Good evening!

I hope you had a great week.

The tiny nation of San Marino sits landlocked within Italy and has a population of just over 33,000 people. Today, its football team beat Liechtenstein (another tiny landlocked European nation) and ended a 140-match losing streak.

Check out the scenes. Maybe over two decades of losing is worth this kind of jubilation?

Paris ‘24: Medal tally

Paris ‘24: Tonight’s top moments

Friday 6th September (All times are in AEST)

🚴‍♂️ 5:30pm: Para Cycling, Men’s and Women’s C4-5 Road Race (Medal Event 🥇)
Alistair Donohoe and Korey Boddington take off in the men’s race at 5:30pm, followed by Alana Forester, Meg Lemon, and Emily Petricola in the women’s race at 5:35pm.

🏊‍♂️ 6:01pm: Para Swimming (Heats)
Tom Gallagher races the Men’s 100m backstroke S10 heats at 6:01pm. Jasmine Greenwood swims in the Women’s 100m Backstroke S10 heats at 6:10pm. Brenden Hall, Tim Hodge, and Lewis Bishop will contest the Men’s 100m Butterfly S9 heats at 6:18pm. Emily Beecroft will take off in the Women’s 100m Butterfly S9 heats at 6:26pm. Ben Hance and Ricky Betar will set down a marker in the Men’s 100m Backstroke S14 heats at 6:34pm. Maddie McTernan will compete in the Women’s 100m backstroke S14 at 6:45pm. Ahmed Kelly will be aiming for another medal in Paris in the Men’s 50m Freestyle S3 at 6:54pm. Rachael Watson is also seeking another medal in the Women’s 50m Freestyle S4 at 7:11pm. Finally, Callum Simpson will swim the heats of the Men’s 100m Freestyle S8 at 7:28pm. 

🛶 6:10pm: Para Canoe, Various events (Heats)
Curtis McGrath has two heats, the Kayak Single 200m KL2 at 6:10pm and the VL3 at 8:05pm. Susan Seipel races in the heat of the Va’a Single 200m VL2 at 6:20pm and then the Kayak 200m KL2 at 7:35pm.Dylan Littlehales is in the Kayak Single 200m KL3 at 6:40pm. 

🏃‍♂️ 7:08pm: Para Athletics (Rounds and Finals 🥇)
Annabelle Colman is in the final of the Women’s 1500m T20 at 7:08pm. Guy Henly will throw in the Men’s Discus Throw F37 final. Rheed McCracken is racing Round 1 of the Men’s 800m T34 Final.

Saturday 7th September

🏊‍♂️ 1:30am: Para Swimming (Finals 🥇)
Expect to see some of the Aussies from the morning session racing in these finals later on.

🏃‍♂️ 3:00am: Para Athletics (Finals 🥇)
Telaya Blacksmith will jump in the Women’s Long Jump T20 final from 3:48am. Samantha Schmidt and Ella Hose will throw in the Women’s Discus Throw F38 final from 4:32am. James Turner races in Round 1 of the Men’s 100m T36 at 4:37am and finally, Rhiannon Clarke will run in Round 1 of the Women’s 400m T38 at 5:37am.

🏀3:15am: Wheelchair Basketball, Australia v Netherlands (Placings 5-6)
While they missed out on the chance to play for a medal, the Rollers will be seeking to finish on a high note to end their Paris 2024 campaign.

Paris ‘24: The headlines

In case you missed it…

🚴‍♂️ Para-cyclist Lauren Parker won her second gold medal of the Paris Games in the Women's H1-4 road race, taking her total Paris medal tally to three. She said: “I am so stoked with that performance today I just can’t believe it. I really can’t believe what I’ve accomplished in these Games. I couldn’t be more happy.” The 35-year-old won a silver medal in the road cycling time trial and gold in the triathlon.

