Building on the seven medals, including three golds, that Team GB won on a fantastic Friday in Paris, the runners from the United Kingdom got off to a blazing start in the track events that were held at the Stade de France.
A number of athletes, including Bryony Page, who won the first Olympic trampoline competition for the United Kingdom, as well as the women’s lightweight double sculls and the showjumping team, were among those who climbed to the top of the podium on the seventh day of the Games.
A fourth medal in the aquatics center guaranteed a best-ever haul for British divers at an Olympic Games. Additionally, there were silver medals in the men’s four in rowing and in the pool for Ben Proud in the 50-meter freestyle and Duncan Scott in the 200-meter medley. The British delegation brought home both of these medals.
In the men’s competition, Tommy Fleetwood, a golfer from the United Kingdom, shot a score of 64, which allowed him to finish the day tied for first place with Xander Schauffele, a two-time winner of major championships, and Hideki Matsuyama, a Japanese golfing superstar.
The track and field competition got underway in earnest with a tremendous performance by Josh Kerr, who not only surged through to the semi-final of the Olympic 1500-meter race but also brushed off a taunt from his Norwegian competitor, Jakob Ingebrigtsen. This accomplishment was accomplished with a high level of morale.
The 26-year-old athlete finished the first of three heats in the fastest time, which was 3 minutes and 35.83 seconds. This allowed him to secure a spot in the semifinals, which will take place on Sunday evening. Additionally, he disproved Ingebrigtsen’s assertion that the British athlete did not compete in a sufficient number of contests to be considered a genuine competitor.
Kerr, who triumphed against the Norwegians to win the world championship in 2023, assured the press under his command, “I’ve heard. At the conclusion of my career, I would like to have arrived at a point where I am defined, and I believe that I am just beginning.
With any luck, that will result in medals, fast times, and exciting head-to-head competitions. It is perfectly acceptable for everyone to have their own opinions; I have no issues with that at all, and I hope that I will be known for something that is a little bit different from that.
Imani-Lara Lansiquot, Daryll Neita, and Dina Asher-Smith, who won the European championship in the 100-meter dash, are also among the women who have advanced to the semi-finals of the competition on Saturday. In his statement, Asher-Smith stated, “I just wanted to get started.” It seems as though you are just sitting around waiting, waiting, and waiting some more. Tokyo was peculiar for a great number of different reasons.
The crowd is filled with a significant number of British fans. As a result, my heart felt a lot warmer. And I believe that it simply contributes to the incredible excitement and atmosphere that the athletes are able to experience. This is the kind of energy that we feed off of.
The outstanding performance of the British team in Paris after seven days of competition is an improvement on both the performances of Tokyo and Rio at a similar level. This puts the squad firmly on a trajectory for a record haul that might match the top end of the estimate that UK Sport has made for 70 medals.
Page, who overcame Lost Move Syndrome (LMS) earlier in her career, took the opportunity to speak after her victory on the trampoline at the Bercy Arena. LMS is a psychological condition in which athletes find themselves unable to perform a skill that was previously automatic. Page provided an insight into the struggles and victories that are associated with competing at the highest level of sport.
The 33-year-old individual stated, “I’ve just been having some difficulties with my ankle.” My original idea had to be altered. The three-triple routine, which is what I performed at the Olympics, was something that I really wanted to go for, but I had to adapt it to something that was more comfortable in order to actually make it to the Olympics without being hurt.
“Then, the day before yesterday, I felt a pain in my neck, and my ankles were hurting, so I had just begun to question my own abilities. Because of this, I think the shock stems from the fact that I was actually able to accomplish it.
Page, who had previously won a silver medal in Rio and a bronze medal in Tokyo, was able to add a gold medal to her collection of Olympic medals by defeating Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya of Belarus. Bardzilouskaya had previously claimed the title of first medal winner among the neutral competitors when she won a silver medal.
Page stated once again that she is interested in becoming an acrobat for Cirque du Soleil, but she also mentioned that she might be enticed to compete in the Olympics again in four years’ time.
The sensation is incredible, she remarked. “I am experiencing every emotion that you can possibly think of right now, including astonishment, surprise, and overwhelming feelings. It’s kind of a bummer that it’s over now.”
Following their failure to win a medal in the women’s lightweight double sculls competition in Tokyo by just 0.01 seconds, Emily Craig and Imogen Grant were able to find redemption in the subsequent competition. As a source of motivation, Craig created a copy of the photo finish and hung it on the wall in her living room.
During the Olympics, Grant stated, “That was a part of our story, and this Olympics was the grand finale.” It is not true that every Olympic athlete is able to get it perfect on their very first attempt, and it is not that we did something wrong in Tokyo. A lot of effort has been put in, and as a result, we are a completely new and improved group of people this time around. It seems to me that the racing that took place today was a kind of inevitable event.
Despite finishing more than a second behind Team GB’s timing of 6 minutes, 47.06 seconds, Romania was awarded the silver medal. The Greeks came in third.
The British showjumping team was able to keep the United States team at bay and win the gold medal. Scott Brash, Ben Maher, and Harry Charles accomplished this while performing with their arms bandaged following a fracture they sustained four weeks prior. Julien Epaillard fell one of his fences in the last round, which resulted in France finishing in third place, behind the United States of America. “I’m pretty speechless,” said Charles, who was from Alton at the time. I require a couple more hours to do some introspection.
With the successful execution of the most difficult dive in the discipline, Jack Laugher and Anthony Harding delivered a bronze medal in the men’s 3m springboard synchronized final. This ensured that Paris will go down in history as the most successful Games for the diving team to any point in time.
A four-time Olympian who already possesses a gold, silver, and bronze medal in his collection, Laugher acknowledged the pressure that he and Harding had been under as a result of the early triumphs of the British diving team, which included a bronze medal for his fiancée Lois Toulson in the synchronized 10 meter platform event.
Having said that, the 29-year-old individual stated, “I would never have heard the end of it if I didn’t get one, and she did.”
As a result of a nasty collision, Kye Whyte, who had previously won the silver medal in the BMX competition in Tokyo, was sent to the hospital after leaving the semi-finals on a stretcher.
During this time, the Hungarian Boxing Association lodged a protest with the International Olympic Committee against their decision to permit the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. This objection was made in advance of Khelif’s quarterfinal match against one of the participants from Hungary.
Italian boxer Angela Carini announced on Thursday that she had chosen to withdraw from her match against Khelif because Khelif had failed the International Boxing Association’s (IBA) gender eligibility test at the 2023 world championships. Carini stated that she “preferred to stop for my health” and added, “I have never felt a punch like this.”
In addition, the Chinese Taipei fighter Lin Yu-ting, who was the second boxer to fail a gender test administered by the International Boxing Association (IBA) and be allowed to compete in Paris, outpointed her opponent, Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan.
Khelif “was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, and has a female passport,” according to Mark Adams, a representative for the International Olympic Committee, who stated that the decision made by the International Boxing Association (IBA) was “arbitrarily” made. He continued by saying, “There has been some confusion that somehow a man is fighting a woman as a result of this.” This is simply not the case from a scientific standpoint.