The Paris Olympics are just days away, so what better way to plan ahead than with our day-by-day guide – all times BST.
Team GB has named a squad of 327 athletes and UK Sport has set a target of 50 to 70 medals at the Games.
There will be live coverage of Paris 2024 across the BBC on TV, radio and online.
The Games open on Friday, 26 July and close on Sunday, 11 August, although some of the sporting action starts on Wednesday, 24 July.
Gold medal events:
Artistic gymnastics (men’s parallel bars, women’s balance beam, men’s horizontal bar, women’s floor), athletics (men’s pole vault, women’s discus throw, women’s 5,000m, women’s 800m), badminton (women’s singles, men’s singles), basketball 3×3 (men’s and women’s), canoe slalom (men’s and women’s kayak cross), shooting (men’s 25m rapid fire pistol, mixed team skeet), track cycling (women’s team sprint), triathlon (mixed team relay).
Highlights
In a fast and dazzling Tokyo 800m final, Keely Hodgkinson delivered a sensational Olympic silver medal in a time that broke a British record set by Kelly Holmes in 1995. Three years later, can she go one better? Athing Mu, who took gold in Tokyo, will not be in Paris after falling during US Olympic trials, but Kenyan world champion Mary Moraa will. The final starts at 20:45.
When mixed team triathlon (starts 07:00) was introduced to the Olympics in Tokyo, the GB team of Jonny Brownlee, Jess Learmonth, Georgia Taylor-Brown and Alex Yee won it. This time around, France and Germany are likely to be major medal threats.
Action starts at the Velodrome de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, just west of Paris. Track cycling’s opening day includes the women’s team sprint (from 16:00, final 18:58), where GB have qualified a team for the first time since London 2012. Sophie Capewell helped GB to world silver in the event last year. Her dad, Nigel, recorded fourth-place finishes in Paralympic track cycling at Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000.
Kayak cross reaches a climax with the women’s final at 15:55 and men’s final at 16:00. GB’s Joe Clarke has back-to-back world titles in this event, which is new to the Olympics and features paddlers racing each other along the rapids. Clarke’s team-mate Kimberley Woods also won world gold last year. France are likely to be a big factor in both events.
Could this be the last time you see Simone Biles in action? The beam final (11:36) and women’s floor final (13:20) take place on artistic gymnastics’ last day at Paris 2024, which is 27-year-old Biles’ third Olympic Games. The beam final could see the baton passed to the next generation, since Hezly Rivera – at 16, the youngest athlete on the US team – won this event at US Olympic trials.
Brit watch
The world might be focused on Biles but GB will be keeping an eye on Joe Fraser, who is a past world and European gold medallist on parallel bars. That final begins at 10:45.
Sport climbing, which made its debut at the Tokyo Olympics, returns from 09:00 with more medals this time around. What was one combined event in Tokyo is now two competitions in Paris. The first is boulder and lead, where climbers work to solve short but complex climbs in bouldering then go for maximum height in lead climbing, all of which is done in set time windows. The second is speed climbing, which is against the clock.
The change in format opens up new avenues for competitors like GB’s 19-year-old Toby Roberts, already multiple times a champion in boulder and lead climbing at World Cup level.
Hockey’s women’s quarter-finals run throughout the day.
World watch
Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis keeps on setting pole vault world records. His latest was 6.24m in April this year, and you can expect him to entertain the Paris crowd while trying to better that in his final from 18:00. France’s Renaud Lavillenie will not be there to rival him – the London 2012 champion has struggled after hamstring surgery and did not hit the qualifying height of 5.82m.
Elsewhere on the track, the first round of the men’s 400m hurdles (09:05) is a chance to see Norway’s Karsten Warholm, the Tokyo champion, and biggest rivals Rai Benjamin of the US, who has the better form coming into Paris, and Brazil’s Alison dos Santos.
3×3 basketball reaches a climax with the women’s final at 21:05 and the men’s final at 21:35. The US won the women’s title in Tokyo, while Latvia are the defending men’s champions.
Badminton concludes with the women’s singles final at 09:55 and men’s singles final at 14:40. Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen was the only European to win an Olympic badminton title in Tokyo three years ago and could go all the way again in Paris. South Korea’s An Se-young and China’s Chen Yufei are among the favourites for women’s gold.
Football’s men’s semi-finals take place at 17:00 and 20:00.
Expert knowledge
Artistic swimming, formerly known as synchronised swimming, begins at 18:30 with the team technical routine. This is one of the few instances in which a major change to a sport will result in precisely nothing different for anyone watching.
