Key events
The prime minister of Australia confirms that he, and the rest of the country, are indeed getting up early to watch the Australian athletes.
Athletics: Yaroslava Mahuchikh was trending on social media last night after images of her seemingly napping between jumps went viral. The Dnipro-born athlete fled after Russia’s 2022 invasion but itinerant life since did not prevent her triumph in Paris.
The day the Russians invaded, Mahuchikh grabbed as many of her belongings as she could find, stuffed them into her car and left. From a nearby village, the Ukrainian athletics federation sought a route to get her out of the country. The drive to Belgrade took more than three days, incorporating detours and roadblocks, distant explosions and the faint ring of air raid sirens. She now trains in Portugal, having also made her home in Germany, Estonia and Belgium over the past couple of years.
More from Jonathan Liew on the gold medallist here.
You may be chill, but are you 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐧𝐚𝐩 𝐝𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐥𝐲𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐜 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐬 chill? pic.twitter.com/T9DQBIX4nc
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) August 4, 2024
Women’s diving: After the first three rounds, it is looking very much like a Chinese 1-2 already. The question is who will get the gold. Only 1.6 separates the teammates.
Spendolini-Sirieix is still in fourth having been pipped to third by Kim Mi Rae. Her last entry was poor and while she managed to salvage it mid-air, her splash was too big to get a high score.
Men’s basketball: The Australian guard Patty Mills exploded for 20 points in a feisty first half against Serbia which ended 54-42 in favour of the Boomers. “Fiba Patty”, who has a reputation for upping his game in international play, was devastating with his jump shot, and ended the second quarter eight from 11 from the field. He was supported by Josh Giddey who had 13 points and two assists.
Australia enjoyed a 24-point lead midway through the quarter, but Serbia pulled it back largely thanks to centre Nikola Jokic who has 11 points and four assists at the half. And the crowd at Bercy Arena became involved in the contest when the Serbian guard Aleksa Avramovic dropped to the floor pleading unsuccessfully for a foul, when the Australian centre Will Magnay brushed past him.
Equestrianism: The equestrian governing body (FEI) in charge of the Olympic riding in Versailles has found pictures of horses with blue tongues caused by oxygen shortage during dressage competition, the organisation’s chief vet said.
Horse welfare issues are under close scrutiny at the Olympics as the sport grapples with the fallout from an incident involving the British star rider Charlotte Dujardin that revived ethical debates and fears about its future.
The six-times Olympic medallist Dujardin was provisionally suspended on 27 July after footage emerged showing her whipping a horse’s legs multiple times during training.
The FEI has reviewed pictures from Olympics dressage events taken by one of its photographers, the FEI chief vet Goran Akerstrom said, adding that some of the pictures taken at the dressage Grand Prix last Tuesday showed scenes of harm to animals.
“The concern on those pictures were the blue tongues, likely caused by high rein tension,” Akerstrom said, adding that the double bridles which are mandatory in top-level dressage tournaments also played a role in cutting off oxygen from the tongue, causing “pain or unnecessary discomfort”. Reuters
Women’s diving: The Chinese duo score 82.50 and 90.00 respectively with some stunning dives. Almost no splash. Quan’s especially was technically perfect and she gets 10s all across the board.
Spendolini-Sirieix is in fourth after the first round. Can she splash her way on to the podium?
Women’s diving: Spendolini-Sirieix is third last to go (the divers are going in reverse order of which they qualified in yesterday’s semi-finals). She starts on the board in a handstand position, which she holds for three seconds, before a good flick off and a couple of twists. Her score in round one is 76.80 which puts her in second place.
Women’s diving: As we wait for the weather in Marseille to cooperate, let’s look at another water event. GB’s Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix is one of twelve divers taking part. She already won bronze in Paris at the women’s synchronised 10m platform.
The favourites are certainly the two Chinese though: Chen Yuxi and the defending gold medallist Quan Hongchan.
Jack Snape
Men’s basketball: Australia’s hustle has helped them to a lead of 31-17 over Serbia at the end of the first quarter. The Boomers had three steals and eight fast break points, and were led by Josh Giddey with eight points and Patty Mills with 12. The NBA stars Bogdan Bogdanovic and Nikola Jokic lead Serbian scoring with six points each.
Sailing: The next medal was supposed to be the women’s dinghy final at the Marseille marina but that has been delayed due to the weather.
Women’s skateboarding: Sky Brown falls on her final run and she is clutching her (already injured) shoulder. So it will be her first run of 84.75 that will count for qualification. It is not mathematically confirmed yet that she has made the final (which starts today at 16.30) – there is still another heat – but it is looking comfortable.
Brown clutching her shoulder also shows us that she was in fact doing an invert on her injured one. What a trooper.
Jack Snape
Men’s basketball: The quarter-final between Australia and Serbia is under way at the Bercy Arena in eastern Paris. The competition has moved from Lille to the capital for the knock-out stages, and today’s quadruple-header finishes with Team USA v Brazil this evening.
