Good evening!

Welcome to week two of the Olympic Games. The bulk of the swimming is now done (synchronised and marathon swimming remain) and track and field is already in full swing.

But before we move on from the swimming completely, I want to acknowledge the brilliance of France’s Léon Marchand.

The 22-year-old is the kind of star a host nation needs at its games (think Cathy Freeman or Ian Thorpe at Sydney 2000). Marchand won four individual Olympic golds last week and is receiving prolific comparisons with Michael Phelps, who achieved the same feat at the Athens Olympics in 2004.

This morning he added a relay medal to his haul, helping the French team to a bronze in the 4×100m medley relay. Check out the photo below, he’s the boyish-looking one second from the right. What’s to come of his career may take 8, 12, or even 16 years… but I’m there for all of it!

Paris ‘24: Medal tally

Paris ‘24: Tonight’s top moments

Monday 5th August (All times are in AEST)

🚴‍♀️ 4:00pm: Triathlon, Mixed Relay (Medal Event 🥇)
Australia’s relay team includes Matt Hauser, Luke Willian, Sophie Linn, and Natalie Van Coevorden. In the triathlon mixed relay event, each athlete swims 300m, cycles 7km and runs 1.8km before handing over to their teammate. Australia finished ninth in this event in Tokyo.

🏑 6:00pm: Women’s Hockey, Australia v China (Quarter-Final)
The Hockeyroos topped Pool B with four wins and a draw (against Tokyo silver medallists Argentina) in the pool stages in Paris. Can they continue their unbeaten streak against China, who lost three of their five pool games? 

🏊‍♀️ 6:00pm: Diving, Women’s 10m platform (preliminary)
17-year-old Ellie Cole and five-time Olympian Melissa Wu are the Aussies competing in this event. Wu debuted in Beijing as a 16-year-old and won a silver medal in the 10m synchronised. This event features 29 divers who each get five attempts. The top 18 divers advance to the semi-final at 11:00pm tonight. Of those 18, the top 12 will advance to the final tomorrow night. 

🏐9:35pm: Men’s Water Polo, Australia v Japan (Group Stage)
This is the Sharks’ last group game before the knockout stages. After upsetting water polo powerhouse Hungary and defending Olympic champions Serbia, can they continue their run of form?

🛶 11:35pm: Canoe Slalom, Women’s Kayak Cross (Finals 🥇)
After beating her older sister Jess (among others) in the heat, Noémie Fox is in the quarter-final and must finish in the top two to advance to the semi-finals at 12:15am. The finals will be raced from 12:43am.

🛶 11:52pm: Canoe Slalom, Men’s Kayak Cross (Finals 🥇)
Tim Anderson and Tristan Carter have cleared the heats to make the quarter-finals. They must finish in the top two to advance to the semis (12.28am), with the gold medal final to follow at 12:48am. 

Tuesday 6th August (AEST)

🚴‍♂️ 1:27am: Track Cycling, Men’s Team Events (Qualifying)
Track cycling at the Olympics starts tonight. Australian teams will feature in the Men's Team Pursuit (1:27am) and the Men’s Team Sprint (3:09am). The finals for the Women’s Team Sprint, for which Australia does not have a team, will commence at 3:46am.

🏄‍♂️ 3:36am: Surfing, Jack Robinson (AUS) v Gabriel Medina (BRA) (Semi-Final)
The surfing in Tahiti has been repeatedly delayed due to poor waves. If the waves are good tomorrow, this will be a battle for the ages. The two surfers have competed directly against each other six times, both winning on three of those occasions. Last year, Robinson edged out Medina at the Olympic surf break, Teahupo’o, to win the final of the Tahiti Pro.

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

3:00am: Men’s Pole Vault (Final 🥇)
Australian Kurtis Marschall cleared 5.7 metres to reach the final. Marschall won bronze at the 2023 World Championships and is now looking for a medal on the Olympic stage after not making it past the first round in Tokyo. Sweden’s Armand Duplantis, the defending Olympic champion and world record holder (6.24m), is the heavy favourite for the event. 

