Good evening!

It’s official, the men’s Olympic triathlon has been postponed due to concerns about the water quality of the Seine (the river that runs through the heart of Paris where the swim component of the event will be held).

The women’s race is scheduled for tomorrow, and the men’s race will now run after that. Both races could be postponed until Friday if there is no improvement.

Maybe yesterday’s intro about ‘hoping’ the Seine’s water quality would improve was a case of commentator’s curse?

I guess we’ll never know.

Paris ‘24: Tonight’s top moments

Tuesday 30 July (all times in AEST)

🏐 5:00pm, Men’s Beach Volleyball: Australia v Poland (Preliminary Phase)
Thomas Hodges and Zachery Schubert kick off their Olympic campaign. They come into the tournament ranked 16th in the world.

🚣‍♂️ 5:30pm, Rowing: Women’s Single and Double Sculls (Quarter and Semi-Final)
Single sculler Tara Rigney will race in the quarter-final at 5:30pm. Australia’s double scull of Amanda Bateman and Harriet Hudson will race at 7:00pm in the semi-final.

🏐6:30pm, Men’s Water Polo: Australia v Serbia (Group Game)
After losing to Spain in their first match, the Sharks have another tough assignment in Serbia who are the defending Olympic Champions.

🏊‍♀️ 7:00pm, Swimming (Heats)
The morning session in Paris will feature Australians Kyle Chalmers and William Yang (100m Freestyle), Matthew Temple (200m Butterfly), Lani Pallister & Moesha Johnson (1500m Freestyle) and Mollie O’Callaghan & Shayna Jack (100m Freestyle).

🏀9:30pm, Men’s Basketball: Australia v Canada (Group Game)
After the Boomers’ impressive win over Spain, they face a new challenge against Canada whose squad features 10 players hailing from the NBA – the top professional basketball league in the U.S. The Boomers have eight.

🚲From 9:25pm, BMX Freestyle: Men’s and Women’s Qualification
Australians Logan Martin and Natalya Diehm are competing in this event. Martin is the reigning Olympic Champion in men’s BMX Freestyle. Diehm came fifth in Tokyo despite rupturing her ACL two weeks before the event.

Wednesday 31 July 

🏉 12:00am, Women’s Rugby Sevens: Australia v Canada (Semi-Finals)
This is a must-win for the Aussies to keep their hopes of a gold medal alive. 

🤸 2:15am, Gymnastics: Women’s Team Final
The Australians narrowly missed out on this final but it will be worth tuning in to see Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast of all time, in action. The U.S. will be looking to go one better after they finished second to athletes representing the Russian Olympic Committee in Tokyo.

🏑 3:45am, Men’s Hockey: Australia v Belgium (Group Game)
This game is a Tokyo 2020 gold-medal final rematch. Belgium broke Australian hearts in a penalty shootout in Tokyo. Can the Kookaburras exact some revenge in the group stage of this Olympics? Both teams have a 2-0 record in Paris so far.

🏉 3:00am, Women’s Rugby Sevens: Australia v TBD (Bronze and Gold Medal Matches)
If the Aussies win their semi-final against Canada, they will play in the gold-medal match against the winner of New Zealand and the U.S. at 3:45am. If they lose they will play at 3:00am for bronze. 

Then, it’s time for swimming…

🏊‍♀️ 4:30am, Men’s 100m Freestyle Semi-Final
Assuming the heats run according to plan during the morning session, watch for Aussies Kyle Chalmers and William Yang in the semis.

🏊‍♀️ 4:56am, Women’s 100m Backstroke (Final 🥇)
Kaylee McKeown and Iona Anderson are the Aussies racing in the 100m Backstroke. McKeown is the defending Olympic Champion in this event and set a world record in October 2023, but she will be challenged by American Regan Smith who bettered McKeown’s world record in June. They both won their semis – Smith was 0.03 seconds quicker.

🏊‍♀️ 5:02am, Men’s 800m Freestyle (Final 🥇)
Elijah Winnington will race this final in Lane 6. Sam Short, who won silver in this event at the 2023 World Championships, missed the final after coming third in his heat. American Bobby Finke (Lane 2) is the defending Olympic Champion.

🏊‍♀️ 6:01am, Men’s 4x200m Freestyle (Final 🥇)
The Aussies won bronze in this event in Tokyo. 

Paris ‘24: The headlines

In case you missed it…

🏉 The Aussies Women’s Sevens team have continued their march to medal contention with a resounding 40-7 quarter-final victory over Ireland. Maddison Levi added three tries to her Olympic tally in the first half alone. In doing so, Levi surpassed the record for most tries at an Olympic Games. The semi-final and final will both be played in the early hours of tomorrow morning (AEST).

🏑 The Kookaburras (men) and Hockeyroos (women) both won their matches overnight and remain unbeaten at the Olympics so far. The Kookaburras beat Ireland 2-1 and the Hockeyroos dominated Great Britain 4-0.

🏀 The Opals, Australia’s women’s basketball team, are off to a shaky start in Paris after they lost 75-62 to Nigeria in the first game of their Olympic campaign last night. It’s the first time world no.12 Nigeria has beaten world no.3 Australia in women’s basketball. Australia will play world no.5 Canada in their second group game on Thursday night (AEST).

🏄 Two Australian surfers, Jack Robinson and Ethan Ewing, won their Round 3 heats in heavy conditions at Teahupo’o. Robinson beat three-time world champion America’s John John Florence and Ewing outsurfed Japan’s Connor O’Leary.  Round 3 of the women’s contest was called off due to bad conditions. The contest may stay on hold for several days until the conditions improve. When competition resumes, Australia’s Tyler Wright will surf against Israel’s Anat Leilor. Ewing and Robinson are scheduled to face off in an all-Australian quarter-final, with timing also depending on the conditions.

🏇 42-year-old Australian equestrian athlete Chris Burton won silver in the individual eventing. Michael Jung of Germany became the first Olympian to win three gold medals in the event. He also won in London and Rio. Burton was riding a horse named Shadow Man with whom he only started competing in March.

🎾 Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal (6-1, 6-4) in the second round of the men’s singles tournament. It was the 60th and possibly last singles match between two of tennis’ most influential players. Since they first played against each other in 2006, Djokovic has won 31 matches, while Nadal has won 29. 

Paris ‘24: What we’re talking about

O’Callaghan and Titmus win gold and silver in women’s 200m freestyle final

Mollie O’Callaghan set an Olympic record of 1:53.27 to beat her training partner Ariarne Titmus (1:53.81) and win the Olympic final of the women’s 200m freestyle this morning. 

20-year-old O’Callaghan is now a four-time Olympic gold-medallist. This was her first in an individual event. 

It is the first time Australian women have won the gold and silver in the same swimming event at the Olympics since Susie O’Neill and Petria Thomas came first and second respectively in the 200m butterfly at Atlanta 1996. 

The last time Australian men finished first and second was Grant Hackett and Ian Thorpe in the 400m freestyle at the 2004 Athens Games. 

What they said:

About Titmus, O’Callaghan said: "It's such an honour to be with everyone and compete against Arnie… She races like an absolute beast and it's an honour to train alongside her and have such a great team around us.”

Titmus said: “I know what it’s like to be Olympic champion and happy that Mol gets to feel that now.”

Other Aussies in the pool this morning

20-year-old Ella Ramsay finished fifth in the women’s 400m individual medley which was won by Canada’s 17-year-old Summer McIntosh, the world record holder in the event.

20-year-old Max Giuliani finished seventh in a stacked men’s 200m freestyle final which was won by 19-year-old David Popovici of Romania. 

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Think beyond the field. Study sport at Deakin.

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