It’s Day 9 - the last day of swimming.

Three moments at the Olympics yesterday that made me smile:

1. The party in Saint Lucia after sprinter Julien Alfred won its first-ever Olympic medal in the Women’s 100m Final (not a bad way to do the first one, if you ask me). More on that race in today’s headlines.

2. The very unfortunate manner in which French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati missed out on a medal.

3. Snoop Dogg’s dedication to supporting his country showing up in weird and wonderful ways, even at the Equestrian.

The link between Snoop Dogg and Equestrian isn’t actually new - he’s been passionate about the sport for many years, as evidenced in this clip from NBC’s Tokyo coverage a few years back.

Paris ‘24: Medal tally

Paris ‘24: Tonight’s top moments

Sunday 4 August (All times in AEST)

⛳ 5:00pm, Men's Golf: Individual Stroke Play (Round 4 - Medal Event 🥇)
After a less-than-ideal first two days, Australian golfer Jason Day had an excellent day on the course yesterday to catapult himself into tied 10th place. Today is the final day of the event, and while unlikely, Day could replicate yesterday’s form and sneak onto the podium. Fellow Australian Min Woo Lee is tied for 29th. 

🏟️ 6:00pm, Athletics: Day Session
Plenty of Australian action in today’s program — Australians Cara Feain-Ryan and Amy Cashin will line up in the Women’s 3000m Steeplechase, Stephanie Ratcliffe is in the Women’s Hammer Throw, Torrie Lewis and Mia Gross will be in the heats of the Women’s 200m, Chris Mitrevski and Liam Adcock in the Men’s Long Jump, Tayleb Willis in the Men’s 110m Hurdles, and Sarah Carli and Alanah Yukich in the Women’s 400m Hurdles.

🏇🏻 6:00pm, Equestrian: Dressage Individual Grand Prix Freestyle (Medal Event 🥇)
There are three Australians in this medal event: Simone Pearce, Jayden Brown and William Matthew. 

🥊 7:32pm, Women’s Boxing: 75kg Quarterfinal
Caitlin Parker, Australia’s boxing captain, is looking to become the first Australian to win a female boxing medal, and she’s only one win away from a guaranteed medal. She’ll have to beat Morocco’s Khadija Mardi, the first Arab and African woman to win gold at the World Championships. 

🎾 8:00pm, Men’s Tennis: Singles Gold Medal Match (Medal Event 🥇)
Tennis’ past and present meet its future, as Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz face off to split the gold and silver medal of the men’s singles tennis competition. 

🚴 10:00pm, Women’s Cycling: Road Race  (Medal Event 🥇)
Gold medallist Grace Brown is back on the bike, and will have Australian teammates Ruby Roseman-Gannon and Lauretta Hanson alongside her for the 158km event.

🤽‍♀️ 10:00pm, Women’s Water Polo: Australia v Hungary (Group Game)
Australia’s women’s water polo team will be inspired by the men’s defeat of Hungary last night. A win here will shore up their spot in the quarter-finals, but it won’t be easy — Hungary is one of the powerhouses of world water polo. 

🤸 From 11:00pm, Men’s and Women’s Gymnastics: Finals (Medal Event 🥇)
Three medal events - the Men’s Rings and Vault finals, and the Women’s Uneven Bars final - make up this two-hour session.

🛶 11:30pm, Men’s and Women’s Canoe Slalom: Kayak Cross (Heats) 
The mighty Fox sisters, Jess and Noémie, will both be looking to secure spots in tomorrow night’s quarter-final. In the Men’s, Tim Anderson and Tristan Carter are a little further behind but a strong performance in tonight’s races could keep their tournament alive. 

Monday 5 August (All times in AEST)

🏐 1:00am, Women’s Beach Volleyball: Round of 16
Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy will hit Centre Court at the Eiffel Tower Beach Volleyball Stadium for their first knockout game. Their Brazilian opponents are undefeated in Paris so far. 

🏑 1:30am, Men’s Hockey: Australia v Netherlands (Quarter-Final)
We’re into knockout hockey. Win here, and a semi-final berth awaits. Lose, and it’s the end of the Kookaburras’ Olympic competition. 

🏊‍♀️ 2:30am, Women’s Swimming: 50m Freestyle Final (Medal Event 🥇)
Shayna Jack and Meg Harris are the two Aussies in this sprint. They’ll have to overcome Sarah Sjöström in lane 4, who’s already a winner in the 100m Freestyle and currently holds both the World and Olympic Records in this event.  

🏊‍♂️ 2:37am, Men’s Swimming: 1500m Freestyle Final (Medal Event 🥇)
No Australians in this event - the longest in the indoor section of the Olympic swimming program - but the 30-lap feat is always a final worth watching. Irish sensation Daniel Wiffen was the fastest to qualify, and will be looking to add to his gold medal in the 800m Freestyle. 

🏊‍♂️ 3:10am, Men’s Swimming: 4×100m Medley Relay Final (Medal Event 🥇)
Keep an eye on Australia in lane 7, particularly on Kyle Chalmers who will likely anchor the team in the final freestyle leg.

