Gold medal events:
Artistic gymnastics (women’s team final), fencing (women’s epee team), judo (women’s -63kg, men’s -81 kg), rugby sevens (women’s), shooting (mixed team 10m air pistol, men’s trap), surfing (men’s and women’s), swimming (women’s 100m back, men’s 800m free, men’s 4x200m free relay), table tennis (mixed doubles), triathlon (men’s individual).
Highlights
Top coaches have described the Paris triathlon course as “insane”. It is, at least, in-Seine. You start from the Pont Alexandre III bridge in view of the Eiffel Tower, swim 1,500m in the Seine – two downstream sections and one upstream – then run up a set of posh steps to start the 40km bike course, which introduced some cobbled stretches into the mix. Lastly, there is a 10km run back along the same course.
It promises to be a spectacular and challenging event, even by Olympic triathlon standards, and GB’s Alex Yee will hope to be at the front of the action in the men’s event. Yee won Olympic silver in a pulsating Tokyo contest three years ago. Norwegian Kristian Blummenfelt, who pulled past Yee to win gold that day, is back but has since moved up to Ironman distance then back down again, and it remains to be seen if he will master that transition. The race starts at 07:00.
Women’s team gymnastics is one of the Olympics’ worldwide blockbuster events. The United States will expect one of its largest TV audiences of the Games for Simone Biles and compatriots, assuming they qualify for Tuesday’s final, which begins at 17:15. Becky Downie, back in the British team for a third Olympics, is tasked with helping to steer GB towards a podium finish. The women’s team event is intensely competitive right now, and any of six or seven nations could take a medal, with the absence of Russian athletes also opening up the contest.
There is lots going on in swimming’s evening session. Team GB have a real chance of gold in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay, having won the Olympic title in Tokyo and the world title in 2023. Tom Dean, James Guy, Matt Richards and Duncan Scott are all veterans of both victories and are in the line-up. The relay starts at 20:59. The women’s 100m backstroke at 19:57 is expected to feature Australia’s Kaylee McKeown, a three-time champion in Tokyo, against the likes of American Regan Smith and Canada’s Kylie Masse.
Brit watch
It is day one of dressage. Yes, you did just see dressage a few days ago. That was eventing dressage. This is dressage dressage, where GB have an extremely accomplished team. The event begins at 10:00.
Freestyle BMX begins with qualifiers featuring GB’s Kieran Reilly and Charlotte Worthington (12:25 onward). Reilly is the men’s world champion and Worthington is the Olympic champion. In the men’s event, France’s Anthony Jeanjean is an imposing threat to Reilly, particularly having demonstrated he can entertain a home crowd with a World Cup win in Montpellier leading up the Games. Australia’s Logan Martin is defending his Tokyo title.
Joe Clarke, who won canoe slalom gold in Rio eight years ago but was left out of the GB team for Tokyo in 2021, is back for Paris and begins his K1 event with the heats from 15:00. Mallory Franklin, the women’s C1 Tokyo silver medallist and world champion, starts her heats at 14:00.
GB men’s hockey team play the Netherlands, the only team with a better world ranking, in their group at 11:45. Ireland play India at 12:15.
Tokyo bronze medallist Matthew Coward-Holley and 2022 world silver medallist Nathan Hales will hope to be in the men’s trap shooting final from 14:30. Coward-Holley comes into the Games ranked third in the world behind Spain’s Alberto Fernandez and Australia’s James Willett.
World watch
A win on home turf would give France’s Tokyo opening ceremony flagbearer, Clarisse Agbegnenou, a third Olympic judo gold alongside the -63kg and mixed team titles she won three years ago. Lucy Renshall is GB’s representative in the event. Medal contests from 16:49.
3×3 basketball is making its second Olympic appearance after a debut in Tokyo, offering a street version of the game using half a court. Latvia won the first 3×3 Olympic men’s title three years ago and begin their defence against Lithuania (17:35), who proved a surprise package at the 2022 World Championships, getting all the way to the final with victories against teams including France and the US.
Surfing presents a dilemma for writers of day-by-day guides: if it starts on Tuesday and goes through the night into Wednesday, where to put it? In case you want to follow the whole thing: the quarter-finals begin at 18:00 on Tuesday, the semi-finals will go past midnight, the men’s gold-medal contest will be at 02:34 on Wednesday and the women’s final will be at 03:15. Remember, this is because the surfing is in Tahiti, which is 12 hours behind France.
The US will expect to win the women’s surfing title with the likes of Olympic champion Carissa Moore and world champion Caroline Marks on the team, but watch out for Brazil’s Tatiana Weston-Webb, Costa Rica’s Brisa Hennessy and France’s Vahine Fierro, who used to live in Tahiti and trains there. On the men’s side, Brazil’s Gabriel Medina and US surfer John John Florence are two out of a dozen or more names in with a serious chance of winning. Tahitian Kauli Vaast, surfing for France, is an underdog who could exploit his local knowledge.
Women’s rugby sevens reaches the final at 18:45. Will GB improve on fourth place in Tokyo? Can France go one better than last time and clinch gold on home soil? Will New Zealand be all-conquering again, or can Australia get back to their winning ways of 2016?
Expert knowledge
The Dominican Republic’s men’s football team, whose squad includes Leeds defender Junior Firpo, are playing fellow Olympic debutants Uzbekistan (14:00). This might be both teams’ best shot at a result if tough encounters against Egypt and Spain do not go their way.
Something jaw-dropping happened at Tokyo 2020: China failed to win one of the table tennis gold medals. To put this in perspective, China have won 32 of the 37 Olympic table tennis titles ever contested, and the one they missed in Tokyo was the first the country had not won since 2004. To rub salt into that wound, it was a new event, the mixed doubles, where Japan’s Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito pulled off a come-from-behind win over Chinese rivals for gold on home soil. Could China possibly be denied again? Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha are the world number one-ranked duo coming into the Paris 2024 mixed doubles, which concludes with the final at 13:30.