4:30am: Women’s Discus Throw (Final 🥇)
No Aussies in this event. American Valarie Allman is the defending Olympic champion and threw the furthest in qualification by nearly four metres.

5:15am: Women’s 5000m (Final 🥇)
Australian Rose Davies finished third in her heat. Watch out for defending Olympic champion Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands. 

5:47am: Women’s 800m (Final 🥇)
There are no Australians in this event either after Abbey Caldwell and Claudia Hollingsworth missed out on a spot in the final. British runner Keely Hodgkinson was the fastest qualifier for the final.

Paris ‘24: The headlines

In case you missed it…

🏊‍♀️ On the final night of swimming races, the Aussie Dolphins collected two more silver medals. In the women’s 50m freestyle, Meg Harris surprised the field and finished second to Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström. In the women’s 4x100m medley relay, the team of Kaylee McKeown, Jenna Strauch, Emma McKeon and Mollie O'Callaghan finished 3.48 seconds behind the U.S., who set a new world record in the event. The Australian swimming team ended its Paris campaign with seven gold, eight silver and three bronze medals— second on the medal tally to the U.S. with eight swimming golds. The result is Australia’s third-best Olympic gold medal swimming haul after Tokyo 2020 (nine gold) and Melbourne 1956 (eight gold).

🏟️ Australians Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson won silver and bronze respectively in the women’s high jump. Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine won the gold medal after clearing 2 metres on her first attempt while Olyslagers cleared it on her third. Olyslagers had a chance to jump for gold at 2.02 metres but neither she nor Mahuchikh was able to clear the bar. Patterson tied for bronze with Ukraine’s Iryna Gerashchenko after neither athlete cleared 1.98m.

🏐 The Stingers, Australia’s women’s water polo team, beat powerhouse Hungary 14-12 in a match that ended with a penalty shootout. The Aussies remain unbeaten and have won two of their group-stage games via penalty shootout. They now play Greece in the quarter-final on Wednesday.

🏀 The Opals beat host nation France 79-72 to advance to the quarter-finals of the women’s basketball tournament. The Aussies needed to win by six points or more to finish second in their pool. Winning by seven, they leapfrogged Nigeria and narrowly avoided playing the U.S., who haven’t lost an Olympic game since 1992. Australia will now play Serbia in the quarter-final on Wednesday. 

🏑 The Kookaburras, Australia’s men’s hockey team, are out of the Olympics after losing 2-0 to the Netherlands in the quarter-final. It is a disappointing end to the Kookaburras Paris campaign after they won silver in Tokyo. Australia’s women, the Hockeyroos, now carry the nation's hockey hopes, playing the quarter-final against China tonight at 6:00pm.

🎾 Novak Djokovic added the title of Olympic Champion to his extraordinary tennis resume. The Serbian defeated Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in two sets (7-6, 7-6). Both sets were decided by a tiebreaker. The 37-year-old was visibly emotional after winning what could be his last Olympic tournament — although he told media after his win he wants to play at the 2028 Games. Djokovic, a 24-time grand slam champion, has only one other Olympic medal, a bronze from Beijing 2008. 

🏐 Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy have advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s beach volleyball after beating a Brazilian duo who are ranked third in the world. The Aussies won the match in straight sets. They will play the quarter-final against Switzerland on Wednesday morning. Clancy and Del Solar won silver in Tokyo and will be looking to go one better in Paris.

Paris ‘24: What we’re talking about

Noah Lyles wins gold in the men’s 100m sprint

American Noah Lyles won the men’s 100m sprint by the smallest of margins, 5 one-thousandths of a second (0.005 seconds). Lyles and Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson both clocked 9.79 in a photo finish but upon closer examination, Lyles ran 9.784 with Thompson behind in a time of 9.789. Fellow American Fred Kerley finished third in 9.81 seconds.