🏊‍♀️ 3:32am, Women’s Swimming: 4×100m Medley Relay Final (Medal Event 🥇)
Australia holds the Olympic Record in this event and was the fastest to qualify across both heats. Expect some changes to personnel here after Ella Ramsay contracted COVID-19.

🏟️ 3:55am, Women’s Athletics: High Jump Final (Medal Event 🥇)
Australia is one of two countries with two competitors in this final: Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson. The Aussies are facing strong competition from Ukraine, the other country with two candidates. Olyslagers goes into the event with the second-highest season-best jump (2.03m), but Ukrainian Yaroslava Mahuchikh is the one to beat with a season-best (and world-best) jump of 2.10m.  

🏀 5:00am, Women’s Basketball: Australia v France (Group Game)
The Opals will be up against a French side with a loud home crowd advantage. France are unbeaten from their two games so far, and it’s a must-win for Australia if they are to keep their tournament alive.

🏟️ 5:50am, Men’s Athletics: 100m Final (Medal Event 🥇)
One of the highlights of every Olympic Games, featuring the fastest men and the biggest personalities. The semi-finals are on at 4:05am (AEST), with the final about an hour and a half later. Ones to watch: Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson and Oblique Seville, and Noah Lyles and Fred Kerley of the U.S. Keep an eye on the UK’s Zharnel Hughes, too.

Paris ‘24: The headlines

In case you missed it…

🎾 Australian veteran doubles pairing John Peers and Matthew Ebden have won an unlikely gold medal in the men’s doubles tennis competition, with the unseeded pair defeating Americans Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram. It wasn’t easy — the Australians had to come from a set down to win the last two sets to win Australia’s first medal in tennis since 1996. The win also meant Australia has won a gold medal on every day of the first eight days of the Olympics for the first time in history. Speaking after the match, the 36-year-olds said it was the highlight of their careers. 

🏐 Australia’s men’s water polo team, the Sharks, have beaten yet another international powerhouse in Hungary 9-8, thanks to a last-minute goal from Nathan Power. They face Japan tomorrow night at 9:35pm (AEST). 

🥊 Australian boxer Charlie Senior will take home an Olympic medal after beating Carlo Paalam in the quarter-final of the men’s 57kg weight class. In Olympic boxing, the two winners of the semi-finals go on to compete for either a gold or silver medal, and the two losers both receive bronze medals. Senior won in a split 3-2 points decision, and will now face Uzbekistan’s Abdumalik Khalokov in the final four.  

🏟️ 23-year-old Saint Lucian sprinter Julien Alfred has beaten reigning world champion Sha’Carri Richardson in the Women’s 100m Final, claiming the Caribbean nation’s first-ever Olympic medal in Olympic history. The Prime Minister of St Lucia, which has a population of only 180,000 people, declared 3 August ‘Juju Day’. Her time of 10.72 was the eighth-fastest time in the history of the race, and was enough to beat Sha’Carri Richardson who many had hoped would be the first U.S. woman to win the 100m Final since 1996. 

🤸 Simone Biles has won her seventh Olympic gold medal, taking out the Women’s Vault Final again (she won at Rio in 2016). She averaged a score of 15.300 across her two attempts, beating Tokyo gold medallist Rebeca Andrade of Brazil who scored 14.966. Biles still has two individual events, the Women’s Balance Beam and Women’s Floor Finals,  on Monday morning (AEST). The Yurchenko double pike - aka the Biles II, since she was the first woman to perform the highly difficult move in competition - scored her a 15.700 in her first attempt, setting her up for the victory.

⛵ Grae Morris has won Australia’s first windsurfing medal in 32 years, taking home a silver medal in the men’s race. Israel’s Tom Reuveny took out the gold medal. The 20-year-old Australian told Nine he was already planning his campaign for the 2028 LA Games. 

🏑 Australia has beaten Spain in the women’s hockey 3-1, securing their progression to a quarter-final against China on Monday morning (AEST). After scoring within the first two minutes of the match, Spain successfully converted a penalty to bring the scores even for most of the match. Australia scored two goals in the final quarter, ensuring they finish on top of their Group and leave the Group Stage with four wins and one draw from five matches. 

Paris ‘24: What we’re talking about

What you missed in the pool last night, and what’s in store for the final night

By this time tomorrow, the indoor component of the Olympic swimming program will be over. With Marathon and Artistic Swimming still to come, Australia’s performance has been stellar - possibly our best ever. Here’s what you missed last night and the stats and records that matter tonight.

What happened on Day 8

In the second-last night of swimming action, Australia added to its medal tally with two individual medals and one relay medal. 

Ariarne Titmus - Silver, Women’s 800m Freestyle Final

Titmus took out the silver medal in the Women’s 800m Freestyle Final, beaten by U.S. swimming legend Katie Ledecky. It was a personal-best time for Titmus in that event - a time of 8:12:29, 1.25 seconds behind Ledecky, who won the event for the fourth Olympics in a row. Fellow Australian Lani Pallister finished in sixth spot. 

