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Marine Johannes has been sensational for France, wowing the crowd nearly every time she touches the basketball.
Whether it’s making an off-balance, one-legged 3-pointer, or throwing a pinpoint no-look pass for an easy lay-in, France’s star guard has been incredible so far in the women’s Olympic basketball tournament.
She helped the host nation reach the medal round in Paris, scoring 24 points in the quarterfinal victory over Germany on Wednesday.
“It never gets old, never gets old,” French teammate Gabby Williams said of watching Johannes play. “Even though I’ve seen it so many times. I know she’s capable and I’m the first one to tell her she’s capable of it. Still, like, you don’t believe it when you see it.”
Johannes and France seem to be playing their best when they are having fun.
“We were just happy, we knew that we could do something special today,” she said.
While Johannes is flashy on the court, she is quite shy off the court. She’s from a town of less than 750 people in France’s northern region.
“I know my family and friends were out here,” Johannes said. “It’s something special here in Paris.”
WNBA fans are familiar with the 29-year-old Johannes’ talents. She excelled for the New York Liberty the last few seasons since returning to the team in 2022. She helped them win the Commissioner’s Cup last year.
Johannes wasn’t able to play this year because of the league’s prioritization rule, which required veteran players to return to the U.S. for training camp or be suspended for the season.
She plans on being in New York next year.
“I hope so,” she said, smiling.
Boxer Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan has advanced to the gold-medal bout in the women’s featherweight division, winning her third consecutive bout while dealing with widespread scrutiny regarding misconceptions about her gender at the Paris Olympics.
One day after welterweight Imane Khelif of Algeria reached the women’s welterweight final with a third straight victory in Paris, Lin defeated Esra Yildiz Kahraman of Turkey 5:0 on Wednesday night for her third win.
Lin will fight for gold on Saturday, taking on Julia Szeremeta of Poland.
“I will use everything I’ve learned in my life to do my best in the next match,” Lin said through an interpreter.
Lin and Khelif both have won every round in all three of their Olympic bouts despite the massive distractions created by the fallout from the Olympic-banished International Boxing Association’s decision last year to disqualify both fighters from the world championships for allegedly failing an eligibility test.
Both fighters have responded to this unwelcome spotlight by making two of the best tournament runs of their lengthy amateur careers. Just like Khelif, Lin has never been a dominant champion in her sport, but that hasn’t stopped many observers from casting both as unstoppable boxing machines during the Olympics because the IBA disqualified them last year.
In fact, the 28-year-old Lin is a veteran amateur boxer who won world championships in 2018 and 2022 during a solid decade at the top level of the sport. She has now bounced back from an opening-round exit in Tokyo to become a medal winner in Paris.
“The feeling of entering the gold-medal match is one of gratitude to myself for making it this far,” Lin said. “After going out in the first round of the Tokyo Olympics, it’s been a tough journey to reach the finals.”
Lin is usually taller and more slender than her opponents, and she earns most of her victories through solid technique and savvy use of her reach rather than power. That’s exactly how she beat Kahraman, who attempted to force a more physical fight while Lin patiently picked her apart, mostly from a distance.
After Kahraman hugged Lin and held open the ropes to allow Lin to leave the ring at Roland Garros in a typical boxing gesture of sportsmanship, Lin clapped, waved, and bowed to the cheering crowd several times while leaving the floor.
While Khelif gave an exclusive interview last weekend to SNTV, a sports video partner of The Associated Press, and then spoke briefly in the mixed zone after her semifinal victory Tuesday, Lin has made little public comment about those attempting to involve her in controversy.
She has received ample support from outside the Olympics, even from former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen — and when Lin thrust one glove in the air and walked to the ring for the opening bout on Court Philippe Chatrier, she received loud cheers from a huge crowd with pockets of roaring, flag-waving fans.
“Thank you to all the supporters who have supported and encouraged me along the way,” Lin said. “I will give my utmost effort to repay them at the final.”
Both Lin and Khelif have been cheered constantly during their time in the Olympic boxing rings, first in suburban Villepinte and then at this famed clay-court tennis complex.
Lin controlled her first two fights in Paris against opponents from Uzbekistan and Bulgaria despite starting relatively slowly in both bouts. She did it again when she fought Kahraman, who is more physically strong than Lin, but perhaps not as skilled.