A rule change allowed men to take part in the team event for the first time in Olympic history, but – perhaps partly because the change took place only 18 months ago – no men actually qualified, so this will still be an all-female event. “This should have been a landmark moment for the sport,” governing body World Aquatics said, promising to work harder to help male athletes succeed.
Forty-five-year-old Bill May was the only male artistic swimmer with a realistic chance of selection, but the US left him out of their team. Before that, May had said no men at the Games would represent “a slap in the face”. US selectors said they had to pick the strongest line-up.
Gold medal events:
Athletics (women’s hammer throw, men’s long jump, men’s 1500m, women’s 3000m steeplechase, women’s 200m), boxing (women’s 60kg), diving (women’s 10m platform), equestrian (jumping individual), sailing (men’s and women’s dinghy), skateboard (women’s park), track cycling (men’s team sprint), wrestling (men’s Greco-Roman 60kg, men’s Greco-Roman 130kg, women’s freestyle 68kg).
Highlights
The women’s 200m final (20:40) could be stacked with US talent. The three Americans named for this event are the three fastest women in the world over this distance in 2024: Gabby Thomas, McKenzie Long and Brittany Brown. GB’s Dina Asher-Smith was the world champion in 2019 and a world bronze medallist in 2022. Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah, the Tokyo champion, has withdrawn from Paris 2024 through injury.
The men’s 1500m is likely to star Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who broke the European record earlier this month. His main obstacle? GB’s Josh Kerr. We have not seen Kerr over 1500m this season but he is the world champion and declared himself on Instagram to be “working in the shadows, getting ready for the spotlights”. The final takes place at 19:50.
In skateboarding, it is the women’s park final at 16:30. Sky Brown was 13 when she won Olympic bronze for GB in Tokyo and now, aged 16, she is back on the team. Not only that, she enters the Games having won last year’s world title.
Ben Maher and Explosion W won a six-way jump-off to take Tokyo individual jumping gold, completing back-to-back GB victories after Nick Skelton won the same event (also in a six-way jump-off) in 2016. This time, Maher is back for GB on Point Break. Watch out for Swedish duo Henrik von Eckermann and Peder Fredricson. Fredricson has had the heartbreak of being second to the Brits in the jump-off in both Rio and Tokyo. The final starts at 09:00.
Brit watch
Women’s team pursuit qualifying begins in the velodrome at 16:30. Germany set a world record to defeat GB in Tokyo’s final. Since then, GB have gone through a rebuild and made their way back up the world podium to become world champions last year. However, Katie Archibald is out of the Games after breaking her leg in a freak garden accident, so it remains to be seen how her team-mates regroup.
Sailing has scrapped its Finn class, which is unfortunate from a British perspective given GB had won it the past six times. That means attention turns to Micky Beckett in the single-handed dinghy (the ILCA 7, which you might also know as the Laser), which has its medal races on Tuesday. Beckett was a world silver medallist last year and has since racked up major wins like the Princess Sofia Regatta.
On the women’s side of that class, GB’s Hannah Snellgrove is competing after what she characterises as a 15-year battle for selection, during which she earned money as a local journalist and part of a folk music act to keep her sailing career going.
World watch
Ireland’s Kellie Harrington will hope to successfully defend her Tokyo 2020 lightweight boxing title (final at 22:06). Harrington went years without defeat before losing at the European Championships in April.
Amy Broadhurst, who switched to Britain after missing out on selection for Ireland, narrowly failed to make the GB team. But Harrington may have to contend with France’s Estelle Mossely, who won the Olympic title before her in Rio then turned pro. Mossely, who has won 11 and drawn one of her 12 professional fights, returned to amateur status and made the French team in the lightweight category.
China have won every women’s 10m platform diving event at the Olympics since 2008. The past two times, they took the silver medal as well. Gold and silver have gone to China at each of the past four world championships, too. That means GB’s Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix, who took world bronze this year, has a job on to get any further up the podium – but it’s not impossible. The final is from 14:00.
Women’s football semi-finals take place at 17:00 and 20:00.
In hockey, the men’s semis are at 13:00 and 18:00.
Wrestling’s first Paris 2024 medals are awarded, bringing with them a chance to watch some history. In the men’s Greco-Roman 130kg final (19:30), Cuba’s Mijain Lopez – if gets there – could become the first person to win the same individual Olympic event five times in a row, two weeks before his 42nd birthday.
