Paris 2024 Olympics day eight: athletics, rowing, men’s cycling road race and more – live | Paris Olympic Games 2024

Judo: There are just two round of 32 contests remaining, with the line-up for the last 16 almost complete. Israel are currently leading Mongolia for the right to face France, and once that has concluded Georgia await the winner of Italy v Hungary.

Judo: Spain have already won their contest against the Refugee Olympic Team. They move on to face world champions Japan.

Judo: The first action of the day is under way with a couple of contests in the mixed team elimination round of 32. France, led by Teddy Riner, are expected to compete for a medal. Japan are the defending world champions.

The sport that I have become an armchair expert in fastest this Olympics is Trampoline Gymnastics. I will be using “horizontal displacement” in all conversations for the next week.

The women’s gold medal in the sport was won yesterday by Team GB’s Bryony Page, who sounds excellent. Before trampolining she studied biology, writing a dissertation on the sounds that dinosaurs might have made. Her plan now is to join the cast of Cirque du Soleil.

As we approach the halfway mark of official competition, Barney Ronay has taken the pulse of the Games from ground level.

One week in, the Games have so far been grand, exhilarating, and unusually light and sustainable in their staging. But the big moments have mainly been Francophone, from delight at the men’s rugby sevens victory – France’s players are still engaged in an unceasing celebration; a selection of them were seen most recently dancing in sunglasses in Ibiza – to an opening ceremony that was basically a slick and persuasive TV advert for Paris, to the wonderful spectacle of the triathlon that felt at times like a mashup of ominous pollution bulletins and a super-shiny chocolate box Netflix series, E coli in Paris.

For these Games to be great they need to do more than speak to the pre-converted or pump up the tyres of its host nation. The legend of the Games is built on moments of competition, the sense that what we have here is a kind of sporting ultimacy. The middle-aged NBC subscriber base may already have that shared folk memory, but not so much the younger audience. A pre-Games survey by the company EduBirdie suggested almost 90% of the UK’s generation Z demographic had never watched a single minute of the Olympics and that one in three wouldn’t notice if the Games were cancelled.

The preliminary round of the women’s 100m was a glimpse into a parallel Olympics.

There are no medals at stake in this parallel Olympics. None of the 36 runners on show make it past the opening session. In fact, the very point of the preliminary round is as a kind of quality filter, safely herding away the least accomplished runners before they can bother the Richardsons and the Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryces of this world. In a way, these are the slowest fastest women on Earth. But they are all Olympians. And all of them have a story to tell.

The final of the men’s singles could add a full stop to any debate about the greatest tennis player in history. It could also confirm the changing of generations and the arrival of the next contender for the mantle.

While Djokovic has won every other big title on offer, including the four grand slam tournaments, every current Masters 1000 event, the ATP Finals and Davis Cup, Olympic gold is the one achievement he has yet to secure. The semi-finals have proven an extremely difficult barrier in his career, with the Serb losing at this stage in three of his four previous Olympic appearances. Coming into the match, Djokovic held a 1-7 record in Olympic semi-finals and bronze medal matches combined across singles and mixed doubles. He won a singles bronze medal at Beijing 2008.

Earlier in the day, Carlos Alcaraz continued his incredible summer form as he demolished Félix Auger-Aliassime 6-1, 6-1 to reach the gold medal match in his first Olympics. Alcaraz, the second seed and still only 21, is the youngest men’s medallist since tennis was brought back into the Olympic Games in 1988.

Just a quick note that there is a gap in moderation coverage meaning we have had to close the comments section for the time being. We’ll hopefully be back up to speed in a couple of hours.

One of the most popular gold medals of Australia’s Olympics was secured by BMX racer Saya Sakakibara. The 24-year-old travelled to Tokyo three years ago expecting a medal but crashed heavily in the semi-finals. That fall came not long after her brother suffered a life-altering crash in a race in Australia.

The setbacks for Saya Sakakibara just didn’t let up. The trauma from her brother’s BMX accident, gnawing at her in the months before Tokyo. The impact of her own crash at those Games, ruining dreams and leaving her in hospital. Another stack, a year later, that triggered lingering concussion symptoms.

It was all getting too much, and she was close to giving up. Close, but she persevered. Built the foundation again. Started tearing in. Gaining confidence. Putting the fears aside. And then – three days out from competition in Paris – a test for Covid came back positive.

“My heart kind of sank. I was like, ‘oh no’, like, I can’t believe that. This is my Olympics,” she said.

In the end, she was right. Paris has become the 24-year-old’s Games, after she claimed gold in the women’s BMX racing event at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines stadium on a raucous Friday evening.

The opening day of action on the track has athletics fans salivating at the prospect of these Games witnessing a host of broken records. One world record has already fallen – the mixed 4 x 400m relay – while Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei won the men’s 10,000m title in an Olympic record. There were also a stack of sub-11 second runs in round one of the women’s 100m.

Watching on was Jon Ridgeon, the World Athletics chief executive, who predicted that more records would tumble in the next eight days. “The track is fast, really fast,” he said. “And the athletes are also coming here in sublime form. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw four or five world records.”

