Key events
Men’s water polo: Latest score: Greece 4-4 Serbia in Q2 of their quarter-final.
Women’s basketball: Belgium 71-53 Spain is a latest score with six minutes or so to play. A mountain to climb for the Spanish.
Ewan Murray
India’s Olympic contingent are devastated after one of their marquee athletes, the female wrestler Vinesh Phogat, was disqualified hours before her gold medal match for exceeding the 50kg restriction by the weight of a medium-sized banana despite even cutting off her hair in an attempt to fight for gold.
Women’s golf: Celine Boutier of France now leads overall, four under par through 13. Vu (USA) is second, on three under, and Gabriela Lopez (Mexico) is in the clubhouse on two under.
What’s going on over on the official Olympics X account? Artistic swimming is the answer:
Laura Kenny
I was given a real insight into how life has changed for Olympic mothers when I did a joint interview with Denise Lewis a few months ago. Denise was an extraordinary competitor who won gold in the heptathlon at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, at a time when little was expected of GB athletes. But, 24 years later, she explained how horrendously she had been treated as a mum.
Men’s water polo: Greece 1-1 Serbia is a latest score from the first quarter of their quarter-final.
Men’s handball final score: Germany 35-34 France
That is a bitter, bitter pill for the reigning champions France, who are knocked out. Dika Mem’s mistake handed Germany the chance to force extra time through Renars Uscins. A fantastic goal by the same player has won it in extra time. Germany advance into the semi-finals having trailed by six!
Track cycling: Katy Marchant of Team GB has safely made it through via the keirin repechage to the quarter-finals.
Men’s handball: Germany edge ahead, 34-33, in the second half of extra time. France have a player in the sin bin, or whatever they call it in handball.
“To build on Daniel Coomber’s comment from 13.44,” emails Pietro Aronica.
“I am a data scientist and I have been interested in finding out which disciplines have the greatest ‘overlap’, in medals and participants. I performed some basic analyses using a database of all Olympic athletes from every Olympics going back to 1896, and indeed some of the greatest overlaps can be found in gymnastics, because there is an event (the all-around, in individual and team) that encompasses several other events (rings, vault, etc) that each have their own medal, athletes have effectively multiple shots at getting a medal for the same skill. Compare this with the decathlon, which is also composed of several events which have their own medal, but nowadays there is no overlap in athletes and medals given.
“If a nation wants to increase their medal tally, they can prioritise the disciplines that reward the same skill many times. For example, South Korea does well in archery, so it’s probably no coincidence that the archery program was expanded at the ‘88 Seoul Olympics.
“I don’t want to curtail anyone’s fun or diminish any athletes’ accomplishments, just applying some mathsy fun to see interesting patterns!”
Women’s hockey: The Netherlands lead Argentina 3-0 in the fourth quarter of their semi-final. Argentina need a miracle.
Men’s handball: Germany and France are into extra time, now locked at 31-31.
Skateboarding: Macdonald’s old friend Tony Hawk is there in Paris! MacDonald completes his first run, collapses in a heap, and roars with satisfaction at finally becoming an Olympian! Hawk applauds warmly along with the rest of the crowd.
Macdonald scores 72.07 on his first run, which is a fair way off the pace, but he’s won just by making it to Paris.
Skateboarding: In the men’s park, Palmer, Schaar and Sorgente are still the three skaters with a ‘Q’ next to their name. Here comes the 51-year-old Andy Macdonald for Team GB!
Men’s handball: Wow! France were a couple of seconds from winning, 29-28, and booking their place in the semi-finals – but Germany stole the ball after a mistake by Dika Mem and Renars Uscins levels it spectactularly to force extra time!
“When I look at the medal table I just see a bunch of rich nations specialising and focusing their massive resources to hoover up medals,” writes Dan Davies in an email titled “Fair Sport?”
“Sure, it’s great Team GB is doing well alongside France, US, China etc. but the vast majority of nations leave with no medal in any competition. You effectively have well-funded and trained professional sports people competing with amateurs. This doesn’t really embody the Olympic spirit does it?