The Boomers are outsiders after a difficult pool phase, and will be relying on big games from the guards Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels. The three-times NBA MVP Nikola Jokic is Serbia’s conductor, and he will stretch Australia’s centre rotation led by Jock Landale.
The Opals – Australia’s women’s team – have a quarter-final on Wednesday, also against Serbia.
Women’s football: More illness news. Germany will be without the captain Alexandra Popp and forward Lea Schüller for their semi-final against the United States.
The German football federation says Popp is sick and Schüller has inflammation in a knee tendon. Popp and Schüller will be replaced by Nicole Anyomi and Sarai Linder in the German squad. Linder returns after an illness in the group stage.
Popp is the only player in the German squad who was involved in Germany won the gold medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
The winner of the semi-final match will play either Brazil or Spain in Saturday’s final in Paris. The US beat Germany 4-1 in the group stage. Associated Press
AOC says 16 Australians have tested positive for Covid
Sixteen Australian Olympians have tested positive for Covid in Paris, but the Australian Olympic Committee has described the numbers as “modest and in line with expectations”.
On Tuesday, the AOC in a statement said that 44 athletes and officials had tested positive for some form of illness detected by the testing (including Covid, influenza and other related illnesses). This came from a total of 85 individuals tested. Thirty-one of those who tested positive were athletes, with 16 having Covid.
“Our testing has been the most extensive and accurate of any Games, allowing early and targeted treatments,” said the Australian team doctor Dr Carolyn Broderick.
“Some illnesses were detected on arrival, others during training or competition and some after competition. With more than 1,000 Australians in team accommodation these results are modest and in line with expectations. We have kept this team training and competing.”
Here is more from Kieran Pender in Paris.
Women’s skateboarding: Sky Brown is now up. In case you missed it, she dislocated her shoulder a couple days ago so she is not full fit. A fantastic clean run from her. She is so smooth and at times you can tell she has trained as a surfer. Highlight was definitely the one-hand invert. I assume that is not on her dislocated shoulder. Her score: 84.75. That puts her in fourth and gives her a spot in the final.
Women’s skateboarding: GB’s Lola Tambling, got involved in the sport after her father, the former BMXer, built a skatepark for the community. She is now officially an Olympian after her first run starts with a couple of fun tricks. She almost falls off but shows some incredible balance to stay on her board but she runs out of speed and does not finish her course. She gets 73.85 in her first run of three.
Women’s skateboarding: The athletes from Heat 3 get an introduction. Two Britons in Sky Brown and Lola Tambling, two Americans in Minna Stess and Ruby Lilley and an Aussie in Arisa Trew. The five athletes have a lot of fun cheering in front of the camera and it is clear that they are all friends as they laugh and make fun faces at each other.
Thanks Dom, sterling shift as always. Not long until Sky Brown now. But before that, we earlier brought you update that the marathon familiarisation session was cancelled but there was no reason given as to why. Here’s the news that we all already knew: it is because of the water quality in the Seine.
Water quality assessments found that levels of Enterococci – an indicator of faecal pollution – were too high in the river.
A statement from World Aquatics said: “The water quality review showed E. coli levels ranged from 326 to 517 (considered “very good” to “good”) at the four collection points taken on 5 August between 5 and 6.00 am.
“However, Enterococci levels exceeded World Aquatics maximum thresholds during the morning review. The latest Enterococci samples (taken between 12.30 and 13.20 on 4 August) showed levels exceeding the maximum acceptable World Aquatics thresholds.”
Another familiarisation session is scheduled for Wednesday morning. The statement added: “With a favourable weather forecast and forward-looking analysis, World Aquatics and Paris 2024 remain confident that the Marathon Swimming competitions on 8 and 9 August will proceed as planned.”
The tests on 4 August cited by World Aquatics were taken before the Seine was used for Monday’s mixed relay triathlon, but at Tuesday’s IOC briefing, Paris 2024 executive director of communications Anne Descamps said the relevant test had been taken in a part of the river not used for the triathlon.
Descamps added that the decision to cancel Tuesday’s session was “taken with an abundance of caution” as there is another session scheduled on Wednesday.
“We have to have familiarisation but there’s another familiarisation event which is planned tomorrow and for Paris 2024, we’re pretty confident in our ability to see what is happening in the weather forecasts will allow us to carry this out in good conditions.”
And with that, I’ll hand back to Yara El-Shaboury who shall steer you through the next few hours.
The shots of the long jump sandpit are among my absolute favourite Olympic images.
Skateboarding: Hiraki Cocana and Bryce Wettstein from the first heat still lead the preliminary standings in this women’s park event, after what was an error-strewn second heat, in all truth. Lots of falls, lots of mistakes, with 10 skaters to come. We’ll soon see if Sky Brown and Lola Tambling can put themselves towards the top of that leaderboard.
