The United States men’s rugby team opened pool play Tuesday at the Rio Olympics with a 17-14 loss to Argentina, but rebounded to defeat Brazil, 26-0.
Patriots special teamer Nate Ebner, who is on loan to Team USA, did not start the Argentina match, but did see some playing time. He became the first active NFL player to compete in a Summer Olympics.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who donned a No. 12 Ebner rugby jersey during practice Tuesday morning, also gave players a break at 5 p.m. to watch their teammate compete against Brazil.
“I‘m mad we missed the first game, but we’ll go in there and a lot of us will watch that game at 5 and get to cheer our guy on,’’ Patriots safety Devin McCourty said.
“Nate [Ebner] is a very popular guy on the team. Everybody loves Nate, his work ethic, and what he brings to the team. A lot of us can’t wait to get in there and watch him do something that he’s very passionate about.’’
“I think in the secondary, we know he talked to us about trying out for the Olympics before it even came up, so to now see it come full circle and get a chance to watch him in the Olympics is going to be a cool experience.’’
These Olympic Games are the first since 1924 to include rugby.
Serena stunned
Out of sorts and out of answers, defending champion Serena Williams is out of the Rio Olympics.
Shanking shots of all sorts, including five double-faults in one game alone, Williams lost to Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, 6-4, 6-3, in the third round in a real shocker, ending the No. 1-seeded American’s bid to become the first tennis player to collect a pair of singles golds.
‘‘It didn’t work out the way I wanted it to,’’ Williams said.
Williams had 37 unforced errors and 17 forced errors.
‘‘The better player won,’’ said Williams, who did not take questions after the match and instead did a brief interview with a US Tennis Association spokesman.
Manager arrested
The Kenyan track and field team manager, who was sent home from the Olympics after being caught offering to help cover up doping for cash, was arrested on arrival at Nairobi’s airport and appeared in court Tuesday.
Kenyan police and prosecutors are seeking an order to hold Michael Rotich in custody for a week while they investigate, and said they don’t want him to be released because he’s likely to interfere with their investigation.
British newspaper The Sunday Times alleged over the weekend that Rotich asked its undercover reporters who were posing as coaches for a 10,000 pound ($13,000) payment to give them and their athletes advance warning of doping tests in a popular high-altitude training region in Kenya.
Rotich said he could protect athletes from doping controls because he is a senior track federation official in the region and knew the official doping testers and when they would be targeting athletes, The Sunday Times reported.
The doping testers were not implicated in any wrongdoing.
Rotich was sent home from the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro after the allegations were published, and Kenyan authorities promised to show him ‘‘no mercy’’ in the latest of a series of doping scandals to rock Kenyan track and field over the last four years.
Kenya recently passed legislation criminalizing doping and attempts to aid doping.
The secretly-filmed negotiations with Rotich were in January and February, The Sunday Times said, and are part of a larger doping case in Kenya. Three Kenyan men have already been arrested and are facing charges after they allegedly offered to provide the banned blood-booster EPO to undercover reporters in the same region.
The investigation into Rotich, the official who was in charge of Kenya’s star-studded Olympic track team, would take time and involve investigators traveling to a number of towns in the west of the country to contact possible witnesses and record statements, prosecutor Duncan Ondimu said on Tuesday. Rotich’s lawyer asked for him to be released because he was diabetic and because his travel and identity documents had already been confiscated and he wasn’t a flight risk.
Magistrate Christine Njagi said she would rule on the police application on Wednesday.
The Sunday Times report cast even more suspicion on Kenya’s track and field program days ahead of the start of the athletics events at the Rio Olympics on Friday.
In Rio, International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said the allegations against Rotich were ‘‘clearly very serious allegations,’’ but he also moved to give reassurances that Kenya’s team had been heavily tested for doping over the last two years. Adams said the Kenyan team had probably been tested more than any other over those two years.
US beached again
American beach volleyball team Brooke Sweat and Lauren Fendrick lost to the defending world champions from Brazil and fell to 0-2.
Larissa and Talita won, 21-16, 21-13. The Americans now need to win their final match, against Russia on Thursday, to guarantee at least one more day on the sand at the Copacabana venue.
King takes on Gatlin
After taking down suspended drug cheat Yulia Efimova in the 100-meter breaststroke Monday night, outspoken swimmer Lily King was asked whether US sprinter Justin Gatlin — who is regarded as Usain Bolt’s primary challenger in the 100 meters — should be on the American team after serving two suspensions.
King stood by her statement that drug cheaters should not be competing here.
“Do I think people who have been caught for doping offenses should be on the team? No, they shouldn’t,’’ she said. “It’s unfortunate that we have to see that, and it is such a toss-up between sports and between countries.
“It’s something that should be set in stone: This is what we are going to do. We need to settle this, and that should be the end of it. There should not be any bouncing back and forth.’’
Gatlin, 34, served a four-year ban after testing positive for a banned substance in 2006. He previously had been suspended in 2001 for a similar positive test.
US loses in volleyball
The United States men’s volleyball lost to Italy, 28-26, 20-25, 25-23, 25-23.
The Americans — with eight first-time Olympians — responded from a sweep by Canada in their opener two days earlier with a far more steady performance, but it wasn’t enough against powerful Italy.
The score was 23-23 in the fourth set when US star Matt Anderson served into the net to give Italy match point. The Italians, seeded fourth, closed it out to move to 2-0 in Rio. Birarelli stood and limped along, and teammate Simone Buti rushed over with a hug.
US boxers 4-0
Lightweight Carlos Balderas’s unanimous decision over Japan’s Daisuke Narimatsu pushed the US boxing team to a surprising 4-0. Light flyweight Nico Hernandez also won his first two fights.
‘‘There’s no prizes been given out yet, but we’re very happy,’’ US coach Billy Walsh said. ‘‘This team is on a roll, and there’s good momentum. These two guys are in a position where they’re one shot away from a medal, which is a fantastic achievement.’’
Four years after a nine-man American team won only five fights in London and failed to bring home any medals for the first time, the current six-man team already has won four times before four of its fighters even step in the ring.
Medal stripped
Javelin thrower Oleksandr Pyatnytsya was stripped of his silver medal from the 2012 London Olympics, the latest athlete disqualified after the retesting of stored doping samples. The 31-year-old Ukrainian was one of four more athletes sanctioned by the IOC after retests of stored samples from London and the 2008 Beijing Games. A total of 98 athletes have been caught in retests so far . . . Pele, 75, hopes to appear at the Closing Ceremony after missing the opening because of poor health.
