Paris Olympics day 15: men’s marathon, golf, basketball, athletics and more – live | Paris Olympic Games 2024

Laura Kenny has been brilliant on the BBC tv coverage the last fortnight – full of insight, passion and a charming sense of fun and self deprecation. She’s been writing for us throughout the games too:

I feel a little sad the Paris Olympics are almost over because I’ve had a blast. These have been my first Games as a spectator and commentator, rather than as a competitor, and I have felt the power and joy of sport all over again. There have been so many amazing stories from athletes at contrasting stages of their careers and four British women have provided my personal highlights. Emma Finucane, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Keely Hodgkinson and Bryony Page have all, for different reasons, captivated me in Paris.”

Golf: The final day of the women’s competition is just getting into its swing under blue skies at Le Golf National. New Zealand’s Lydia Ko and Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux top the leaderboard currently – tied at nine under par.

Day 15 of the games will see an epic 39 medals decided. The men’s marathon has just past the half way stage in 1:04:51 which whilst seemingly superhuman to the likes of me and thee (yes, you) isn’t the fastest time. It is warm in Paris and the course is particularly demanding. The drone camera hovers above a majestic looking Versailles and Paula Radcliffe and Steve Cram on the BBC commentary are doing their utmost to sprinkle some historical facts into proceedings, Paula has just delivered a husky riff on Louis XVI as Eliud Kipchoge be struggles with a stitch and falls behind the leading pack.

Men’s marathon: The runners have reached the first real hill of the race now – not the one that might get them walking, but a testing hill nonetheless. Faniel remains in the lead, with a chase pack trying to hunt him down. Eliud Kipchoge from Kenya – the race favourite – is in that pack and they are all keeping pretty close together as they try to close the 23 second gap that Faniel has opened up.

Men’s marathon: We’ve had our first breakaway runner – Eyob Faniel from Italy has decided to make a go of it and dashed out in front. He placed 20th in Tokyo with a time of 2:15:11 so probably not someone we’re looking at as a potential gold medallist, but in these conditions, anything is possible.

Men’s marathon: We’re just at the 10km mark now and Yang from China is in the lead, but it’s still a fairly contained group at the moment. The streets have been lined with spectators along every metre of the course so far. It must be incredible for the athletes who are probably used to having some lonely stretches of road when they run. We’re approaching the first big hill now, so we’ll see how the athletes respond to it.

John Wyver has got in contact by email to ask a question.

I’ve really loved the Guardian blogs over the past fortnight – many congrats to you and your colleagues – and I’ve mostly very much enjoyed and appreciated the BBC coverage; their “studio” analysts have been especially strong.

But one thing has bugged me about the BBC “studios” — the persistent presence of the irritating little red triangular mascots, either alone or in small groups, in all of the wide shots. Do you know if this is a contractual stipulation by the IOC and/or Discovery?

I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to this question. However, I was at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018 and you couldn’t turn around without bumping into some iteration of Borobi – the blue koala mascot of those games. But Borobi was incredibly popular unlike whatever this red thing is, so I’m not sure if we’re comparing apples and apples here. But it does often feel like mascots are omnipresent figures to the point that it must be stipulated somewhere that they have to be. Does anyone else know the answer to this question?

Men’s marathon: The athletes have passed the 5km mark now and have gone past the first hydration station – very important in this humidity. The commentators are discussing the possibility that the runners may walk up the 16% graded hill, which is basically unheard of. I’m very much looking forward to seeing if they do!

A little interlude to talk about the women’s basketball with the final taking place tomorrow. The US made the gold medal match for the eighth consecutive time, defeating Australia comprehensively.

Men’s marathon: A little stop by Abdi Nageeye who appeared to get a rock in his shoe, but he’s made up the ground pretty easily and is sitting just at the back of the group. We’re 2.1km in and everyone is still running as a group so far, no one is making an early breakaway in this kind of heat.

Men’s marathon: And we’re off! A nice flat bit of course to start and plenty of people out on the streets cheering them on.

Men’s marathon: There have been some comments that this is the toughest Olympic marathon course ever, with climbs of up to 16 and 17% and very high humidity in Paris today. It’s currently 17 degrees Celsius in Paris and 78% humidity, heading for a top of 29 degrees. Paris humidity is truly stifling at the best of times, so let’s see how they manage.

We’re getting very close to the start of the men’s marathon, which is very exciting because I am one of those freaks who loves watching long distance running. I have run exactly one (1) marathon in my life and it was the third hardest thing I have ever done. The speed that these guys run 42.195km in is baffling and I will never get tired of watching them run. The big rivalry to watch out for today is between Eliud Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele – both are getting on in years, but they’re still pushing for gold. This is a testing course, so we will see if that becomes an equaliser or sways things in favour of the younger athletes. It all starts in about five minutes, so stay with me and I’ll take you through the start of it before my shift on the blog concludes.

The women’s football final is shaping up to be a brilliant one, between the US who have found form at the right time after a disappointing World Cup performance last year and Brazil – featuring the legendary Marta. Both teams are looking incredible at the moment and it should be a closely contested battle. Karen Carney’s column will get you up to speed before the big match.

Jerry Spring has sent in a lovely email about sport climbing, which I was delighted to receive.

Glad you have enjoyed climbing. If you’ve never tried it , i hope you can get to your local gym or outside. It is just pure fun as you say.

