Key events
Phew. No time for a breather though, because it’s over to the velodrome, where Britain’s men will be going for gold in the men’s team pursuit final against Australia in about 10 minutes’ time. The evening athletics session is also under way at the Stade de France, with the women’s pole vault final taking place – minus Molly Caudery and Holly Bradshaw after they failed to qualify.
The medal-winning scores:
Keegan Palmer (Australia) 93.11
Tom Schaar (USA) 92.23
Augusto Akio (Brazil) 91.85
Australia’s Keegan Palmer wins men’s park skateboarding gold
The USA’s Tate Carew is down with just a few seconds left of his final run. Italy’s Alex Sorgente follows the same fate, so those two won’t trouble those in the medal positions. And then the pressure gets to the USA’s Tom Schaar too!
It means Australia’s Keegan Palmer is guaranteed gold … he steps up for his final run and he can’t stay on his board either, but no bother, he takes gold, having won in Tokyo too. It’s silver for Schaar and bronze for Brazil’s Augusto Akio.
Hi everyone. It’s getting even hotter at the Place de la Concorde, where Brazil’s Pedro Barros is screaming and raising his arms in the air; it’s fair to say he’s happy with his run. But his 91.65 is only enough for fourth. Australia’s Keegan Palmer is still in the gold medal position.
What a gloriously brief stint from me. Katy Murrells is next in the hot seat.
Men’s skateboarding: After messing up his first two attempts, Akio comes back with a fine third run. He puts his board aloft at the end and goes to do some juggling but it’s only good enough for third with 91.85.
Beau Dure
USA’s Hampton Morris looks more like a statkeeper than a weightlifter – and a young one at that. He is indeed young, making his Olympic debut today at age 20.
In last year’s world championships, Morris set a junior world record and won the clean and jerk. At the World Cup in April, Morris set a senior world record in the clean and jerk and completed a solid lift in the snatch, good enough to finish second behind China’s Li Fabin.
Today, Morris was in fifth place after the snatch, and he set off some alarm bells by missing his first clean and jerk at 168kg, well below his world record of 176kg. But he came back to lift 172kg, tying the Olympic record and moving into third place. He gave the world record a shot with a lift that would’ve improved his position to silver, but he couldn’t hold it.
(For non-metric people – 172kg is 379lbs.)
Bronze for Morris – and gold for Li, the first of many expected medals for China in weightlifting.
Men’s skateboarding: Tony Hawk applauds Tom Schaar and Snoop comes for a hug to celebrate some fine work from the American and his backside alley oop etc. It is 92.23 to put him second.
Men’s skateboarding: Snoop Dogg, 52, celebrates a cracking run from Tate Carew who moves into second thanks to a smooth routine.
Is sport good for you? Asks Adrian Chiles.
If you were paying close attention during Tokyo 2020, you may remember Fernando Dayan Jorge Enriquez. If you are Cuban you absolutely do. He won the country’s first gold medal in canoeing, when he was competing with Serguey Torres in the two-man 1,000m sprint.
Andy Bull on Fernando Dayan Jorge Enriquez.
Men’s skateboarding: Pedro Barros has his earphones in. What do we reckon he is listening to? Guardian Football Weekly? The Brazilian seems to lose his way but somehow gets back on track to score 86.41. Decent but not likely to keep him in bronze.
Men’s skateboarding: Defending champion Keegan Palmer plays it relatively safe to complete his run and gets 93.11, which is a might fine score, but I am sure he has more to give.
Men’s skateboarding: 90.11 for Tom Schaar shows everyone how it is done by actually completing a run.
Bryan Armen Graham
Hampton Morris wins the 61kg weightlifting bronze. It’s the first US men’s weightlifting medal since 19884. And Morris, 20, is the youngest US men’s medalist since 1956.
Men’s skateboarding: Not much to discuss after the first three Brazilians because they’ve all fallen off. Finishing a run would be useful for any skateboarder.
Men’s skateboarding: Augusto Akio does some juggling before the start of the final. I hope that wins him some points.
Men’s skateboarding: “We are in for the greatest skateboarding competition of all time” toot the BBC commentators. The atmosphere sounds pretty lively as the final eight prepare to show Snoop Dogg what they can do.
In the meantime, have a look at the best images of the day.
Hello all! Let’s see if we can keep up with everything going on for the next 37 minutes.