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Kahraman immediately tried to bring the fight to Lin, muscling and charging forward to get inside Lin’s persistent jab and winging shots. Lin did enough to win the round on all five judges’ cards, but she also slipped and tumbled to the canvas midway through the round after a physical collision.
Both fighters heedlessly exchanged shots early in the second round, thrilling the crowd. Lin received a warning for throwing punches to the back of the head after Kahraman lunged past her, drawing whistles from the crowd.
Lin will fight for gold against the 20-year-old Szeremeta, who rallied with a dominant third round for a 4:1 victory over Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines. While Lin lost to Petecio in the Tokyo Olympics, Lin and Szeremeta have never met in the ring.
Khelif will take on Yang Liu of China in the women’s 75-kilogram final on Friday night.
A touch of winter came to the Summer Games on Wednesday when the United States figure skating team finally got its gold medals as 2022 Olympic champions.
The special medal ceremony allowed the nine Americans to parade on a runway in the bright Paris sunshine, gaze at the Eiffel Tower, and bask in warm cheers from the fans packed into the stands at Champions Park.
Exactly 2 1/2 years after the figure skating team event ended at the Beijing Olympics — and the doping saga of the winning Russian team started — the Americans got the medals that weren’t awarded at the time.
“I think it absolutely was worth the wait. Definitely,” said Karen Chen, wearing the first gold medal of her career around her neck.
All nine American skaters came to Paris, including Evan Bates, Nathan Chen, Madison Chock, Zachary Donohue, Brandon Frazier, Madison Hubbell, Alexa Knierim and Vincent Zhou. Seven of the eight members of the Japan team came to get their silver medals — an upgrade from their third-place result in Beijing.
The athletes were honored with a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” not the Tchaikovsky piano piece that would have been played for the Russians in Beijing. The ceremony in France was watched by family, friends and fans. Not in a near-empty indoor ice arena in China during an Olympics staged through a COVID-19 lockdown.
“It is very memorable for all of us to be here and to get our medals,” Karen Chen said, “to just see the crowds, see everything and embrace it all.”
Knierim, who skated with Frazier in pairs, had her fingernails painted golden.
“I thought it was perfect for the occasion,” she said of a ceremony confirmed only two weeks ago.
A Russian appeal trying to win back the Olympic team title was dismissed at the Court of Arbitration for Sport just before the Paris Games opened. The title had been stripped in January when a different CAS panel disqualified Russian teenager Kamila Valieva for doping with a banned heart medication. She also was banned for four years.
No Russian skaters are getting medals in the French capital, although their third-place finish was confirmed during the Paris Olympics in yet another CAS ruling. The Russian Olympic Committee has been formally suspended from the games, but 15 individuals are competing as neutral athletes after vetting.
Canada’s skaters lost their appeal last Friday to have their points tally upgraded from fourth place by the International Skating Union.
“My heart goes out to them,” said Zhou, one of the new Olympic champions.
The unusual setting for a Winter Games medal ceremony had more unusual features: no podium, no bronze medalists, and no flagpoles. An American flag was shown on a big screen.
Still, Bates said, Paris had been spoken of as “the dream scenario” to get medals when the U.S. left Beijing without any. It had been his fourth Olympics and it was his first medal.
“I don’t know what it feels like (to get a medal at the Winter Games) but this feels pretty good,” said Bates, who skated ice dance with Chock.
The longtime on-ice partners got married in June.
“We grew up dreaming of this — but not in 90-degree weather,” Bates said in the shade before Chock quipped: “We’re not built for this heat.”
Theirs was the first of several Olympic results amended by doping cases that will have the rightful medals presented at Champions Park. On Friday, 10 athletes are set to be presented with their upgraded medals, including two American champions from the 2012 London Olympics who originally got silver medals behind Russians later shown to be doped.
Lashinda Demus will get her gold medal as the Olympic champion in the women’s 400-meter hurdles and Erik Kynard in the men’s high jump.
“Today is a victory for clean athletes everywhere,” Chock said. “Some athletes have to wait much longer than 2 1/2 years.”
China took gold in the artistic swimming team event Wednesday night at the Paris Olympics, with the United States getting silver and Spain taking bronze.
China dominated in the absence of Russia, which had won every gold medal in artistics beginning with the 2000 Sydney Games.
China finished with 996.1389 points, ahead of the Americans’ 914.3421 and Spain’s 900.7319. It was the first U.S. medal in the sport since 2004.
It was a big medal for China, and also a step forward for the sport, which changed its name from synchronized swimming several years ago to update its image. Some swimmers still call it “synchro.”
