Good evening!

Woah, it was a massive day for Australia at the Olympics overnight. And, we’re in the hunt for another medal in the women’s marathon swimming — tune in right now!

In the meantime, here is an interesting story you may have missed from the wrestling.

Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who competes in the women’s 50kg category, was tragically disqualified before the Olympic final after she failed to make weight by just 100 grams. Phogat’s strategies for cutting weight did not work as they usually did and in the lead-up to the weigh-in, her team tried cutting her hair and shortening her clothes — to no avail.

Phogat lost a place in the final where she had practically guaranteed herself a silver or gold medal and will return home after her third Olympic campaign empty-handed.

I can’t imagine how hard that would be!

Paris ‘24: Medal tally

Paris ‘24: Tonight’s top moments

Thursday 8th August (All times are in AEST)

⛳ 5:00pm: Women’s Golf (Round 2)
The women’s Olympic golf tournament continues today. Australian Minjee Lee will start the day tied in seventh place one shot under par. France’s Céline Boutier leads the field seven shots below par.

🥋5:58pm: Taekwondo, Women’s 57kg (Round of 16)
Stacey Hymer faces Brazil’s Maria Clara Pacheco, who won bronze at the 2023 World Championships.

🏃‍♂️ 6:00pm: Track and Field (Morning Session)
Australia’s men’s and women’s 4x100m relay teams will race their heats. The women will race at 7:10pm and the men will race at 7:35pm. Also, Tori West and Camryn Newton-Smith will begin their heptathlon campaigns. and the women's and men’s 4x100m relay heats will

🧗‍♂️6:00pm: Sport Climbing, Women’s Combined (Lead Component)
Oceania Mackenzie is in the semi-final of the women’s combined sport climbing event, which involves two different components — lead climbing and bouldering. She is sitting in fourth place following the bouldering component of the event. Lead climbing requires athletes to assess a previously unseen wall for six minutes, then climb as high as possible for another six minutes. Climbers must clip themselves into anchors on the wall as they go. 

🛶 7:40pm: Canoe Sprint, Men’s and Women’s K4 500m (Semi-Finals and Finals 🥇)
Australia’s two K4 canoe sprint crews are in action tonight. The women race their semi-final at 7:40pm and must finish in the top two to advance to the A final at 9:40pm. The men race their semi-final at 7:50pm and must finish in the top four to advance to the A final at 9:50pm.

🏊‍♀️ 11:00pm: Diving, Men’s 3m springboard (Final 🥇)
Kurtis Mathews finished in the top 12 of the semi-final last night and will compete in this final. Mathews is making his Olympic debut after he won the Australian trials for this event in June.

 Friday 9th August

🚴‍♂️ 2:00am: Track Cycling, Men’s Individual Sprint (Quarter-Finals)
Matthew Richardson set a world record in qualifying only for it to be beaten minutes later by Dutch cyclist Harrie Lavreysen. 

🏐 3:35am: Women’s Water Polo, Australia v United States (Semi-Final)
The Stingers take on the U.S. in their second knockout stage match of the Olympic tournament after beating Greece in the quarter-final. The last time Australia won a medal in this event was London 2012. The U.S. team are a powerhouse, having won gold at the last three Olympics.

🏀 5:00am: Men’s Basketball, Team USA v Serbia (Semi-Final)
The Boomers may be out, but if you’re a basketball fan there’ll be plenty of excellence on display here. Serbia, led by 3-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokić, goes up against the defending Olympic champs, Team USA. France plays Germany in the other semi-final at 1:30am.

🥊 5:30am: Boxing, Men’s Featherweight and Women’s Middleweight (Semi-Finals)
In boxing, both semi-final losers get a bronze medal, meaning Australians Charlie Senior and Caitlin Parker have already secured medals by making it this far. At 5:30am, Senior will fight Uzbekistan’s Abdumalik Khalokov for a place in the men’s featherweight final. At 6:02am, Parker will fight China’s Li Qian for a spot in the women’s middleweight final. 

