Good evening!

There’s lots of sport on at the moment so I won’t hold it against you if you missed one of the greatest developments in the history of competitive eating.

Joey Chestnut, widely regarded as the greatest competitive eater of all time, faced off against long-time rival Takeru Kobayashi in Las Vegas on Monday. Chestnut downed an unfathomable 83 hot dogs in ten minutes, while Kobayashi set a new personal record of 67 dogs, which ain’t the wurst (ha).

Chestnut said: “I’ve been trying to hit 80 hot dogs for years and without Kobayashi, I was never able to do it. He drives me.”

Frankly (sorry), it’s inspiring.

P.S. If you think the Olympic rings should stay on the Eiffel Tower you are in the minority of this audience. 90% of you who voted in yesterday’s poll thought they should be taken down!

Paris ‘24: Medal tally

Paris ‘24: Tonight’s top moments

Tuesday 3rd September (All times are in AEST)

🔫 5:30pm: Shooting Para Sport, Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions SH1 (Qualification)
Natalie Smith is the sole Aussie competing in this event. Paris is her fourth Paralympics.

🏊‍♂️ 5:38pm: Para Swimming (Heats)
Tim Hodge and flag-bearer Brenden Hall swim the heats of the 100m backstroke S9 at 5:38pm. Rachael Watson will race in the women’s 100M freestyle S3 heat at 6:51pm. Col Pearse and Alex Saffy contest the heats of the men’s 100m butterfly S10 at 7:25pm. Poppy Wilson and Jasmine Greenwood will compete in the women’s 100m butterfly S10 at 7:33pm.

🏃‍♂️ 7:24pm: Para Athletics (Rounds and Finals 🥇)
World record-holder Jarryd Clifford, who was stripped of a bronze medal in the 5000m T13, is looking for redemption in the men’s 1500m T13 final at 6:23pm. Dayna Crees will throw in the women’s shot put F34 final at 6;58pm after winning bronze in the javelin. James Turner will compete in the men’s 400m T36 final at 8:04pm. Flag-bearer Madison de Rozario will look to better her bronze from Tokyo  in the women's 1500m T54 final at 8:25pm.

🏐 7:50pm: Boccia, Mixed Pairs BC3 (Preliminary Stage)

After both winning silver in their respective individual events, Jamieson Leeson and Daniel Michel are teaming up to go for gold. They play France at 7:50pm and Japan tomorrow at 4:10am. 

🏓 9:45pm: Para Table Tennis, Women’s Singles WS10 (Semi-final)
Qian Yang is playing Brazil’s Bruna Alexandre for a place in the gold medal match. Yang is the favourite, having already picked up a gold medal in Paris in the women’s doubles WD20 event. 

Wednesday 4th September

🏃‍♂️ 3:00am: Para Athletics (Finals 🥇)
16-year-old Telaya Blacksmith is racing in the final of the women’s 400m T20 at her first games and Samuel Rizzo is seeking a medal in the men’s 1500m T54 final.

🏀 3:15am: Men’s Wheelchair Basketball, Australia v Great Britain (Quarter-Final)
This match is do-or-die for the Rollers, hoping to win their first Paralympic medal since 2012. 

Paris ‘24: The headlines

In case you missed it…

🏉 The Steelers (Australia’s wheelchair rugby team) won the bronze medal, beating Great Britain 50-48 and bettering their fourth-placed result in Tokyo. Australian captain Ryley Batt said: “We wanted a gold, but a bronze medal sounds pretty good to me”. Batt has won two golds, a silver and now a bronze.

🏐 Australia won a silver medal in the men’s and women’s individual Boccia courtesy of Daniel Michel and Jamieson Leeson. Michel was beaten by South Korea’s Jeong Howon and Leeson lost to Hong Kong’s Ho Yuen Kei. The two Aussies will now pair up in the Mixed Doubles BC3 event.

🏊‍♂️ 21-year-old Alexa Leary stormed home in the Mixed 4x100m medley relay (34 points) to win a gold medal for Australia. The team of Leary, Jesse Aungles, Timothy Hodge and Emily Beecroft also set a Paralympic record of 4:27.08 in the process. Earlier in the pool, Jake Michel won silver in the Men's 100m breaststroke S14.

🚴 Lauren Parker won gold in the women’s PTWC triathlon after finishing second three years ago in Tokyo. The 35-year-old crossed the line one minute and 23 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor, American Kendall Gretsch, who bested Parker by one second in Tokyo. Parker will now focus on two cycling events -the individual time trial and the road race - where she has a strong chance of replicating her triathlon success.

🏟️ Michal Burian won a bronze medal in the men’s javelin throw F64 with a throw of 64.89m. The 32-year-old, who grew up in Czechia and moved to Australia in 2012, has now won a medal in the event at two consecutive games after winning silver at his debut Paralympics in Tokyo. 

🏹 British para-archer Jodie Grinham made history in Paris as the first Paralympian to win a medal while pregnant. Grinham, who is seven months pregnant, won a bronze medal in the women’s compound event. The 31-year-old said: “I knew if I shot as well as I could, baby or not, I could come back [with]  a medal."

