Paris Olympics 2024 — Day 9
The likes of Noah Lyles, Novak Djokovic and Scottie Scheffler have secured gold on a day of massive finals across Paris.
Marquee names winning medals has been the story of the day. Djokovic defeated Carlos Alcaraz to win the men’s singles gold medal in tennis, Scheffler caught fire in the final round of the men’s golf to add a gold medal to his list of accomplishments, and Lyles won the men's 100-meter dash in a photo finish for the ages.
Meanwhile, on the last night of the swimming program, the U.S. women won the final race, the 4x100m medley relay, to clinch gold medal supremacy over rivals Australia.
Medal table | How to follow
Basketball: Women's bracket is set
The knockout bracket for the women's basketball tournament has been set, with the United States taking on Nigeria in the quarterfinals.
Here is the full quarterfinals schedule for Wednesday:
- Serbia vs. Australia: 11am Paris time, 5am ET
- Spain vs. Belgium: 12:30pm Paris time, 6:30am ET
- Germany vs. France: 6pm Paris time, 12pm ET
- United States vs. Nigeria: 9:30pm Paris time, 3:30pm ET
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Medal count: U.S. tie China for gold lead
With Day 9 of the Paris Olympics in the books, let's get you up to date on the medal standings.
A golden day for the United States has pushed it into a tie with China for the gold medal lead at 19 each. Four other countries have hit double digits, France and Australia with 12 apiece and Britain and South Korea with 10 each.
The U.S. continue to extend their significant lead in total medals won, now leading China in second place 71 to 45.
Beach Volleyball: American duo advances to quarters
The American beach volleyball duo of Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng have advanced to the quarterfinals of the women's tournament after edging Italian pair Valentina Gottardi and Marta Menegatti 21-18, 17-21, 15-12.
Hughes and Cheng will face Switzerland's Tanja Hüberli and Nina Brunner on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Triathlon: Belgium withdraws from mixed relay after athlete falls ill following women’s event
Belgium have withdrawn from the mixed relay triathlon after one of its athletes, who swam in the River Seine for the women’s triathlon, fell ill.
Claire Michel was taken to a polyclinic in the Olympic Village for treatment and is back in her room, the Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee said in a statement. The BOIC did not provide more details about the illness.
Belgium’s withdrawal from Monday’s race comes amid longstanding concerns about water quality in the Seine ahead of the Paris Olympics. Years of preparation and billions of dollars of technology went into readying the Seine, which had been illegal to swim in since 1923, for competition. But organizers canceled two training sessions and postponed the men’s triathlon by a day due to elevated bacteria levels before the women’s and men’s triathlons were both completed on Wednesday.
Track: Noah Lyles wins 100m dash for Team USA!
Noah Lyles of the United States has beaten Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson by five thousandths of a second to win Olympic gold in a stunning men’s 100-meter dash final, the closest finish the event has seen since 1980.
Fred Kerley of the U.S. claimed bronze, just two hundredths behind the top two.
You can follow The Athletic's live reaction to the thrilling race here.
Fencing: Japan win men's team foil gold
Japan have come from behind to defeat Italy in the final of the men's team foil competition, prevailing 45-36.
That's the second gold medal for Japan in fencing at these Games, after Koki Kano (who was not part of the winning foil team) won the individual épée final.
Earlier today, France defeated the United States 45-32 to take the bronze medal in men's team foil.
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Track and field: Time for men's 100-meter dash!
We're just minutes away from the greatest 10 seconds in sports!
Follow our live dedicated coverage here!
Beach volleyball: Steven van de Velde eliminated
Steven van de Velde, the Dutch Olympic beach volleyball player who served 13 months in prison after being convicted in 2016 of raping a 12-year-old girl, has been eliminated in the round of 16 of the men's tournament along with his teammate Matthew Immers.
The Dutch pair were defeated by Brazilian duo Evandro Oliveira and Arthur Lanci in straight sets, 21-16, 21-16.
Evandro and Arthur advance to the quarterfinals, where they will face David Åhman and Jonatan Hellvig of Sweden on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Honey, I Shrunk the Track and Field
So one of the best parts of covering the Olympics is spending time watching sports that you don't typically cover. But with the basketball taking place up in Lille to this point, I'd been missing out on that action and honestly dying to get down to Paris for that purpose.
Now here we are at Stade de France, where the main interest was to see American Noah Lyles chase his 100-meter gold dreams later tonight, and the hilarious highlight to this point is...those little remote control trucks that pick up the hammer after it gets heaved halfway across the field. There's just something funny about seeing little toy cars zooming around as if someone hit a monster truck rally with the Honey-I-Shrunk-the-kids laser, driving up to the person who measures the distance and places the hammer in the bed of the truck, then taking that big old piece of metal back to the burly men who do this for a living.
