RIO DE JANEIRO — The latest on the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro:

Women’s volleyball

Karch Kiraly’s top-ranked U.S. women’s volleyball team has earned an Olympic bronze medal, hardly the color the Americans planned for when they came to Brazil chasing the program’s first gold in history.

The U.S. topped the Netherlands 25-23, 25-27, 25-22, 25-19 today, bouncing back for bronze two days after a heartbreaking five-set defeat to Serbia in the semifinals.

After Kim Hill’s ace on match point, the U.S. women fell into an embrace and Kiraly hugged his coaches and brought his team together for a cheer.

The Netherlands shined playing in its first Olympics since 1996 in Atlanta, where they finished fourth and surprised many as the Dutch put women’s volleyball on the map with their gutsy, never-give-up style.

Soccer

Sadiq Umar scored a pair of goals and Nigeria won the Olympic bronze medal by holding off Honduras 3-2 today in Belo Horizonte.

It was Nigeria’s third overall Olympic medal in soccer. The West African nation won gold at the 1996 Olympics with a 3-2 victory over Argentina, and won the silver in 2008, falling to Argentina 1-0 in the final.

The medal was a reward for an Olympic tournament that got off to a rocky start. Nigeria’s arrival in Brazil was delayed until just hours before the team’s opening match because of a flight mix-up in Atlanta.

Honduras, which challenged with a pair of late goals, heads home from Brazil empty-handed but the team’s appearance in the medal round was its best-ever finish at the Olympics.

Brazil plays Germany in the gold-medal match later today at Rio’s famed Maracana Stadium.

Water polo

Christian Presciutti scored four goals to help Italy beat Montenegro 12-10 in the bronze-medal match in men’s water polo.

It’s the second straight Olympic medal for Italy, which lost to Croatia in the London final. Coupled with the silver for Italy’s women’s team on Friday, it’s the only country to medal in both water polo tournaments in Rio de Janeiro.

Montenegro finished fourth for the third straight Olympics.

Aleksandar Radovic scored with 1:57 left to get Montenegro within one. But Matteo Aicardi, wearing a mask to protect his broken nose from earlier in the tournament, connected on a long-range skip shot to help close it out for Italy.

Valentino Gallo added three goals for Italy, which lost 10-8 to Serbia in the semifinals.

Triathlon

Gwen Jorgensen gave the U.S. its first Olympic triathlon gold medal today, crushing the field at breezy Copacabana Beach in 1 hour, 56 minutes and 16 seconds.

Nicola Spirig of Switzerland, who won gold in London four years ago when Jorgensen was bamboozled by a flat tire, crossed 40 seconds later for the silver medal. Vicky Holland outsprinted British teammate Non Stanford to win the bronze.

Jorgensen was drafting with Spirig for the entire run after they dismounted their bikes together but after smiling at Spirig with about two kilometers left, Jorgensen made her breakaway and wouldn’t be challenged.

As she approached the blue ribbon, the former All-American track athlete and swimmer at the University of Wisconsin turned and Spirig wasn’t anywhere in site. Jorgensen flipped up her goggles, acknowledged the cheers with a wide smile and grabbed the tape above her head after crossing the finish.

Then, she broke down in tears.

The only other American to win an Olympic triathlon medal was Susan Williams, the silver medalist at the 2004 Athens Games.

Closing ceremony

One more honor awaits Simone Biles at the Rio Games. The five-time gymnastics medalist — four of them gold — will carry the U.S. flag into Sunday’s closing ceremony, the U.S. Olympic Committee announced today.

Biles was chosen by fellow U.S. Olympians in a vote. “It’s an incredible honor,” Biles said.

Biles made her Olympic debut in Rio, winning team gold and individual titles in women’s all-around, vault and floor exercise, along with a bronze on balance beam. She’s one of only four women, and the first American, to win four golds in a single Olympics. 

Boxing

Men

Cuban boxer Robeisy Ramirez used a strong third round to finish off top American prospect Shakur Stevenson and win Olympic boxing gold in the bantamweight final.