Speaking to Nine after the event, Titmus said she “had the most respect for [Ledecky] out of any athlete I’ve ever competed against”. It’s the second consecutive silver in the event for Titmus, who ends her Paris campaign with two golds and two silvers, while Ledecky is now equal with Larisa Latynina with nine gold medals — the most by any female athlete in any sport. 

Kaylee McKeown - Bronze, Women’s 200m Individual Medley Final

Then, Kaylee McKeown was granted a surprise bronze in the Women’s 200m Individual Medley, after initially finishing the race in fourth place but being elevated after the disqualification of U.S. swimmer Alex Walsh, who had finished in third. Wash was disqualified because her transition from backstroke to breaststroke was deemed to be illegal. The race was won by 17-year-old Summer McIntosh, who set an Olympic Record and, at this rate, looks set to challenge Katie Ledecky as one of the greatest female swimmers of all time. Already, while still a teenager, McIntosh has become the first Canadian to win three gold medals at a single Summer Olympics. 

Australian swimmer Ella Ramsay was forced to withdraw from the event after testing positive to COVID-19. The medal was McKeown’s third for the Games, soon joined by a fourth in the same session.

Kaylee McKeown, Joshua Yong, Matthew Temple and Mollie O'Callaghan - Bronze, 4x100m Mixed Medley Relay

In the final event of the night, the relay team of McKeown, Yong, Temple, and O'Callaghan secured the bronze medal in the 4x100 relay. The U.S. won in world record time - only the second world record set in the pool in Paris so far - while China was in second place. It was an incredibly fast final, with the Chinese team setting a new Asian Record and Australia setting a new Oceania Record. 

Are there more medals for Australia tonight?

There are four final medal events in the pool scheduled for tomorrow morning between 2:30am and about 4am: the Women’s 50m Freestyle Final, the Men’s 1500m Freestyle Final, the Men’s 4x100m Medley Relay Final and the Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay Final. Australians are competing in all but the Men’s 1500m Freestyle Final.

In the 50m Freestyle Final, there are two Australians - Shayna Jack and Meg Harris. Australia lines up in Lane 7 in the Men’s 4x100m Medley Relay and Lane 4 in the Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay. Australia are strong podium chances in all three events. Australia is the Olympic record-holder in the Women’s Relay (set in Tokyo in 2021).

How are we going overall in the pool?

Australia is on top of the Olympic Swimming Medal Table, which is ordered by gold medals. Australia has won seven golds, while the U.S. has won six. In terms of overall medals, the U.S. have won 25 and Australia have won 16 in the pool. Australia’s best Olympic performance was at the Tokyo Games , where the team won nine golds and a total of 22 medals. Australia has only topped the Swimming Medal Table once — the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, where the team won eight gold medals across a swimming program of just 13 events.

For this to be Australia’s best performance in the pool ever, we’ll need to win two of the three gold medals available tonight. It will be as much about how the events pan out for the U.S. as Australia’s performance. A fascinating final night of swimming awaits.

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Anything but Paris ‘24

Super Netball

The Adelaide Thunderbirds have won back-to-back Super Netball titles, defeating the Melbourne Vixens 59-57 in front of a capacity home crowd. It was 28-28 at half-time, but the Thunderbirds lifted in the fourth quarter to stamp their authority on the match. Romelda Aiken-George, who scored 42 of the Thunderbirds’ points, was named the MVP of the game. The competition has announced it was the most attended season of Australian women’s sport ever, with a total attendance across the season of 366,222 fans.

AFL

Ladder-leaders Sydney Swans were thrashed by Port Adelaide, losing by 112 points. It means the Swans are now only one game clear at the top of the ladder after four losses from their last five games. Meanwhile, Collingwood celebrated club legend Scott Pendlebury’s 400th match with a three-point win over Carlton in front of over 86,000 at the MCG. In the other matches, North Melbourne beat Richmond 90-77, lifting them off the bottom of the ladder and sinking Richmond to last spot, and Geelong were narrow victors over the Adelaide Crows, winning by five in Geelong. After the conclusion of today’s matches, there are three more rounds of the regular AFL season to go.

NRL

In a South East Queensland clash, the Gold Coast Titans won a commanding victory over the Brisbane Broncos (46-18). Reece Walsh scored twice for the Broncos in the first half, but it wasn’t enough to stop a fast-finishing Titans outfit in the second half. Meanwhile, the St George Illawarra Dragons held off the top-of-the-table Melbourne Storm 18-16, keeping their top-eight hopes alive. Meanwhile, it the clash of former and current Prime Ministers’ teams, with the Cronulla Sharks steamrolling the Rabbitohs 20-6. The Sharks are waiting on scans from crucial halves playmaker Braydon Trindall, who left the field with 11 minutes remaining with a hamstring injury.

NRLW

In the two games this afternoon, the Parramatta Eels and Cronulla Sharks fought a tight Sydney showdown at Allianz Stadium, with Cronulla’s Tayla Preston scoring a crucial conversion in the 65th minute. The Eels led at halftime but couldn’t maintain momentum through the back half, while the Sharks held on long enough to win. Meanwhile, the Sydney Roosters beat the Brisbane Broncos 28-12, with Rooster Jessica Sergis scoring a double.

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