“Should rich nations be made to support/train a percentage of athletes from poorer countries?”
Men’s handball: Two minutes to go in this quarter-final. Germany 26-28 France. Germany were favourites to win this. The home crowd continues to make plenty of noise.
“Daniel Coomber is spot on about the medal table being daft,” emails Thomas Atkins. “But our country’s obsession with it has more unfortunate implications than just on the silly “who’s the best” conversations. Take basketball, for example, which is played widely across the country, including in areas where those in charge of sport claim to want to improve participation rates and inspire people, but which receives precisely no funding as part of the Olympic cycle because there are only six medals on offer. Contrast this with rowing, a sport concentrated within a fairly predictable demographic but where there are multiple medals to be had, and so gets money thrown at it.”
Golf, sailing, handball, water polo, hockey, track cycling, basketball, Taekwondo and canoe sprint are all live right now.
You can keep across it all on our live schedule.
Men’s handball: Another classic is playing out in the quarter-finals. Germany 26-27 France with five minutes remaining in Lille. There is a break in play after a clash of heads between two opponents. The home crowd is making a ton of noise.
Track cycling: “Why are the UCI still using petrol dernies in the keirin, while the Olympics seemed to adopt electric bikes some time ago?” inquires Tom on email.
“That little red motorbike cannot be powered by fossil fuels, can it?” adds Andrew. “Looks like it has a fuel tank and an engine. Why not electric bike for a ‘greener’ cycling competition?”
Skateboarding: Luigi Cini of Brazil just did a totally gnarly trick in the men’s park heats and whipped up the crowd once he was done. What’s actually going on, though?
Well, Keegan Palmer tops the charts right now, with a score of 93.78, and has qualified, along with Tom Schaar of the US and Alex Sorgente of Italy.
“As you’ve asked for emails,” writes Daniel Coomber.
“I do enjoy a little rant about the medal table and how pointless/misleading it is. Isn’t it just too weighted towards sports that are give medals out liberally?
“Simone Biles, for example, is clearly a phenomenal Olympian. But why does she get to compete for five medals, one for each gymnastic element as well as overall, when a hypothetically equally-dominant handball player can only compete for one? There’s no gold medal for best goal / top scorer / best save etc etc.
“Usain Bolt has eight Olympic medals – for running 100m and 200m faster than anyone else. And Michael Phelps has 28, for doing the same distances … in different styles. Bolt surely might have won 28 too if he’d been allowed to win one for the 100m running, the 100m hopping, the 100m running backwards etc. Of course hopping wouldn’t be as fast as running – but breaststroke isn’t as fast as freestyle, that’s the point.
“None of this detracts from the Olympics being bloody brilliant – the best fortnight of every four years. Just ignore the daft medal table.”
Parisienne Projections is a Getty Images project throughout the host city of Paris, which displays the action and competitors’ reactions during their Olympic competitions.
Steven Bloor has compiled this attractive gallery:
Track cycling: The Dutch world-record holder, Harrie Lavreysen, comfortably wins his men’s sprint heat against Max Doernbach of Germany.
Women’s hockey: Netherlands v Argentina has kicked off, or sticked off, at Stade Yves-du-Manoir. It’s the semi-final and Joosje Burg has gone down with a painful-looking and bloody facial injury. The score is 0-0 in the second quarter. Hope Burg is OK.
Track cycling: “I think the organisers are missing a trick by not putting that keirin leader in a beret and stripy top with a basket of baguettes behind him,” emails Jean.
“The guy on the Derny always looks like Donald Trump, dern he?” chips in Jeremy Boyce. “Just weird. What I really like is the way the Derny looks like an old classic French Solex moped, re-designed for modern day weirdness.”
Ilias Kurtudis has been in touch on email to point out an interesting fact. Last night at the Stade de France, Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou became the only other athlete apart from Carl Lewis to defend an Olympic long jump title. A brief Reuters report below.
Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou leapt 8.48m to become only the second man after Carl Lewis to successfully defend the men’s Olympic long jump title on Tuesday, delivering his country’s first gold of the Paris Games.
In a high-quality competition, Jamaican Wayne Pinnock took silver with 8.36m and Italy’s Mattia Furlani (8.34m) claimed bronze.
Poker-faced world champion Tentoglou clinched the title with his second attempt, cracking a smile only once he was able to embrace his team in the stands before wrapping himself in the Greece flag.
Tentoglou joined long jump royalty as only American Lewis, who won the title four times from 1984-1996, had retained the title.
“This is for my country. Greece is the country that invented the Olympics, so I am happy to do it for them,” he said. Reuters
USA defeat GB in women’s team pursuit heat
Team USA progress to the battle for gold and silver in the women’s team pursuit! That was a tremendous race, controlled throughout by the US against the world champions – but they appeared to be faltering in the closing stages as the British team picked up plenty of late momentum. On commentary for the BBC, Chris Boardman wonders how that would have gone had Katie Archibald been riding.
These women’s team pursuit riders are deep in the pain cave now … but Team GB trail by half a second with two laps to go.
Track cycling: The women’s team pursuit continues at the velodrome and it’s Team GB v USA up next … Barker, Knight, Morris, Roberts ride for GB.
Women’s golf: Lilia Vu (USA) has stormed to four under par through seven holes at Le Golf National. Second-placed Celine Boutier (France) is three under, also after seven, and Aditi Ashok (India) is two under after 17, in third place. Celine Borge, the early pacesetter, is two under through 16. The Norwegian is fourth.
Why not email me? Especially if it concerns the Olympics.
Thanks Barry. Yes, that’s me on the left.
Sit back, relax, and let the sports commence.
Handover: Luke McLaughlin is back to pace you through the next few hours of coverage on his little velodrome motorbike. Enjoy …
Track cycling: Emma Finucane, the most famous cycling enthusiast to come out of the Welsh town of Carmarthen since comedy and podcasting’s Elis James, has just won her heat of the women’s keirin and is through to the quarter-finals. Team GB’s Katy Marchant is among those who will have to run the repechage gauntlet later this afternoon after failing to qualify automatically.
Athletics: George Mills found himself in a heated altercation with France’s Hugo Hay after he was involved in a collision in his 5,000m heat, with the British athlete later reinstated with three other fallers.
Track cycling: Team’s GB’s Katy Marchant has failed to qualify automatically by finishing in the top two of her first round race in the women’s keirin (the race with the pacemaking motorbike or “derny”).
Her third place finish behind New Zealand’s Ellesse Andrews and France’s Mathilde Gros consigns her to this afternoon’s repechages.
Track cycling: Team GB’s Jack Carlin and Hamish Turnball have both qualified for the next round of the men’s sprint, qualifying in fifth and seventh place respectively.
Athletics: Everyone loves saying the word “repechage” but it’s generally one we only get to use every four years. Team GB’s Revee Walcott-Nolan has come second in repechage to qualify for the women’s 1,500m semi-finals. Ireland’s Sophie O’Sullivan and Sarah Healy will not be joining her after finishing fourth in their respective heats.
Track cycling: The Olympic swimming pool and running track have been decried as being too “slow” in some quarters but there are no such conerns over the boards in the velodrome.
Not long after Mikhail Yakolev set an Olympic record for the men’s individual sprint, Australia’s Matt Richardson came out and set a world record of 9.091sec for his flying 200m. He didn’t have it for much longer than a minute before Dutch cyclist Harrie Lavreysen beat it by posting a time of 9.088sec.
Track cycling: Hamish Turnbull has been bumped down to third in the men’s sprint qualifying. Israel’s Mikhail Yakovlev has just set an Olympic record of 9.152sec for his flying 200m, while Australia’s Leigh Hoffman is in second place.