Officially the athletics starts at Paris 2024 today – but it’s not the events we love to watch in the stadium.
At 7.30am (6.30am BST) it is the men’s 20km race walk followed by the women’s at 9.20am (8.20am BST).
If that’s too early don’t worry – there is plenty more sporting action from Paris to enjoy.
FINE AND DANDY
It’s the Dan and Andy show again, as the tennis obituaries for Murray get dusted down for the third time this Olympics.
The pair take on American duo Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul at Roland Garros in the quarter finals in what could be Murray’s final professional tennis match. That contest will be the final match of the day on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
The previous encounters in Paris for Murray and Evans have ended in match tie-breaks – and it would not be a surprise if they served up another nail-biter.
FLEETWOOD HACK
The men’s golf gets under way at Le Golf National at 9am (8am BST).
Some of the world’s top golfers – many who play for eye-watering amounts of money each week – will be fighting it out for gold, silver and bronze medals.
Representing Team GB is Tommy Fleetwood and Matt Fitzpatrick, while Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry will be teeing up for Ireland.
But it’s a who’s who of world golf on show, including world number one Scottie Scheffler (US), recent Open winner Xander Schauffele (US), Australia’s Jason Day and Norway’s Viktor Hovland.
SPARKLING SIMONE
She has attracted Hollywood’s finest to Paris already and now American superstar Simone Biles is favourite to reclaim her women’s all-around gymnastics crown at the Bercy Arena, starting at 6.15pm (5.15pm BST).
Biles, who bagged the team title with the US on Wednesday, qualified in first place for the final of the event she first won in Rio in 2016.
But Biles may not have it all her own way with Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade – the vault champion from Tokyo – and US team-mate Sunisa Lee set to provide some sturdy competition.
MUM’S THE WORD
Mum-of-three Helen Glover will be the headline attraction at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium on Thursday as four more rowing finals are held.
Glover, who won pairs gold in 2012 and 2016 and was Team GB’s flagbearer in Paris with diver Tom Daley, is targeting a third Olympic title in the women’s fours alongside Rebecca Shorten, Esme Booth and Sam Redgrave at 11.50am (10.50am BST).
There is also British representation in the women’s double sculls final in the form of Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne and Rebecca Wilde at 11.18am (10.18am BST), while David Ambler, Freddie Davidson, Matt Aldridge and Oliver Wilkes contest the men’s fours final at 12.10pm (11.10am BST).
WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY
There were five Team GB medals yesterday – two in triathlon, one in rowing, one in diving and one in BMX – a diverse range of sports that sums up the Olympics.
And dreams came true – Lola Anderson, one of the four rowers that won gold in the women’s quadruple sculls, is proof of that.
She threw a note in a bin after watching the rowing at London 2012 that her dad secretly recovered and handed it to her seven years later, two months before he died.
She had written: “My name is Lola Anderson and I think it would be my biggest dream in life to go to the Olympics in rowing and if possible win a gold for GB.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel