Artistic Swimming

Australia delivered an impressive acrobatic routine in the artistic swimming competition at the Paris 2024 Olympics, earning a score of 211.9766. Combined with the teams technical score of 235.9071 and 280.5521 in the free routine for a final total of 728.4358.

Their performance was set to "Move Your Body" by Alvaro Rodriguez Alvarez and followed a vibrant cheerleading theme, showcasing the team's exceptional synchronisation, creativity, and athleticism.

Placing 9th overall, Australia showcased a strong performance throughout the Games, demonstrating their growing prowess in artistic swimming and leaving a memorable mark on the international stage.

Athletics

Nina Kennedy has added the Olympic pole vault crown to her world title, becoming the first Australian woman to win gold in a field event. And this is one title she doesn’t need to share. Defending champion Katie Moon of the USA, who famously decided with Nina to share the 2023 world crown, jumped a season’s best 4.85m to win the silver and Canadian Alysha Newman jumped a national record of 4.85m for the bronze.

The 27-year-old came from Perth to Paris, via meets around Europe, in great form and with a steely determination and belief that she could win Olympic gold.

She jumped a season’s best of 4.90m and handled a marathon competition and equipment issues. Nina was focused and no competitor or competition delay was going to derail her campaign.

On a stellar night for Australia in the field, Matt Denny became the only Australian man to win an Olympic throws medal, winning bronze.

In the highest quality final in Olympic history, it took two different athletes breaking the Olympic record to beat the 28-year-old Australian. Matt’s second round throw of 69.31 metres claimed the bronze was just 4cm shy of his Australian record.

Early in the day, Jemima Montag teamed up with athletics co-captain Rhydian Cowley and claim bronze in the first Olympic Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay ever contested.

This is Jemima’s second bronze medal for the Games after finishing third in the 20km Individual race six days ago. There were amazing scenes of exhaustion and jubilation at the finish line.

Declan Tingay and Rebecca Henderson also combined as the second Australian team and raced their hearts out to place 22^nd.

Basketball

Jade Melbourne and Alanna Smith have propelled the Opals to a comprehensive 85-67 quarter-finals victory in Paris, progressing through to the semi-final to keep their medal chances alive.

Their semi-finals clash will see them lineup against either the United States or Nigeria depending on the outcome of their quarter-final at 5:30am AEST.

Battle hardened by ultra physical group stage matches and facing must-win circumstances after the shock campaign-opening loss to Nigeria, the Opals showcased belief, ruthlessness and chemistry in spades.

They led for all but 83 seconds of the game, putting themselves one win away from a medal and two wins away from a gold medal.

Canoe - Sprint

Triple Olympian Alyce Wood and Olympic K2 gold medallist Tom Green are through to the semi-finals of the K1 500m and K1 1000m in the sprint kayak after dominating their heats in Paris.

Alyce clocked a time of 1:51.39 behind Hungarian Alida Dora Gazso in heat two to bypass the quarter-finals and move straight into the semi-finals.

Teammate, and Tokyo Olympic gold medallist Tom Green, had such an advantage in his K1 1000m heat over second place Josef Dostal (CZE) that he stopped paddling and cruised to the line in a time of 3:35.99. The Australians will line-up for the K1 semi finals on Saturday.

For Alyce, the result builds on her Olympic performances from Tokyo where she finished eighth in the A Final and in Rio where she finished eighth in the A Final of the Women’s Kayak Double 500m.

Cycling - Track

Australia has won an historic gold medal in the Men’s Team Pursuit - its first in the blue riband event since Athens in 2004.

Sam Welsford, Kelland O’Brien and Games debutants Oliver Bleddyn and Conor Leahy combined to beat Great Britain in an epic final in Paris.

Barely 0.2 of a second separated the two teams for the entire 4km before Australia broke their arch rivals on the last lap and won by two seconds in a time of 3:42.067.

In other events at the velodrome, the Women’s Team Pursuit finished seventh by beating Canada in their last race of competition.

Maeve Plouffe, Alex Manly, Sophie Edwards, Chloe Moran and Georgia Baker all combined throughout the rounds before clocking a time of 4:11.548 to beat Canada in the race for seventh.

In the Women’s Keirin, Kristina Clonan has moved through to the quarter-finals after fighting her way through the repechage rounds.

In the Men’s Sprint, Matthew Richardson broke the world record with 9.09 seconds in qualifying and won his next three match-ups to move through to the quarter-finals.

His Australian teammate Leigh Hoffman was fourth fastest in qualifying, and made it to the round of eight where he then had to go through the repechage and did not make it any further.

