The 2024 Paris Summer Games didn’t net Kent State’s seventh Olympic medal, but Corey Conners of Team Canada showed once again that he’s one of the world’s elite golfers.
Conners, competing in his second Olympics, improved on his 13th-place finish in the 2020 Tokyo Games by tying for 9th place in Paris. The two-time All-American and Mid-American Conference champion at Kent State started with rounds of 68, 69 and 69 before firing a 5-under-par 66 in the final round to finish in the top 10 at Le Golf National.
Conners’ 272 total put him at 12-under for the tournament, just 5 strokes back of the bronze medal position and 7 strokes behind gold medalist Scottie Scheffler of the United States.
Danniel Thomas-Dodd of Jamaica was in her third Olympics and looking to qualify for the finals in the shot put for the first time. And, just like the 2020 Tokyo Games, she narrowly missed that coveted chance to compete for a gold medal.
Thomas-Dodd’s best throw in the qualifying round was 18.12 meters, which placed her 13th in the field – a mere one spot from advancing to the finals. The 2017 NCAA national champion finished just behind the 12th-place qualifier, Axelina Johansson of Sweden, who threw 18.16. Yemisi Ogunleye of Germany finished first in the finals round with a throw of 20.00 to capture the gold medal.
In Tokyo, the former Golden Flashes star missed a finals qualifying berth by just 0.2 meters. Thomas-Dodd owns the Jamaican national record in the shot put of 19.77 meters outdoors, which she set in 2023, so it would have been interesting to see her perform in an Olympic finals with the pressure of qualifying off – especially considering that her personal best would have netted her a bronze medal in these Olympics.
Chris Ortiz and the Team Puerto Rico men’s basketball team left Paris without a win in their three games. But to be fair, Puerto Rico faced a brutal schedule, landing in Group C in the qualifying round, which featured Team USA, the eventual gold medalist, and Serbia, which captured the bronze medal.
After dropping their first two games of the group phase to South Sudan and Serbia, Ortiz and Team Puerto Rico ended their Olympics with a 104-83 loss to Team USA. Ortiz, who had led all scorers and rebounders in the game against Serbia, had a tough outing against LeBron James and company. The 6-foot-8 power forward finished with just 2 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist in 19 minutes against the eventual gold medal winners.
Playing in his first Olympics, the former Kent State standout totaled 24 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 1 blocked shot in Puerto Rico’s three games.
It was brought to my attention that information reported in Round 2 concerning Corey Conners’ double-bogey on the 18th hole in the first round of the Olympic men’s golf tournament was incorrect.
Turns out, it indeed was incorrect. But that’s because, for some reason, Conners’ scoring was entered incorrectly in several online scorecards that mistakenly saddled him with two double-bogeys on the day that actually were just bogeys.
Several media outlets reported Conners as having two double-bogeys, including an outfit in Canada that was following his progress on the course closely that day. The error eventually was corrected, but not before readers around the world unfortunately thought that Conners had double-bogeyed 18 and perhaps cost himself a chance at a medal.
We’re headed for fall sports, but the summer isn’t over yet.
Case in point: On July 28, Kylie Dunfee of Mantua participated in the T-Mobile Little League Home Run Derby East Regional Finals/Softball Division at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, home of Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals. She was among 10 Eastern United States finalists to advance to the championship in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, on Aug. 22, which will air at 7 p.m. Aug. 23 on ESPN.
Kylie also played for the Tallmadge Little League 9-11-year-old softball team that won the state championship this year.
Congratulations and good luck, Kylie!
Tom Hardesty is a Portager sports columnist. He was formerly assistant sports editor at the Record-Courier and author of the book Glimpses of Heaven.