The fight was even on the scorecards through two rounds. Ramirez, now a two-time Olympic gold medalist, won 29-28 on two scorecards. The 19-year-old Stevenson, fighting out of Newark, New Jersey, won one card 29-28.

Ramirez celebrated gold with a backflip in the ring.

Stevenson, who had been cheered on by retired great Floyd Mayweather earlier in the tournament, pulled his vest over his face and walked off to a railing to compose himself. With a towel over his head, Stevenson sobbed and was consoled by his family. He lost an international bout for the first time in his career.

Women

British fighter Nicola Adams has won her second-straight Olympic boxing gold medal.

Adams, the first woman to win an Olympic boxing title at the London Games, made it back-to-back gold with a unanimous decision victory over French boxer Sarah Ourahmoune.

Adams swept the scorecards 39-37 to win lightweight gold and become the first two-time women’s Olympic boxing champion.

Ourahmoune had a big rally in the second and third rounds to keep the fight a bit closer than expected. But Adams won the decisive fourth round on all three cards and thumped her chest and pointed toward the sky when the decision was announced.

Cycling

Jenny Rissveds of Sweden pulled away late from Maja Wloszczowska of Poland to win gold at the women’s mountain bike race.

The riders were alone together at the head of the field starting the last of the six-plus lap race. Rissveds then powered away on the first long uphill of the 3-mile course, building an insurmountable lead on Wloszczowska.

Rissveds finished with a time of 1 hour, 30 minutes, 15 seconds — which was 37 seconds faster than the silver medalist. Catharine Pendrel held off Canadian teammate Emily Batty for the bronze.

Golf

Inbee Park’s first victory of the season might just be the biggest of her career — a gold medal in women’s golf.

Park made three straight birdies early in the final round today, never let anyone closer than three shots the rest of the way and closed with a 5-under 66 for a five-shot victory at Olympic Golf Course.

Lydia Ko of New Zealand didn’t stand a chance, and neither anyone else.

Ko, the No. 1 player in women’s golf, made an 8-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 69 to claim the silver. Shanshan Feng of China shot 69 and took the bronze.

Park, battling a thumb injury all year that led to speculation she was going to retire, had not faced top competition in two months and missed the last two majors on the LPGA Tour. She took time off to prepare for the Olympics, but when she missed the cut in a Korean LPGA event, the 28-year-old from South Korea heard chatter that she should give up her spot to another player in better form.

Instead, she reminded her golf-mad nation why she ranks among the best.

Women’s basketball

Serbia counted down the final minute before running to midcourt to celebrate, capping off its first Olympics in women’s basketball with a bronze medal by beating France 70-63 today.

Jelena Milovanovic scored 18 points for the Serbs, who were jumping up and down on the bench with hands clasped waiting for the final horn. The crowd helped count down the final seconds and after the game the Serbia team tossed coach Marina Maljkovic into the air a couple of times.

France leaves its third Olympics without any hardware after taking silver at the 2012 London Games.

The Serbs appeared stunned after their loss to Spain in the semifinals Thursday. They rebounded well, racing out to a 12-3 lead and were up 18-10 after the first quarter. When France went up 40-37, Serbia finished the third quarter scoring on an 18-2 run and never trailed again.

Endy Miyem led France with 18 points.

Handball

They came for a third-straight Olympic gold, but Norway’s women’s handball team had to settle for bronze.

After being defeated in the semifinals by Russia, Norway recovered well to beat the Netherlands 36-26 in today’s bronze medal game.

Nora Mork scored seven goals for Norway, which led 19-13 at half time and played strong defense in the second half to hold off a Dutch fightback.

Norway has now won a women’s handball medal at six of the last eight Olympics, including gold in 2008 and 2012.

Pentathlon

Two-time world champion Aleksander Lesun of Russia has surged to the lead in men’s modern pentathlon through the bonus fencing round.

