Staying with controversy, the court of arbitration for sport has ruled that US gymnast Jordan Chiles will lose her floor routine bronze medal.

Cas ruled on Saturday that the appeal by US coach Cecile Landi to have 0.1 added to Chiles’ score that vaulted her from fifth to third came outside the one-minute window allowed by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).

Cas wrote in its decision that the initial finishing order should be restored, with Barbosu third, teammate Sabrina Maneca-Voinea fourth and Chiles fifth. The organization added the FIG should determine the final ranking “in accordance with the above decision”.

Barbosu and Maneca-Voinea were left outside the medals in the floor final in Paris after finishing with matching scores of 13.700. Barbosu thought she had won bronze over Maneca-Voinea via a tiebreaker – a higher execution score – and began celebrating with a Romanian flag.

Chiles was the last athlete to compete and initially was given a score of 13.666 that put her in fifth place, right behind Maneca-Voinea. Landi called for an inquiry on her score, and after a review, judges boosted Chiles’ total by 0.1. That was enough to leapfrog Barbosu and Maneca-Voinea for the last spot on the podium.

Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting was another of yesterday’s gold medallists, but hers arrived amid ongoing controversy over her participation in the women’s 57kg category.

Lin and the Algerian fighter Imane Khelif – who won gold in the women’s 66kg category on Friday – had entered the Olympics amid controversy. Both boxers were disqualified from last year’s world championships by the International Boxing Association (IBA) after it said they had failed unspecified gender tests. The IBA, run by the Russian businessman Umar Kremlev and funded by Russia’s state oil company Gazprom, had its Olympic status revoked in June 2023 due to concerns around governance issues and corruption.

Earlier this month the IOC criticised the “arbitrary” testing imposed on Lin and Khelif. It pointed to a lack of due process and “proper procedure” in the IBA’s treatment of the women.

Kerr’s compatriot, Lydia Ko, also showed nerves of steel, winning the women’s golf by two strokes to complete a full set of Olympic medals.

Lydia Ko was overcome with emotion as gold and the Olympic slam were secured. Since golf was restored to the Games in 2016, only three players have beaten Ko. Silver in Rio, bronze in Tokyo and now the top step of the podium in Paris for the 27-year-old. Within minutes of her triumph at Le Golf National, it was confirmed she will become the youngest inductee into the LPGA hall of fame.

For a spell on day four, this threatened to be a procession. Ko raced five clear of the field after 11 holes. Drama then beckoned; she double bogeyed the 13th as her closest challenger, Esther Henseleit, finished with a flourish. The German managed birdies on her last two holes to post an eight under par target. Ko stood on the 18th tee at minus nine and with no margin for error. In emphasising the New Zealander’s Olympic specialism, she produced a birdie to win by two.

Onto the Kiwis and their extraordinary day of success, including high jump gold for Hamish Kerr. For the second Olympics in a row there was the potential for two gold medals to be awarded but the New Zealander prevailed in sudden death.

This time around, no one wanted to share the gold. Three years after Mutaz Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi decided to go 50-50 on first place in the men’s high jump at the Tokyo Games rather than jump-off for it, two of their competitors found themselves in the same situation but decided to work it out the old-fashioned way.

The USA’s Shelby McEwen and New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr were tied in first place after they had both failed three attempts to clear 2.38m. “You may recognise this situation,” the man working the stadium PA told the crowd, “what are they going to do this time?” Kerr and McEwen didn’t even stop to discuss it. The kumbaya spirit of the competition during the Covid years is long gone, and both men wanted to press on into the sudden death round.

The USWNT won four gold medals from the first five editions of women’s football at the Olympics. They won silver in the other. But since that final gold in 2012, the dominant side in international football has been on a long slow decline.

Englishwoman Emma Hayes was recruited from Chelsea to steer the juggernaut back on course, and she has made an immediate impact, making some brave decisions en route to a gold medal in her first major tournament.

And so 10 games was all it took for Hayes to leave her mark. Yet while this still feels like preamble, this was a title she badly needed. Defeat would have set her on the back foot from the start, raised legitimate ­questions about her suffer-ball style, about Rose Lavelle not getting a minute in the final, about Crystal Dunn at left-back, about the whole “program”. Instead she now has credit in the bank, ­buy-in from players and public.

Since debuting in Tokyo, sport climbing has been a roaring success. The tweak to the program in Paris to separate the speedsters from the boulder & lead technicians worked superbly, allowing a wider range of competitors to shine.

The emotions on display during the lead final made for engrossing television.

It was a thrilling end to a brilliant final day of climbing, which has continued to establish itself as an excellent addition to the Games. Rock climbing is, after all, a basic concept – either you climb high or you fall. While the specifics of the scoring system are complicated, the struggles of certain competitors provide context for how difficult certain holds and routes are. The sight of the exceptional climbers on each event outstripping their opponents and breaking new ground is tense and thrilling.

The men’s basketball tournament at the Olympics is less a competition for gold than a five-ringed banana skin for the USA and it’s NBA superstars to slip on. They looked set for a pratfall more than once in Paris but rallied superbly against Serbia and kept France at arm’s length despite the brilliance of rising star Victor Wembanyama.

It is the USA’s fifth gold in a row in the sport and 17th out of a possible 21 since 1936.

In the end the USA just had too many weapons, too many sharp edges to call on. As Cuba’s coach famously said in 1992, after trying and failing to stifle the first Dream Team: “You can try, but you can’t cover the sun with your finger.”

Let’s begin our look back at yesterday’s action by saluting Faith Kipyegon. The 30-year-old Kenyan won the women’s 1500m gold medal for the third consecutive Olympics. It was her second podium finish of the Paris Games after running to silver in the 5,000m.

She is the world record holder over 1500m and the mile, and broke the 5,000m record last year but that has since been eclipsed. On top of all that she is mother to a six-year old.

She is now one of only 14 track and field athletes to win the same individual event at least three times in a row – and one of two (the other being Usain Bolt) – to do so in a pure track event.

Phenomenal.

This final day of action of the Games of the 33rd olympiad is much shorter than the rest to allow time for all activity to be wrapped up in advance of the closing ceremony (9pm local time). It’s all killer no filler though, with every event offering medals of some description.

It all kicks-off at 08:00 with the women’s marathon. An hour later Spain take on Slovenia for a bronze medal in the men’s handball, while Spain and Greece meet to determine fifth place in the men’s water polo. At 10:35 the USA and Hungary will battle for men’s water polo bronze.

The bulk of the day’s activity comes online from 11:00 with the final activity before the closing ceremony featuring France v USA in the women’s basketball gold medal match. That tips off at 15:30.

My pick of yesterday’s snaps: the perfectly framed table tennis action shot.

More on medal tables and assessing who’s done well and why in this detailed explainer. I confess to not being mathematically literate enough to fully get all of this, but it does seem to stand to reason that Australia have massively punched above their weight at these Games.

China have once again snuck ahead of the USA in the ding-dong battle at the top of the medal table. The US’s final day looks promising though, so they could well end up in pole position for the fourth Games in a row.

Australia and Japan are locked in a tight battle for third, while France are set for their best result since 1948.

63 NOCs have heard their respective anthems over the past fortnight, with athletes from 91 NOCs receiving medals.

Preamble - Day 16 Schedule