Story highlights
Usain Bolt tries for a 3rd gold medal in London as part of Jamaica's 4x100-meter relay
The U.S. women's volleyball and basketball teams try to finish Games undefeated
Brazil and Mexico battle in the men's football final at Wembley Stadium
Since starting with plenty of pomp, the 2012 London Olympics has been a forum for a number of stunning performances. Yet that won’t be the case for much longer, as athletes have just two days left to realize their Olympic dreams. Here are five things to watch for Saturday, when 31 gold medals will be on the line:
1) Men’s 4x100-meter relay: Usain Bolt tries to continue his remarkable run
Can Usain Bolt do it again? If he does win his sixth Olympic gold medal on Saturday, the Jamaican won’t be doing it alone. He and countryman Yohan Blake – who beat Bolt in their nation’s Olympic trials, but finished right behind him in the 100-meter and 200-meter races in London – are part of the quartet that is the odds-on favorite entering the 4x100-meter relay. The next fastest qualifier is the U.S. men’s squad, which will hope to follow the lead of the U.S. women’s 4x100-meter team that won gold Friday. Trinidad and Tobago and Canada are also among those in the mix.
The relay race is set to begin around 9 p.m. London time (4 p.m. ET)
2) Women’s basketball: Team USA aims to make it five straight golds
While the U.S. men’s basketball team, with its NBA-laden roster, gets far more press, the U.S. women’s team has been more dominant on the world stage of late. The Americans will shoot for five straight Olympic gold medals when they go up against France. The French can’t claim the healthy winning margins of the Americans, nor can they boast the likes of Diana Taurasi, Candace Parker or Maya Moore. But they are no slouches either, having won each of their seven contests thus far this Olympic Games.
The game should tip off at 9 p.m. London time (4 p.m. ET)
3) Men’s football: A battle of the Americas on the pitch
Brazil should have plenty of reasons to smile in four years, when it hosts the next edition of the summer Olympics. For now, though, it’ll have to get its glory in other ways – with gold in men’s football perhaps the most fitting, given the country’s longtime love affair with the sport. The Brazilians have been filling up the goals this Olympic tourney with three goals in each of their five games, all of them wins. Yet they’ll have to topple similarly undefeated Mexico at Wembley Stadium to top the podium.
The match begins at 3 p.m. London time (10 a.m. ET)
4) Men’s diving: How close to perfect can Qiu Bo be?
China’s Qiu Bo is all of 19 years old and already a part of diving history. He notched a remarkable 25 perfect 10s in last year’s FINA/Midea Diving World Series 10-meter event. And he enters the Olympic final in that event as a runaway favorite as the top qualifier. So can anyone knock Qiu off his perch atop the platform? That depends on how well his countryman Lin Yue, Germany’s Sascha Klein and Martin Wolfram, Mexico’s German Sanchez Sanchez and Ivan Garcia Navarro and the rest of the field perform Saturday night.
The finals should start at 8:30 p.m. London time (3:30 p.m. ET).
5) Women’s volleyball: A rematch from the Beijing Games
The U.S. women’s volleyball team has been on the top of its game in London, losing a mere two sets and winning 21 en route to a perfect 7-0 record. Yet the Americans will have to overcome Brazil, and history, to finish the tournament on a winning note. The Brazilians lost two of their first three matches – one of them to the United States – but have won their last four, including a straight-set thrashing of Japan in the semifinals. While most always competitive, the United States has hardly been dominant internationally: It’s never won the FIVB World Cup, a competition occurring every four years since 1973, or an Olympic finals. That includes a 2008 Olympic defeat against none other than Brazil.
The contest begins at 6:30 p.m. London time (1:30 p.m. ET)