The favorite to win gold in Rio, Lesun won the one-touch fencing event to build a commanding lead after two of five events. Lesun has 592 points, with Egypt’s Omar El Geziry and Great Britain’s Joseph Choong tied for second with 569.

Lesun is the current world record holder for overall points and fencing. He has never finished worse than third in seven world championships, but was a disappointing fourth at the 2012 London Games.

Taekwondo

Serbia’s defending Olympic taekwondo champion Milica Mandic is through to the quarterfinals at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics after a commanding performance in her first-round match today.

Mandic overpowered Norwegian fighter Tina Skaar, using a series of head kicks in the third round that gave her a significant lead. Mandic won by a score of 8 to 2.

Mandic won the gold medal in the women’s heavyweight category at the London Games and also took a silver at the European championships in May. She is seeded sixth at the Olympics and will next face Britain’s Bianca Walkden, the current world champion in the quarterfinals today.

In the men’s division, Anthony Obame, who won Gabon’s first Olympic medal in London, a silver, lost to Britain’s Mahama Cho in the first round. Obame could still have a chance to fight for a bronze medal in the repechage competition.

Badminton

China’s Chen Long has won gold in men’s badminton.

Today’s victory gives Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei his third straight Olympic silver medal and signals Chen’s place as the game’s new power.

Lee, while old by badminton standards at 33, was world No. 1 and the favorite coming in.

But he faced massive pressure not to lose another gold medal, and was coming off a match a day earlier against China’s Lin Dan, the man who beat him in the last two Olympic finals, that felt more like a gold-medal contest than a semifinal.

Both Lee and Lin are considered by many to be the best players of their era, and maybe of all time.

Chen is now making his place at the top.

Chen led early in first game of the best-of-three match then trailed before capitalizing on repeated Lee errors at the net to pull ahead and take the first game 21-18. Chen then fought back from an early Lee lead in the second game to power by the Malaysian 21-18.

Viktor Axelsen of Denmark earlier beat Lin Dan for bronze.

Kayaking

Germany dominated the men’s kayak four to clinch the gold medal in the final event of the canoe sprint competition at the Rio Olympics.

Max Rendschmidt, Tom Liebscher, Max Hoff and Marcus Gross pulled away from the other boats in the second half of the 1,000 meter race and kept their lead until the finish line.

Slovakia edged the Czech Republic by a tenth of a second to get the silver.

It was Germany’s fourth gold in the canoe sprint races on the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon.

Danuta Kozak has become the most successful kayaker at the Rio Olympics by winning gold in three of the four women’s events.

Kozak completed her rout as Hungary won the women’s 1,000 meters kayak four today ahead of Germany and Belarus.

The Hungarian paddler also won the 500 meters single and 500 meters double with Gabriella Szabo, who was also part of the four crew.

Kozak didn’t compete in the women’s 200 meter sprint, which was won by New Zealand’s Lisa Carrington.

Canoeist Isaquias Queiroz has become the first Brazilian Olympian to win three medals at the same games.

Queiroz and Erlon de Souza had to settle for silver in the men’s 1,000 meters double after losing a sprint to Sebastian Brendel and Jan Vandrey of Germany.

Ukrainian paddlers Dmytro Ianchuk and Tarasa Mischchuk got the bronze.

Backed by a roaring home crowd, the Brazilians led the race until the final 250 meters where they were overtaken by Brendel and Vandrey.

Queiroz also won a silver and a bronze in the single events.

Triathlon

American Gwen Jorgensen is the gold medal favorite in the women’s Olympic triathlon at Copacabana Beach today.

Jorgensen was an All-American track star at the University of Wisconsin, where she also was on the swim team. She was recruited to try triathlon seven years ago and is now the top woman in the sport.

She’s won back-to-back ITU world championships but cut back on her schedule this year so she could focus on the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Her 2012 London Games didn’t go well as a flat tire on her bike relegated her to 38th place in Hyde Park.

The triathlon at the Rio Olympics consists of a one-loop ocean swim, a steep 24-mile bike ride and a 6.2-mile run.

First Published August 20, 2016, 1:04 p.m.