Expert knowledge
It’s OK to take some time to adjust if you’re a British track cycling fan. Paris 2024 will be the first time since 1996 that the GB line-up for an Olympics has not included one or both of Sir Chris Hoy and Sir Jason Kenny. In that time, GB won the men’s team sprint three times in a row from 2008 to 2016, but the Dutch knocked the British off that perch in 2021. Watch the event from 17:59.
(What’s that, you really need Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny to be there? Fine – Kenny is now the GB sprint coach, so he will still be in the velodrome, while Hoy is part of the BBC’s coverage team.)
Gold medal events:
Artistic swimming (team acrobatic routine), athletics (marathon race walk mixed relay, women’s pole vault, men’s discus throw, men’s 400m, men’s 3000m steeplechase), boxing (men’s 63.5kg, men’s 80kg), sailing (mixed dinghy, mixed multihull), skateboard (men’s park), sport climbing (women’s speed), taekwondo (men’s 58kg, women’s 49kg), track cycling (men’s team pursuit, women’s team pursuit), weightlifting (men’s 61kg, women’s 49kg), wrestling (men’s Greco-Roman 77kg, men’s Greco-Roman 97kg, women’s freestyle 50kg).
Highlights
Matthew Hudson-Smith is considered the centre of a British revival over 400m after GB failed to field an athlete in this event three years ago. Hudson-Smith has come through a series of injuries and mental health struggles to be one of the world’s leading male 400m runners this season. Rivals in his final (20:20) could include American Quincy Hall and Grenada’s Kirani James, one of a six-strong Grenada team at Paris 2024 and the only Grenadian ever to win an Olympic medal (three, including gold at London 2012).
It is team pursuit night at the velodrome. Britain’s men did not make it to the final in Tokyo, while the women finished with silver. Can Team GB recapture some of their track cycling dominance in one of the Olympics’ most exhilarating split-screen events? Find out from 17:04.
John Gimson and Anna Burnet narrowly missed out on a Tokyo Olympic title in sailing’s mixed Nacra 17 class, a racing catamaran. They are the 2020 and 2021 world champions but their nemeses in this class are Italy’s Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti, who won Tokyo gold and have taken the past three world titles, too. Can Gimson and Burnet find a way past in Paris? The medal race is today.
In the 470 mixed dinghy class, also finishing today, GB have 2022 world silver medallists in Chris Grube and Vita Heathcote. Grube, 39, who twice finished fifth at the Olympics in the men’s 470 alongside Luke Patience, was coaxed out of retirement to pair up with 23-year-old Heathcote.
Brit watch
The first round of the men’s 800m (10:55) features Ben Pattison, who won a surprise world bronze medal last year. Team-mate Max Burgin ran Pattison close at June’s British Championships and has previously posted world leading times, but has struggled with injury in recent years. Jake Wightman, who won a European silver medal in 2022, is also on the start list for GB.
In skateboarding, the British are used to the idea that in Sky Brown, the sport has one of Team GB’s youngest stars. But you can be an amazing skateboarder a little later in life, too. Andy Macdonald is on the team at the age of 50 – he will be 51 by the time Wednesday rolls around – making him the oldest athlete in Olympic skateboarding’s short history. He has a child older than team-mates Brown and Lola Tambling.
Macdonald, a veteran of eight X Games gold medals in the late 90s and early 2000s, announced in 2022 that he would switch from representing the US to GB in a bid to reach Paris. His park event’s prelims are at 11:30 and the final is at 16:30.
World watch
Thailand have never won an Olympic medal in a sport other than boxing, taekwondo or weightlifting. Atthaya Thitikul has a chance to change that and has been installed among the bookies’ favourites for gold in Paris women’s golf. Nelly Korda, the defending champion, won six of her first eight tournaments this season but has since missed a series of cuts. The first round starts at 08:00 with GB’s Georgia Hall and Charley Hull in action alongside Ireland’s Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow.
At the athletics track, the first round of the women’s 100m hurdles (09:15) includes Nigerian world record-holder Tobi Amusan, cleared to compete by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in late June after a row over alleged missed doping tests. Commonwealth bronze medallist Cindy Sember runs for GB.
Australia’s Nina Kennedy and America’s Katie Moon shared the women’s pole vault world title last year and still appear almost inseparable heading into the Games. Add to that GB’s Molly Caudery, who was fifth last year at the Worlds but is widely tipped to make the Olympic podium having just set a British record of 4.92m. That is the world’s best mark so far this year and would have been enough to beat Moon and Kennedy in 2023. The final starts at 18:00.
The women’s speed climbing title (from 11:28) could be between US duo Emma Hunt and Piper Kelly.
Artistic swimming’s team event concludes from 18:30. The absence of Russia blows this contest wide open, since the Russians have won every Olympic team title in this sport from 2000 onwards. China and the US might step in.
Hockey’s women’s semi-finals are at 13:00 and 18:00.
The first weightlifting medals are awarded. In the men’s 61kg, Indonesia’s Eko Yuli Irawan could become the first weightlifter to earn an Olympic medal in five consecutive Games, although he has never won gold.
Expert knowledge
The Olympic 50km race walk, a feat of extraordinary endurance for athlete and spectator alike, is a thing of the past. It was the only men’s athletics event on the 2020 programme that did not have a women’s equivalent, while the four hours or so needed to televise it often did not electrify broadcasters.
Its replacement? The race walk mixed relay. Each team sends one male and one female athlete, who each do two alternating stages of around 10km.
The course is inspired by the Women’s March on Versailles of 1789, a key event in the French Revolution. Expect to see the Grand Palais, Louvre, Palace of Versailles and Eiffel Tower.
Gold medal events:
Athletics (women’s long jump, men’s javelin throw, men’s 200m, women’s 400m hurdles, men’s 110m hurdles), boxing (women’s 54kg, men’s 51kg), canoe sprint (men’s C2 500m, men’s K4 500m, women’s K4 500m), diving (men’s 3m springboard), hockey (men’s), sailing (men’s and women’s kite medal series), sport climbing (men’s speed), swimming (women’s 10km marathon), taekwondo (men’s 68kg, women’s 57kg), track cycling (men’s omnium medal, women’s keirin), weightlifting (women’s 59kg, men’s 73kg), wrestling (men’s Greco-Roman 67kg, men’s Greco-Roman 87kg, women’s freestyle 53kg).
Highlights
Two-time Olympic taekwondo champion Jade Jones is hunting for a third gold medal from 08:10, with the gold-medal contest at 20:39. Jones won in London and Rio but suffered a shock early exit in Tokyo. Her build-up to Paris has not been perfect, not least a doping case where she avoided a ban over a refused test because of “very exceptional circumstances”. Up to now, no taekwondo athlete has won three Olympic golds.
Meanwhile, watch out for world champion Bradly Sinden looking to upgrade his Tokyo silver in the men’s taekwondo’s -68kg category. Sinden had to settle for second after a dramatic reversal in the dying moments of his final three years ago. He says that disappointment “will always be there” unless he wins in Paris.
Noah Lyles is one of the headline names at the track on Thursday. Lyles is one of the most dominant male sprinters since Usain Bolt, barely losing a race over 200m for most of the past decade. One of the ones he did lose? The last Olympic final, where Lyles finished third. Watch for GB’s Zharnel Hughes. The final is at 19:30.
Jack Laugher is back in the men’s diving 3m springboard. The final starts at 14:00. Laugher has silver and bronze in this event from the past two Olympics. Can he close the gap on China’s relentless winners in this event, or will it be a scrap to reach the podium?
In the velodrome, GB’s Ollie Wood and Ethan Hayter both have the experience needed to contend for a medal in the men’s omnium, with Hayter winning the world title in 2021 and 2022. France’s Benjamin Thomas also has multiple world titles to his name and will be targeting this event, which runs over four events starting at 16:00. The women’s keirin, where cyclists follow an electric bike in the opening laps before a sprint finish, could feature double European silver medallist Emma Finucane for GB (from 16:18).
The men’s hockey final takes place at 18:00 at Yves-du-Manoir Stadium in Colombes, on the northern outskirts of Paris. This stadium is more than a century old, having been used as the main stadium at the last Paris Olympics in 1924.
Brit watch
The heptathlon rolls into action from 09:05 with the 100m hurdles, the first of seven events that decides the overall champion. GB’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson became world champion again in 2023 after years of injuries and disappointment, and will be joined by team-mate Jade O’Dowda.
In Marseille, kiteboarding’s Olympic debut reaches a climax. As it sounds, kiteboarding involves athletes using a giant kite to ride their board across the ocean. European champion Ellie Aldridge and Connor Bainbridge are the GB female and male entrants respectively. Athletes can hit speeds of up to 50mph.
World watch
Last time, Jamaica’s Hansle Parchment beat him to gold. Can anyone stand in the way of a men’s 110m hurdles title for Grant Holloway this time? The American looks in dominant form. The final is at 20:45.
The men’s speed climbing final (11:55) could feature Italy’s Matteo Zurloni, who burst to the peak of his sport with a world title last year. Having said that, a big factor in Zurloni’s win was a false start for China’s Long Jinbao in the final. If Long avoids the same mistake this time, it is likely to be an incredibly close event with a host of other names in the frame.
