The surfers may be far away, but Kanoa Igarashi is feeling the Olympic spirit (2024)

Léon Marchand sends home crowd wild with 400m IM win in Olympic record time

We've been told there are 15,000 people in here today – a record for a swimming meet in France.

Most of them are here to seeLéon Marchand, the top seed from the heats in the men's 400m individual medley.

His world record is 4:02.50. Michael Phelps – who is here – owns the Olympic record of 4:03.84, set at Beijing 2008.

Could both marks fall today? As a reminder, it's butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle.

The roof has well and truly been raised as Marchand is introduced.

"Allez, Léon!" is the chant.

Marchand is out into a quick lead down the first 50, roared on by an insatiable crowd. He is being matched, though, bySeto Daiya in lane three next to him.

The Frenchman will just narrowly lead into the backstroke. This crowd is at volume 100, and it's not getting any quieter as Marchand opens his lead over Seto, first to half a length then a full length.

He's pulling away now! Over a length and every time he comes up for air on the breaststroke, this crowd roars. Two lengths the lead! The golden boy is dominating!

Onto the freestyle and he is alone at the front by a good five lengths. It's not close. The big question is, what will the time be? He makes the final turn and sprints for home.

Watch the clock! 4:02.95, anew Olympic record and just outside the world record!

He just stands at his blocks, looking up to the timing screen and taking it all in. He acknowledges the crowd with a wave.

This place is absolutely electric!

Silver goes toMatsush*ta Tomoyuki of Japan in 4:08.62, withCarson Foster (USA) taking bronze in 4:08.66.

Australia's Matildas stage remarkable football comeback

One of the more crazy football matches I've seen in a while.

TheMatildas of Australia go 4-2 down toZambia in a must-win game after their opening loss.

But that wasn't the end of the scoring. After six goals in the first half, we got five in the second, as Australia staged an incredible comeback to win 6-5.

Team Japan's Matsuda advances to Round 3

Despite trailing for more than half the heat, Matsuda Shino (JPN) found the best wave of the day thus far to secure her place in Round 3.

Portugal's Teresa Bonvalot had the lead and wave priority when Matsuda snuck underneath and dropped into what would prove to be the heat winner. The Japanese goofy foot expertly navigated a steep drop and slight bobble on her bottom turn before pulling into a big, round barrel, disappearing from view, and coming out with the spit. The wave earned her a 7.67, the primary part of her winning heat score of9.77.

With a combined heat score of 6.84, Bonvalot (POR) was eliminated.

Huske leads U.S. 1-2 in women's 100m fly final

What a women's 100m fly final!

Torri Huske of USA has a blistering reaction time but drops back a little on the first 50 as teammateGretchen Walsh, the world record holder, takes the lead at the turn.

But Huske puts on the afterburners coming back and moves up from third into first and out-sprints everyone to the wall!

55.59 the winning time, Walsh just 0.04 behind, andZhang Yufei of People's Republic of China takes bronze on 56.21.

Andy Murray's career continues for another round!

High drama in the tennis.

The third set is, of course, a match tiebreak in the doubles.

And Daniel and Nishikori run out to a 9-4 lead in the first-to-10 set.

But Evans and Murray save all five match points, then convert on their own, to win 2-6 7-6 (5) [11]-[9].

Léon Marchand's coach learns French

Meanwhile, French content creators ATFrenchies are here at the La Défense Arena.

They've recently been spending time teaching Léon Marchand's coach (and Michael Phelps' old coach),Bob Bowman, how to speak French!

You can watch that video below.

Marchand watch at the swimming finals

Meanwhile, at the La Défense Arena, we're just minutes away from the swimming finals starting.

Home favourite and world record holderLéon Marchand is up first in themen's 400m individual medley final.

This crowd has been chanting his name and singing the French national anthem in the build-up.

Evans and Murray force decider

Despite being broken twice in the second, Evans and Murray have broken back both times.

With the rest of the second set on serve, we're headed to a tie-break.

A couple of mini-breaks are traded, but when it's all said and done, the Brits come up on top to force a third and deciding set.

2-6 7-6 (5).

There's life in Andy Murray's career yet.

Eliminations are underway in Women's Surfing

Round 2 of Surfing has begun in Tahiti. Today, all the athletes who didn't win their heat yesterday get one more chance to advance. Surfing head to head in two-person heats, the surfers will have 30-minutes to get their best two waves possible.