Lyles is the first American to win the men’s 100m since Justin Gatlin in 2004. 

What happened?

Lyles had a slow start and was last at the 30-metre mark. He eventually worked his way back into the field and overcame Thompson and Kerley. Lyles also beat the defending Olympic champion, Italy’s Marcell Jacobs. Every runner in the race broke ten seconds. 

The final was a different story to Lyles’ heat and semi, where he finished a close second in both. 

What they said

After the race, he told reporters, "It’s been a rollercoaster, ups and downs. I’m usually a guy who likes to come out blazing in all my rounds, especially in the 200m. But the 100m, it’s my first time here on the Olympic stage. You only need one. As long as that’s the last one, that’s all that matters."

In a post to X later on, Lyles said: “I Told You America I Got This!” 

What now?

Lyles is also set to compete in the 200m and the 4x100m relay where he will look to replicate his gold medal-winning performance in both. The finals of the 200m and 4x100m are on Friday and Saturday morning respectively. 

Two Aussies to watch in the track and field this week

Now that most of the Olympic swimming is over, the world has already started to turn its gaze toward the track and field events. Even by Australia’s high swimming standards, we had a great Olympics in the pool. How will we fare inside the Stade de France? Here are two athletes who might star for Australia this week.

Nina Kennedy — Women’s Pole Vault

At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Kennedy didn’t make it past the qualifying stage. The 27-year-old has come a long way since her Olympic debut. Last year, Kennedy shared gold with American Katie Moon at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest. More recently, she won gold at successive Diamond League events in Zürich and London. Did we forget to mention she also won gold at the Commonwealth Games in 2022? The women’s pole vault qualifying round starts at 6:40pm today.

Jessica Hull — Women’s 1500m

Jessica Hull is also coming into Paris on a hot run of form. In July, Hull set the world record in the 2000m (not an Olympic event). Five days before that, she broke an Australian and Oceanic 1500m record when she clocked 3:50.83 at a Diamond League meet. She finished second behind Kenyan Faith Kipyegon, who set a new world record and will be the favourite to win in Paris. Fellow Aussies Linden Hall and Georgia Griffith will join Hull in the 1500m which begins with heats tomorrow night.

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Anything but Paris ‘24

🏎️ Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the Spanish GP last night. McLaren’s Lando Norris and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton rounded out the podium in second and third.

⛳ Scottie Scheffler won his sixth golf tournament of the year at the PGA Travelers Championship. He is the first man to win six tournaments before July since Arnold Palmer in 1962.

🛹 Aussie skateboarders Arisa Trew and Keegan Palmer both claimed gold medals in the women’s and men’s park events at an Olympic qualifier series competition in Budapest over the weekend. 14-year-old Trew and Tokyo Olympic champion Palmer (21) are both strong contenders for medals in Paris.

🏒The Edmonton Oilers tied the Stanley Cup finals series 3-3 with the Florida Panthers on Saturday after losing the first three games in the best-of-seven series. If they win Game 7 tomorrow (10:00 am AEST) they will be the first team to come back from a 3-0 deficit since the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs.

A message from our sponsor

Paris is the most gender equitable Games yet – but what exactly does that mean?

It’s been a big year in women’s sport - from the success of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023, to the Paris Games which will mark the first time that female athletes represent half of the total competing athletes.

Dr. Kasey Symons, a Communications Lecturer (Sport Media) at Deakin University, says that while it’s important to recognise the athletes that have broken down barriers to get to where they are, women still have a “really difficult time” getting into certain spaces, including coaching, leadership, media and more.

“We don't think about the broader systems that are in place that have restricted participation,” she says, noting that equitable media coverage is still a major issue, with only 15% of total coverage dedicated to female athletes.

Dr. Symons also says fans can drive change by watching female athletes, following them on social media, and supporting women and nonbinary journalists covering the Games.

Think beyond the field. Study sport at Deakin.

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