Gold medal events:
Athletics (women’s 4x100m relay, women’s shot put, men’s 4x100m relay, women’s 400m, men’s triple jump, women’s heptathlon, women’s 10,000m, men’s 400m hurdles), beach volleyball (women’s), boxing (women’s 50kg, women’s 66kg, men’s 71kg, men’s 92kg), breaking (women’s individual), canoe sprint (men’s K2 500m, women’s C1 200m, women’s C2 500m, women’s K2 500m), diving (women’s 3m springboard), football (men’s), hockey (women’s), rhythmic gymnastics (individual all-around), sport climbing (men’s boulder/lead), swimming (men’s 10km marathon), table tennis (men’s), taekwondo (men’s 80kg, women’s 67kg), track cycling (men’s sprint medal, women’s Madison), weightlifting (men’s 89kg, women’s 71kg), wrestling (men’s freestyle 57kg, men’s freestyle 86kg, women’s freestyle 57kg).
Highlights
“You’ll never run alone,” a mural proclaims in Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s home city, Liverpool. Come the end of the heptathlon’s 800m (19:15), she will hope to be running alone for just a few seconds, at the front of the Olympic pack. Johnson-Thompson came sixth in Rio as she emerged from the shadow of London champion Jessica Ennis-Hill, then injury forced her out of Tokyo mid-event. She heads to Paris as the world champion, where she is up against Belgium’s Nafi Thiam, herself searching for a remarkable third consecutive heptathlon Olympic title.
The men’s 4x100m relay final (18:45) is almost always the scene of triumph and disaster on a grand scale. In Tokyo, disaster for Britain arrived half a year after the event: the team, who won silver, were disqualified as a result of CJ Ujah testing positive for two banned substances. GB were fourth in last year’s world final, which was won by the US. Dina Asher-Smith is expected to lead the GB women’s sprint relay team if they reach their final at 18:30.
Track cycling on Friday includes the women’s madison (final at 17:09), won by GB’s Katie Archibald and Laura Kenny on its introduction to the Games in Tokyo. Neither Archibald nor Kenny will be in Paris, but British duo Neah Evans and Elinor Barker are more than capable successors who won world gold last year. The men’s sprint (from 13:41) offers one of the most captivating tactical events in cycling, where contenders can almost end up at a standstill in a bid to catch the other off-guard before racing to the line. GB’s Jack Carlin has Olympic and world bronze in the event.
The women’s hockey final is at 19:00. The Netherlands have only lost two of 35 outdoor internationals since the start of 2023 and are top of the world rankings by a mile. But as Belgium showed with a shock 2-1 win over the Dutch in June, that kind of form does not guarantee anything. GB, who beat the Netherlands for gold at Rio 2016 and finished third in Tokyo, come into this event ranked sixth in the world.
Beach volleyball’s women’s tournament concludes next to the Eiffel Tower (21:30). Recently, this event has been the domain of the US and the duo of Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes will expect to keep it that way. Brazil’s Ana Patricia Ramos and Duda Santos Lisboa were on separate teams in Tokyo, where Brazil suffered the disappointment of neither team making it past the quarter-finals. They have won world gold and silver together since.
Brit watch
There are four boxing finals on Friday’s card from 20:30: men’s light middleweight and heavyweight alongside women’s light flyweight and welterweight. While GB have no nailed-on favourites heading into the Olympic boxing tournament, there is a lot of potential. Depending on previous days’ results, this might be a chance to see the likes of Rosie Eccles, Patrick Brown or Lewis Richardson in action. Ireland’s Aidan Walsh, a Tokyo bronze medallist, will hope to feature in the men’s light middleweight.
Climbing’s men’s boulder and lead event has two finals from 09:15 to determine a winner. British teenager Toby Roberts goes up against the likes of Austria’s Jakob Schubert, a bronze medallist in a slightly different format three years ago and a formidable force in the more specialist world of lead climbing. Mejdi Schalck had been expected to be the hosts’ big hope, but he was defeated in qualifying, so France will be represented by Sam Avezou and Paul Jenft.
While we saw Tom Daley in synchro diving action earlier, this time it is the turn of two other Britons in the individual 10m platform contest (prelims from 09:00). Noah Williams, a European silver medallist in 2022, is joined by Kyle Kothari. Meanwhile, Grace Reid and Yasmin Harper are GB’s representatives in the women’s 3m springboard (final from 14:00).
The men’s marathon swim starts at 06:30. GB’s Hector Pardoe was a world bronze medallist earlier this year.
World watch
Brazil have been on every men’s football Olympic podium since 2008, winning the past two gold medals. Not this time. Brazil failed to even qualify for the Games, with the South American places going to Paraguay and Argentina. Will Spain add an Olympic title to their Euro 2024 glory? Or is this an opportunity for the hosts to win gold on home turf? The final is at 17:00.
Who will be the Paris men’s 400m hurdles champion? Norway’s Karsten Warholm is defending his Tokyo title and right up there with him are American Rai Benjamin and Brazil’s Alison dos Santos. Together, they are the fastest men in history in this event but it is rare to get all three racing each other at once. Will we see that tonight? The final is from 20:45.
Rhythmic gymnastics’ individual all-around final takes place at 13:30. This is a sport where the near-total absence of Russian athletes at Paris 2024 will have a significant impact. Germany’s Darja Varfolomeev, who moved to the country from Russia in 2019, is the world champion.
Expert knowledge
Breaking – also known as breakdancing, b-boying or b-girling – makes its Olympic debut on Friday. It has been a competitive sport since the 1990s. Here are some expressions to know.
Top rock is everything you do standing up, down rock is everything you do on the floor and some of the most acrobatic elements are called power moves, which include things like whole-body spins.
Each one-on-one competition is called a battle. Competitors take it in turns to perform for judges who are scoring for creativity, personality, technique, variety, performativity and musicality.
The individual women’s final, or b-girls gold-medal battle, is at 20:23. Dutch teenager India Sardjoe is one to watch, as is Lithuania’s world and European champion Dominika Banevic, 17.
