RIO DE JANEIRO – The Latest on the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (all times local):

4:50 p.m.

Germany quieted the Copacabana crowd has eliminated Brazil’s top-seeded beach volleyball team, beating hometown and tournament favorites Larissa and Talita 21-18, 21-12.

By winning the semifinals, Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst clinched Germany’s first-ever Olympic medal in women’s beach volleyball. The German men won the gold medal in London.

The Germans will play the winner of the night semifinal between the Americans Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross, and the No. 2-seeded Brazilian team of Agatha and Barbara.

Ludwig dropped to the sand after the winning point on Tuesday.

4:50 p.m.

MEDAL ALERT: Cancer survivor and six-time Olympian Santiago Lange of Argentina won the gold medal in the Nacra 17 mixed catamaran on Tuesday with crew Cecilia Carranza Saroli in the Rio Games sailing regatta.

It’s been an extraordinary games for the 54-year-old Lange. He is the oldest competitor in sailing at Rio and his sons, Yago and Klaus, are sailing for Argentina in the 49er skiff class.

Lange lost part of a lung to cancer last year.

He and Saroli won the gold by one point over Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin of Australia. Thomas Zajac and Tanja Frank of Austria won the bronze.

He and crewmate Carlos Espinola won bronze medals in the discontinued Tornado class at Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008.

4:40 p.m.

Rio Games organizers say they dropped the ball at the start of the games in terms of logistics and other details.

Games spokesman Mario Andrada said Tuesday that senior International Olympic Committee officials complained that transportation logistics were not as good they should have been.

Andrada said: “You need to provide good service and we were kind of dropping the ball a little bit in the beginning,”

Games organizers made adjustments including having professional instead of volunteer drivers transport IOC guests at the Olympics.

4:25 p.m.

MEDAL ALERT: Fabian Hambuechen of Germany finally reached the top spot on high bar at the Olympics.

The German gymnast soared to gold in the high bar finals on Tuesday to add to the silver he won in London and the bronze he captured in Beijing in 2008.

Hambuechen posted a score of 15.766, just ahead silver medalist American Danell Leyva. The silver was the second for Leyva in the span of 90 minutes. He won silver on parallel bars earlier Tuesday.

Nile Wilson of Great Britain took third just ahead of American Sam Mikulak

4:25 p.m.

Rio Games organizers believe the booing of Olympic pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie was understandable but also unacceptable.

Lavillenie, of France, faced a hostile reaction from boisterous home fans as Thiago Braz da Silva delivered Brazil’s second gold medal of its home Olympics on Monday night.

Lavillenie complained that “if you get no respect in the Olympics, where can you get respect?” after he won silver.

Rio Games spokesman Mario Adrada said Tuesday that in many ways the booing was “understandable,” but “we cannot afford (that) an athlete feels booing interferes with his or her performance.”

3:55 p.m.

Hedvig Lindahl made two saves and Lisa Dahlkvist converted the final penalty as Sweden defeated host Brazil 4-3 in a shootout to reach the final of the Olympic soccer tournament for the first time.

Cristiane and Andressa had their shots saved by Lindahl at the packed Maracana Stadium. Brazil goalkeeper Barbara stopped the shot by Kosovare Asllani.

The teams drew 0-0 after regulation and extra time.

Brazil was trying to win the women’s soccer gold for the first time. It twice won the silver, in 2004 in Athens and 2008 in Beijing. Brazil was eliminated by Japan in the quarterfinals of the London Olympics four years ago.

Canada and Germany will play the other semifinal.

3:50 p.m.

MEDAL ALERT: Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have won the gold medal in the men’s 49er class in the Rio Olympics sailing regatta with a race to spare.

The Kiwis came in as the overwhelming favorites after dominating the skiff class the last four years after taking the silver in London.

They’ve dominated in this regatta, too. They finished third, fifth and fourth in Tuesday’s races to take an unassailable 34-point lead over Germany’s Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel. Defending gold medalists Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen of Australia are in third place going into Thursday’s medal race.

Burling and Tuke also sail for Emirates Team New Zealand in the America’s Cup. Outteridge and Jensen sail with Sweden’s Artemis Racing.

3:50 p.m.

Karch Kiraly’s top-ranked U.S. women’s team moved one step closer to its goal of capturing the Americans’ first volleyball gold, defeating familiar opponent Japan in straight sets Tuesday to reach the semifinals in Rio.

The unbeaten U.S. won 25-16, 25-23, 25-22 and has dropped just five sets all tournament. It has faced Japan more times than any other team since 1983. The Americans have won the last three meetings on the Olympic stage against Japan, opening the 2008 Beijing Games with a four-set victory after sweeping Japan in a match at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

The Americans will face Russia or Serbia in Thursday’s semifinals.

Two-time reigning Olympic champion and host Brazil will take on a young China team in Tuesday’s late match for a date with the upstart Netherlands women, who beat South Korea in four sets. The Dutch are back in their first Olympics in 20 years and went 4-1 in group play behind the Americans.

3:40 p.m.

Simone Biles put the finishing touches on one of the greatest Olympics by a gymnast ever, capturing her fourth gold of the games with a showstopping performance in the floor exercise.

The 19-year-old American on Tuesday completed an extraordinary stretch that included a team gold for the “Final Five” as well as individual golds in the all-around and vault and bronze on balance beam.

Her five medals tie the most for an American woman in a single Olympics and her four golds tie an Olympic record shared by three others.

Biles embraced longtime coach Aimee Boorman shortly after her routine, which includes a tumbling pass named in her honor and a Brazilian-themed segment intended to play to the crowd in Rio. She beamed when her score of 15.966 was posted.

Teammate Aly Raisman followed with a 15.500 silver-medal performance to give her a third medal during Rio and six overall in her Olympic career.

This item has been corrected to show that four golds ties an Olympic record shared by four others.

3:35 p.m.

Caleb Paine has won the bronze medal in the Finn class, the first sailing medal for the United States at the Rio Games.

Paine led at every mark to win Tuesday’s race. The gold medal was clinched two days ago by Britain’s Giles Scott. Silver went to Vasilij Zbogar of Slovenia.

Paine was sailing in his first Olympics after beating 2008 silver medalist Zach Railey in the selection process.

The United States was whitewashed in sailing at the London Games, failing to win an Olympic medal for the first time since 1936.

3:10 p.m.

MEDAL ALERT: Simone Biles closes out her Olympics with 4th gold medal of Rio Games in floor exercise.

3:15 p.m.

MEDAL ALERT: Russia continued its dominance of Olympic synchronized swimming in Tuesday’s duet final as Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina each won their fourth career gold medals.

Russia has won every available Olympic gold in synchronized swimming since 2000, and Ishchenko and Romashina are among the most decorated swimmers in the sport’s history.

They performed an elegant and up-tempo free routine to win gold with a total score of 194.991 out of a possible 200, after coming in with the lead from the technical routine, and embraced their coaches at poolside.

That made it almost impossible for China’s Huang Xuechen and Sun Wenyan to challenge, and they had to settle for their country’s first Olympic silver in synchro duet on 192.3688.

Japan edged out Ukraine for bronze on 188.0547.

This item has been corrected to reflect silver was China’s first in synchro duet.

3 p.m.

The water is back to normal at the Olympic diving pool.

The water turned a murky green a week ago. But on Tuesday it was its usual blue color and resembled the color of the larger synchronized swimming pool next to it.

The diving pool’s water changed color a week ago, touching off an embarrassing sequence of events for games’ organizers. The green color spread to the pool used for early water polo play before officials drained it and filled it with clean water from a practice pool.

Diving events end Saturday.

Related Stories