Key events
Football: What a treat – Football Weekly Extra has just dropped.
Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Suzy Wrack, Tom Garry and Sophie Downey for a women’s football special. The panel discuss Canada’s spygate, Bev Priestman’s suspension and the six-point deduction. The panel debate whether the punishment fits the crime.
Despite the deduction, Canada will advance to the knockout rounds after winning all three of their matches in Paris. The defending Olympic champions will face Germany on Saturday in Marseille.
Gymnastics: Simone Biles and the rest of team USA stunned in earlier events, winning gold in the women’s gymnastics team final. But the greatest gymnast of all time isn’t done quite yet with the all-around final taking place later today.
To any American readers just waking up and joining us, here is all you need to know about when and where to watch Biles compete.
Men’s hockey: Some late drama but Team GB hold on to beat France 2-1 and are off the the quarter-finals. France felt they were hard done by some calls but ultimately, with 41 seconds to go, they had two shots that went wide.
Women’s doubles tennis: Katie Boulter and Heather Watson fail to reach the semi-finals after falling 6-3, 6-1 to the Italian duo Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani.
Unfortunately for the British duo, they were unable to come back from their poor start. Boulter double faulted twice in her opening service game and Watson then dropped her serve.
Errani is a five-time grand slam champion in doubles. Her prowess at the net along with Paolini’s strength from the back make them a potent combination, and Boulter and Watson simply could not find a foothold.
Boulter dropped serve again at the start of the second set and there was no way back, the Italians booking their spot in the last four in just 62 minutes.
Women’s singles tennis: Anyone who has watched Swiatek knows how much pressure she has been under, coming into the tournament as such an overwhelming favourite but her opponent picked apart her game masterfully. An “upset for the ages, seismic” say the commentators on Eurosport and the match stats back up that statement. Zheng had six aces to Swiatek’s two and 13 unforced errors to the Pole’s 36.
Zheng, who was this year’s Australia Open runner-up, may win China’s first single’s tennis medal.
Zheng Qinwen speaks after knocking out Iga Swiatek in the women’s singles semi-final:
I feel more than happy. Happy is not enough to express my emotions right now. I always had a lot of expectations for the Olympic Games but I knew how hard it would be to get here. Every match, I have been through a lot of pressure.
To beat Iga in this stage is absolutely not easy. It is an important tournament for me and for her. It was unbelievable. I played a lot of great tennis today. I was really patient in the game.
I have had a lot of matches against Iga. I am always the one who misses more than her. I am always the one to have more winners than her but I always lose the match. So today I said I had to be more patient against Iga. I said if she had to take this match she’s going to have make a lot of winners. It’s on clay, it is not easy. maybe on hardcourt it is different but that was my gameplan. I tried to play consistent and have a lot of variation when I step inside.
Iga is absolutely putstanding on clay court. she is such a great player. Four grand slam titles, the French open … It is not easy.
My mental is holding me up. My body is at a limit but i don’t know why in this tournament I have this extra energy. But today, when I am tired, I am able to push. If you asked me to play three more hours for my country, I would.
World No 1 Swiatek knocked out of tennis singles
The world No 1 has been knocked out. Iga Swiatek, who has not lost a match at Roland Garros since 2021 falls against China’s Zheng Qinwen.
Swiatek came into Paris as the far and away favourite. Clay is her best surface, having won in Madrid, Rome and of course, the French Open this year. Bronze is still up for grabs but Zheng is now onto the final.
Handover: Yara El-Shaboury is back to guide you through the next few hours. Thanks for your company during a very eventful couple of hours.
Beau Dure
Men’s rowing: The US victory in the men’s fours will surely have many people breathing a sigh of relief.
In Tokyo, US rowers were shut out of the medals for the first time in any Olympics the USA had attended. Through three races today, a feeling of deja vu might have emerged. The men’s four smashed that feeling with the first gold for the USA in the event since 1960.
This gold medal also steadies Team USA as a whole in terms of medal projections. With gold medals today in shooting and walking, China were steadily gaining. As of this moment, the US projection for gold is at 43 to China’s 39. But given trends in the pool in Paris, it’s unlikely that the US swimmers will meet their projections today, while China might walk away with another gold or possibly two.
And it’s surely a special accomplishment for the men in the boat. One of them, Michael Grady, was in the men’s four that finished fifth in Tokyo. Three of them – Nick Mead, Justin Best and Liam Corrigan – were in the men’s eight that took fourth. When athletes have seen medals slip through their grasps, they tend to cling to medals a bit more tightly when they earn them. Corrigan has another notable victory, though. He was on the Oxford boat that won The Boat Race in 2022.