“There is attention to the sport that has never happened before,” said Adam Andrasko, who heads USA Artistic Swimming. “This is an absolutely different sport.”
The smiles, the makeup, and hair gelatin remain, but this is no longer the water ballet beneath flowery rubber caps that your grandparents watched.
“It’s so worth it, I can hardly believe it,” American Megumi Field said, her silver medal around her neck. “Now we have a silver medal. What happened. I’m so excited.”
Teammate Jacklyn Luu was quick to salute the Chinese.
“Their execution is just out of this world,” Luu said. “When you see them swim they are like machines out there. So clean. We wanted to put some of that into our swims.”
American Jamie Czarkowski also had the Chinese on her mind.
“We have a lot of respect for them,” she said. “You can see how much work they put in. They deserve that gold medal — no doubt.”
Wednesday’s acrobatic routines, after technical and free routines on Monday and Tuesday, put female athleticism on full display: power, endurance, and energy.
In the acrobatic routine, each team is required to include seven above-water elements. Seven times, a swimmer known as the “flier” is launched 2 meters (6 feet) above the water surface into flips, twists, and dives.
She is catapulted into the air from a base of swimmers below who are not allowed to touch the bottom of the pool.
Tricks, more muscular routines, and more buzz now characterize the sport, like the moonwalk routine — performed upside down with the swimmers’ heads underwater — that the Americans performed Tuesday in the free routine.
Rules and judging changes adopted about 18 months ago have turned this into gymnastics on the water — with a dramatic edge like figure skating. The risks are also higher.
“People are pleasantly confused about how in the world these women can do what they do,” Andrasko said.
Men had an opportunity for the first time to compete in artistics at the Olympics, but none was picked by any of the teams. There is consideration to add a mixed duet team event for Los Angeles 2028, which would create more space for men to compete.
“There was not nearly enough time for nearly enough males to prepare for this chance,” Andrasko said. “It was a challenge to step up interest in a year and a half before the Olympics.”
Alysha Newman didn’t know whether to cry, kiss everybody in Stade de France, or just sit there and think about the Olympic bronze medal she had just won, the first by a Canadian pole vaulter in 112 years.
That’s the sport, in a nutshell. And it can certainly drive you there.
But Newman, who seems to be a new woman at age 30, turned increased mental toughness into a national record at 4.85 meters, then ran out of jumps when the bar went up to 4.90m and she couldn’t quite get over it. All the while, Australia’s Nina Kennedy and Katie Moon of the U.S. were dueling for gold and silver, and the competition dragged on into the night.
“I laugh because you know, getting third is, I mean, I’ve never gotten third, but it’s funny because you have to still wait and sit there and wait till the other girls are done,” said Newman. “And so I’m like, so awkwardly standing there. What do I do? Do I celebrate? Do I kiss everyone? Do I cry? So, it was a really surreal moment.”
Newman has dominated the event in Canada for a decade, but was competing in the first big Games final she has made since 2019, and the London, Ont. native was determined to deliver.
In so doing, she could outlive the devastation of no-heighting at the Olympics in Tokyo in 2021, where she was competing just three months after suffering a concussion. She had fallen in a bathtub shower in Des Moines, Iowa, striking her face on the faucet. The lingering effects of the concussion and the subsequent devastation of Tokyo sent her reeling, personally and professionally. But she is back to realize the elite potential that has been part of her DNA for a decade.
“I don’t know where to start, but I retired like 20 times in my head,” she said of the desperation she felt after Tokyo. “So I’ve come back from retirement many times. And honestly, I think one thing I’ve always said to myself was like, I never felt done. I never felt like I was done giving back to the sport. I feel like this medal is only going to give me more of a voice. I feel like I want to build a track facility in Canada. I want to do some more stuff in the sport. And this bronze medal is going to help. And I think my dreams are bigger than medals. Maybe that sounds horrible, but it’s such a moment and I’m going to live in it.
“I felt like I was stronger than ever mentally. I was like I never gave up on myself this year. And when things went bad, I still smiled. And that’s huge. Like I’m happy still when I lose. And I don’t think a lot of athletes feel that way. And so I’m honored that I can step off the track with a bad day and still go home and feel accomplished. Because I’ve done so much in this sport and this just keeps adding to my resume.”