🏃‍♂️And then it’s time for track and field finals…

3:35am: Women’s 1500m (Semi-Finals)
Georgia Griffith is in the first semi-final at 3:35am, and Jess Hull, one of Australia’s best chances at a track medal, is racing at 3:47am. 

4:00am: Women’s Long Jump (Final 🥇)
American Tara Davis-Woodhall was the top qualifier with a jump of 6.90 metres. Reigning Olympic champion, Germany’s Malaika Mihambo, qualified with a jump of 6.86m.

4:25am: Men’s Javelin Throw (Final 🥇)
India’s Neeraj Chopra is the reigning Olympic champion from Tokyo and was also the top qualifier.

4:30am: Men’s 200m (Final 🥇)
This is a stacked final. American Noah Lyles is the newly minted 100m Olympic champion and is considered a stronger 200m runner. However, Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo beat Lyles in the semi-final and had the fastest qualifying time (19.96). Watch out for the other two Americans in the final, Kenny Bednarek and Erriyon Knighton, who both won their respective semi-finals.

5:25am: Women’s 400m Hurdles (Final 🥇)
American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is the overwhelming favourite to defend her Olympic title in this race. She makes it look so easy!

5:45am: Men’s 110m Hurdles (Final 🥇)
American Grant Holloway won three world championships in the lead-up to Paris and was the fastest qualifier through to the final. 

Paris ‘24: The headlines

In case you missed it…

🛹 Skateboarder Keegan Palmer successfully defended his Olympic title in the men’s park event. The 21-year-old claimed gold as early as his first run in the final where he scored a 93.11, a score no other skater could match. American Tom Schaar won the silver medal with a score of 92.23 while Brazil’s Augusto Akio won bronze with a 91.85. Palmer’s win follows Arisa Trew’s in the women’s the day before. He said to Nine of the back-to-back Australian wins: “I'm speechless, to be able to back up Arisa from yesterday is a dream come true. We're the king and queen of skateboarding park right now and we both grew up in the same town.”

🏟️Nina Kennedy delivered under the weight of great expectations, winning gold in the women’s pole vault and edging out Tokyo Olympic champion Katie Moon. Crucially, Kennedy cleared 4.90m on her first attempt while Moon was not able to clear it until her second. Neither athlete was able to clear 4.95 but it didn’t matter for Kennedy. It was a sweet victory for Kennedy who shared a gold medal with America’s Moon at the World Championships last year and has been in the form of her life in the lead-up to the Games.

⛵ Sailor Matt Wearn won his second consecutive Olympic gold in the men’s dinghy event. Much of the hard work had already been done as Wearn only needed to finish in the top seven on the final day of racing to secure gold. The 28-year-old Western Australian left nothing to chance and won the final race too. The event has been won by an Australian at every Games since Rio 2016.

🚴‍♂️ Australia’s track cyclists claimed the title of Olympic Champions in the men’s team pursuit for the first time since 2004, beating rivals Great Britain. After setting a new world record in qualifying on Tuesday, the Aussie team of Sam Welsford, Oliver Bleddyn, Conor Leahy, and Kelland O'Brien backed up their first performance and finished 2.327 seconds ahead of Team GB.

🏀 The Opals beat Serbia 85-67 in the quarter-final of the women’s basketball and guaranteed themselves the chance to play for a medal. Alanna Smith starred for the Opals, scoring a game-high 22 points. They face a tough assignment in the semi-final where they will play Team USA, who haven’t lost a game since 1992. The semi-final is at 1:30am on Saturday. 

🏐 The Sharks lost to the U.S. in a penalty shootout, ending Australia’s campaign for a historic medal in the men’s water polo. With 32 seconds remaining in regular time and Australia leading 7-6, the U.S. equalised with a goal and forced the match into extra time. The final score in the shootout was 4-3 to the U.S. The Sharks will now play two more games to determine placings 5th to 8th. Their opponents are yet to be determined.