Women’s tennis: Poland’s Iga Swiatek is in big, big trouble against China’s Qinwen Zheng in the semi-finals of the singles. Unbeaten at Roland Garros since 2021, Swiatek lost the first set and Zheng is currently serving to close out an unexpected win.
Men’s hockey: It’s an enjoyably bad-tempered game and Team GB are losing by the only goal scored so far in their penultimate Pool B match against France in front of very partisan (and Parisienne) crowd at the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium as they approach the end of the third quarter.
Tennis: Team GB’s Heather Watson and Katie Boulter are a set down in their women’s doubles quarter-final against Italy’s Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani. The British duo have just lost on Boulter’s serve in the opening game of the second set and while it’s not quite time to hit the panic button, they clearly have it all to do.
Skateboarding: Team GB’s Tokyo bronze medallist Sky Brown dislocated her shoulder in training on Sunday but has announced she still intends to compete in the women’s park skateboarding next week. The 16-year-old arrived in Paris with doubts over her fitness after she suffered a serious knee injury in May. It would be fair to say her preparations for these Olympics have been somewhat less than ideal.
Women’s boxing: Before the Carini v Khelife bout at the Paris North Arena, the IOC’s Mark Adams was asked about the controversy surrounding the contest.
“I repeat that all the competitors comply with the eligibility rules,” he said. “But what I would say is that this involves real people. And, by the way, this is not a transgender issue. I should make this absolutely clear.”
IOC’s Mark Adams was asked again about women’s boxing controversy. “I repeat that all the competitors comply with the eligibility rules. But what I would say is that this involves real people. And, by the way, this is not a transgender issue. I should make this absolutely clear.”
— Sean Ingle (@seaningle) August 1, 2024
Women’s boxing: Sean Ingle tweets from the boxing arena, where Italy’s Angela Carini has tearfully told reporters that she abandoned her fight against Algeria’s Imane Khelif because she had never been punched so hard before and felt she simply could not continue.
Sean also reports that Carini’s coach said: “I don’t know if her nose is broken; I have to speak with the girl. But many people in Italy tried to call and tell her: ‘Don’t go please; it’s a man, it’s dangerous for you’.” We’ll have more from Sean as this story develops …
Utterly heartbreaking hearing the Italian boxer Angela Carini in the mixed zone. Blood on her shorts.
Broke down in tears as she explained that she had never been hit so hard before.
Added that she came her to honour her father, that she was a warrior, but had to stop.
— Sean Ingle (@seaningle) August 1, 2024
Italy’s Carini abandons bout against Algeria’s Khelif
Women’s boxing: Algerian Imane Khelif moved past Angela Carini when the Italian abandoned their welterweight round of 16 fight after 46 seconds in the first round on Thursday.
Khelif has been in the spotlight since she was disqualified just hours before the gold medal match at the 2023 World Championships for failing International Boxing Association (IBA) eligibility rules that prevent athletes with XY chromosomes from competing in women’s events.
She was ruled eligible, however, to compete in Paris, a competition run by the International Olympic Committee. Khelif entered the arena amid loud cheers from fans waving Algerian flags and the Italian was no match for her opponent’s speed and longer reach. Carini went to her coach after 30 seconds to fix her headgear but after briefly resuming the fight she returned to her corner and stopped, quickly leaving the ring.
“I have always honoured my country with loyalty,” Carini said. “This time I didn’t succeed because I couldn’t fight anymore. So I put an end to the match.” She did not immediately say why she had abandoned the contest.
An email: “Thanks for your coverage as French TV isn’t showing any rowing at the moment, maybe because they have no medal prospects,” writes Jeremy Boyce.
“I’m not sure your speculation on how things are between the British men’s four crew is all that helpful. Obviously they’d have been hoping for gold (aren’t they all?), but they actually achieved a bronze. Of all the crews that started out, only three can lay their hands on a coveted Olympic token. Let’s be happy for them and for the return to decent health of British rowing.”
Well, I would respectfully argue that I am not a Team GB cheerleader and it’s not my job to be helpful. And besides, I was only reporting on – possibly baseless – speculation that all is not well in the camp, whether that’s through illness, injury or some sort of feud. It would have been very easy for them to address this speculation but they elected not to, a state of affairs that has only further fanned the flames.