As an aside, Team USA men's basketball coach Steve Kerr told us today that some of his players were planning to make the trek out to this showcase event as well (though I haven't seen them yet). Ok, back to the serious coverage now from our resident track and field experts, which you can follow here.
3x3 Basketball: U.S. men eliminated
The United States men's 3x3 basketball team started the Olympic tournament with four straight losses, but then took back-to-back wins over France and China on Friday to give themselves hope of qualifying for the knockout stage.
Those hopes ended today as they lost their final group stage game, getting blown out 21-6 by the Netherlands.
The U.S. and China are eliminated, while Lithuania, Serbia, France and Poland advance to the play-in round, with Latvia and the Netherlands awaiting in the semifinals.
Track and field: Field set for men's 100m dash
The field for the men's 100-meter final is set and all three Americans are in. The times are sensational for a final.
- 9.80 — Kishane Thompson, Jamaica
- 9.81 — Oblique Seville, Jamaica
- 9.83 — Noah Lyles, United States
- 9.84 — Fred Kerley, United States
- 9.87 — Akani Simbine, South Africa
- 9.91 — Letsile Tebogo, Botswana
- 9.92 — Lamont Marcell Jacobs, Italy
- 9.93 — Kenny Bednarek, United States
Once again, you can follow The Athletic's live coverage of today's track and field, led by my colleague Luke Brown, here.
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Follow our track and field coverage as Lyles runs in 100m semis
America's Noah Lyles is running in the semifinals of the men's 100-meter dash as he attempts to become the first U.S. man to win the event in 20 years.
You can follow The Athletic's live coverage of today's track and field, led by my colleague Luke Brown, here.
Tennis: Nadal congratulates Alcaraz for silver medal
Rafael Nadal has sent a post on X congratulating his Spanish compatriot Carlos Alcaraz for his silver medal in men's singles and telling him to value it despite losing the final to Serbia's Novak Djokovic.
Translated from Spanish, the post reads:
"Carlos, although I know that today is a difficult day, value a medal that is very important for the whole country and you will see, with time, that for you too.
"Thank you for this incredible week and for a medal that you give to Spanish sport.
"A big hug"
Tennis: Errani, Paolini win women’s doubles gold for Italy
Italy’s Sara Errani (pictured above, left) completed a career Golden Slam by winning Olympic gold in the women’s doubles tennis event with Jasmine Paolini (pictured above, right).
The pair defeated Russia’s Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider, who were competing as Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN), with a score of 2-6, 6-1, 10-8 on Court Philippe-Chatrier at Roland Garros.
It was Italy’s first Olympic tennis gold in its history, with Errani and Paolini following up Lorenzo Musetti’s bronze in men’s singles, which was the country’s first Olympic tennis medal for 100 years.
Errani, who won the French and US Opens in 2012, the Australian Open in 2013, and Wimbledon in 2014 — all with partner Roberta Vinci — had to wait 10 years to finally add Olympic gold to her resume.
Swimming: Final medal standings
Thanks to an absolutely dominant performance by the U.S. women in our final race here at Paris La Défense Arena, Team USA wins the meet, taking the most gold medals of any nation, and most medals total by a big margin.
Swimming: U.S. women win medley relay, secure supremacy over Aussies!
The United States women's relay of Regan Smith, Lilly King, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske, dominate the 4x100 medley relay, winning by more than three seconds and setting a new world record in the process!
That's the eighth gold medal of these Games for the Americans in the pool, clinching the battle for most golds over Australia, who finish with seven.
Smith's backstroke leadoff leg of 57.28 also sets a new Olympic record in the 100 back, besting Kaylee McKeown's mark from earlier this week.
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Swimming supremacy comes down to final race
That was a thrilling men's medley relay! So many lead changes, and France coming up one leg too short to actually win the damn thing. Still, that's a fifth medal for Léon Marchand.
Heading into the last swimming race of these Olympics, the U.S. has 7 gold medals, and Australia has 7 gold medals. I like the Americans' odds here to break the tie in the women's medley relay...
Swimming: U.S. men lose medley relay for first time ever
China have won the men's 4x100m medley relay, handing the United States their first-ever loss in this event at an Olympics in which they competed.
A thrilling race came down to the final 25 meters before China's anchor of Pan Zhanle broke away from the U.S. and France to win by just over half a second.
The U.S. take silver, just ahead of France with the bronze.
Basketball: U.S. women cruise to victory
The United States women's basketball team has capped a perfect group stage with a comfortable 87-68 win over Germany.
Jackie Young, who plays for the Las Vegas Aces, led the way with 19 points, including five made three-pointers.
The Americans have given themselves a great chance at taking the top seed in the knockout stage and will learn the identity of who they play in Wednesday's quarterfinal later today.