne Martelli, Megan Kalmoe, Kara Kohler and Natalie Dell of the United States celebrate on the podium after winning bronze in the women's quadruple sculls at Eton Dorney in Windsor, England.
Harry How
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Adrienne Martelli, Megan Kalmoe, Kara Kohler and Natalie Dell of the United States celebrate on the podium after winning bronze in the women's quadruple sculls at Eton Dorney in Windsor, England.

Good morning. Things are hopping at the London Games, with 20 medal events today. And conversations are still buzzing about the scandal in Olympic badminton, over players intentionally throwing matches. Here are some highlights from this morning's news:

- The U.S. women's quadruple sculls team has won a bronze medal, ending a 28-year American medal drought in the sport. It's also only the second U.S. medal.

- Michael Phelps, who looks to add to his record 19 medals in today's 200m butterfly final, qualified with the fourth-fastest time this morning. Ryan Lochte was second-fastest, at 1:58.03. The top qualifier is Hundary's Laszlo Cseh, the 2008 silver medalist, who clocked in at 1:57.20.

- Great Britain finally won its first gold medal, as rowers Helen Glover and Heather Stanning won their women's pair scull race. "I really hope my story can be an inspiration for kids in PE watching this or at home thinking about taking up a new sport," said Stanning, who serves as a Royal Artillery officer. "Just go on, go for it - you don't know what's going to happen."

- NBC will break even, not lose money, on the London Summer Olympics. "We are way ahead of where we thought we'd be," NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke tells the AP today. The AP continues: "Burke said that because of the timing of events in London, he had expected ratings to be down 20 percent compared with the Beijing Olympics. But they are up 9 percent so far, five days into the event."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Bill Chappell is a writer and editor on the News Desk in the heart of NPR's newsroom in Washington, D.C.
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