Key events
At a Games where Armand Duplantis turned the pole vault into performance art, Simone Biles did what Simone Biles does, and Novak Djokovic completed tennis, it would be easy to overlook the accomplishments of Cuban wrestler Mijaín López, but his fifth gold medal in a row sets new standards for endurance.
At the end, alone in the wrestling ring with his name ringing out from the stand, Mijaín López untied his boots and raised them to his lips. He placed them in the centre of the mat and walked away from his sixth Games as arguably the greatest Olympian of all time.
In winning the Greco-Roman wrestling title for an unprecedented fifth consecutive time just two weeks before his 42nd birthday, López has done what no other Olympian has achieved – and on a balmy night at the Champ de Mars Arena in Paris he made it look easy.
Despite the controversy surrounding their participation Imane Khelif remains on course for a boxing gold medal.
Imane Khelif’s extraordinary Olympic Games still has one round left to run. At a wild, steamy, increasingly unbound Roland Garros, Algeria’s fifth seed outclassed Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand to win the women’s 66kg semi-final bout and set up a final against Yang Liu of China on Friday.
This was a startling event in so many ways, in large part here because of its exuberantly Algerian tone. The snaking queue outside Roland Garros in the hours before this evening round of Olympic boxing had been heavily stacked with Algerian flags and football shirts. Centre court, reconfigured into a breathtaking boxing area, was similarly decked with the red and green.
We begin our look back at yesterday’s action with a thrilling men’s 1500m final that saw Cole Hocker turn the Kerr v Ingebrigsten narrative on its head.
Perhaps there is a lesson here for all of us: in the power and fallacy of narrative. This is, after all, the most competitive and volatile of events, a function not just of speed or endurance, but luck and tactics and sometimes blind opportunism.
An hour later, Hocker stepped on to the podium to receive his gold medal. He didn’t look stunned or overawed. He looked like he belonged there. Turns out he was the one with the vision all along.
We are open for business much earlier than usual today with an 07:30 start. That’s because it will take around three hours for the winners of the marathon race walk mixed relay to be decided, and it’s best that all that pavement pounding concludes before the midday sun turns the event from gruelling to dangerous.
From 09:00 we have women’s golf and taekwondo, followed by canoe sprint and handball at 09:30.
From 10:00 there’s more action than you can shake a shinty stick at. Except shinty, of course, which is not an Olympic sport. Although, it’s near cousin hurling was a demonstration event at St Louis 1904.
Here’s the best of yesterday’s images. Don’t dwell on the underwater shot of France’s artistic swimming team; consider yourselves warned.
For fans of per capita medal tables, I don’t have a fancy graphic for you, but I can tell you the tiny Caribbean islands of Dominica and St Lucia lead the way courtesy of their performances in track and field.
Of the nations that have won multiple medals via a range of athletes, the standouts are New Zealand (with surely more to come with the canoe sprint getting under way), Ireland (here’s looking at you Daniel Wiffen), and perennial overachievers Australia.
It’s taken longer than expected but the USA have wrested control of the medal table from China. Behind them Australia remain at the front of the peloton after another gold yesterday.
Athletes from 48 countries have now saluted their national anthem, with 76 NOCs in total earning a medal.
Preamble – Day 12 Schedule
Hello everybody and welcome to live coverage of the 12th official day of competition of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.
Day 11 belonged to the USA with Gabby Thomas and Cole Hocker excelling on the track, Amit Elor winning on the mat, and the USWNT continuing their return to form under Emma Hayes. Things are heating up in the velodrome, and there were notable results at opposite ends of the spectrum with Arisa Trew becoming Australia’s youngest gold medallist while Mijain Lopez broke new ground as the first athlete to win an individual event at five consecutive Games.
So what can we look forward to today?
Medal Events
🥇 Race Walk – mixed marathon relay (from 07:30)
🥇 Sailing – women’s & men’s dinghy / mixed multihull / mixed dinghy (from 12:13)
🥇 Sport Climbing – women’s speed (from 12:54)
🥇 Weightlifting – men’s 61kg (from 15:00)
🥇 Skateboarding – men’s park (from 17:40)
🥇 Pole Vault – women’s (from 18:15)
🥇 Cycling – men’s & women’s team pursuit (from 18:04)
🥇 Wrestling – men’s Greco-Roman 77kg & 97kg / women’s freestyle 50kg (from 18:15)
🥇 Artistic Swimming – team acrobatic routine (from 19:30)
🥇 Weightlifting – women’s 49kg (from 19:30)
🥇 Discus – men’s (from 20:25)
🥇 Taekwondo – women’s 49kg & men’s 58kg (from 21:19)
🥇 400m – men’s (from 21:20)
🥇 3000m Steeplechase – men’s (from 21:43)
🥇 Boxing – men’s 63.5kg & 80kg (from 22:34)
*(All times listed are Paris local)
Simon Burnton’s day-by-day guide
Sailing: mixed dinghy medal race
In which Britain’s odd couple Vita Heathcote and Chris Grube – she’s 23 and going into her first Games, he’s 39 and has been tempted out of retirement for one last go – have a chance of medals after coming second at the world championships in Mallorca this year, despite suffering from illness, injury and having worked together only for a matter of months. Heathcote’s uncle, Nick Rogers, won silver medals in 2004 and 2008. Spain’s Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman, who won that event in Mallorca, and Japan’s Keiju Okada and Miho Yoshioka are the key rivals.
Artistic swimming: team acrobatic routine
In 2022 World Aquatics changed its rules to allow men to compete in artistic swimming at the Olympics, and it looked like the American Bill May was going to be the one to make history. In February he was in the US team that won world championship bronze. “They’re going to see a male in the Olympics, and it’s going to inspire them, whether it be a male, female, anyone that has a dream,” he said. In June he was left out of the US squad. There will be no men in the artistic swimming this year. It’ll still be amazing, in its odd way.
Boxing
This could be the last round for Olympic boxing – the IOC has set a deadline of early next year to find a governing body to replace the IBA as its partners, leaving the sport’s place at Los Angeles 2028 in doubt. So catch it while you can.
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.
I’ll be around for the first few hours of the blog here in Australia, after which I’m handing over to Yara El-Shaboury.
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