Paris 2024 Olympics: handball, archery, football and rugby sevens action – live | Paris Olympic Games 2024

Pop emergency! Lady Gaga and Céline Dion will reportedly be performing a duet of Édith Piaf’s La vie en Rose at the opening ceremony tomorrow.

It will mark Dion’s first stage performance since she announced her Stiff Person syndrome diagnosis in 2022 after cancelling her world tour. She last performed live in 2020.

The France president, who apparently can’t be trusted to keep a secret, heavily hinted at the performance. He told the French television channel France 2 “Apparently [Dion] has arrived in Paris, it’s great! I would be immensely happy if she could be at this opening ceremony, like all our compatriots.”

“I will not reveal anything, what Thomas Jolly [opening ceremony director] and all his teams have prepared. There is also a surprise.”

The Netherlands have won their handball opener against Angola, seeing off the African champions 34-31 in Group B. Such a tight affair in the end, but it was the fast breaks that lead the Dutch over the line. They scored seven goals from eight while Angola only managed three.

Group B continues with Spain v Brazil before the hosts and defending champions France take on Hungary.

Group A will see Germany v South Korea and Norway v Sweden later today.

Matildas make late squad change ahead of opener

Kieran Pender

These Games have been all about innovation including a brand new purple track at the Stade de France. It is still unknown how fast the track will be yet (they are trying to keep it in pristine edition for the events) but the hope is that world records will be broken.

Alessandro Piceli, a research and development manager at Mondo, believes that the latest version – which the Guardian understands was debuted at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest last year – is even better than the one used in Japan.

We are focusing on the dynamic connection between the track and a new generation of shoes. For the track, we only see the aesthetics, but there is great work that goes into the underlayer.

A new granule of polymeric material, made especially for it, was inserted in the Tokyo track. We have made it even better now. We have chemists, engineers and physicists who take care of the performance of the material.

Here is Sean Ingle with more.

The tennis draw has been released and we might be in for a few treats.

We might be getting the box office match of Rafael Nadal v Novak Djokvic in round two of the men’s singles. A matchup between Angelique Kerber and Naomi Osaka also possibly awaits.

The world No 1 Iga Swiatek gets a pretty tough draw. She could face Jelena Ostapenko (a player she has failed to beat in all four of their matches) or Danielle Collins in the quarter-final and a possible match against world No 4 Elena Rybakina in the semi-final.

Good thing the Pole is playing on clay (her favourite surface) at her favourite stadium (Roland Garros). She has won approximately 724377479287398128* matches there.

* Slight exaggeration. Swiatek has a 95% win rate at Roland Garros at 35-2.

Early drama in this second-half. The Dutch score early to make it 20-18 but then Nenganga gets brought down and earns a penalty. She is 4/4 from the line but her fifth is saved by Yara ten Holte, who is only being brought on to save penalties. Nenganga looks at her bench in disbelief.

At the other end, Juliana Machado pushes an opponent hard from behind. She gets a two-miunte suspension. A moment later, her teammate gets a one-minute suspension. A double power-play! Dutch take advantage and it is 23-20.

It’s half-time in the second handball game of the day and it has been a close one so far. The Dutch are edging Angola 19-18 in what is turning out to be a pretty high-scoring game. Angola found a rhythm late in the half to make it a one-goal game.

Vilma Nenganga, Estavana Polman and Angela Malestein all have scored four.

Speaking of Team USA, how will they fare in Paris? Our American writers think that they will be able to beat China when it comes to gold medals, their women’s teams will dominate and that Noah Lyles and Kate Douglass will become national household names.

The USA men’s basketball team just had their first press conference in Paris with Steph Curry and Kevin Durant.

Curry, who is widely regarded as the best three-point shooter of all time was asked about adjusting to the different three-point line. The international three-point line is shorter (6.75m – 6.60 on baseline) than the NBA one (7.24m – 6.70m on baseline). The four-time NBA champion has not played competitive international basketball since 2014 and this will be his first Olympic Games.

For sure, there is an adjustment. I always know where I am in relation to the line on the NBA court. I have a certain familiarity with it. It’s a little bit different. I might have shot a couple of long ones [in the warmup games]. But i think we’re past that now. At the end of the day I try not to think about it.

Curry was also asked about how he will be soaking up the atmosphere, to which he said:

I want to see some gymnastics, beach volleyball and swimming. You get juiced up watching other athletes compete. I don’t want to watch it from my TV in my room.

Both the US men’s and the women’s team are reigning Olympic champions. Despite a slight wobble from the men’s team in their warmup match against South Sudan, they are still the team to beat.

Hands up if you’re confused as to what actually happened in the football yesterday … Oh, everyone. Great, because same. Let’s try to work through the mess.

Early on, before kick-off between Morocco and Argentina, the Argentine players and the national anthem was booed and jeered by fans in the stadium at St-Etienne. Probably in response to the Enzo Fernández’s racism row – the Chelsea midfielder filmed the Argentine squad singing racist and homophobic chants against France during their Copa América victory celebrations.

Morocco were winning 2-1 but in the final minutes (during the 15 minutes of stoppage time!), Argentina equalised.

Morocco fans stormed the pitch and the match was stopped. Players were taken off the pitch and were gone for more than an hour. VAR then intervened (because of course it did) and determined that their was an offside in the buildup to the equaliser. So Argentina’s goal was ruled out over 60 minutes after it was scored. Unprecedented stuff.

They eventually finished the game, which ended 2-1 to Morocco. The Argentina coach Javier Mascherano called the whole thing “a circus,” and it certainly adds questions to the security at these Games.

The French police notoriously mishandled the events leading up to the 2022 Champions League final.

The archery’s women’s individual ranking round is also under way this morning.

Archery at the Olympics begins with ranking rounds before the matchplay rounds scheduled later on in the Games.

Right now, Lim Si-hyeon leads the pack. She is part of a young South Korea team who are keen to defend their team title from Tokyo and pick up their tenth individual gold medal in the event.

There is stiff competition though. The world No 1 Casey Kaufhold is hoping to be the first women’s individual gold medallist from the US since Luann Ryon. who took home gold in Montreal back in 1976.

Mexico’s Alejandra Valencia is the world championships runner-up and is competing at her fourth Games.

The archery events are taking place at the Hôtel des Invalides. It is a complex tracing France’s military heritage that was established during Louis XIV’s reign in 1687.

The famous golden dome dominates the skyline amid the serene formal gardens surrounding the converted military hospital turned museum. What’s inside? Just Napoleon’s final resting place.

Andy Murray withdraws from men’s singles, will only play doubles

The final buzzer has just gone at the women’s handball match between Slovenia and Denmark. The Danes take the victory 27-19.

Goalkeeper Sandra Toft made 13 saves and every single Danish player got some minutes in this opening match.

The Dane’s are three-time Olympic champions (1996, 2000, 2004) but failed to qualify for their last two Games. Jesper Jensen’s side is a new generation hoping to roll back the years.

The handball sees two groups of six play out. Top four teams will advance to the knockout rounds.

Before we get to today’s action, let’s take a quick look at Team GB’s medal hopes. We are looking at a possible battle for the ages in the men’s 1500m, world champions in the women’s lightweight double sculls and a chance for some skateboarding glory.

Here’s Ben Bloom with more.

Preamble