The women are surfing first today in waves that are running anywhere from headhigh to well overhead. Though the size is fairly simialr to yesterday, the actual surfing condtions are quite different at the moment with a sllighlty sideshore breeze limiting the number of makeable barrels moving through the lineup and, instead, giving the surfers more of an open-faced wave to work with. Think more turns, more priority strategy, more paddle battles, and less tube time- at least for now.

Heat #1 pitted Sol Aguirre (PER) against the comp's youngest competitor, 15 year old Yang Siki from the Peoples Republic of China. Surfing on her backhand, Yang (CHN) used deep bottom turns into near vertical snaps off the lip to advance. Her highest score was a 4.50 but she earned her second best score, a 4.17 for a wave where she managed only one maneuver, a big lip bash over nearly dry reef where she freefall to the bottom of the wave and rode away flawlessly. Despite changing boards mid-heat in hopes of getting on something better suited for turns than barrels and displaying some strong rail work with her tunrs, Aguirre (PER) was the first surfer to be eliminated from the Olympics.

Heat #2 saw a swirling wind open up a few proper barrels on the set waves and Sarah Baum from Team South Africa capitalized. Surfing on her frontside, the goofy foot linked up some tube time with a big frontside gouge before pulling in to a slighly bigger, cleaner barrel a few minutes later. Her barrel hunting earned her a 5.67 and a 4.83 and, more importantly, a place in Round 3. Germany's Camilla Kemp was eliminated.

Andy Murray on the brink

In what could be the last match of his long, storied career, Andy Murray and men's doubles partnerDan Evans find themselves a set down toDaniel Taro and Nishikori Kei of Japan.

Daniel and Nishikori took the first set 6-2, while the two teams have traded breaks in the second.

2-2 in the second right now.

French fans ready to watch Marchand in final

Just an hour to go to the start of this evening's swimming finals.

There's one man nearly everyone has come to see:Léon Marchand is expected to break France's gold medal drought in the pool, which has lasted 12 years.

KD, Lebron lead U.S. to big win over Serbia

So much for that slow start. After falling behind 2-10 in the first quarter, the U.S. men's basketball team dominated their Paris 2024 opener against Serbia.

Kevin Durant scored 23 points andLebron James 21 – Lebron also got seven rebounds and nine assists – as the U.S. ran out 110-84 winners.

Uzbekistan's Keldiyorova wins gold, having beaten two Olympic champs

Well, this is a surprise. Tokyo 2020 champion in the 48kg category,Distria Krasniqi of Kosovo, is beaten in this year'swomen's 52kg judo finla.

Diyora Keldiyorova of Uzbekistan – who beat defending champAbe Uta earlier – wins by waza-ari.

Larissa Pimenta of Brazil andAmandine Buchard of hosts France take bronze.

Day 2 is a go in Tahiti

We've just heard word from Tahiti that the officials have been out to check the wave at Teahupo'o andcalled the day's surfing action ON.

Competition starts in 25 minutes or so.

Jess Fox wins K-1 slalom gold after Funk error

Wow. Drama at the last in the women's K-1 slalom final.

Top semi-finalist and defending championRicarda Funk of Germany is the last to go, knowing exactly what she needs to do to beatJess Fox of Australia for gold.

But Funk misses the fourth-from-last gate for a 50-second penalty, sending her tumbling down to 11th.

Fox wins gold in 96.08 seconds. Poland'sKlaudia Zwolinska silver on 97.53, and Great Britain'sKimberley Woods bronze on 98.94.

Japan skateboarders score 1-2, Rayssa Leal wins bronze

Wow, the skateboarding venue atLa Concorde is packed with Brazilian fans.

And they've been given loads to cheer:Rayssa Leal has won bronze in the women's street.

She scored 253.37 points, behind a Japanese one-two ofYoshizawa Coco, the top qualifier from prelims, andLiz Akama.

Yoshizawa scored 272.75 from her best run and two best tricks – with a top trick score of 96.49, the highest of the final. Akama totalled 265.95.

Abe Hifumi wins men's 66kg judo gold

His sister Uta may have suffered a shock defeat earlier today, butJapan'sAbe Hifumi has lived up to expectations by winning the men's 66kg judo gold medal.

He beats Brazil'sWillian Lima by ippon (two waza-ari) to successfully defend his title from Tokyo 2020.