The first day of canoe sprint finals features the men’s K4 500m (12:50). Four people in a boat, half a kilometre of flatwater paddling as fast as you can, go. A vastly experienced German crew won this event three years ago and remains largely intact this time around, swapping in relative youngster Jacob Schopf, 25. The other three, between them, have six Olympic and 17 world titles.
Weightlifting’s men’s 73kg category could see a close battle between China’s Shi Zhiyong and Indonesia’s Rizki Juniansyah, who produced a stunning upset in April to beat team-mate Rahmat Erwin at a World Cup in Thailand and thereby take his place in the Indonesian team. Erwin is a two-time world champion who was expected to be one of the favourites in Paris. The event starts at 18:30.
Expert knowledge
The women’s 10km open-water swim begins bright and early at 06:30. The venue? The River Seine. This has been a big talking point in the build-up to the Games, because the Seine’s water quality is a major concern – so much so that last year’s test event was cancelled as the water was too dirty. The French sports minister, Amelie Oudea-Castera, even had to take a symbolic dip in the Seine herself just days before the Games started in a bid to reassure people that the water will be safe.
There is, however, reportedly a back-up plan. According to Reuters, officials have said the event could be moved to Paris 2024’s rowing and sprint canoeing venue “if all other contingency plans were exhausted”.
Gold medal events:
Athletics (women’s 4x100m relay, women’s shot put, men’s 4x100m relay, women’s 400m, men’s triple jump, women’s heptathlon, women’s 10,000m, men’s 400m hurdles), beach volleyball (women’s), boxing (women’s 50kg, women’s 66kg, men’s 71kg, men’s 92kg), breaking (women’s individual), canoe sprint (men’s K2 500m, women’s C1 200m, women’s C2 500m, women’s K2 500m), diving (women’s 3m springboard), football (men’s), hockey (women’s), rhythmic gymnastics (individual all-around), sport climbing (men’s boulder/lead), swimming (men’s 10km marathon), table tennis (men’s), taekwondo (men’s 80kg, women’s 67kg), track cycling (men’s sprint medal, women’s Madison), weightlifting (men’s 89kg, women’s 71kg), wrestling (men’s freestyle 57kg, men’s freestyle 86kg, women’s freestyle 57kg).
Highlights
“You’ll never run alone,” a mural proclaims in Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s home city, Liverpool. Come the end of the heptathlon’s 800m (19:15), she will hope to be running alone for just a few seconds, at the front of the Olympic pack. Johnson-Thompson came sixth in Rio as she emerged from the shadow of London champion Jessica Ennis-Hill, then injury forced her out of Tokyo mid-event. She heads to Paris as the world champion, where she is up against Belgium’s Nafi Thiam, herself searching for a remarkable third consecutive heptathlon Olympic title.
The men’s 4x100m relay final (18:45) is almost always the scene of triumph and disaster on a grand scale. In Tokyo, disaster for Britain arrived half a year after the event: the team, who won silver, were disqualified as a result of CJ Ujah testing positive for two banned substances. GB were fourth in last year’s world final, which was won by the US. Dina Asher-Smith is expected to lead the GB women’s sprint relay team if they reach their final at 18:30.
Track cycling on Friday includes the women’s madison (final at 17:09), won by GB’s Katie Archibald and Laura Kenny on its introduction to the Games in Tokyo. Neither Archibald nor Kenny will be in Paris, but British duo Neah Evans and Elinor Barker are more than capable successors who won world gold last year. The men’s sprint (from 13:41) offers one of the most captivating tactical events in cycling, where contenders can almost end up at a standstill in a bid to catch the other off-guard before racing to the line. GB’s Jack Carlin has Olympic and world bronze in the event.
The women’s hockey final is at 19:00. The Netherlands have only lost two of 35 outdoor internationals since the start of 2023 and are top of the world rankings by a mile. But as Belgium showed with a shock 2-1 win over the Dutch in June, that kind of form does not guarantee anything. GB, who beat the Netherlands for gold at Rio 2016 and finished third in Tokyo, come into this event ranked sixth in the world.
Beach volleyball’s women’s tournament concludes next to the Eiffel Tower (21:30). Recently, this event has been the domain of the US and the duo of Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes will expect to keep it that way. Brazil’s Ana Patricia Ramos and Duda Santos Lisboa were on separate teams in Tokyo, where Brazil suffered the disappointment of neither team making it past the quarter-finals. They have won world gold and silver together since.