That’s my stint done for today, and indeed for live-blogging these Games. Thanks for all your emails and for the kind words about the team’s collective blogging efforts. Feel free to bung us a couple of quid. Will Unwin is now stepping into the breach for the next bit.
“Regarding Victor Lee’s email: US colleges give huge numbers of scholarships for academically weak students to attend their colleges,” writes Nelson.
“This is done to raise the school’s profile. As educational institutions are not taxed the sports teams are in effect being subsidised extensively. Having a culture of competitive college sports teams that continually attend “meets” maintains high standards.
“But as many of the individual athletes do not have to work full time to simply pay for living expenses it puts them at huge advantage. The vast majority of USA-based college athletes certainly are not going from the factory at the end of the day and squeezing in training before bed.”
My colleague Tom Lutz has sent this from my other colleague, Beau Dure.
Beau counts that from Team GB one hockey player, one golfer, seven rowers, one swimmer, three tennis players, and 16 track and field athletes went to US universities.
France agonisingly lost their men’s handball quarter-final 34-33 against Germany on Wednesday, ending the Olympic hosts’ dream of another handball double gold and marring the end of left back Nikola Karabatic’s career as he retires from the sport.
France had been ahead at half time but made a huge mistake when they lost possession in the final seconds, allowing Germany right back Renars Uscins to score and take the game to overtime. The 22-year-old also scored the final tie-breaking nine-metre shot.
“I think in a thousand times it won’t happen again, it’s maybe impossible, but today that it should happen is crazy, that our guys catch the ball and Renars Uscins scores,” said Germany captain Johannes Golla.
Earlier, Spain edged Egypt 29-28 and will play the Germans in the semis, with right wing Aleix Gomez pouring in nine points, including the final tie-breaking shot during overtime.
Later on Wednesday, Tokyo silver medallists Denmark will face Sweden, while Norway meet Slovenia as they battle to advance to the semis on Friday. Reuters
Andy Macdonald speaks to the BBC about the emotion of competing in skateboarding in Paris at 51, and his post-run celebrations today: “It’s excitement, it’s relief, it’s every emotion you can think of that comes out. And you’re like: ‘Oh, I did it!’”
Women’s golf: Celine Boutier of France reaches the clubhouse, possibly to enjoy a lager shandy, having carded a seven-under par round of 60. She is three strokes clear of Ashleigh Buhai (South Africa), her closest challenger, who is on the 16th.
Men’s volleyball: Poland and Team USA are now level at a set all in their semi-final. USA take the second set, 27-25.
Kieran Pender
Australia has won four consecutive Olympic gold medals in the men’s dinghy (laser) sailing, after sailor Matt Wearn defended his Tokyo gold medal in light Marseille conditions on Wednesday afternoon.
The nation’s remarkable winning run began at London 2012, through Tom Slingsby, before Tom Burton won gold at Rio 2016. Wearn, now 28, first won gold in the class three years ago at the Tokyo Games, before a composed performance in the final saw him sail away as Olympic champion once more. He is the first man to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in the dinghy class.
“I want to clear up some misconceptions about how the US funds the development of Olympic athletes,” emails Victor Lee.
“The US has no federal central planning or funding for Olympic sports. The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee is entirely privately funded. Remember, we’re the only leading industrial nation that doesn’t have national health care.
“The success is due to a large country which has lots of resources and lots of ambitious people who are used to thinking that if they try hard, they can succeed, with lots of private institutions (EG gymnastics schools and fencing schools), plus a high school and university culture that sometimes puts more emphasis on sports than academics.
“We know university-age athletes around the world often seek to come to the US for training. Those universities do not receive federal funding for sports. Even state (provincial) schools are not fully funded by the government, but need to balance their budgets through high tuition, donations, and for-profit enterprises.”
Angelique Chrisafis
The Paris Olympics promised to be the most eco-friendly Games in history, reducing by half the amount of single-use plastic compared to London 2012.
French environmental groups, however, have criticised what they called a “bizarre” and “surreal” sight at certain venues’ drinks stands run by the main sponsor, Coca-Cola. Servers can be seen filling plastic reusable, so-called “eco-cups” from 50cl plastic bottles, amassing sacks of empty bottles for recycling.
Men’s weightlifting: Seems like Shota Mishvelidze (Georgia) and Kaimarui Erati (Kiribati) are duking it out in the clean & jerk. Follow the live scores here.