Australia continued to grow their medal tally overnight, claiming multiple silvers in the pool and a double podium finish in the track and field. The Opals defeated the host nation in front of a record crowd and the Dolphins finished just short of the USA almost breaking a 68-year drought.
Aussies claim two medals in the women’s high jump.
Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson have claimed two medals in the women’s high jump. The double podium makes it the first time in the history of the games where Australia has had two athletes finish with medals in the same track and field event.
Olyslagers has now claimed her second consecutive silver medal after falling just short in a countback to Ukrainian world record holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh. The Aussie jumped 2.00m on her third attempt, which had 70,000 spectators roaring. Olyslagers had a chance at gold but failed to jump 2.02m in her three attempts.
Patterson jumped a seasonal best of 1.95m to claim bronze tying with Ukrainian Iryna Gerashchenko.
The Australian swimmers claim multiple silvers in the last day at the pool.
Meg Harris claimed her first Olympic individual medal after swimming a personal best time of 23.97s to get silver behind Sarah Sjostrom from Sweden. It was Sjostrom’s second gold medal. She also won the 100m freestyle final.
The Dolphins fell just short of breaking the USA’s 68-year Olympic dominance in the pool. Both teams were tied for seven gold medals prior to the USA winning the women’s 4x100m medley relay in the final event of the Olympic swimming.
The American squad were simply to strong for the Aussies setting a new world record time of 3:49.63.
Mollie O’Callaghan overtook Canada’s Summer McIntosh and China’s Junxuan Yang in a brilliant final 100m leg to claim silver for the Aussies, reminding the world of her medal dominance as she goes home with 3 golds, a silver and a bronze.
Although falling just short of the Americans, the Dolphins team claimed 18 medals overall.
The Opals defeat host nation to progress and keep golden dreams alive.
The Australian women’s basketball team won their do-or-die clash knocking France out in an action packed 79-72 win. The Opals escaped the group stage after winning two of their three matches to give them a chance at the podium.
The clash broke the attendance record for a women’s basketball match in Europe with 27,193 spectators attending, according to FIBA.
The Opals next fixture sees them play a quarter final clash against Serbia on Wednesday night. The Serbian women’s team also finished second in their group stage with two wins and one loss.
Jess Fox gold hopes finish but great results elsewhere.
Australian flag bearer and multiple gold medal winner Jess Fox has been eliminated in the kayak cross ending her historic double gold medal run. Her sister Noemie reached the quarter-finals.
Noemie got off to a hot start overtaking her sister who sat at the back of the field and ended up finishing first in the heat against three-time Olympic medallist Maialen Chourraut and Dutch athlete Martina Wegman.
Prior to the women’s race, fellow Aussie Tim Anderson won his heat which progresses him to his first Olympic quarter finals whilst Tristan Carter finished second in his heat to also progress.
The pair will compete in the quarter-finals tonight at 11:52 AEST.
Men’s tennis doubles team break a 28-year gold drought.
Men’s doubles tennis stars Matthew Ebden and John Peers have come back from behind to win gold for Australia after the USA’s doubles team had a set and 4-2 game lead.
The win is Australia’s first gold medal in the men’s doubles in almost 30 years. Ebden won bronze in the Tokyo games with Ash Barty and as a former number 1 doubles player, he’s chased gold since the 2016 games.
After fellow Australian Alex De Minaur pulled out of the singles due to injury, Ebden had to step into the singles draw and faced 24-time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic who he eventually lost to in straight sets 6-0, 6-1. Ironically, Djokovic and Ebden saw themselves as gold medal winners at the end of the tournament.
The gold medal was Australia’s 12th for the games so far, which is the most we’ve had at day eight of the Olympics.
Photo: Paris 2024 by nicolas michaud is available HERE and is used under a Creative Commons Licence. This image has not been modified.