Bronze went toDenis Vieru of Moldova andGuzman Kyrgyzbaev of Kazakhstan.

Kevin Durant perfect at half-time as USA lead Serbia

Team USA has a58-49 half-time lead over Serbia.

That's mostly thanks toKevin Durant. KD has 21 points and is 8-from-8 in field goals.

Rafa Nadal sets up Novak Djokovic second-round clash

Rafael Nadal vsNovak Djokovic is on.

The Spaniard beatsMarton Fucsovics of Hungary 6-1 4-6 6-4 in a close tussle, especially bearing in mind he is wearing heavy strapping on a previous injury.

But we'll get the dream tie in the second round the draw teased us with.

What an unbelievable match!

After the trio of Lim Si-hyeon, Nam Su-hyeon and Jeon Hun-younghad comfortably won the first two sets of their gold medal match against the People's Republic of China, victory seemed assured for the Koreans.

However, a furious comeback from An Qixuan, Li Jiaman and Yang Xiaolei gave China the next two sets, and sent the match into a nail-biting shoot-off.

But the Koreans held their nerve, winning the shoot-off 29-27 to extend their gold-medal winning streak in the women’s team event, which made its debut at the 1988 Games in Seoul. Incredibly, South Korea has won gold in it ever since.

There was more history in the bronze medal match, as the Mexican team of Angela Ruiz, Alejandra Valencia, and Ana Vazquez overcame the Netherlands to win Mexico its first medal in this event - and first medal of Paris 2024!

🥇Rep. of Korea
🥈People's Rep. of China
🥉Mexico

KD joint-top scorer for Team USA after first quarter against Serbia

One quarter done and dusted, and Team USA has overcome a 2-10 start to lead 25-20 after the opening 10 minutes.

Kevin Durant, returning from injury, andDevin Booker have six points each.

Team USA wobbly in basketball opener

After a wobbly start which sawSerbia run out to an early lead in the men's basketball clash in Lille, theUSA has gotten its act together.

A 12-2 run helped them claw back an early deficit and it's 20-20 with just under two minutes left in the first quarter.

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot announces she will retire from mountain bike to focus on road

Wow. After winning gold earlier in thewomen's mountain bike race, Olympic and world championPauline Ferrand-Prévot tells the post-race press conference she will leave the discipline at the end of the year to focus on the road.

She will take a few weeks to decide on which road trade team she will join to focus on the women's Tour de France, she said.

The Frenchwoman added of her preparations for these Olympic Games:

“I was like a robot for a couple of months now, in my own bubble, didn’t talk to anyone, I just practiced, ate and slept. Now, the emotion is [here], all the emotion that I kept for months, I think I’m gonna cry for a while.

“I don’t have any words, I was in my bubble and now everyone is cheering my name, I win, I see my family crying, it's all unbelievable emotions.

“I wanted to be exactly what I was today, it can sound pretentious but I really wanted to do that race, to act like a robot. I didn’t hear anything, not the time, not the public, I was so focus on myself. I had to do it.”

Team sports round up (4:45pm, Day 2)

Let's get you up to speed with the team sports results from today.

Men's basketball

• South Sudan 90-79 Puerto Rico

Women's basketball

• Spain 90-89 People's Republic of China

Equestrian - Eventing, standings after cross-country

1. Great Britain 82.50
2. France 87.20
3. Japan 93.80

Women's handball

• Brazil 24-25 Hungary
• Rep. of Korea 23-30 Slovenia
• Sweden 31-28 Germany

Women's hockey

• Belgium 2-1 China
• Australia 2-1 South Africa
• Germany 2-0 Japan
• Great Britain 1-2 Spain

Women's rugby sevens

• Ireland 12-21 Great Britain
• Australia 34-5 South Africa

Women's volleyball

• Italy 3-1 Dominican Republic
• Poland 3-1 Japan

Men's water polo

• Australia 5-9 Spain
• Serbia 16-15 Japan
• Italy 12-8 USA

Ricarda Funk leads qualifiers for women's K-1 slalom final

The semi-finals are done in the women's K-1 slalom, and Germany'sRicarda Funk is the fastest qualifier.

Her run wasn't perfect, picking up two penalty seconds on Gate 17 of 23 along the course, but it was quick – she finished in 97.31 seconds, for a total time of 99.31.