Paris 2024 Olympics day one: swimming, cycling, rowing, hockey and more – live | Paris Olympic Games 2024
Key events
While the Boomers will naturally commandeer the attention of Australian basketball followers, there is a second nation at the Paris Games that owes a lot to the NBL: South Sudan. Kieran Pender explains why.
South Sudan are very much a second team for Australian fans to cheer on. Four members of the 12-man squad play in Australia’s National Basketball League – Bul Kuol, Jackson Makoi, Majok Deng and Sunday Dech – while a fifth, Kuany Kuany, lived in Australia before relocating to the United States for college. Another Australian, Thon Maker, had a last-minute eligibility appeal rejected after the former Boomers player switched basketball allegiances. Other members of the team play in the NBA, Serbia, China, Israel and Rwanda.
While the US sleeps and Europe awakes, we’ll train our focus for a little while on Australia. There are plenty of Aussies in action on day one, from the Boomers in the morning to Grace Brown in the afternoon, and Ariarne Titmus this evening.
Speaking of Grace Brown, here she is with our own Kieran Pender.
Since the last Olympics, across nine individual time trials, Brown has only finished off the podium once – fourth on stage eight of last year’s Tour de France Femmes. All of which leaves Brown on the precipice of an Olympic medal in late July, when she rolls down the start ramp in cycling’s first event of the Games, just a day after the opening ceremony. Three years of hard work have come to this – a race against the clock around the streets of Paris, across 32.4 km of flat terrain.
In case you wondering, the dreadful weather of the opening ceremony hasn’t lifted. However, the rain is forecast to have cleared by this evening and the rest of the opening week should be much more summery.
Hello and welcome to a rainy day 1 at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games regatta! The temperatures have cooled down but the atmosphere is heating up as racing starts in 90 minutes in Vaires-sur-Marne 😍 📸 World Rowing / Benedict Tufnell#Paris2024#Rowingpic.twitter.com/ev40Su5ycC
The opening ceremony is also an opportunity for the IOC President to make a political statement. Thomas Bach’s can be distilled into “dream with us”. Sean Ingle had the watching brief.
The hope in Bach’s speech? Well that came when he referenced the hope that these Games could be a force for good at a time where the horrific war in Ukraine continues to rage, and the awful images from Israel and Palestine have dominated our screens for the past nine months continue.
If you missed some, or all, of the rain-soaked action, Jon Henley has distilled the spectacle into a handy top-five.
What did you make of the opening ceremony? Brilliant? Kitschy? Hubristic? Barney Ronay’s sketch of the event covers all bases, and ensures that from now on Celine Dion must be referred to as The Canadian Messi.
It was complex, nuanced, fun, energetic, diffuse, diluted, and too spread out. It turns out there’s a good reason why big events are held in stadiums.
At the top of the page you will find links to the day-by-day guide, the medal table, results, and the live schedule. These will be our north stars for the next fortnight, making sure we’re always on top of the action.
And from that day-by-day guide, here’s what Simon Burnton thinks you should be watching today.
Saturday 27 July Day 1
Shooting With a scheduled end of 11.50am local time the 10m mixed team air rifle is expected to pip the women’s synchronised 3m springboard diving by a matter of minutes to be the first gold medal decided in Paris. Whichever wins the race there’s a good chance the anthem played at the end will be the same: the latest world championships in both events were won by Chinese athletes (though they will be hotly contested, and Britain’s Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen claimed world championship silver in the diving last year).
Men’s rugby Antoine Dupont, France’s captain, missed the Six Nations to throw himself into Olympic preparations, declaring a gold medal “the holy grail of the sport, as simple as that”, and organisers have scheduled the men’s final in the hope that he will help them get their Games off to the best possible start. It is far from a done deal, though: France failed to reach the final four in the sport’s two previous Olympic outings, while Fiji have won both golds.
Men’s handball In the past two Olympic finals Denmark beat France (in Rio) and France beat Denmark (in Tokyo). Of the five world championships in the past decade France have won two and Denmark the most recent three, extending their unbeaten run in the event to 28 games by beating France in last year’s final. This year they play on the first day of the men’s tournament, though it would be no surprise if they meet again when the medals are decided on 11 August.
Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen of Team Great Britain will hope to be among the first medallists of the 2024 Olympics. Photograph: Sarah Stier/Getty Images
Preamble
Jonathan Howcroft
Hello everybody and welcome to live coverage of the first official day of competition of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.
Following a spectacular opening ceremony on the river Seine it’s time to get down to business. Over the course of the day competitors in 24 sports will showcase their skills, with badminton getting the show on the road at 8:30am local time.
At 9am handball, rowing, shooting and volleyball join the party, with equestrian under way half-an-hour later.
The first medals of the Games will be won around 11:30am local time with the shooters in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team event not hanging around.
The gold rush continues with China expected to continue its domination of the diving competition, beginning with the women’s synchronised 3m springboard.
The women’s individual time trial (cycling) begins at 2:30pm local time, followed by the men.
In judo, the 60kg men and 48kg women will be going for gold. The men’s skateboarding street final will light up the Place de la Concorde. While fencing begins its distribution of precious metal.
Other events not to miss include:
Australia’s Boomers take on Spain at 11am local time (7pm AEST).
Swimming heats begin at the same time, featuring the first instalment of the Katie Ledecky v Ariarne Titmus duel in the pool after the two superstars were drawn alongside each other in heat three of the 400m freestyle. They will no doubt meet later on in the final in what promises to be one of the races of the Games.
Antoine Dupont will light up the Stade de France at 3:30pm local time when France’s rugby sevens outfit continue their campaign with a semi-final against South Africa. Should Les Bleus make it to the gold medal match Paris may witness the greatest atmosphere of the Olympics on the opening day.
But if water polo is more your jam, you could instead tune in to the USA beginning their quest for a fourth consecutive gold medal in the women’s tournament when they face Greece in Group B.
And finally, the most spectacular backdrop of the Games will reveal itself from 7pm Paris time when (conditions permitting) the surfing competition begins in Teahupo’o.
I’m sure I’ve failed to include something notable to you in this short rundown, so feel free to let me know what’s on your agenda by emailing: jonathan.howcroft.casual@theguardian.com or, if you’re still rummaging around in the post-Twitter dumpster fire, find me on X @jphowcroft.
I’ll be around for the first couple of hours of the blog, after which it’s over to Martin Belam, Adam Collins, and Will Unwin.
On your mark. Get set. Go!
The Olympic Rings on the Eiffel Tower are illuminated during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024. Photograph: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