France’s male footballers are following suit and yesterday Thierry Henry’s side reached the semi-finals at Argentina’s expense in a bitter grudge match that spilled into violence at full-time.

The song sung by several of Argentina’s Copa América-winning side last month, singling out France’s players of African heritage, sparked an international incident and justifiable hurt throughout a country whose diversity is a superpower. Its footballers knew the importance of defending their homeland, its predominant values and, not least, themselves.

Afterwards Millot, who will be suspended for the semi-final against Egypt, said the game’s grim context had “given us a pep”. France certainly began like a train and so did their support, who whistled through Argentina’s national anthem and booed when the visitors’ names were recited.

The ability of France’s pre-tournament stars to rise to the big occasion has been staggering. Marchand, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Cassandre Beaugrand, Antoine Dupont, and now Teddy Riner have all secured gold medals to ensure the opening week of the Paris Games has been accompanied by the sound of the greatest national anthem in the world.

He is France’s most popular sports star, a smiling powerhouse known as the nation’s teddy bear, who for years aced judo contests to crowds’ shouts of “Teddy Bam Bam!” in honour of his ability to swiftly throw and pin his opponents to the ground.

All hopes were fulfilled when Teddy Riner displayed his ice-cold tactical calm and spectacular physical might in his home city of Paris on Friday – making history by taking his third Olympic individual gold medal in the +100kg category.

The 35-year-old is now considered the most successful judo star of all time – with four Olympic golds – three individual and one team – and two Olympic bronze medals.

Also in the pool Kaylee McKeown made Australian history.

Four individual gold medals in three years across two Olympics makes her the most individually successful Australian Olympian of all-time. Dolphins teammate Emma McKeon has six golds, four from relays. Ian Thorpe and Mollie O’Callaghan both have five golds, but again relays have played their part. Friday’s triumph gave McKeown her fifth gold medal – now she has four individual victories and a medley relay win in Tokyo.

Before Friday, only eight Australian Olympians had three individual gold medals to their name – an illustrious list that included Thorpe, Ariarne Titmus, Paris flag-bearer Jess Fox and past greats Dawn Fraser and Betty Cuthbert. McKeown has now overtaken that list to sit alone on four individual gold medals. Those seven other names were already rarefied company. From Friday, McKeown is in a league of her own.

Those brilliant sporting accomplishments begin in the pool where, last night, Léon Marchand’s fourth gold medal cemented his status as a French Olympic legend. His performances have illuminated the opening week of competition and energised home fans to such an extent that La Défense Arena will be remembered as one of the greatest swimming arenas in the sport’s history.

It was Marchand’s 11th race in six days, his fourth gold, and his fourth record. Great Britain’s Duncan Scott was closest to him, but truth be told that wasn’t very close at all. Scott won the silver in 1min 55.31sec. It was his eighth Olympic medal. Only Jason Kenny has won more for Great Britain.

Scott was pretty phlegmatic, too. It was his second-fastest time. But Marchand was just that much faster. “I’d like to think I went head to head with Leon for a little bit of the race,” he said, “but the guy is the best 200m breaststroker in the world, the best 200 fly swimmer in the world, the best 200 medley swimmer in the world, and the best 400 medley swimmer in the world. It’s a real honour to be able to race him in this environment as well. The crowd were nuts. It was sensational to be a part of.”

We’ll come onto the brilliant sporting accomplishments of day seven shortly, but the leading news item of the day was the row regarding participation in women’s boxing.

Here’s the latest news story on the subject.

Here’s Barney Ronay’s analysis from North Paris Arena.

And here’s a podcast featuring Ross Tucker, the sports scientist I turn to when issues like this arise to help synthesise the complex science involved.

The best images of day seven include our first glimpses of the Paris running track. What do you make of the lilac hue?

Judo will provide the first action of the day with the mixed team event kicking off at 08:00. Next up is badminton with the women’s singles quarter-finals taking place from 08:30.

At 09:00 there’s an avalanche of activity with beach volleyball, golf, handball, shooting and volleyball.

Athletics events begin at 10:00. The morning program includes the first round of the men’s 100m, and probably a single jump from Armand Duplantis in pole vault qualification.

Staying with the medal table, Nielsen’s Gracenote has updated its prediction for who will come out on top by the end of the Games.

Before the Olympics the USA were expected to claim the most medals but face a stiff test from China for the most golds. Behind those titans, Great Britain, France, and Australia rounded out the top five.

China still top the medal table thanks to their dominance in shooting and diving, but France and Australia have again climbed above the USA after impressing on day seven. It is turning into a Games to remember for the Dolphins who lead the US swim team 7-4 in gold medals.

53 NOCs have now won medals at these Olympics, with 34 nations hearing their national anthem. That includes Uganda after Joshua Cheptegei became his country’s first multiple gold medallist when he added 10,000m gold yesterday to his 5,000m success in Tokyo.

Preamble – Day Eight Schedule