That CV in PV as it were, was pretty good even before Wednesday’s medal. She won Commonwealth Games gold and bronze, as well as Pan Am Games bronze. She finished fifth and seventh at the world championships too. But she needed to make her bones at the Olympics. And now she has done it. The sport she loves now officially loves her back.
“There’s nothing quite like pole vault. It’s the craziest sport. It brings you through so much roller coaster. You know, you’re never satisfied. A lot of us end in failure unless we decide to retire from the competition. So you’re constantly hungry. You never feel like you’re at your full potential. And I think it’s like a hard thing to deal with. It’s like, wait, I just got a bronze medal, but I can’t wait for my next meet already because now I want to jump 4.90. So you’re constantly being fueled by this sport. And I think that’s why it never let me go when I was bad or wasn’t doing good. I just wanted to stay around as long as I possibly could or until my body was going to let me stay.”
She has had her problems with injury, and the concussion was clearly the most impactful. It nearly ended her career, but it also led her to the door of American neurologist Dr. Daniel Amen, who has given her rare insight into brain health, and she has turned that into a competitive edge. She is healthier and happier now than ever before, and that translates into great performances.
This season, for instance, had been a success even before the bronze. She jumped 4.75 meters five times and increased her PB to 4.83 meters. She was confident competent and ready to do something special at these Games. But first, she had to make a final. She did that on Monday and felt light as a feather. The weight was gone from her shoulders.
“A lot of people don’t know I haven’t made a final since 2019, and it’s been eating away at me for five years and it’s emotional and it’s hard because it’s not like someone wakes up and says I want to pole vault every day,” she had said Monday. “There has to be some fire and there has to be some passion behind it. And my environment, that’s who makes me keep coming back. My coaches. They see me more than I have ever seen myself and without them, I definitely would not have kept pushing. I laughed. I said this might be my last (Olympics) but I don’t know. I’m having fun and I just turned 30, so maybe I’m entering a prime when I thought I was in my prime before. It might be a new type of prime.”
Her previous best at an Olympics was 17th in Rio 2016, so yes indeed, it would appear that she is reaching a new peak. She said her professional and personal happiness has clearly been a benefit to her performance this season.
“I really, really wanted that 4.90 bar to be in the 4.90 club,” she said. “But I guess I still have six weeks left. I’m going to do the Diamond Leagues and I’m going to head over there. So I’m pretty stoked about that.
“I mean, at the same time, I know I laugh because I’m like, dang it, you’re so close. And you just smile and you laugh because the next jump you’re a better jumper. And no one looks at it that way. It’s like I hit it, okay, I failed technically. But for my next jump, I’m going to clear it and I’m a better jumper now. So it’s cool when you fail, you learn. And this whole year was never lost. It was learn or win.
“That was all I thought about all year.”
Cole Hocker made headlines with a dramatic finish in the men's 1,500-meter race at the Paris Olympics, clinching gold in a thrilling upset.
Hocker's unexpected win at the Paris Olympic Games
The 23-year-old middle-distance runner from Indianapolis surged from mid-pack to seize victory, crossing the line with an Olympic record time of 3:27.65, which was nearly three seconds faster than his previous personal best.
Hocker, who finished sixth in the same event at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, was not initially favored to win gold.
However, his performance in Paris demonstrated a remarkable turnaround from his earlier competitions.
He had earned silver in the 1,500-meter at the 2024 World Indoor Championships, but few anticipated such a stunning triumph at the Olympics.
Throughout the race, Hocker remained out of the leading group, with Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Britain's Josh Kerr taking turns at the front.
Kerr led as the runners approached the final stretch, but Hocker's powerful final kick allowed him to overtake Kerr just before the finish line.
American Yared Nuguse also shone, securing the bronze medal and completing a U.S. podium sweep in the event.
Reflecting on his victory, Hocker expressed his disbelief, saying, "It's an unbelievable feeling. I just felt like I was getting carried by the stadium and God. My body just kind of did it for me. My mind was all there and I saw that finish line."
In addition to his Olympic success in track & field, Hocker's achievements include three national championships during his collegiate career at Oregon, where he excelled in the mile, 3,000 meters, and 1,500 meters.
Turning professional in 2021, Hocker continued to build on his impressive career, culminating in his Olympic gold medal.
Hocker's win in Paris marked the third gold medal for Team USA in the athletics competition, adding to the nation's total medal count, which leads the field.
What was supposed to be the easy half of Noah Lyles’ historic Olympic sprint double isn’t looking quite so easy anymore.