Paris ‘24: What we’re talking about

How do classifications work at the Paralympics?

If you’ve been following the Paralympics you will have noticed a classification at the end of each event name (e.g. T20 or SM3). These classifications are used to categorise Paralympians based on their disability so that para-athletes are competing against people with a similar capacity. Simply put, classifications at the Paralympics ensure fairness in competition. 

Classifications

Athletes competing at the Paralympics are grouped based on three types of disability: physical, visual, or intellectual.

Classifications are made up of a letter and a number. The letter is usually the initial for the category of sport. For example, T is for track and jump events, F is for field events, and S is for swimming events. This can be broken down within sports, too: SB is breaststroke and SM is medley.

The number will then correspond to the degree to which the athlete’s disability impacts their ability to compete. Usually, the lower the number, the greater the impact. 

Example: Athletics

To help understand the classifications in practice, this is how para-athletes are split up in track and field. 

11-13: Vision
20: Intellectual
31-38: Coordination
40-47: Short stature, upper/lower limb prosthesis or equivalent
51-54: wheelchair races
F51-58: seated throws (e.g. javelin)
61-64: lower limb competing with prosthesis

Team sports 

In team sports where every athlete’s disability impacts them differently (e.g. wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball), each athlete will be assigned a number that corresponds to their impairment. The sum of all the athlete's numbers on the court cannot exceed a certain limit. 

For example, in wheelchair basketball, athletes are ranked between 1 (the most severe) and 4.5 (the least severe). The sum of the five players on the court can’t be higher than 14 points.

The same logic also applies to relays in swimming and athletics. 

Classification doping

Classification doping is the term used to describe athletes who seek to gain a competitive advantage by misrepresenting their disability. The most extreme example of classification doping is the gold medal-winning Spanish basketball team at Sydney 2000. It was later found that 10 of the 12 athletes in the squad did not have an intellectual disability.

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Anything but Paris ‘24

🎾 Alex de Minaur defeated fellow Australian Jordan Thompson in the Round of 16 at the U.S. Open. The tenth seed won in four sets and advanced to the quarter-finals where he’ll face 25th seed Jack Draper from Great Britain. It is the third time this year that De Minaur has made the quarter-final of a grand slam. He is the third Australian in the past 50 years to reach multiple U.S. Open quarter-finals, following Pat Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt. The tournament is not completely over for Thompson, who is playing in the men’s doubles quarter-final tomorrow morning alongside Max Purcell.

🏉 Angus Crichton was named the NSW Origin Player of the Year in a ceremony in Sydney last night. Crichton was awarded the Brad Fittler Medal after a stunning comeback from missing out on the Roosters starting side at the beginning of the season, to starring in an Origin-winning NSW side. Crichton, who has spoken publicly about his recent diagnosis with bipolar disorder, also won the People’s Choice Award. NRLW player Jaime Chapman also won the same two awards for her efforts in the Women’s State of Origin.

🏀 Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever are one step closer to securing a spot in the WNBA playoffs after the team’s fourth straight win. The Fever beat the Dallas Wings 100-93 on Sunday with Clark, who continues to impress in her rookie season, notching 28 points and 12 assists.

⛵ Martine Grael, a two-time Olympic gold-medallist in sailing, has been named the first female driver in SailGP since the international sailing competition began in 2019. Grael will drive for the Brazilian team when Rio de Janeiro hosts Brazil’s first SailGP event in May next year.

🏈 Ricky Pearsall, a wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers (an American football team), was released from hospital on Sunday afternoon after being shot in the chest during an attempted robbery on Saturday. The suspect, a 17-year-old, was also shot during a struggle. Pearsall did not require surgery and is not expected to play for the 49ers for at least the first four weeks of the season.

A message from our sponsor

Cheer on Paralympians

Deakin University has four students currently in Paris competing in the 2024 Paralympics. These four students have done an exceptional job of balancing their rigorous training schedules whilst thinking about life after sport.

Alex Viney: Alex is a para-rower currently studying a Master of Business (Sport Management) and will compete in the PR3 Mixed Cox Four event in Paris. This is her second Paralympics after coming fourth in the same event in Tokyo.

Liam Twomey: Liam is a para-triathlete who is currently studying a Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Science at Deakin. He will be competing in the Triathlon (PTS4) event. This is Liam’s first Paralympics. He came 6th at the 2023 World Championships and will have his eye on the podium in Paris.

Nathan Pellissier: Nathan is a para-table tennis player currently studying a Master of Professional Accounting and Finance and will be competing in the Mixed Doubles XD17 and Men’s Doubles MD18 events. Nathan will be looking to go one better at his second Paralympics in Paris after winning silver in Tokyo.

Sam McIntosh: Sam is a para-athlete and Bachelor of Health Sciences student. In Paris, he will compete in the 400m and 100m T52 events. Sam is a veteran of the Australian Paralympic team competing at his fourth games in Paris and chasing his first medal.

Think beyond the field. Study sport at Deakin.

Looking forward…(All times are AEST)

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