Eleanor Aldridge of Great Britain won the gold medal in the women’s kiteboarding event, a new Olympic sailing sport.
The silver went to Lauriane Nolot of France, who took a fall into the water and lost her lead but had two wins from previous rounds.
Decorated American track and field star Allyson Felix was elected to the International Olympics Committee (IOC). The retired Olympian has 11 medals to her name and was one of 29 athletes considered for four spots on the comittee.
Joining Felix are canoer Jessica Fox of Australia, who won two gold medals in Paris; German gymnast Kim Bui; and New Zealand's tennis player Marcus Daniell.
Max Rendschmidt was among the four of Germany’s men’s kayak team to take the gold on Aug. 8 in a sprint that beat Australia by a hundredth of a second. This is his fourth kayaking gold medal in four Olympics.
The Germans won a second kayaking medal that day when the women’s team wook the silver in the 500-meter event. New Zealand won the gold and Hungary the bronze.
The pathway followed this year by Nelly Korda and Scottie Scheffler shares a common direction for the world-ranked number-one female and male players.
Both players started off the 2024 season with rocket-like launches.
Scheffler won five times on the PGA Tour before the U.S. Open, a feat last accomplished by Tom Watson in 1980.
Decorated swimmer Michael Phelps said he got chills watching Bobby Finke swim the 1,500-meter freestyle, breaking both the world and Olympic records in taking the gold.
Finke was a breakout star during his debut Olympics in Tokyo, where he won gold in the 800-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle in a surprise upset. Finke had been in the middle of the pack in those early laps and not expected to make the podium, but he turned things around in the last laps in a memorable upset. This time, people—including his competitors—knew what to expect. Finke’s last-minute sprint in the 800-meter proved to not be enough, and he narrowly missed a medal. But in the 1,500-meter, he outswam the pack.
Team USA athletes have voted swimmer Katie Ledecky and rower Nick Mead to lead the team in the Aug. 11 closing ceremony as the flag bearers.
"Congratulations to our Closing Ceremony flag bearers, Katie Ledecky and Nick Mead, who exemplify the spirit of sport and the pride of Team USA," said USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland. "Katie and Nick have significantly contributed to the joyous and celebratory atmosphere. We are thrilled and proud to follow them into Sunday’s closing festivities.”
Ledecky posted on social media, "Honored to lead @TeamUSA at the Closing Ceremony with Nick! Proud of my teammates here in Paris, and excited to celebrate with all of them on Sunday."
Climber Sam Watson set a world record in speed in April, broke it in the qualifiers, and then again in the final round, taking the bronze medal.
The men's speed climbing event has seen the record broken by climbers one after another by tenths or hundredths of seconds.
New Zealand's Lisa Carrington led her women's kayak four crew to the gold medal at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, increasing her personal Olympic tally to six golds and one bronze.
Germany came in second and Hungary third but it was the Kiwis who were triumphant, with Carrington, her nation's most successful Olympian of all time, slapping the hull after they crossed the finish line in first place after a tough battle.
Double world champion Chase Jackson of the United States failed to qualify for the Olympic shot put final on Thursday after a miserable performance in the heats.
Jackson had two fouls and then managed only 17.60 meters with her third throw, almost two meters short of the automatic qualifying mark of 19.15, to finish 17th, with 12 advancing to Friday's final.
It was a rotten end to an Olympics that also started badly for the 2022 and 2023 world champions after the 30-year-old posted a social media video of herself crying because her team kit did not fit.
Casting aside concerns about the safety of swimming in the Seine River, Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands used a late pass to win the women's 10-kilometer open water swimming.
After Moesha Johnson of Australia led most of the way, van Rouwendaal cut into the strong current of the Seine as the lead pack came around the final bridge support. Johnson stayed closer to the shore, allowing the 30-year-old Dutch swimmer to claim the gold.
The newly minted world's fastest man, Noah Lyles, takes to the track again aiming to complete the prestigious sprint double by adding the 200 meters title to his 100m victory last week.
If he succeeds, Lyles will be the first American to achieve the sprint double since Carl Lewis in 1984.
Two-and-a-half years after competing at the Beijing Winter Olympics, American and Japanese figure skaters stepped on to the podium in Paris on Wednesday to receive reallocated gold and silver medals, drawing a line under a Russian doping saga that rocked those Games.
In athletics, Quincy Hall produced an incredible late surge to overhaul Briton Matthew Hudson-Smith and take the first Olympic 400-meter gold for the United States since 2008. Team USA also shone in events it hadn’t dominated in for years, with Hampton Morris claiming a bronze in weightlifting, a feat not accomplished in 40 years, and the artistic swimming team securing a silver, breaking a 20-year dry spell.
