PercyPig
The Last of Us
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- Aug 20, 2005
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Friday, 2 August
25 gold medal events:Archery (mixed team), athletics (men's 10,000m), badminton (mixed doubles), BMX racing (men's and women's), diving (men's synchro 3m springboard), equestrian (jumping team), fencing (men's epee team), judo (women's +78kg, men's +100kg), rowing (men's coxless pair, women's coxless pair, men's lightweight double sculls, women's lightweight double sculls), sailing (men's and women's windsurfing, and men's and women's skiff), shooting (women's 50m rifle 3 positions), swimming (men's 50m free, women's 200m back, men's 200m individual medley), tennis (mixed doubles), trampoline gymnastics (women's and men's).
Highlights
Keely Hodgkinson, tipped to be one of Team GB’s biggest stars in Paris, appears for the first time in the 800m heats from 18:45. The 22-year-old is hoping to upgrade Tokyo silver to gold in 2024. Earlier, Dina Asher-Smith will be in the opening stages of the women’s 100m from 10:50. She, like Hodgkinson, won the European title in her event last month.
Jack Laugher will dive with his third different partner in as many Olympics when he competes in the men’s 3m synchro diving from 10:00. Anthony Harding is Laugher’s team-mate this time. They have won two world silver medals together, each time behind China. Laugher won this event with Chris Mears at Rio 2016.
It is BMX racing finals day. If Beth Shriever and Kye Whyte have recovered from pre-Games injuries and are still in the running, they will have to negotiate the semi-finals before the gold-medal races from 20:35. Both riders are in the world’s top six. France have a trio of highly rated riders on the men’s side, while Australia’s Saya Sakakibara is seeking redemption in the women’s event after a semi-final crash in Tokyo.
Bryony Page stunned the field when she took the first Olympic trampoline medal in Britain’s history, silver in 2016. She added bronze in Tokyo and has won two of the past three world titles, setting up on more bid for gold aged 33 before she pursues her dream of joining the acrobats at Cirque du Soleil. Qualifying is at 11:00 before the final at 12:50.
Lightweight scullers Emily Craig and Imogen Grant missed a medal in the women’s lightweight double sculls by 0.01 seconds in Tokyo. Since then, they have won back-to-back world titles and are considered one of the British rowing team’s best hopes for gold in Paris. The final takes place at 11:22.
In sailing, windsurfing reaches its final day. This year’s windsurfing event involves a new class, iQFoil, which replaces the old RS:X class. The way the IOC explains the difference is that “instead of floating, the board appears to fly” in the iQFoil class because of hydrofoils that lift the board out of the water at certain speeds. Emma Wilson, who won RS:X bronze in Tokyo, has world silver and bronze medals in iQFoil and will hope to be going for a podium place on Friday.
Brit watch
Swimming on Friday features GB’s Ben Proudversus American Caeleb Dressel in the men’s 50m freestyle (final at 19:30). Dressel is the Tokyo Olympic champion, while Proud has a gold and two bronzes from the past three World Championships. Australia’s Cameron McEvoy will also be hoping for a medal.
Friday’s equestrian highlight is the team jumping final at 13:00, featuring a British team who took world bronze behind Sweden and the Netherlands in 2022.
In hockey, Ireland’s men play New Zealand at 16:00, followed by GB against Germany at 19:15.
World watch
Returning to the pool, the men’s 200m individual medley (19:49) offers an opportunity for French swimming star Leon Marchand to try to surpass Ryan Lochte’s world record time. Lochte’s record is one minute 54.00 seconds, while Marchand got down to 1:54.82 in winning world gold ahead of GB’s Duncan Scott and Tom Dean last year. Tokyo silver medallist Scott and Dean will hope to make the Paris final, while Tokyo champion Wang Shunof China is back. In the men's 50m freestyle, France will be cheering for Florent Manaudou, London 2012 gold medallist in the event and one of the hosts’ two flagbearers at the opening ceremony.
Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei has dominated the men’s 10,000m but was beaten by Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega in an extraordinarily humid Tokyo 2020 final. Both are back for 2024 and this is the only title on offer during the opening night of athletics (20:20).
Archery’s mixed team final takes place from 15:43. In Tokyo, an arrow from South Korea’s An San hit and split an arrow shot by team-mate Kim Je-deok on their way to gold in this event. This is almost impossible to achieve and is known as a “Robin Hood arrow”. According to World Archery, this may have been the first time a Robin Hood arrow was ever filmed in competition. The two arrows are now on display at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Tennis reaches the mixed doubles final and men’s singles semi-finals (11:00-20:00).
The men’s football quarter-finals take place in Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Bordeaux with kick-offs between 14:00 and 20:00.
In women’s 3x3 basketball, two of the world’s top-ranked nations – France and the US – meet at 12:00.
Expert knowledge
Teddy Riner will try to equal the Olympic judo record for three individual gold medals in front of his home crowd. The 100+kg event’s medal rounds begin at 16:49.
Riner is virtually unbeatable. Between September 2010 and February 2020, he won 154 consecutive contests. At the Tokyo Olympics, he had to settle for bronze after losing to Russia’s Tamerlan Bashaev, his first defeat at the Games since 2008. He has not lost at Grand Slam or World Championship level since Tokyo.
