Quadruple sculls barely make final

The U.S. women's quadruple sculls, which includes Megan Kalmoe of Minneapolis, earned the last spot in Wednesday's finals after finishing fourth in the repechage, qualifying by only .06 seconds ahead of Australia in Rio de Janeiro on Monday.

The U.S. had a time of 6 minutes, 28.54 seconds. The Netherlands had the top time of 6:24.61.

"We're really happy to have made the final," said Kalmoe. "The field that we are up against in the women's quad is really, really tight and every boat is definitely in the hunt for the medals in this regatta, and we're just happy to be in it."

The U.S. women's eight, who won gold four years ago in London, made a strong debut in Rio, qualifying for Saturday's final in 6:06.34, a whopping eight seconds ahead of the Netherlands.

Ibtihaj Muhammad became the first American athlete to compete in the Olympics with a hijab, which she wears to adhere to the tenets of her Muslim faith.

A fencer ranked eighth in the world in sabre, she beat Ukranian Olena Kravatska 15-13 in her first match before falling to France's Cecilia Berder 15-12 in the round of 16.

Muhammad, a New Jersey native and three-time NCAA All-America from Duke, will compete again Saturday in the team sabre event.

"I feel like it's a blessing to be able to represent so many people who don't have voices, who don't speak up," she said. "It's just been a really remarkable experience."

• Just as it did four years ago, the United States men's gymnastics team followed a great performance in the preliminaries of the team competition with a terrible start to the finals and finished fifth. In 2012, things went wrong when they started on the pommel horse and two of them fell. On Monday, it was the floor exercise that put the team in a big hole early with both Alex Naddour and Sam Mikulak stepping out of bounds.

• Rafael Silva earned Brazil's first gold medal of these Rio Games. The country's first female world champion in judo won the 57-kilogram division, beating Sumiya Dorjsuren of Mongolia. Overwhelmed with emotion, Silva performed the Brazilian version of the Lambeau Leap to celebrate with her compatriots.

• NBC announcer Al Trautwig said he regrets tweeting that the adoptive mother and father of U.S. gymnastics star Simone Biles were not her parents. Trautwig angered adoption advocates by refusing to refer to Ron and Nellie Biles as the 19-year-old's parents. Ron Biles, her maternal grandfather, and his wife adopted Simone 16 years ago.

• Serena Williams made it safely into the third round as she bids for a second consecutive women's tennis singles gold medal. The No. 1-seeded American struggled for quite a while before emerging with a 7-6 (5), 6-2 victory over France's Alize Cornet despite making 36 unforced errors and getting broken four times.

• Sailing, not dirty water, was finally the focus on troubled Guanabara Bay during a spectacular start to the Olympic regatta. Windsurfers sped across the waves toward Flamengo Beach in a fresh breeze. Robert Scheidt won the second race in the Laser class. He is trying to become the first Olympic sailor and first Brazilian to win six Olympic medals.

• The top-ranked U.S. women's volleyball team rallied to beat the Netherlands 18-25, 25-18, 21-25, 25-20, 15-8. "They pushed us," U.S. middle blocker Foluke Akinradewo said. "That's what we love. We try and embrace those moments."