While you were sleeping

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BEIJING—U.S. women have been having an exceptional Olympics in women’s team sports.

But this might not be remembered as one of their better nights.

In one of the most shocking upsets, the United States didn’t win the softball gold medal.

The U.S. team, which won all three previous times that softball has been included in the Games in 1996, 2000 and 2004, fell to Japan, 3-1, on Thursday.

It was considered merely a small dent in the U.S. invincibility when it had to go extra innings to beat the Japanese in the semifinal. But the Japanese, who earned the rematch in the final by beating Australia, jumped out to a 2-0 lead and never trailed. Crystl Bustos of Canyon Country provided the lone run with a fourth-inning home run. The United States twice loaded the bases without scoring.

The U.S. women’s water polo team had a shot at its first gold medal after finishing second in 2000 and third in 2004 but had to settle for silver again Thursday in a 9-8 loss to the Netherlands. Danielle de Bruijn scored the winning goal with 26 seconds remaining.

The U.S. women’s soccer team is playing later this morning for the gold medal against Brazil, which is favored to win.

The U.S. women’s basketball team should be having a relatively easy time against Russia in a semifinal. But the Russians are trailing by only one, 33-32, at halftime. It’s shaping up to be one to those days.

There was some good news as the U.S. women’s indoor volleyball team avenged an earlier defeat to Cuba, winning in the semifinals, 25-20, 25-16, 26-17, and advanced to the finals. The U.S. women have never won a gold medal. They will play the winner of this morning’s China-Brazil semifinal.

(All times PDT)

10:53 p.m. (Wednesday) In the Olympic debut of 10K marathon swimming, the Netherlands’ Maarten van der Weijden won despite receiving a yellow card for contact with another competitor. It was a chippy race. The reigning world champion, Russia’s Vladimir Dyatchin, was disqualified after receiving a yellow card and then a red for misconduct. U.S. swimmer Mark Warkentin of Santa Barbara, Calif., was eighth.

11:22 p.m. The U.S. women’s indoor volleyball team avenged an earlier defeat to Cuba, winning in the semifinals, 25-20, 25-16, 26-17, and advanced to the finals. The U.S. women have never won a gold medal. They will play the winner of this morning’s China-Brazil semifinal.

1:05 a.m. Rami Zur of Costa Mesa, Calif., placed sixth in his semifinal and was eliminated from the 500-meter kayak singles. Carrie Johnson of San Diego did a little better, finishing fourth in her semifinal of the women’s 500, but also failed to advance.

3:42 a.m. Olympic mythology holds that wars are supposed to halt during the Games. (It never was true, not even in Ancient Greece, where wars stopped long enough merely to insure athletes safe passage to the Games.) But once athletes arrive at the Games, it is expected that they will behave amicably toward each other even if there are hostilities between their countries. Russia’s Georgy Ketoev, world champion in 84-kilogram freestyle wrestling, didn’t get the memo. He was more than a little bothered when he was upset in the semifinals Thursday by the Republic of Georgia’s Revazi Mindorashvili. Ketoev lay panting on the mat in defeat and wouldn’t accept the Georgian’s hand when he leaned over to help him up. Later, after Mindorashvili won the gold medal over Tajikikstan’s Yusup Abdusalomov, Ketoev, who shared the bronze with Ukraine’s Taras Danko, ignored the Georgian on the medals stand.

4:32 a.m. Jamaica made it a clean sweep of the four sprints, Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell Brown adding the women’s 200 to the gold-medal haul in 21.74. Jamaican and U.S. runners finished 1-6. Allyson Felix of Los Angeles was second and Kerron Stewart of Jamaica was third. The United States’ Muna Lee and Marshavet Hooker finished fourth and fifth. Jamaica’s Sherone Simpson was sixth. Should be a terrific sprint relay coming up. Jamaica also won the women’s 100, finishing 1-2-3, and the men’s 100 and 200.

5:27 a.m. 5:30 a.m. Mark and Diana Lopez, brother and sister from Sugar Land, Texas, each won medals in featherweight taekwondo competition. She won the bronze medal in the women’s event, scoring in sudden-death overtime to beat Italy’s Veronica Calabrese, 3-2. He lost in the championship match, 3-2, to South Korea’s Son Taejin.

5:40 a.m. As my colleague Mike Downey says, this is definitely not the Gay Olympics. After winning the 100 and the 200 in last year’s world championships, U.S. sprinter Tyson Gay didn’t qualify for the 200 and failed to make it to the final in the 100. This morning, running the anchor leg for the sprint relay team in the prelims, he was part of a botched handoff and never crossed the finish line. The United States figured its depth would give it a chance in the final against Usain Bolt and Jamaica. We’ll never find out.

6 a.m. Wake up, smell the Dan Chong oolong tea!

Also coming this morning: track and field finals in women’s javelin throw, men’s triple jump, men’s 400, men’s 110-meter hurdles; women’s platform diving final.

-- Randy Harvey