Newly crowned the Fastest Man Alive after a close-as-can-be win by five-thousandths of a second in the 100 meters at the 2024 Games, Lyles was not even the fastest man in his semifinal of the 200 on Wednesday night. He was good enough to make it into that event’s final, anyway.
The 200 is Lyles’ preferred, and better, distance — one at which he had not lost a race in three full years. That streak was snapped at the Stade de France, where Letsile Tebogo of Botswana beat him to the line by crossing in 19.96 seconds, 0.12 faster than runner-up Lyles.
They’ll have a rematch for the gold on Thursday night.
Getting golds in the 100 and 200 at a single Olympics is a rare feat. Usain Bolt accomplished that double at three Olympics in a row — in Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016. But until the Jamaican, no man had done it since Carl Lewis at Los Angeles in 1984.
At his last Games, eight years ago, Bolt was shutting it down late in his 200 semifinal and suddenly realized Andre De Grasse was running hard. So Bolt dialed his speed back up and wagged a finger at the Canadian. Fast-forward to the final: Bolt won easily.
Before pulling out his narrow win over Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson in the 100 final on Sunday night, Lyles didn’t finish first in his heat or his semifinal.
As anyone who pays any attention is well aware, Lyles is a showman who loves the spotlight and enjoys spending time with a microphone.
That’s obvious from his mean-mugging and gesturing on the purple track in Paris before he runs or such statements as the off-hand comparison between track and the NBA that went viral last year: “The thing that hurts me the most is I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have ‘World Champion’ on their head,” Lyles said. “World champion of what? The United States?”
So it raised some eyebrows when Lyles skipped the interview area after Wednesday’s run, and U.S. team officials said he was heading to the medical tent. His coach, Lance Brauman, told The Associated Press: “He’s fine.”
That might just add a bit more intrigue in the 24 hours until the medals are at stake.
There already was plenty.
Is Lyles, a 27-year-old from Florida, at his best? How much did he care about the semifinal, when lane placements are determined but all that truly matters is moving on to the round that determines the medals? Will Lyles find some extra fuel from being outdone in front of a full house of about 80,000?
Was the 21-year-old Tebogo, the 200 bronze medalist at the worlds but making his Olympic debut, trying to send a message? Is he ready to challenge for a gold?
And what about Kenny Bednarek, Lyles’ U.S. teammate, and the Tokyo Games silver medalist, who ran in a different semifinal and won it in 20 seconds flat, the evening’s second-fastest time? Or Erryion Knighton, a 20-year-old American seen as the next threat, but whose only victories over Lyles came in the opening rounds of the 2021 Olympic trials.
At the last Olympics, Lyles finished behind Bednarek and champion De Grasse in the 200. On Wednesday, De Grasse was third in Bednarek’s heat with a time too slow to reach the final.
Afterward, De Grasse mentioned a hamstring issue that resurfaced. He also was asked about his American coach, Rana Reider, getting kicked out of the Paris Games after the Canadian Olympic Committee said it “learned of new information about the appropriateness of Mr. Reider remaining accredited.” Reider was investigated for alleged sexual misconduct by the U.S. Center for SafeSport and placed on a one-year probation that ended in May.
“I tried to keep my head and stay mentally strong,” De Grasse said, “but of course, that’s always tough, not having your coach out there with you.”
In a showdown at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the U.S. women's basketball team overpowered Nigeria, securing an 88-74 victory to advance to the semifinals. Leading the charge, A'ja Wilson racked up 20 points, Jackie Young added 15, Breanna Stewart contributed 13, and Brittney Griner chipped in 11.
Team USA was on fire, shooting an impressive 54% from the field, though their 3-point shooting lagged at 26%. Dominating the boards with a 44-28 edge, they now set their sights on a semifinal clash with Australia on August 9, hoping to clinch their eighth consecutive gold on August 11.
Chelsea Gray showcased her passing prowess early on, dishing out assists to Breanna Stewart for the second bucket and a cross-court three-pointer, setting the tone for the game. The Americans' fluid offense was a spectacle to watch.
Nigeria, under the guidance of head coach Rena Wakama, who also serves as an assistant coach for Tulane, showed resilience and grit. They went toe-to-toe with the U.S. from the get-go, refusing to be intimidated by the American dynasty.
