Key events
Reader Pete Garvey has got in touch about the day eight images and his heart was firmly at the Stade de France track.
I fully agree with on not getting past Simone Biles. She was astonishing in the women’s vault final and is undoubtedly the GOAT, but the other standout picture and performance for me came Julien Alfred winning the gold in the women’s 100m final for Saint Lucia. It was an astonishing performance by her and I feel very proud of her and what she has accomplished.
I was gutted for Daryll Neita. I hope she can qualify and get a medal in the women’s 200m race and let’s see if Dina Asher Smith can too. Here is hoping.
Badminton is the first sport to get underway today – it’s currently 8:30am Paris time and the women’s singles badminton semi final between Republic of Korea’s An Se Young and Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska Tunjung is up first.
This Olympics hasn’t been short on controversy, but having not one, but two controversies about surfboard designs wasn’t on my bingo card. Australian surfer Jack Robinson has had to paint over a design on his board that garnered complaints over it being offensive in parts of East Asia, while Brazilian Joao Chianca was reportedly told to remove an depiction of the Christ The Redeemer statue. Kieran Pender has all the surfboard controversy here.
OK, it’s time to get back to Snoop Dogg. He’s been popping up around the place all through the Olympics, most notably supporting Simone Biles at the gymnastics, which has been the go-to event for celebrities. But yesterday he decided to make an appearance at the equestrian, which was unusual not just because of the relative lack of star power, but also because Snoop Dogg has a fear of horses. But in one of the more unexpected inspirational stories of Paris 2024, he overcame his fear and went to the dressage with Martha Stewart. You have to read the whole story, it doesn’t get less bizarre.
Another great story out of Stade de France on Day 8 was Thea LaFond winning Dominica’s first ever Olympic medal, taking gold in the triple jump with a 15.02m jump. Dominica sent only four athletes to the Paris Games, so it is a remarkable achievement for the small island nation.
Like many people, I watched Sprint – the Netflix documentary covering the highs and lows of the fastest runners in the world. I loved it – the fascinating stories behind life on the track had me captivated. So that only made last night’s huge upset in the women’s 100m even more incredible. While the world was watching Sha’carri Richardson and Shericka Jackson, Julien Alfred was quietly going about her business and getting ready to rip up the script. From running barefoot in her school uniform at home in St Lucia to blitzing the field in Paris, hers is a story that we will surely hear more about in the future.
Some absolutely sensational shots in here that really capture all the emotion of day eight. Personally I can’t go past this fantastic shot of Simone Biles, but I’d love to know what your favourites are? You can let me know via email – the link is at the top of the page.
The track cycling will get underway on day 10 and hot off the presses, here is Kieran Pender’s fantastic interview with Australian coach Tim Decker. From small town South Australia to the world stage, this is a truly fascinating story.
It’s been pretty heartbreaking to witness the way people respond to athletes who don’t meet their expectations. It’s something we see a lot of in professional sport, but for some of these Olympians who are thrust into the spotlight from having virtually no public attention, it must be even harder to take. Olli Hoare has had a particularly hard time of it after not making it through the repechage for the 1500m. What can be done to combat social media abuse and getting people to realise athletes are only human?
It’s been interesting seeing the way Nielsen have made their predictions and adjusted as the Olympics have gone on. Do you think they’re on the money with this virtual medal table?
Kieran Pender has been hard at work in Paris and has this great story about how Australia’s women are leading the way in bringing home the gold this Olympics.
The women’s high jump is gearing up to be a hotly contested event after Ukranian Yaroslava Mahuchikh jumped a record 2.10m at the Diamond League three weeks ago. But Australians Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson are determined they can match her. The final is on today and it’s sure to be thrilling. Jack Snape has this great interview with Olyslagers to get you up to speed before it all kicks off.
While we’re on the topic of medals, let’s check out the medal tally. China retain top spot, while the US has clawed their way back into the second. The host nation France are sitting comfortably in third, with Australia sliding down to fourth as the swimming begins to wrap up. Great Britain, Republic of Korea, Japan, Italy, Netherlands and Canada round out the top 10 with plenty more medals still to be won.
If you’re all about the medals, there are plenty up for grabs today! Here’s what you can expect:
Medal Events
🥇 Golf – men’s stroke play
🥇 Equestrian – dressage individual grand prix freestyle
🥇 Tennis – women’s doubles / men’s singles
🥇 Cycling – women’s road race
🥇 Boxing – women’s 54kg / men’s 51kg, 63.5kg, 80kg, 92kg
🥇 Table Tennis – men’s singles
🥇 Archery – men’s recurve individual
🥇 Badminton – men’s doubles & singles / women’s singles
🥇 Gymnastics – men’s rings, vault, parallel bars & horizontal bar / women’s uneven bars, beam & floor exercise
🥇 Shooting – women’s skeet / men’s 25m rapid fire pistol / mixed skeet
🥇 Swimming – women’s 50m freestyle & 4x100m medley relay / men’s 15oom & 4x100m medley relay
🥇 Fencing – men’s team foil
🥇 Athletics – women’s high jump / men’s hammer throw & 100m
🥇 Surfing – men’s & women’s shortboard
Day Nine Schedule
There is so much in store for us all today, it’s that most wonderful point of the Olympics where we have some swimming and athletics crossover, which is always chaotically amazing. You can check out the live schedule to get all the latest updates and times in your timezone.
For those in Australia, we also have quite a lot of Australians in action – you can read all about it and get the event times in this great guide.
Preamble
Megan Maurice
Hello everybody and welcome to live coverage of the ninth official day of competition of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.
I hope you’ve all been enjoying it so far – here in Australia there have been a lot of late nights and early mornings, but Australian sports fans are well accustomed to dealing with sport induced sleep deprivation.
Day eight was full of action, with probably the biggest news of the day being the huge upset of St Lucia’s Julien Alfred taking out the 100m women’s gold ahead of Sha’carri Richardson. Elsewhere on the track, Dutch runner Femke Bol came from nowhere to drag her team to victory in the 4x400m mixed relay. There was more Simone Biles magic, as the star gymnast picked up her seventh gold medal, and over in the pool Katie Ledecky got the better of Ariarne Titmus to win her fourth 800m gold in a row. Snoop Dogg stole the show at the equestrian (words I never could have imagined typing in my wildest dreams) and Remco Evenepoel picked up the gold for Belgium in the men’s cycling road race.
So that’s the whirlwind tour, but we’ll do a deeper dive over the next few hours and very soon I’ll be getting into the day nine schedule and what to expect and look forward to throughout today! I’ll be your host for the next three hours or so, so settle in, relax and let’s get into some Olympics!
