Paris Olympics 2024 live updates (2024)

Quincy Hall won Olympic gold in the men’s 400m final on Wednesday by just four-hundredths of a second in another dramatic photo finish at Paris 2024.

Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith set a new European record but he was pipped at the post by Hall, who won gold in a personal best 43.40.

Elsewhere, Noah Lyles — who triumphed in the men’s 100m final on Sunday night in an even closer final — progressed in the 200m by finishing second in his semifinal.

At Le Golf National, defending Olympic champion and world No 1 Nelly Korda carded a level-par 72 in her first round. And the United States women’s basketball team beat Nigeria 88-74.

Medal table | How to follow | U.S. women's basketball

For the first time in Olympic beach volleyball history, the United States will not medal in the event.

Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan eliminated the final remaining U.S. duo — Andy Benesh and Miles Partain — in a 2-0 sweep in the men’s quarterfinals.

On Monday, Norway’s Anders Mol and Christian Sørum knocked out the other U.S. men’s pair of Chase Budinger (pictured above) and Miles Evans in the round of 16.

On the women’s side, Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson took down U.S. pair Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth in the round of 16, while Switzerland’s Tanja Hüberli and Nina Brunner advanced past Americans Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng — the defending world champions — in a quarterfinal match yesterday.

Those Swiss and Canadian teams will face each other in the first semifinal tomorrow.

With the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, a hub for the sport, perhaps the American teams will fare better on their home turf.

The United States women’s basketball team is into the semifinals of the Paris 2024 tournament after a comfortable 88-74 victory over Nigeria.

The U.S. will next play Australia for a place in Sunday’s final, against either host nation France or Belgium.

One week ago, Brazilian soccer legend Marta’s Olympics — her sixth, and final major tournament — looked to be over. She had come in with her boot high on a rash challenge in Brazil’s final group stage match against Spain.

A deserved red card was thrust into the air, and Marta could not stop the tears that came, spilling them into the grass at Stade de Bordeaux.

Down to 10 players, Brazil gave up two goals in that final group stage match. They snuck through into the knockout rounds as a third-place team, thanks to the slimmest of margins: a -2 goal differential, compared to Australia’s -3.

For the next two matches, all she could do was wait and watch. Now Marta, twenty years out from making her Olympic debut, has been gifted a new chance to write her own ending here in France in the gold medal match. Perfect endings are hard. They sometimes feel impossible in this sport.

But Marta has been writing her own story, full of hunger, full of passion, and most of all, full of joy, for a while now. No matter what, she’s heading back to Orlando with a medal around her neck. Read more below.

There was plenty of drama earlier today when India’s Vinesh Phogat missed weight to lose her place in today’s women’s 50kg freestyle final against Sarah Hildebrandt.

That promoted Cuba’s Yusneylis Guzman — but Hildebrant did not let the late change of opponent flummox her as she recorded a 3-0 points victory in this evening’s final.

Bronzes went to China’s Feng Ziqi and Japan’s Susaki Yui.

Ethiopian star runner Lamecha Girma exited the track on a stretcher after taking a hard fall while attempting to clear a barrier on the backside of the final lap in Wednesday’s 3000m men’s steeplechase.

The 23-year-old was accelerating down the back straightaway as he leaped to clear the hurdle while competitors were on his right and left. Girma appeared to clip the barrier with his trailing right knee and fell directly onto his upper body.

From there, he was seen rolling onto his stomach as the race finished.

On the broadcast, Peaco*ck play-by-play commentator Leigh Diffey noted minutes later that Girma remained motionless. Girma, who holds the world record in the event and won silver in Tokyo, was later seen with a neck brace on as he was carried off the track on a backboard by four medical personnel.

“In 40 years of commentating running and the steeplechase, I have never seen a fall that heavy,” Diffey said solemnly as he signed off.

International Olympic Committee officials have repeatedly said that Lin Yu-ting and another boxer fighting for gold, Imane Khelif, have met all requirements to compete at the Paris Games in women’s divisions. Their official documents show they were assigned female at birth and that they identify as women, and they have competed as such for years.

Details of the testing that led the IBA to strip medals from Lin and Khelif last year have not been thoroughly detailed. And the IBA’s attempt at clarity earlier this week devolved into a chaotic scene of imprecise accusations, contradictory descriptions about gender and sex and wider complaints about years of spats between the IBA and the IOC.

“We desperately need a new federation to run boxing,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said Tuesday.

For a gold medal, Lin will face Julia Szeremeta of Poland, who pulled off a remarkable turnaround in her semifinal against Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines after falling unanimously behind in the first round.

Petecio and Esra Yildiz Kahraman will each receive bronze medals since there is no third-place bout in Olympic boxing.

Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan clinched a spot in the gold medal fight for her featherweight division much in the same way that she has handled the noisy gender controversy that has defined this Olympic boxing tournament: by staying on the outside, weathering some flurries and sticking to a quiet yet technically sound strategy.

Esra Yildiz Kahraman of Turkey took an aggressive approach toward Lin in their semifinal in the 57-kilogram, 125-pound division, moving inside immediately to try to force a brawl. It was a reasonable thought – Kahraman is 4 inches shorter than Lin and would have been picked apart had she remained on the perimeter. But Lin is a comfortable counterpuncher and delivered too much punishment as Kahraman ventured closer. Lin took all three rounds on all five of the judges’ scorecards, and skipped happily in the final seconds as she celebrated her coming gold medal fight on Saturday night.