Olympic athletes in niche sports like rowing that most of us pay little or no attention to for most of the four-year Olympic cycle four years are normally glad of any publicity, so their silence is noteworthy. It’s also noteworthy that while they all looked happy enough on the podium during the medal presentation, there is still no sign of the customary BBC interview.
Hockey: Unbeaten in three games in Pool A following a win over Spain and back-to-back draws against South Africa and the Netherlands, Team GB’s men are currently playing France at the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium.
It’s scoreless as they approach the end of the first quarter and the British men are looking good to qualify for the quarter-finals. They are slated to play Germany in their final Pool match tomorrow.
Gymnastics: Italy’s Giorgia Villa won silver with her teammates in the women’s team final this week but her passion for all things Parmesan has also gained attention. Armed with his trusty cheese grater, Bryan Armen Graham scratches beneath the surface of a fascinating Olympics sub-plot …
Golf: The men’s tournament started this morning, with a strong field teeing off for the first of four rounds. It’s very early doors yet, but Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama currently leads the field on -6 through 11.
But what’s this? He’s just been joined at the top of the leaderboard by Germany’s Matthias Schmid, who has played three holes more. Great Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood is on -3 through 11, while Ireland’s Rory McIlroy is on the same score through nine.
On a sombre note, it’s been a traumatic week for Fleetwood and his coach Phil Kenyon, who are both from Southport and have had to try to come to terms with the shock of the knife attack and subsequent civil unrest that has unfolded in their locale in recent days. We wish them both well.
Olympic spirit dept: A war of words has opened up between the Australian and Chinese swim teams at the Paris Olympics, after three-time Olympian Kyle Chalmers labelled an allegation that he had snubbed China’s Pan Zhanle on the pool deck “a bit weird”.
Today in Paris: With invariably hilarious consequences, angry, pompous people on Twitter/X often confuse the Guardian’s golf correspondent Ewan Murray, with his near namesake the Sky Sports golf commentator Ewen Murray.
Watching this piece to camera being delivered by our man at Le Golf National in which he delivers a taster of what’s coming up at the Olymnpics today, it’s not difficult to see why. Take it away, Ewan …
Rowing: Helen Glover missed out on a third Olympic gold medal after the Team GB women’s four were pipped by Netherlands at the Vaires-Sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.
Rowing: The men’s four recover from an awful start to win a bronze medal in the final race of the day, to make it two bronzes and a silver from three British crews today.
It’s a decent return but will the men’s four be happy with third place, or curse the bad start that coould have cost them something better? They have, by all accounts, been maintaining a stoney media silence in the build-up to and during this week, fuelling rumours that, for whatever reasons, all might not be well in the camp.
USA win gold; Great Britain take bronze in men’s four
Rowing: The USA win with relative ease, pulling away from New Zealand in the final 300 metres. Team GB hold on for bronze under a late assault from the Italians, who miss out on a medal.
Rowing: It’s neck and neck between the USA and New Zealand as the race approaches its conclusioon. The USA pull half a boat-length clear. Team GB look to have nailed down third place.
Rowing: Great Britain move into third place with 500 metres to go. The USA lead from New Zealand, who are still in with a great shout.
Rowing: At the halfway point, the USA lead New Zealand, with Italy in third place. Great Britain haven’t panicked, recovered from their bad start and and are challenging for the bronze.
Rowing: The six boats contesting the final of the men’s four go about the important business of their day and it’s a very slow start for Great Britain, with David Ambler, Freddie Davidson, Matt Aldridge and Oliver Wilkes pulling the oars. They’re almost a length down on the USA with 1,500m to go. New Zealand are in second and Italy are currently in third.
Hello everybody. The men’s four is next up, with the atmosphere on BBC television bordering on the funereal after the British women were beaten by the Dutch in the women’s equivalent. Luckily, the rowers themselves don’t seem as gloomy as the presenting team.
“I think we’ve all done a good job,” says Rebecca Shorten to TV’s Matthew Pinsent. “We’d all have been happy with gold but we’ll take the silver.” The Netherlands boat led from pillar to post, so the British team were beaten fair and square.
Barry Glendenning will take over now before the men’s four. I will be back in a bit.
Team GB edged by Dutch in women’s four rowing for gold
What an ending! A massive credit to Team GB but they just could not find that final push needed against the Netherlands. For Helen Glover, it will be two golds and now a silver.
