Are you excited yet? Australia leaps to top of medal tally

Meanwhile, the men’s 400m freestyle could have offered a spicy sequel to the big swimming story last week, in which coach Mike Palfrey publicly backed his Korean protégé Kim Woo-min to win the race – an act head coach Rohan Taylor called “un-Australian”.

But Elijah Winnington took silver and Kim only bronze, though that did leave Australia’s Sam Short just shy of the podium.

While you were sleeping

Here’s what else happened on Saturday evening and Sunday morning (AEST):

• Road cycling: Victorian road cyclist Grace Brown, 32, said she would retire after these Games – after just eight years in the sport, amazingly – and she has bowed out in some style. She won Australia’s first gold medal of Paris 2024, zipping through the rain-soaked streets of the capital in less than 40 minutes in the women’s individual time trial. In the men’s version of the event, the slippery roads did in Australia’s Lucas Plapp: he’s in hospital after crashing during the back half of the race, having tantalisingly come through in fourth place at the 13.1-kilometre time check.
• Diving: Heartbreak for medal hopefuls Anabelle Smith and Maddison Keeney in the women’s 3m synchronised springboard final. A bronze medal seemed in the bag in the fifth and final round, until Smith made a fateful misstep on the board.
• Rugby sevens: Another disappointment for the Aussies’ medal tally came in the men’s finals, where Australia lost 31-7 to Fiji in the semis, and then 26-19 to South Africa. France whipped Fiji 28-7 to take gold.
• Basketball: The Boomers, who took bronze in the men’s basketball in Tokyo, held off Spain 92-80 in a physical, aggressive game. It was a must-win encounter, as Australia’s “group of death” also includes medal hopefuls Greece.
• Hockey: The men’s team, the Kookaburras, opened their campaign with a 1-0 win against 2016 gold medallist Argentina. The men’s team won silver in Tokyo but will hope to go one better: they haven’t topped the podium since 2004.
• Water polo: The women’s team has had the toughest Games so far, with five players testing positive to COVID-19 last week, disrupting their training and preparation. But the Stingers fended off a Chinese comeback to record a 7-5 win in their opening game.

Other highlights (and hurdles)

Apart from making for a soggy opening ceremony, the weekend rain has caused another problem. It means there’ll be higher stormwater run-off into the Seine, which will very probably nudge the river’s pollution levels above the acceptable minimum for the triathlon.

The contingency plan involves delaying the men’s triathlon, which is scheduled for Tuesday, by a couple of days. It’s forecast to be hot and sunny next week, so that could work. The more drastic Plan C is to turn the triathlon into a duathlon.

One person who’s dead set against that is Australian medal contender Matt Hauser. “We’ve actually swum in pretty bad water before. We’ve taken all the precautions, we’ve taken some vaccines and stuff like that,” he said.

So he’d still be up for swimming in the Seine, like Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo did last week?

“Bloody oath I would.”

With attitude like that, maybe he can persuade French President Emmanuel Macron – who promised to take a dip and hasn’t made good – to join him.

Who’s in town

Anthony Albanese’s election-winning protege, Britain’s new PM Keir Starmer, made it to Paris for the opening ceremony. He seemed to be the only one of the 100-plus world leaders in attendance who thought to bring a raincoat. Well, he is English, after all.

Unlike jet-setting Starmer, Albanese has become a reluctant traveller – the political optics aren’t great in a time of tight belts, which is also keeping many CEOs away. So he sent Sport Minister Anika Wells, who is living her best life: there will have been some diplomacy and trade graft, and some lessons-learnt conversations for Brisbane 2032, but she has also taken in the Matildas’ game against Germany, the rugby sevens finals and the swimming.

And she, like Starmer, was at the opening ceremony for the almighty drenching.

Arguably the most senior Aussie at the ceremony wasn’t Wells, but Queen Mary of Denmark. Although of course she’s not technically Australian any more. Still: if the two countries face off in an Olympic contest at any point, will her loyalties be tested?

Village people

Canoeing champ Jessica Fox was one of Australia’s two flag bearers for the opening ceremony. If I found it exciting just standing on a bridge, imagine how it was for her at the helm of Australia’s boat. Or see for yourself how pumped she was, in this TikTok where she shares the vibe.

Live like an Olympian

Matildas star Ellie Carpenter began her soccer career with a $500-a-season contract with the A-League Women.

Now she’s at French club Olympique Lyonnais and earns more than $1 million a year from her club and national salaries plus sponsorship deals. Before the Games, she told Zoe Samios how she manages her finances, sticking with a plan she formulated in her teens.

Dive deeper

Of the 557 medals Australia had won at 29 Summer Olympics before Paris, more than two-thirds had come from swimming. And with the competition now in full swing – and the medals coming already – this is the perfect moment to ponder why Australia is so dominant in the pool. As it happens, Samios has done the thinking for you.

Photo finish

There were lots of magic moments at the opening ceremony, but no one can get past the image of this guy – evoking the Greek god Dionysus, with shades of Papa Smurf. Dionysus, in case you were wondering, is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity and ritual madness. Sounds about right.

Hans van Leeuwen is writing daily dispatches throughout the Paris 2024 Olympic Games for The Australian Financial Review.