Daniel Boffey

The spectacle of the Olympic Games opening ceremony could be overshadowed by the human drama in the White House after it was confirmed that Jill Biden will attend the event on the Seine.

It will be a first appearance on the world stage for the president’s wife since her husband withdrew from his re-election campaign over concerns about his deteriorating health.

An Australian water polo player has been isolated at the Paris Games after testing positive for Covid, the country’s Olympic team chief Anna Meares has said.

Close contacts of the athlete, who Meares did not name, were being monitored and tested, but the whole team would train as planned, she added.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics were postponed by a year due to the pandemic and were held largely without spectators.

“We were due to have two players from water polo with us, however, currently we have had one athlete from their team isolating with Covid which was detected last night,” Meares told a news conference. “So as a precaution they’re not joining us this morning.

“I need to emphasise that we are treating Covid no differently to other bugs like the flu. This is not Tokyo. The athlete is not particularly unwell and they are still training but sleeping in a single room.”

Meares said the athlete’s teammates would wear masks and adhere to social distancing measures.

“It was late last night when she presented with symptoms and the good thing is that having our own testing equipment means that we can get that information really, really quickly and intervene both in diagnosis and treatment,” Meares added.

“In terms of competitions, we will wait until she gets the all clear and we get the information from our chief medical officer Carolyn Broderick.”

The French health minister, Frederic Valletoux, said there was no risk of a major Covid cluster in France.

“Of course Covid is here. We’ve seem a small peak” in cases, he said. “But we are far from what we saw in 2020, 2021, 2022.”

He added that there was no obligation to wear a mask because the number of cases was still low. “Some precautions are being taken but, because the level at which Covid is spreading is very low, they depend on the organisers.” (Reuters)

Andy Murray will retire from professional tennis after this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.

The 37-year-old posted on X: “Arrived in Paris for my last ever tennis tournament. Competing for Great Britain [has] been by far the most memorable weeks of my career and I’m extremely proud to get do it one final time!”

Hello and welcome to our 2024 Olympics buildup blog. The opening ceremony falls on Friday, officially beginning the Paris 2024 Games, but there is sporting action on Wednesday and Thursday, and a ton of buildup content to feast our eyes on in the next couple of days.

Here we go then, for starters: any breaking news out there today?