Until the very end, the bout had few signs of the discord that has followed Lin’s fights. Kahraman touched gloves with Lin beforehand and congratulated her afterward, but as she exited the ring she made an X symbol with her index fingers, an apparent reference to uncertainty about Lin’s disqualification from the world championship in 2023 because of a gender test administered by the International Boxing Association.

Not that long after Panipak Wongpattanakit defended her taekwondo crown, another reigning Olympic champion has emerged victorious in Paris.

Hou Zhihui of China has won the women’s 49kg gold by setting a new Olympic record.

She lifted 89kg in the snatch and 117kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 206kg, to beat Romania’s Mihaela Cambei by 1kg.

And there’s more success for Thailand this evening, with Surodchana Khambao winning the bronze.

Jesse M: “What a gutsy comeback in the final fifty! Quincy looked cooked halfway through the turn, but just willed his way through. Incredible running!”

Martin R: “Twice in as many days that Team USA pip Team GB to gold! 1500m and now 400m. It doesn't sting at all... Kerr and Hudson-Smith both ran PBs, but both Hocker and Hall ran tremendously, well done to all!”

John K: “Another amazing final race with an American showing the heart and grit for Gold!”

The United States are in control against Nigeria as they aim for a place in the final four of the women’s basketball tournament.

You can follow play-by-play updates of that game with my colleague Michael Dominski and the team by clicking here.

What an utterly enthralling race. But there are some concerning scenes out on the track.

Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali wins the men’s 3000m steeplechase final. He defends his Olympic title with a time of 8:06.05.

Kenneth Rooks of the United States comes second, Kenya’s Abraham Kibiwot is third.

It was an incredible race: Mohamed Tindouft of Morocco was briefly in front before Rooks went on the attack and appeared to seize control.

El Bakkali was lurking throughout, as was the world record holder Lamecha Girma. But Girma fell and Rooks tired down the straight, allowing the champion El Bakkali to storm through and win gold again.

But there is concern for Girma who fell very, very heavily. He receives medical treatment for some minutes before departing the track on a stretcher. Hopefully he is okay.

The first taekwondo medal of the Paris 2024 Games has just been awarded and it has been won by a familiar face.

Thailand’s Panipak Wongpattanakit has defended her women’s 49kg title by beating China’s Guo Qing in a close final.

The two bronze medals go to Iran’s Mobina Nematzadeh and Croatia’s Lena Stojkovic.

Nina Kennedy has won pole vault gold for Australia after clearing 4.90m. Katie Moon of the United States attempted 4.95m with her final jump but the reigning champion brought the bar down as Kennedy claimed victory.

Canada’s Alysha Newman wins bronze.

Upset alert!

Lithuania’s Mykolas Alekna must have thought he was on course for gold when he set a new Olympic record in the men’s discus throw earlier today.

But, in a sensational turn of events, his new record lasted only a matter of minutes before being bettered by Jamaica’s Roje Stona with an epic throw of 70.00m!

The favourites failed to deliver with 2022 world champion Kristjan Ceh finishing fourth and defending Olympic champion Daniel Stahl down in seventh.

Alekna had to make do with silver and a short-lived record with Australia’s Matthew Denny winning bronze.

Oh Matt Hudson-Smith! So close! The line just would not come for the Briton in the 400m as lowered his own European record but was pipped to Olympic gold by American Quincy Hall.

Forgive me a moment of indulgence but I remember watching Hudson-Smith aged 19 when he took nearly a second (0.83secs) off his personal best in only his sixth 400m race in Glasgow in 2014. He could barely speak after that; so enormous was what he achieved. And a decade on, he's run 43.44secs, fifth-quickest in history, to win Olympic silver.

American Quincy Hall looked to be fading coming around the final turn in the men's 400m final, with a face showing serious signs of pain, but he dug deep in the final 100 meters to overtake several runners and win the gold medal by four hundredths of a second!

Matthew Hudson-Smith (Britain) takes second, three tenths ahead of Muzala Samukonga (Zambia) in third. Jereem Richards (Trinidad and Tobago) and Kirani James (Grenada) are kept off the podium in fourth and fifth.

This should be a great one!

The big names to watch here are Kirani James (Grenada), Matthew Hudson-Smith (Britain) and Quincy Hall (United States).

Here are the eight women who have qualified for Friday's 400m final.

1. Salwa Eid Naser (Bahrain)
2. Marileidy Paulino (Dominican Republic)
3. Natalia Kaczmarek (Poland)
4. Amber Anning (Britain)
5. Sada Williams (Barbados)
6. Rhasidat Adeleke (Ireland)
7. Alexis Holmes (United States)
8. Henriette Jaeger (Norway)

American Kendall Ellis just misses out on qualifying by 0.23 seconds, finishing in ninth place.

The women's pole vault final is down to three competitors, American Katie Moon, Canadian Alysha Newman and Aussie Nina Kennedy.

They are currently attempting 4.90m, which was Moon's gold medal-winning height at Tokyo 2020.