Key events
Australia’s swim team, especially its female contingent, are dominating in the pool. That includes Kaylee McKeown, who defended her 100m backstroke title, and looks destined for more glory before the end of the meet.
The Queenslander very much swims her own race, in and out of the pool. While many athletes offer up platitudes to that effect, there is a sense with McKeown that her offbeat approach is very much the real thing.
Speaking of Andy Murray, the great Scot prolonged his valedictory tournament with another gritty victory alongside doubles partner Dan Evans. Jonathan Liew had the pleasure of reporting on another trademark Murray performance.
There is pain in his joints and a heaviness in his step, and yet as Andy Murray reels away in victory as the clock strikes 10.30pm local time, he looks like a child again: the child who first swung a racket in anger, the child who first discovered the pure joy of victory.
Into the good night they went, Murray and Dan Evans, and not gently either but with force and purpose and every intention of returning to fight another day. In a way this has been the motif of Murray’s elongated final curtain call, perhaps even his career: a refusal to vacate the stage before he is ready, a desire to eke out every ounce of talent in his body.
Perhaps, as he and Evans came back from two match points down in a deciding tie-break, there was even a kind of revulsion to them, a determination that no, it would not end here, at a quarter-full Court Suzanne-Lenglen against the world No 35s from Belgium. The mind is still willing, the body is still just about there for him, and the neck is just two more wins from a fourth Olympic medal.
Unsurprisingly, Biles features in another magnificent gallery of images from yesterday’s action. But for my money the shot of the day is the one capturing Andy Murray and Dan Evans in synchronised delight following their second nail-biting victory of the men’s doubles tennis competition.
There’s only one place to begin our look back at day four and that’s the Bercy Arena, where Simone Biles exorcised the demons of Tokyo and ensured she would leave Paris as one of the shining lights of the Games. Barney Ronay got to enjoy the spectacle firsthand.
Paris was getting the Biles-industrial complex, the Biles narrative arc, which reached its full extension on a wonderful night of flex and twang and defiance of the elements; one that ended, naturally, with gold for the US women.
That final Biles routine was visceral and at times hair-raising. She played the hits. She did Biles 1, Biles 2. She produced an extraordinary release of energy, that explosive athletic grace that looks at times almost like an optical illusion.
What is gymnastics exactly? Performance art? Hard-edge competitive sport? At one point in her balance beam routine Biles did an insane triple backflip (repeat: on a thin, square bar) like a wheel rolling down an incline, one of those moments where she seems to turn the entire event into something else, movements that are strange, liquid, and basically unlike any other human on the planet.
The business end of the medal table remains a free for all with Japan still leading the way with seven gold medals. The unfamiliar look is largely a consequence of the USA experiencing a poorer than expected start to the Games, especially in the pool. US athletes have won 26 medals overall (twice as many as Japan) but only four of them have been gold. In the pool, US swimmers have won 15 medals, but only two gold.
The number of NOCs on the medal table is now up to 43 with the likes of Tajikistan and Guatemala joining the party.
Triathlon is on. But it is absolutely hammering it down in Paris. Hopefully it clears before the women’s race starts at 8am local time
— Sean Ingle (@seaningle) July 31, 2024
Triathlon is on!
After the disappointment of yesterday’s postponement of the men’s race, and longstanding concerns over the water quality in the Seine, it will come as a huge relief to event organisers that the triathlon has been confirmed on today’s schedule. The women’s race is up first at 08:00 followed by the men at 10:45.
Preamble – Day Five Schedule
Jonathan Howcroft
Hello everybody and welcome to live coverage of the fifth official day of competition of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.
Day four was dominated by another show stopping performance from Simone Biles who helped the USA to team gold in the women’s gymnastics. There was also a landmark gold in the pool with Daniel Wiffen powering to 800m freestyle glory and becoming the first Irishman to swim his way to an Olympic medal. Elsewhere in the swimming competition Great Britain (men’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay) and Australia (women’s 100m backstroke) continued their impressive meets.
But Tuesday was also one of disappointment. The postponement of the men’s triathlon due to the water quality of the Seine raised the possibility of the three-discipline event being reduced to just running and cycling, while 12 time zones away in Tahiti the surfing competition succumbed to mother nature on a day scheduled for medal events. And there was also the first major let down for the hosts with one of the faces of the games, Clarisse Agbegnenou, failing to defend her 63kg judo crown, although she did claim bronze.
So what can we look forward to today?
Medal Events
🥇 Triathlon – women’s & men’s individual (from 8:00)
🥇 Diving – women’s 10m platform synchro (from 11:00)
🥇 Rowing – men’s & women’s quad sculls (from 12:00)
🥇 BMX Freestyle – women’s & men’s park (from 13:00)
🥇 Shooting – women’s trap (from 15:30)
🥇 Judo – men’s 90kg / women’s 70kg (from 16:00)
🥇 Canoe Slalom – women’s C-1 (17:25)
🥇 Gymnastics – men’s all-around (17:30)
🥇 Fencing – men’s sabre team (19:30)
🥇 Swimming – women’s 100m & 1500m freestyle / men’s 200m butterfly, 200m breaststroke, 100m freestyle (20:30)
*(All times listed are Paris local)
Simon Burnton’s day-by-day guide:
BMX freestyle
In Tokyo Britain’s Charlotte Worthington and Declan Brooks went into their finals seeded fourth and seventh respectively and came out with a gold and a bronze, illustrating the event’s unpredictability. Both are back again but Britain’s best medal chance looks to be 23-year-old Kieran Reilly, the reigning world champion who made his name by becoming the first person to land a triple kick flair in 2022.
Gymnastics: men’s all-around final
Daiki Hashimoto won gold in Tokyo three years ago, has won two world championships since and goes into today’s all-around final as favourite. “I will remain steadfast in surpassing my previous accomplishments. My commitment is unwavering, fuelled by a resolute determination,” he said this year. Meanwhile the US are hoping for what would be just their second title, and first since 2004. “We’re going to be very deadly. This is going to be a fun Olympics. We are fully loaded,” said Fred Richard, who won world championship bronze last year.
Swimming
France’s Léon Marchand is the son of Xavier Marchand and Céline Bonnet, both former Olympic swimmers, is coached at Arizona State by Michael Phelps’s former mentor Bob Bowman, is probably the greatest swimmer in the world, and is about to have the biggest night of his life. The 200m butterfly and 200m breaststroke finals were originally due to run consecutively, but after intensive lobbying the schedule was changed to separate the events by an hour and a half and give Marchand a greater chance of success. Now he has to perform.
Other unmissable moments will include the women’s and (rescheduled) men’s triathlon races in the Seine and through the heart of Paris; Australian flag bearer Jess Fox looking for her second gold of the Games in the C-1 canoe slalom; Katie Ledecky cruising to an eighth career gold in the 1500m freestyle and the fastest sharks in the pool flexing their muscles in the men’s & women’s 100m freestyle; Viktor Axelsen beginning the defence of his men’s singles badminton title; Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz taking the court in the men’s singles tennis; and crunch time in the women’s football with the final round of group matches including the Matildas v USWNT.
I’m sure I’ve failed to include something notable to you in this short rundown, so feel free to let me know what’s on your agenda by emailing: jonathan.howcroft.casual@theguardian.com or, if you’re still rummaging around in the post-Twitter dumpster fire, find me on X @jphowcroft.
I’ll be around for the first few hours of the blog here in Australia, after which I’m handing over to Barry Glendenning in the UK.