Brit watch
There are four boxing finals on Friday’s card from 20:30: men’s light middleweight and heavyweight alongside women’s light flyweight and welterweight. While GB have no nailed-on favourites heading into the Olympic boxing tournament, there is a lot of potential. Depending on previous days’ results, this might be a chance to see the likes of Rosie Eccles, Patrick Brown or Lewis Richardson in action. Ireland’s Aidan Walsh, a Tokyo bronze medallist, will hope to feature in the men’s light middleweight.
Climbing’s men’s boulder and lead event has two finals from 09:15 to determine a winner. British teenager Toby Roberts goes up against the likes of Austria’s Jakob Schubert, a bronze medallist in a slightly different format three years ago and a formidable force in the more specialist world of lead climbing. Mejdi Schalck had been expected to be the hosts’ big hope, but he was defeated in qualifying, so France will be represented by Sam Avezou and Paul Jenft.
While we saw Tom Daley in synchro diving action earlier, this time it is the turn of two other Britons in the individual 10m platform contest (prelims from 09:00). Noah Williams, a European silver medallist in 2022, is joined by Kyle Kothari. Meanwhile, Grace Reid and Yasmin Harper are GB’s representatives in the women’s 3m springboard (final from 14:00).
The men’s marathon swim starts at 06:30. GB’s Hector Pardoe was a world bronze medallist earlier this year.
World watch
Brazil have been on every men’s football Olympic podium since 2008, winning the past two gold medals. Not this time. Brazil failed to even qualify for the Games, with the South American places going to Paraguay and Argentina. Will Spain add an Olympic title to their Euro 2024 glory? Or is this an opportunity for the hosts to win gold on home turf? The final is at 17:00.
Who will be the Paris men’s 400m hurdles champion? Norway’s Karsten Warholm is defending his Tokyo title and right up there with him are American Rai Benjamin and Brazil’s Alison dos Santos. Together, they are the fastest men in history in this event but it is rare to get all three racing each other at once. Will we see that tonight? The final is from 20:45.
Rhythmic gymnastics’ individual all-around final takes place at 13:30. This is a sport where the near-total absence of Russian athletes at Paris 2024 will have a significant impact. Germany’s Darja Varfolomeev, who moved to the country from Russia in 2019, is the world champion.
Expert knowledge
Breaking – also known as breakdancing, b-boying or b-girling – makes its Olympic debut on Friday. It has been a competitive sport since the 1990s. Here are some expressions to know.
Top rock is everything you do standing up, down rock is everything you do on the floor and some of the most acrobatic elements are called power moves, which include things like whole-body spins.
Each one-on-one competition is called a battle. Competitors take it in turns to perform for judges who are scoring for creativity, personality, technique, variety, performativity and musicality.
The individual women’s final, or b-girls gold-medal battle, is at 20:23. Dutch teenager India Sardjoe is one to watch, as is Lithuania’s world and European champion Dominika Banevic, 17.
Gold medal events:
Artistic swimming (duet free routine), athletics (men’s marathon, men’s high jump, men’s 800m, women’s javelin throw, women’s100m hurdles, men’s 5000m, women’s 1500m, men’s 4x400m relay, women’s 4x400m relay), basketball (men’s), beach volleyball (men’s), boxing (women’s 57kg, women’s 75kg, men’s 57kg, men’s +92kg), breaking (men’s individual), canoe sprint (men’s C1 1000m, men’s K1 1000m, women’s K1 500m), diving (10m platform), football (women’s), golf (women’s), handball (women’s), modern pentathlon (men’s), rhythmic gymnastics (group all-around), sport climbing (women’s boulder/lead), table tennis (women’s), taekwondo (men’s +80kg, women’s +67kg repechage), track cycling (men’s Madison), volleyball (men’s), water polo (women’s), weightlifting (men’s 102kg, women’s 81kg, men’s +102kg), wrestling (men’s freestyle 74kg, men’s freestyle 125kg, women’s freestyle 62kg).
Highlights
Yes, you read that right, there are nearly 40 different gold medals being won on Saturday – the busiest day of Olympics action, by gold medals available, since September 30, 2000. All this action means the highlight is the entire day. Order in plenty of snacks and let’s give you a taste of what to look forward to.
The women’s football final is at 16:00. There’s no Team GB, while Sweden, third-place finishers at last year’s World Cup, did not qualify either. The US, Canada, Spain, Germany and hosts France will all fancy their chances of being in this game.