Skateboarding: Taboulet is surely out. The 15-year-old falls for a third successive time and she hangs her head, salutes the crowd and that should be that. Heartbreak for the French home favourite. Zheng Haohao, the 11-year-old from China, also looks to be heading out.
We’re almost at the end of this second of four heats now and we’re getting a clearer picture of the qualification shakeup.
Athletics: India’s javelin hero Neeraj Chopra underlined his claim as the favourite with a single throw today, launching his Olympic title defence with 89.34m in qualification.
He delivered India’s first ever athletics gold three years ago and could be set to bring home another medal with the biggest throw of the day – and his best of the season.
“It was a good throw. Maybe the biggest ever in qualifying for me. All the throwers look in good shape,” he said. “I know I have not reached my peak. I am not yet as good as I would like to be technically or in distance, so I want to improve and throw further. And I want to set an example for other Indian athletes so that we can compete here with the best.”
Grenadian Anderson Peters was second in their Group B with 88.63 on one attempt and hopes to unseat Chopra to add Olympic gold to his 2022 and 2019 world championship titles.
Pakistan’s world silver medallist Arshad Nadeem (86.59) was also among the 12 best performers to move on to Thursday’s final.
German Julian Weber endured fourth-place heartbreak in Tokyo and again at the two most recent worlds, but he’s ready to fight again for the podium as he reached 87.76 on his lone attempt to finish at the top of Group A. Reuters
Skateboarding: Taboulet goes down again and she looks furious with herself. That’s twice in her two runs so far … so all the pressure will be on her third and final run in this heat. The home crowd are still well behind her.
For Michael Phelps, now read Léon Marchand. And here’s how Phelps’ old coach Bob Bowman helped fire the French sensation to Olympic immortality at these Games.
Men’s speed climbing: Right, Indonesia’s Veddriq Leanardo qualifies as the top seed, ahead of Amir Maimuratov of Kazakhstan and the USA’s Sam Watson. World No 1 Wu Pen qualifies as the fifth seed. The next round is the elimination round, where we’ll start to lose athletes.
Women’s park skateboarding: Over at Place de la Concorde, the French home favourite Nana Taboulet has just fallen! She’s currently in action in the second of four qualification heats.
Men’s speed climbing: World records continue to tumble! Bear in mind this is a fairly new sport, but the athletes continue to push the levels up and up – quite literally. I’ll run through a summary of the seeding heats when they’re finished.
Let’s get to some of your emails:
Krishna Moorthy says: When they make a montage of Paris 2024 the 100m photo finish and the 6.25 WR of Duplantis are bound to lead from the front. Neeraj may easily be part of the opening footage with his certain gold two days from now.
Robert Speed has a theory: So they cancel another familiarisation swim, even though there’s been no rain since yesterday’s mixed triathlon? I think we can all see what’s going on. The Seine is not actually fit for swimming, but they’re having the races in it anyway.
Tristan Bruemmer has a nice message: Hi Dom. This just to say: I love you guys. I live in France, but I’ve followed all the Games on your live blog so far. Nowhere I’d rather get the latest updates, thrills, fun facts, typos and jokes from. Thanks for everything!
Thanks all, especially Tristan. We’ll try and keep the typos to a minimum though!
Men’s speed climbing: Yep, another Olympic record, this time set by the USA’s Sam Watson in 4.91. Just to make sure you’re aware, these are the qualification heats, which will set the seeding for later on in the competition.
Men’s speed climbing: Another race, another breaking of the Olympic record, as French hero and climbing great Bassa Mawem is beaten by Indonesia’s Veddriq Leonardo. This really is super quick; blink and you’ll miss an entire race.
Men’s speed climbing: This really is a superb sport to watch. It’s all over in a matter of seconds. China’s Wu Peng has just rattled up the wall in 5.07 seconds – equalling the Olympic record – against Julian David of New Zealand.
Women’s park skateboarding: In this opening heat, Bryce Wettstein of the USA has just embarked on her third and final run in qualifying, hitting a score in the mid 80s, which ought to be enough to reach the final. Sakura Yosozumi, one of the favourites, faces an anxious wait after a fall in her final run, with fellow Japanese skater Kokona Hiraki notching the highest score in this heat.
Sky Brown and GB compatriot Lola Tambling both go in the third of the four heats; we’ll update you on that later.
And here’s some more on that horrifying reveal from Adam Peaty re the Olympic village catering. Yuck.
Our very own David Squires’ latest take is Olympics-themed. Enjoy.
Skateboarding: Team GB’s Sky Brown is among those competing in the women’s park qualifying today, despite suffering a dislocated shoulder in training. She described the incident as “really scary” and how her dad put her shoulder back into place. After clinching a bronze medal at the age of just 13 in Tokyo, hopes are high for the 16-year-old at these Games. At the other end of the age spectrum for Great Britain in skateboarding in Paris is 51-year-old Andy Macdonald. It takes all sorts.