Diving

Kurtis Mathews has sprung into the final of the Men’s 3m Springboard, following an incredible 11^th place finish, with his final dive propelling him from 14^th position into the top 12, securing his qualification with a total score of 417.15.

Maddi Keeney and Alysha Koloi were also in action, competing in the Women’s 3m Springboard preliminaries, with the Aussies securing qualification through to the semi-final.

Maddi and Alysha will compete in the Women’s 3m Springboard semi-final at 6pm AEST, while Kurtis competes in the Men’s 3m Springboard Final at 11pm AEST.

Golf

Four birdies in her final five holes have elevated West Australian Minjee Lee inside the top 10 after day one of the Women’s Golf competition at Le Golf National.

After Hannah Green signed for an opening round of five-over 77, it took until the 14th hole of Minjee’s round for the Aussie pair to register their first birdie on a challenging course buffeted by strong morning winds.

But after Minjee conjured what she described as a “hard-fought birdie” at the par-five 14th, they came with a flurry.

She holed a 24-foot putt for birdie on 15, hit a brilliant tee shot into just six feet at the par-three 16th and then closed out her round of one-under 71 with a two-putt birdie from 56 feet at the par-5 18th.

Frenchwoman Celine Boutier thrilled the boisterous home crowd with a stunning seven-under 65 to lead by three but, on a day in which only 12 players broke par, Minjee ignited her medal dream by finishing in a tie for seventh.

Sailing

Australia’s Matt Wearn has won back-to-back Olympic gold in the Men’s Dinghy, becoming the first sailor from any nation to successfully defend the title.

Patience and poise underpinned the victory for 28-year-old Matt, after winds played havoc with scheduling in Marseille.

Going into the final race, Matt had done enough through the competition to claim no worse than silver, with only Cypriot sailor Pavlos Kontides able to catch him.

With the final already postponed by a day, racing got underway on Wednesday in Marseille. Matt was comfortable and looking good for gold, before organisers decided to abandon the event just moments from the finish.

A “pretty stressed and frustrated” Matt then had to regather himself forty minutes later, and with racing starting again in light winds, he dominated in a clinical performance, crossing the line first with a total score of 40 points.

His victory means Australia has now won four consecutive Olympic gold medals in the men’s dinghy (Laser) sailing class.

The Women’s Kite final series has moved to Day 13 with Australia’s Breiana Whitehead in the semi final, with the Mixed Dinghy medal race also taking place, Australia represented by Nia Jerwood and Conor Nicholas.

Skateboarding

Keegan Palmer has confirmed himself as the king of Australian skateboarding, securing back-to-back Olympic gold medals in the Men’s Park.

It was a dominant performance from the 21-year-old, who set the bar high with his incredible opening run that sent the full house at the Place de la Concorde into hysterics.

His score of 93.11 was too good for his competitors, with Tom Schaar (USA) and Augusto Akio (BRA) finishing with the silver and bronze, despite both throwing everything on the line in their final runs.

Sport Climbing

Australia’s Campbell Harrison showcased his exceptional climbing talent in the semi-finals of the Men’s Boulder & Lead competition at the Paris 2024 Olympics, achieving a combined score of 23.4. Despite not making it to the finals, Harrison’s performance, including a 14.0-point lead climb and a 9.4-point boulder segment, marked a significant milestone for Australia’s sport climbing community.

Oceania Mackenzie will look to qualify in the Women’s Boulder & Lead final when she takes to the wall in the Lead portion of her semi-final August 8 6:00pm AEST.

Taekwondo

The Olympic campaign of debutant Bailey Lewis in the men's -58kg Taekwondo has come to an end after defeat in the quarter-finals at the hands of Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi (TUN).

Competing at the Grand Palais, Bailey had the tough task of trying to beat Jendoubi, reigning Olympic silver medallist and world number one.

Speaking after the 2-0 loss, Bailey said the event went "not how I expected" but he had a chance for repechage if Jendoubi won his semi-final. Jendoubi lost the semi against Taejoon Park (KOR).

Water Polo

The Aussie Sharks are out of the competition, going down to the USA in a heart-breaking penalty shoot-out at La Defense Arena.

It was a tight tussle from the start, with Australia quick to get on the scoreboard. However despite obtaining a 5-2 lead, the Sharks were until to hold back the attack from the Americans. A momentum shift in the third saw the USA get back into the game with scores ending at 7-7 at the conclusion of time. The Aussies fell in a shoot-out 11-10.

It’s the first time the Australian Men’s team has made the Olympic quarter-final since London 2012.

Gold rush! Australian Olympic history made on Day 12