Laura Muir ran a British record in Tokyo to finish a second behind Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon of Kenya. Kipyegon should start the Paris final (19:25) as the favourite as she tries to win a third Olympic title in a row. Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji and Birke Haylom could also be big factors, but Kipyegon has already broken her own world record once in Paris this summer – at the Diamond League in July.
The final round of women’s golf begins at 08:00. The US should have a strong shot at this gold medal through either defending champion Nelly Korda or world number two Lilia Vu. South Korean duo Amy Yang and Ko Jin-young are also among the pre-tournament favourites. GB’s Georgia Hall and Charley Hull have both struggled with injury in the build-up to Paris.
Ireland’s Michaela Walsh made history with brother Aidan when they became the first brother and sister to box at the same Olympics in Tokyo. Three years later, Michaela will be hoping she features in the women’s featherweight final at 20:30 after the disappointment of losing in the round of 16 last time. Team-mate and Commonwealth champion Jude Gallagher is an entrant in the men’s featherweight (final at 20:47). GB’s Delicious Orie, described by some as the next Anthony Joshua, is also a Commonwealth champion coming into the Paris super heavyweight category (final 21:51).
Team GB won both modern pentathlon gold medals at Tokyo 2020. Joe Choong’s win was the first time a British man has won Olympic gold in a sport that combines fencing, swimming, showjumping, running and shooting. Choong has since won two world titles, while team-mate Myles Pillage has the better world ranking coming into Paris. The showjumping is at 16:30, followed in quick succession by fencing, swimming and the “laser run” biathlon-style finale.
Brit watch
After a fierce selection contest, Rebecca McGowan got the nod over three-time world champion Bianca Cook (nee Walkden) to represent GB in taekwondo’s +67kg category. European champion McGowan has come through ankle surgery and an ACL tear to be at the Olympics. “If I can get through that then I can get through four fights in Paris,” she said earlier this summer. (Round of 16 from 08:10, final at 20:39.)
Track cycling’s men’s madison (16:59) is a tag-team points race: you and a partner do laps of the velodrome alongside a whole host of other teams. If you can gain a lap on everyone else, you get 20 points (a big deal). Every now and then, there is a sprint that will earn you bonus points. Most points wins. GB won silver on this event’s reintroduction to the Olympics three years ago, and the event is guaranteed televised chaos.
In the men’s 800m at the athletics track, defending champion Emmanuel Korir is out, meaning there’s a chance Kenya may not win this event for the first time since 2004. Only a chance, mind you. Korir’s replacement, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, was a world silver medallist last year ahead of GB’s Ben Pattison, who will hope to make the start line for the Paris final (18:25) alongside team-mate Max Burgin. Sudan-born Marco Arop won that year’s world gold medal for Canada, while Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati has looked good this season.
The men’s 10m platform diving final (14:00) is a chance for GB’s Noah Williams or Kyle Kothari to pick up a first individual Olympic medal. It is almost impossible to keep China off the top of the podium in this event but it can happen – Australia’s Cassiel Rousseau, a circus performer when he was younger, took the world title in 2023.
Molly Thompson-Smith was commentating on sport climbing during Tokyo 2020. Now she is on the GB team and hoping to feature in the women’s boulder and lead final from 09:15. Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret, who won the lone Olympic climbing title on offer to women three years ago, is again the one to beat. France will look to 19-year-old world silver medallist Oriane Bertone.
World watch
The men’s basketball final (20:30) is almost certain to feature the US. If it does not, that is one of the major shocks of the Games. Going back to 1936, there have been only three finals that did not feature the US – and one of those was a Games they boycotted. Why are they so dominant? Take a look at this year’s roster: LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry are just three of the all-star names. The US have not missed out on this gold medal since 2004.
Handball is a different story. The US have not qualified in men’s or women’s handball, other than as the host nation, since Barcelona 1992. The major powers here are nations like Spain and Denmark on the men’s side or Denmark and Norway on the women’s. More than anyone, though, France will be relishing the handball tournament in Paris: the hosts have the reigning Olympic women’s and men’s champions. With no Russian involvement this time, that might make more French medals even more likely. The women’s final starts at 14:00.
In athletics, the 4x400m relays (from 20:12) extend the relay drama into four nail-biting laps of the Olympic track. The US look like hot favourites in the men’s event. The women’s event might be complicated by the relay first round taking place on Friday morning with the individual women’s 400m final that night. If that leads some nations to change their line-ups for the early relay session – to preserve a chance of winning an individual medal later that day – then we could see surprise qualifiers for the women’s relay final. Jamaica are always big relay contenders and GB won two world bronze medals last year.