🏟️After finishing fourth in Tokyo, 28-year-old Matt Denny won bronze in the men’s discus throw in a competitive final which saw the Olympic record broken twice. Denny was beaten by Lithuania’s Mykolas Alekna (silver) and Jamaica’s Roje Stona (gold). World record holder Alekna looked like an early winner when he set an Olympic record of 69.97m, but Stona surpassed him with a throw of 70m. Denny threw 69.31 to become the only Australian man ever to win a medal in a throws event at the Olympics. The Queenslander suggested in a post-competition interview that his sights are set on a home-state Olympics at Brisbane in 2032.

🚶🏽‍♀️Australian duo Rhydian Cowley and Jemima Montag won bronze in the marathon race walk mixed relay, an athletics discipline that made its debut at the Paris Games. It is Montag’s second bronze medal in Paris after she finished third in the women’s 20km individual walk. The 26-year-old is the first Australian woman to win two track medals at a single Olympics since Raelene Boyle in 1972.

🏑 Kookaburras player Tom Craig has apologised after he was arrested by French police while trying to buy cocaine in Paris, following a Hockey Australia function. He was not convicted for the incident. Craig was a member of the Kookaburras team knocked out of the men’s hockey tournament in the quarter-final earlier this week. The 28-year-old said: “I’d firstly like to apologise for what has occurred over the past 24 hours. I made a terrible mistake, and I take full responsibility for my actions. My actions are my own and in no way reflect the values of my family, my teammates, my friends, my sport and the Australian Olympic team. I’ve embarrassed you all, and I’m truly sorry.”

Paris ‘24: What we’re talking about

Day 12 was a record-breaking day for Australia at the Olympics

Day 12 in Paris was Australia’s most successful day ever at an Olympic Games. The Australian Olympic team claimed six medals on Day 12 — four gold and two bronze. 

Australia’s gold medal tally increased to 18, surpassing the previous record of 17 achieved at the Tokyo 2020 and Athens 2004 Games. The last time Australia hosted the games, in Sydney 2000, the team won 16 gold.

Australia now sits in third on the Paris 2024 medal tally behind the U.S. (27) and China (25). 

Women leading the charge

Australia’s women have starred at the Paris 2024 Games with 13 of the 18 gold medals so far won by individual women or women’s teams. 

Medal chances to come?

Jessica Hull is racing the women’s 1500m. The Australian record-holder was hot on Faith Kipyegon’s heels last month when the Kenyan broke the world record. Kipyegon will be tough to beat, but after seeing the men’s 1500m, this is certainly an event where upsets are possible. Her semi-final is tomorrow at 3:47am. 

The Stingers, Australia’s women’s water polo team, are playing in a semi-final against the U.S. tomorrow morning. They are unbeaten at the tournament so far and have guaranteed themselves a shot at playing for a medal. If they win tomorrow they will be playing for gold on Saturday.

Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar won silver in the women’s beach volleyball in Tokyo and have shown that they are capable of winning gold in Paris, beating a Brazilian duo ranked third in the world. They beat the Swiss in the quarter-final and are playing another Brazilian pair in the semi-final tomorrow at 5:00am.

Track cyclist Matthew Richardson set the world record yesterday in the qualifying for the men’s individual sprint event, however, his record was broken minutes later when Dutch rider Harrie Lavreysen beat his record by 0.003. Nevertheless, Richardson will continue his hunt for a gold medal from 2:00am tomorrow.

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Anything but Paris ‘24

🏉 The Wallabies side for the Rugby Championship game against South Africa this weekend has been announced. Flanker Carlo Tizzano will make his debut for the side in place of Fraser McReight, who was unavailable due to injury. Veteran prop Allan Alaalatoa has been named as captain. The game is at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, a venue where the Wallabies have won 10 of their last 11 games. Kick-off is at 2:30pm. 

🏉 Round 23 of the NRL kicks off tonight with the 15th-placed South Sydney Rabbitohs taking on the first-placed Melbourne Storm. With five games left in the regular season, the Storm are looking to bounce back from a loss to the Dragons last week and tighten their grip on the top of the ladder. The game starts at 7:50pm. 

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Think beyond the field. Study sport at Deakin.

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