Sadly there are some issues over some athletes restricting their weight and potential longterm effects on joints… but there is increasingly awareness so I hope these get resolved.

More positively, it is the camaraderie that is so special. If you haven’t noticed before, check out how the climbers study the boulder and lead problems together before the final today and willingly share advice …even at this level of competition. Plus I’ve never heard anything about climbers dissing each other etc or trying to cheat in any way in years of watching IFSC comps… so refreshing … compared to certain other sports. Yes footy, I’m looking at you.

Jerry, I have tried climbing and I am quite terrible at it, which only makes me appreciate these athletes all the more. They make it look so easy that every time I try it I’m sure I’m about to nimbly scramble up the wall just like them, only to fail miserably.

Weight restriction in athletes is such a devastating topic – one I wrote about earlier this year in fact. I hope the increasing awareness of it in sport climbing – and all sports – leads to it being resolved as well.

Former athletes weighing in angrily on something currently happening in their sport is one of my favourite genres, so I was delighted to see that Carl Lewis has some opinions about batons. He wants to ‘blow up the system’ and while I’m not entirely sure what that means, I’m very excited to find out.

Imane Khelif has had to weather an absolute storm over the past couple of weeks and she managed to put it behind her to go out and win gold in the women’s 66kg boxing category yesterday. Khelif was understandably proud and defiant in victory and the huge between her and her opponent – China’s Yang Liu – after the match was a very special moment. Tumaini Carayol captured the whole match beautifully, including this quote from Khelif.

I am fully qualified to take part in this competition. I’m a woman like any other woman. I was born a woman, I lived a woman, I competed as a woman, there’s no doubt about that. (The detractors) are enemies of success, that is what I call them. And that also gives my success a special taste because of these attacks.

There are some big medals up for grabs at Stade de France tonight, including what is shaping up to be a fascinating race for the women’s 1500m title. Australia’s Jess Hull has had an outstanding season on the track – can she cap it off with becoming the first Australian to make the podium in the 1500m?

Sport climbing has been another one of my favourite events this Olympics, so I really enjoyed this story from Ewan Murray about British teenager Toby Roberts and his incredible gold medal winning effort. It features this great quote from Roberts:

I’ve always just liked to climb stuff.

I think there’s a lot to be said for sports where teenagers who just like mucking about and doing stuff are winning (see also: skateboarding, breaking) rather than the rigid programs that often steal childhoods away in sports like gymnastics and swimming. I’m sure there is a lot of intense training that goes into these newer sports, but the young athletes in them still seem to have a sense of childlike joy and a real love of just giving it a go.

And now we must move on to one of my favourite moments of Paris 2024 so far, which happened in the beach volleyball gold medal match late last night / early this morning depending on your timezone. Let me set the scene…

The imported sand was angry that day my friends. The atmosphere was seething as the Canadian and Brazilian players stormed up to the net, yelling in each other’s faces, as an official tried to get in between and send them back to their ends. They persisted, getting more and more worked up before finally retreating. The referee gave one of the Canadians a yellow card and both teams stood fuming at their respective ends. Suddenly, the opening bars of John Lennon’s Imagine filled the air and the fuming players couldn’t stop tiny smiles creeping on to their faces, before eventually succumbing to laughter and the tense atmosphere evaporated. There has not been a more perfect Olympic musical moment since the injured, last placed 50km race walker entered Stadium Australia to the tune of The Proclaimers’ I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

OK, we need to talk about Raygun. This morning, Australians woke up to discover that the women’s breaking (or B-Girl) competition had been run and won, but it wasn’t the winner who was on the world’s mind, nor was it Australia’s 18 gold medallists. It was Rachel ‘Raygun’ Gunn, who everyone was talking about. This story refers to the ‘online hate’ but I don’t know that I’d describe it that way, though maybe I’d feel differently if I was on the receiving end. Ridicule might be a better word, but even that feels a bit strong. From what I’ve seen it’s been more of a gentle poking fun, which I think most Australians can appreciate.

And speaking of medals, I’m keen to get your thoughts on this. We all know the Americans love to make the medal tally ranked on total medals rather than golds. Here in Australia we’re big fans of the status quo, as total medals would send us plummeting down the table faster than a 10m platform diver. But we’re also big fans of the ‘per capita’ argument, especially once the swimming finishes.

But a new contender has entered the arena via Robert C Duncan, a retired astrophysicist from the University of Texas, and Andrew Parece, a strategy consultant and vice-president of Charles River Associates in Boston, Massachusetts, who have come up with the Goldilocks method.

This ranks countries according to how improbable their medal counts would be if all people in competing countries worldwide had equal propensity per capita for winning medals. Therefore, the expected number of medals a nation is expected to win scales with population size. For instance, because the US population is about 13 times larger than Australia’s, the US is expected to win 13 times more medals at the Games.

You can read all about it in Jackson Ryan’s fascinating piece and let me know what you think – the link to email me is at the top of the page.

Before we get too deep into breaking down all the action, let’s check in on the medal tally. Despite most of the ‘girt’ sports being finished, Australia has managed to hold on to third place behind the US and China, who both have a frankly ridiculous amount of medals. Japan, Great Britain and France are all in close succession and with plenty of medals still on offer, anything can happen. Well, not anything, no one is getting near the US and China, but definitely some things can happen.

Preamble