The men’s marathon starts at 07:00 as the Olympics uses one of its few remaining opportunities to milk every last drop of Paris scenery. Kenya’s two-time champion Eliud Kipchoge is one of the favourites in an event where many people will take time to remember the late Kelvin Kiptum, a compatriot of Kipchoge who broke the world record shortly before being killed in February when his car reportedly veered off the road and hit a tree.
Men’s breaking gets its chance to shine (gold medal at 20:23). American Victor Montalvo, or b-boy Victor, was the 2023 world champion.
Expert knowledge
Water polo reaches its women’s final at 14:35. If the US women make it this far, victory would make them the first team in water polo to win gold at four consecutive Olympics.
Gold medal events:
Athletics (women’s marathon), basketball (women’s), handball (men’s), modern pentathlon (women’s), track cycling (men’s keirin, women’s sprint, women’s omnium), volleyball (women’s), water polo (men’s), weightlifting (women’s +81kg), wrestling (men’s freestyle 65kg, men’s freestyle 97kg, women’s freestyle 76kg).
Highlights
The final day of the Games brings three more gold medals to be won in the velodrome if Team GB are looking for a late boost.
Option one: the women’s sprint (final from 11:45). While you have to go back to Victoria Pendleton in 2008 to find the last Briton who took gold in this event, GB’s Emma Finucane is the defending world champion.
Option two: the men’s keirin (final at 12:32), an event beloved first by Sir Chris Hoy with gold in 2008 and 2012, then by Sir Jason Kenny with gold in 2016 and 2021. Imagine adding your name to that list. That’s the task ahead of GB’s Commonwealth silver medallist Jack Carlin, but the likes of the Netherlands’ Harrie Lavreysen could be hard to defeat.
Option three: the women’s omnium (decided at 12:56). This is the final event in the velodrome at Paris 2024 and presents one last opportunity for GB, but perhaps even more of an opportunity for US rider Jennifer Valente, the defending world and Olympic champion.
Emily Campbell took Britain’s first medal in women’s Olympic weightlifting with silver in Tokyo. She has since added world silver and has won four successive European titles. Her +81kg category begins at 10:30, with China’s Li Wenwen the favourite for gold.
The Paris 2024 closing ceremony is due to begin at 19:00. This time, we are back in the traditional stadium setting as the Stade de France hosts the world’s athletes for a final goodbye. The show you will see performed during the closing ceremony is titled Records, although not too much has been given away by its creators. This also marks the handover to Los Angeles 2028 for the next Olympics and to the Paris 2024 Paralympics, which begin on Wednesday, 28 August.
Brit watch
Rose Harvey, Calli Hauger-Thackery and Charlotte Purdue are the British athletes in the women’s marathon, which starts at 07:00. The name to watch is Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa.
World watch
We have discussed the dominance of the US men’s basketball team. How about the women’s team? If the Americans win Sunday’s gold medal (14:30), it will be the nation’s eighth consecutive Olympic women’s basketball title, the record for any Olympic team sport.
Women’s volleyball concludes with the gold-medal match at 12:00. The US beat Brazil and Serbia to gold in 2021, but expect recently dominant Italy to be a big factor in Paris.
The men’s water polo final is at 13:00. Hungary won this event three times in a row from 2000 to 2008 but have not been in a final since. However, they enter Paris 2024 with a 2023 world title to their name.
Expert knowledge
There’s a really good chance for another GB medal in the women’s modern pentathlon (from 10:00), and perhaps another gold, as defending Olympic champion Kate French lines up alongside world bronze medallist Kerenza Bryson.
You are also about to see the last Olympic modern pentathlon involving horses.
The sport’s world governing body has been trying to find a way to, er, modernise the sport, since modern pentathlon was given that name in 1912 (when it made its Olympic debut) and may no longer feel quite so up-to-date to many viewers.
The showjumping leg of modern pentathlon – the others being fencing, swimming, running and shooting – has always attracted criticism because it involves pairing athletes with randomly assigned local horses, sometimes to competition-destroying effect when horse and rider fail to find the same wavelength. Those moments have become less a test of skill than a form of equestrian roulette that can make or break four years of training.
While some athletes advocated for simply improving the showjumping with various changes, the world governing body has pursued the idea of obstacle course racing as a replacement. Think Ninja Warrior, Total Wipeout, that kind of thing. Proponents say younger people will be more likely to watch that kind of event than showjumping, no matter how good the jumping is. While modern pentathlon was briefly threatened with being dropped from the Olympics entirely, it is on the schedule for LA 2028 with obstacle included at the expense of jumping.