It makes Team GB’s medal count at these Games up to 19. Here is our live medal tracker, which may take a few moments to update.
Women’s four rowing: At the 200m mark, GB move ahead of the Dutch boat. Both teams have a stroke rate of 41. It’s going to come down to the tiniest of milliseconds.
Women’s four rowing: Team GB level with Dutch at the halfway mark. They will hope to pull away now.
Women’s four rowing: Glover, the 38-year-old, is a two-time gold medalist. Team GB are sitting in second, 2m behind the Dutch.
Women’s four rowing: Will we get another Team GB medal in rowing? Helen Glover, a flag bearer at the opening ceremony, is in position alongside Esme Booth, Sam Redgrave and Rebecca Shorten. In their way is China, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Romania and the United States.
Women’s rowing double sculls: Before we get to the final rowing events, we get our medal ceremony. Hodgkins-Byrne and Wilde are absolutely beaming.
Along with the medals, the athletes get a special Parisian scroll that is made of either gold, silver or bronze.
Romania pip Dutch to gold in men’s rowing double sculls, Ireland take bronze
Marian Florian Enache and Andrei-Sebastian Cornea of Romania steal gold at the death, reaching a high of 47 strokes a minute! The Dutch look absolutely devastated. They were silver medalists three years ago and they were not able to better their result.
Ireland’s Philip Doyle and Daire Lynch take the third spot on the podium leaving the United States still in search of their first rowing medal.
Men’s rowing double sculls: The Dutch and Romania are going back and forth for the gold with 500m to go. The United States are just keeping Ireland off the podium.
Men’s rowing double sculls: The Dutch missed out on gold in Tokyo by 2/10ths of a second. Can they do one better this time around? Let’s see. They’re taking on Spain, Romania, Ireland, the United States and New Zealand.
Gold for NZ, bronze for GB in women’s rowing double sculls
It was neck and neck in the final stretch but what a result for Great Britain. This team would not have won a medal a couple months ago given they were only recently assembled.
The defending champions Romania had the lead at the halfway mark but New Zealand powered through to take gold.
Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne and Becky Wilde share a long hug after winning their first Olympic medals together. Wilde had surgery on her forearms only ten months ago and Hodgkins-Byrne took time away from the sport after Tokyo to have her son.
Yang wins gold in women’s 20km race walk
The world record holder is an Olympic champion for the first time! It was an enthralling last 10km but Jiayu Yang’s quick start and steady pace throughout was what won her this race. She really dug deep with her fastest lap being her last despite looking like she was in a lot of pain.
Spain’s María Pérez takes silver and Jemima Montag comfortably takes third, becoming the first Australian to medal in this event since 2004.
Women’s 20km race walk: The gap has gone from 40sec to 20sec to 13sec at the top. Pérez is chasing Yang but she only has two laps to make it up completely.
But Australia’s Jemima Montag in third has made up quite a bit of distance and is around 11sec behind Pérez. So, the Spaniard has to chase down the leader and now constantly look over shoulder.
We are coming up on the last lap.
Covid cluster worsens in Australian camp as Stubblety-Cook reveals infection
Kieran Pender
The Covid cluster in the Australian swim team may be worse than first feared, after the Tokyo champion Zac Stubblety-Cook revealed he swam through an infection to win silver in the 200m breaststroke on Wednesday night.
In a statement, the Australian Olympic Committee confirmed that Stubblety-Cook had completed a five-day course of antivirals for the illness.
Women’s 20km race walk: Wow! María Pérez has halved the gap between her and Yang. The Chinese looks over shoulder and is trying to respond.
Women’s 20km race walk: The defending champion, Antonella Palmisano, drops out and is being consoled by her coach. We are approaching the 14km mark and the stakes are getting higher and more red cards are being dished out as the stakes are getting higher.
If this is a new sport to you, you may be confused as to how these red cards work. Race walking’s strictest rule is that athletes must keep one foot in contact with the ground at all times, without any running.
If a judge deems an athlete is running, they serve a two-minute time penalty after three rule violations, known as red cards.
So while Yang is currently not physically the first athlete on the track, she is still in the lead because of her opponent’s time violations.
A timely email from Peter comes in:
Why at this level they couldn’t have a chip in each shoe to ensure that one foot is always in contact with the ground, which is supposed to distinguish race-walking from running?