🏊‍♂️ Timothy Hodge won his first individual Paralympic gold medal in the pool overnight. Hodge set a Paralympic record in the men's 200m individual medley SM9 and his second gold medal of the games following Australia’s success in the mixed 4x100m Medley Relay (34 points). The 23-year-old, competing at his third Games, said: "It's still a bit of a pinch me moment. This has been so long in the making." 

🏃‍♂️Vanessa Low won her third consecutive gold medal in the women’s T63 long jump. In the process, the 34-year-old bettered her previous world record with a jump of 5.45m. Low won her first gold medal representing Germany at Rio 2016 before she switched her allegiance to the green and gold for Tokyo 2020 where she won gold again.

🏓 Australian para table tennis player Samuel von Einem added to Australia’s table tennis success with a bronze medal in the men’s singles MS11. Von Einem, who is the world no.1 in his classification, fell short of the gold medal match losing to Gi Tae Kim of South Korea in the semi-final.

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Anything but Paris ‘24

🎾 Aussie duo Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson have advanced to their second consecutive grand slam final in men’s doubles, this time at the U.S. Open. Purcell and Thompson beat American pairing Jackson Withrow and Nathaniel Lammons in straight sets (6-4, 7-6). They will face no.10 seeds Kevin Krawletz and Tim Puetz in the final on Saturday. Meanwhile, in the women’s singles semi-finals, no.2 seed Aryna Sabalenka and no.6 seed American Jessica Pegula will meet each other in the final after they defeated Emma Navarro and Karolína Muchová respectively in the semi-finals this morning. 

⚽ The Socceroos scored an own goal in the 89th minute to concede a shock 1-0 loss to Bahrain in the first match of the third round of World Cup Qualifiers. Australia has four matches remaining, with the next being against Indonesia on 10 September.

🏉 The Geelong Cats blew Port Adelaide out of the water in the first qualifying final, beating the home side 138-54 at Adelaide Oval. As a result, the Cats have earned a bye and home preliminary final in two weeks. Meanwhile, Port Adelaide will play a home knockout semi-final against the winner of this weekend's elimination final between the Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn.

🚴‍♂️ After 18 stages of La Vuelta a España, Ben O’Connor is still the overall leader by just five seconds. Fellow Aussie Kaden Groves is still leading the sprint classification (green jersey) while Jay Vine gave up the lead in the mountains classification (polka-dot jersey) to his Spanish teammate Marc Soler.

🏉 Veteran Wallabies prop James Slipper is on the verge of tying the record for Australia’s most Test appearances (139) after being named on the bench for this weekend’s match against Argentina. Melbourne Rebels lock Josh Canham has been named on the bench as a potential debutant while 19-year-old Max Jorgensen is in the starting lineup for the first time.

Paris ‘24: What we’re talking about

Australian Swimming coach Michael Palfrey sacked over comments at Olympics

Australian swimming coach Michael Palfrey has been sacked from his role following an incident at the Paris Olympics which was labelled at the time as “un-Australian” by Dolphins’ head coach Rohan Taylor. 

What happened

Palfrey worked with South Korean athlete Kim Woo-min, one of the favourites for the men’s 400m freestyle, before the Olympics. In an interview with Korean reporters at the Games Palfrey said “Go Korea” about the men’s 400m freestyle event. Palfrey made the comment even though he was coaching for Australia who had two athletes in the race, Sam Short and Elijah Winnington. Ultimately, German Lukas Märtens won gold with Winnington in second and Woo-min in third.

What they said: 

Swimming Australia said it had fired Palfrey “due to a breach of his employment agreement.”

“Palfrey was found to have breached his employment contract by bringing himself into disrepute and causing serious damage to his and Swimming Australia’s reputation, and adversely affecting Swimming Australia’s interests.”

Future Practice

In Paris, Taylor also suggested Swimming Australia would not allow its coaches to assist in the development of athletes from other nations. He said: “We are a leading nation and we do have a lot of really strong IP in coaching and resources and we are investing in that and we want to protect it.”

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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