Cheryl Reeve, in a strategic move, made her first substitutions with just under four minutes left in the first quarter. Chelsea Gray, A'ja Wilson, and Napheesa Collier stepped off, making way for Sabrina Ionescu, Alyssa Thomas, and Brittney Griner. Diana Taurasi and Jewell Loyd soon followed, bringing fresh energy to the court.
U.S. Women surge past Nigeria to secure Semifinal berth
Jackie Young, starting the game with her defensive skills, made her presence felt with early buckets, tallying five points quickly. Breanna Stewart, not to be outdone, had seven points, while Diana Taurasi, off the bench, nailed a crucial three-pointer to give the U.S. some breathing room.
Despite a somewhat shaky start to the knockout rounds, with Nigeria showing no fear and going directly at Team USA, the Americans managed to close the first half with a 14-4 run. The halftime talk was all about ramping up intensity for the third quarter.
Breanna Stewart led with 13 points at halftime, followed closely by A'ja Wilson with 10. The U.S. was shooting a red-hot 59% from the field, though Coach Reeve wasn't pleased with Nigeria's 40% shooting, knowing defense was key to their success.
By the end of the third quarter, the U.S. had blown the game wide open, leading 76-48. Four players had scored nine points or more, with Jackie Young at the helm with 15. Every player had contributed points, and the team's field goal percentage was an astounding 60%. Australia was undoubtedly preparing for the impending battle.
The final buzzer saw Team USA firmly in control, dispatching Nigeria and punching their ticket to the semifinals. The victory was expected, but the journey to gold is far from over as they brace for the Aussies next.
Nina Kennedy bounced off the pole vault mats and punched the air once, twice, three times. She ran over to the Olympic crowd and took another three swings in the air.
Aussies in the stands flew the flag, shook green-and-gold banners, and held up yellow inflatable kangaroos.
Kennedy didn’t know at that stage she would deliver Australia an 18th gold medal at the Paris Games — a national record for the Olympics. That was just the celebration for clearing the height to take the lead.
Kennedy clinched the victory a bit later Wednesday when Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Katie Moon failed to clear 4.95 meters after a three-hour final.
Then the emotions took over. Kennedy raced back to her supporters in the crowd and the tears flowed as she hugged friends, family, and discus throw bronze medalist Matthew Denny, who just happened to be walking back after his final to join the group. Then Kennedy sprang back across the track, hopping with delight.
A man in the crowd yelled: “What did you just do?”
Well, delivering Australia’s fourth gold medal on Day 12 helped surpass the country’s previous record total of 17 golds for a Summer Games — set at the 2004 Athens Olympics and in Tokyo three years ago. The Australians moved from 14 to 18 gold medals in about six hours, while most of the country Down Under was sleeping.
“I didn’t know that, that is just insane,” Kennedy said after being told of the record haul. “I can’t wait to go home and watch a replay of the whole Olympics.”
It was a good day — no need to abbreviate g’day for this feat — as Aussies woke up to the news of the record. The productive stretch had Australia ranked third in the gold-medal standings behind the United States and China with four days of the Paris Games remaining. Australia had 18 gold, 12 silver, and 11 bronze for a total of 41 medals, still well short of the record 58 it won at home at the 2000 Sydney Games.
Brisbane, Australia, is in line after the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to host the Summer Games in eight years. The starter’s gun has gone off.
The Australian team’s other golds on Wednesday included a first in two decades for the men’s team pursuit cycling team, which edged rival Britain at the Vélodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. Sailor Matt Wearn successfully defended the men’s dinghy title and skateboarder Keegan Palmer made it back-to-back Olympic golds.
It was slightly overwhelming for the 21-year-old Palmer, with skateboarding great Tony Hawk praising his work and Snoop Dogg in the bowl.
“It’s an absolute honor, you know, just being able to be a part of that crew that was able to beat the record for us, with 18, it really doesn’t get much better,” Palmer, who grew up in Australia’s Gold Coast, an hour down the road from Brisbane, said in a night-time interview. “Australia is where I learned how to walk, talk, skate, surf, do everything I know how to do.
“So that’s why I also represent Australia, because that’s where it all went down for me. They deserve to have a gold medal come back for the stuff they’ve given me.”
Alysha Newman vaults to historic bronze for #TeamCanada on Day 12! pic.twitter.com/LEj31JpAEJ
— Team Canada (@TeamCanada) August 8, 2024
ALYSHA NEWMAN HAS DONE ITpic.twitter.com/YnHIXlrZ73
— Digital Advice (@DigAdvice) August 7, 2024