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What do you do when you win a gold medal, and then have to resume your regular competition schedule?

The answer, according to cyclist Grace Brown’s team, is to give her a custom-designed gold bike complete with a ‘Golden Grace’ design for her Tour de France Femmes campaign. Very cool.

There was just one problem - in a reminder that not even Golden Grace is immune from the risks of road cycling, Brown’s time trial was ruined by a punctured tyre, which led her to finish the day in 31st place, 24 seconds behind the leader of the touch.

Talk about a fall from… Grace.

I’ve got 10 seconds

Stat of the day

4
How many weeks of competition St George Illawarra player Kyle Flanagan will miss after being suspended by the NRL Judiciary for biting Bulldogs opponent Stephen Crichton in Saturday’s match. It means Flanagan will only play again for his club this year if they make the Finals. Flanagan said: “I’m disappointed, but my focus now turns to the Dragons and how I can help them the next four weeks. I didn’t bite Stephen Crichton.”

Quote of the day

“My incredible team and I put in so much work to make the start line fit and healthy, and we were all optimistic that with a bit of race day adrenaline I would be able to run the race I knew I had in me. A couple of miles in, I quickly realised that wasn’t going to happen. The next 24 miles were a painful battle. It turns out I had stress fractured my femur.”
British marathon runner Rose Harvey, speaking yesterday on her race at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Harvey finished the race in 78th position.

Random fact of the day

The 1976 Paralympic Games were the first to open up competition to people with a variety of disabilities after previous Games only included competitors who used wheelchairs.

I’ve got 1 minute

A plane carrying Australian athletes, coaches, and support staff landed this morning at a reception attended by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, new Governor-General Sam Mostyn, the athletes’ families, and national media. The team returns as Australia’s most successful Olympic team in history.

What they said:

Dual Gold medalist Kaylee McKeown (swimming): “I believe that I have so much more to give in this sport but at the same time, you can’t be greedy. I just want to sit in this moment and realise how and what I’ve achieved is not normal. I think that takes a lot sometimes, just to really acknowledge it and not think about the next thing that’s coming.”

Gold medalist Arisa Trew (skating): "I could have been sitting in business with all the other medallists, but instead I chose to sit in economy with my two best friends, Chloe and Ruby."

PM Anthony Albanese: “We know that before the plane took off yesterday, you had already etched your names into Australian sporting history. We want you to know that what you have done is inspire us, give us joy, give us excitement, and lift us up.

Chef de Mission Anna Meares: “I got a bit emotional when we got [gold medal] number 18. We had a board in the office with all the medallists, and I got to put Nina Kennedy’s name and circle the 18 at the top.”

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The Manly Sea Eagles will roll out a new device that they say can reduce the immediate and long-term symptoms of concussion. It follows an 18-month trial of the ‘PolarCap’ with the NRL side amid increasing awareness of the risk of concussion in contact sport.

Sea Eagles Chief Medical Officer Dr Paul Bloomfield said the PolarCap reduced recovery time for players who might otherwise have been out of action for longer than the NRL’s mandatory 11-day stand-down period.

Here’s what you need to know.

Concussion

A concussion is a traumatic brain injury usually caused by a blow to the head and often associated with contact sports, like football codes.

Repeated concussions can lead to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disorder that can cause severe mental ill-health. CTE is only diagnosed after death.

The device

This week, the Sea Eagles said their 18-month trial of the PolarCap had been successful and that the device could be rolled out across Australian sports.

The PolarCap was developed by a Swedish company with ties to ice hockey, a sport where concussions are also extremely common.

When athletes sustain a concussion during play, their brain temperatures are usually elevated from exercise. This can impact the length and quality of their recovery from a brain injury. The PolarCap circulates cold fluid around a player’s head and neck, rapidly cooling their brain temperature to assist recovery.

Research

The PolarCap is approved for use by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration. A peer-reviewed study in Sweden found benefits for players who had been concussed, with those who wore the PolarCap returning to play faster than those who didn’t.

These researchers noted its benefit as a “conservative” and non-invasive treatment. However, they also acknowledged further research needs to be conducted on a wider range of athletes, including women.

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How major sporting events are trying to attract Gen Z audiences

According to a recent study, Gen Z are more likely to tune into Netflix and TikTok over live sports. Though it remains important, Gen Z watches a lot less sport compared to older generations, like Boomers.

Deakin’s Dr. Josh McLeod highlights how Gen Z’s ‘digital nativity’ influences their sports consumption, with young people preferring online or shorter format content and following individual athletes over teams.

Major sporting organisations like the Olympics have tried to combat this by appealing to young audiences – partly through the appeal of celebrities and influencers.

“Snoop Dogg at the Olympics is a perfect illustration of the buzz and interest that he can create and bring into sport,” Dr. McLeod says.

There’s also the inclusion of new events, like Breaking, Bouldering and Skateboarding.

“Skateboarding is a sport that is played and performed by young people,” Dr. McLeod says. “The Australian gold medalist is a perfect illustration of that – the people who are performing at the highest level in Skateboarding are very young, and that's leading to young people watching those sports, too.”

Who knows what the 2080 Olympics will look like?

Think beyond the field. Study sport at Deakin.

Looking back…

Looking forward (all times in AEST)…

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