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BEIJING Olympic heartache continues for the U.S. women's water polo team.
The Americans lost, 9-8, to the Netherlands in the gold medal game Thursday when Dutch superstar Danielle de Bruijn scored with 26 seconds left.
The loss follows a trend. The U.S. lost in the gold medal game in the final seconds in the 2000 Olympics, lost in the final seconds of the semifinal in 2004 and lost again in the waning seconds Thursday.
The Americans could not stop de Bruijn, who scored seven goals in her final game. She announced her retirement after the ceremony.
The Netherlands rolled to a 4-0 lead, and the Americans never recovered. The U.S. tied the game at five and later at eight, but never led.
The U.S. nearly answered de Bruijn's goal. With two seconds left, American captain Brenda Villa waded in for a close-in shot for the tie, but her attempt was batted away by goalie Ilse van der Meijden.
Basketball
Diana Taurasi scored 21 points and Tina Thompson added 15, helping the U.S. women pull away from Russia 67-52 to make the gold medal game against Australia, which routed China 90-56.
The U.S. had been averaging 99.2 points as they cruised through the first six games, winning by 43 points a game.
Belinda Snell had 16 points for the Aussies, sending them back to the gold medal game for the third straight time. They have lost to the Americans in the medal round of the past three Olympics.
Diving
China is 7-for-7 after Chen Ruolin rallied on her last dive to earn four 10s, winning the gold medal in women's 10-meter platform. Only one diving event remains: men's platform. Chen, 15, got out of the pool, bowed and cried after she had nailed her last – and toughest – dive to beat Canada's Emilie Heymans.
Marathon Swimming
In an entirely different water event in Beixiaoying Town, Dutchman Maarten van der Weijden skirted just inside the final red buoy to grab gold in the men's 10-kilometer open water race, completing a comeback after recovering from leukemia.
Van der Weijden won a three-way sprint in the inaugural event with a better-angled finish under a steady rain.
David Davies of Britain and Thomas Lurz of Germany drifted to the outside at the finish and settled for silver and bronze.
Wrestling
Artur Taymazov of Uzbekistan repeated as the Olympic freestyle champion at 120 kilograms, denying Russia its seventh wrestling gold medal in Beijing by defeating Bakhityar Akhmedov 3-0, 1-0.
Taymazov joined Russia's Mavlet Batirov (60 kg) and Buvaysa Saytiev (74 kg) as repeat freestyle gold medalists from the Athens Games in 2004. Taymazov, 29, was a silver medalist in 2000. He also won world championships in 2003 and 2006, but always seems to be at his best in the Olympics.
Georgia's Revazi Mindorashvili won the men's 84 kg class, and Russian Shirvani Muradov took the 96 kg gold.
BMX
The men's and women's BMX semifinals and finals were rained out and rescheduled for today.