There has always been controversy surrounding the use of foot sensors despite the fact there has been some investment in the tech. But some believe it could change the way athletes race walk. There will always pushback to change, but I do believe we will see it sooner rather than later.
Swimming: Adam Peaty has raised hopes he could compete in his relay events later this week as he returned to the pool following two days of “bed rest”.
Hours after winning silver in the men’s 100m breaststroke, Peaty tested positive for Covid-19, having struggled with a sore throat ahead of Sunday’s final before his symptoms worsened.
Unlike the last Olympics in Tokyo, there are no specific coronavirus restrictions on athletes but Team GB said in a statement “all usual precautions (were) being taken to keep the wider delegation healthy”.
Peaty’s diagnosis led to doubts about whether he would be fit enough to take to the pool in the men’s and mixed 4x100m medley relays, with the 29-year-old crucial to to their hopes on the breaststroke leg.
But he posted a picture of himself on his Instagram story on Wednesday evening in a swimming pool along with the caption: “Back in the water with the French public today (2 days of bed rest).”
The mixed medley heats is first up with heats on Friday and the final on Saturday – the men’s preliminaries are on Saturday with the showpiece on the last day of the swimming meet on Sunday. PA Media
Women’s 20km race walk: Yang Jiayu is still in the lead 11km in and it is hard to see anyone catching her, unless some red cards come in to play. She is ahead of Mexico’s Alegna González by 36sec.
Swimming does not make a start until later today but there has been a lot of conversation surrounding world records in Paris … or should I say lack thereof. The theories have been flying. Is it the athletes? Is it the shallow pool? Here is Shane Keating’s take:
When swimmers dive into the pool and power through the water, they naturally create waves that radiate outwards. Some of these waves will propagate along the surface of the pool and be damped by gutters at the edge. Others will travel downward, bounce off the bottom of the pool, and return to the surface to create turbulence.
Turbulence can slow a swimmer down in two ways. First, it creates a choppy pool surface that can disrupt a swimmer’s rhythm and reduce their speed.
Second, turbulence increases the effect of water drag by dissipating the swimmer’s momentum – the water motion literally “sucks” the speed from the swimmer.
The slow pool theory says the shallower pool means more waves bounce back to the surface, creating more turbulence and slowing swimmers down. But does it hold water?
Keating’s thesis research was on geophysical wave processes in the Sun (astrophysics and plasma physics) and his post-doctoral research was on satellite oceanography and mathematical modeling of ocean eddies. Basically, he knows more about this than you and I ever will. More below.
China’s Liu Yukun wins gold in men’s 50m rifle three positions
What a year for Liu! Back in May he broke the world record twice in Baku and now he is an Olympic gold medalist. He finishes with a score of 463.6 after hitting a 9.9 shot in the last round.
Ukraine’s Serhiy Kulish takes silver and India’s Swapnil Kusale is the bronze winner.
And we end the shooting action for now with a French EDM track that I do not recognise.
Men’s 50m rifle three positions: Shot 42 eliminates Jon-Hermann Hegg of Norway. Standing is usually his best scores but a 9.9, he is eliminated after leading for so long.
Shot 43 means that world No 1, Jiri Privratsky, is eliminated at fourth.
Men’s 50m rifle three positions: We are close to finding out another gold in a shooting competition. So how does this work? Fifteen match shots are taken in each position: kneeling, prone and standing, in that order.
We are now at the standing phase with the final five, with someone being eliminated after every shot.
An interesting aside about some of the shooting events is that they play music in the background. This morning, the DJ at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre has opted for some Dua Lipa and Ellie Goulding. Along with the sporting updates, I will try to bring you the latest music picks.
An email from Guy who is in “a sultry south Manchester”:
After the incredible highs of Monday and Wednesday, today feels like a bit of a middle overs of week one, or perhaps a lull before the next wave breaks. I’m not quite on my metaphors game today. But as you’ve said, there’s great chances on the water, and a throwback for me, having been lucky enough to witness Helen Glover and Heather Stanning win their gold at Eton Dorney in 2012. I’m hoping she can make it 3 golds!
Is anyone on their metaphor game in the AM? Certainly not me. That being said, I am also keen to witness some great rowing action today.
Women’s 20km race walk: Weather looks good and we are underway. China’s Yang Jiayu has made a quick start and is an early leader. Yang holds the world record for this event, registering a time of 1:23:49 back in 2021. This season, her fastest time was about three minutes slower. The racers now are just taking the first bend at the Eiffel Tower. What a beautiful view.