The athletes from Britain ignited the track events at the Stade de France with an impressive start, following Team GB’s haul of seven medals including three golds achieved on a remarkable Friday in Paris.
Top honors on the Games’ seventh day were secured by Bryony Page, who made history as Britain’s first Olympic trampoline champion, alongside the women’s lightweight double sculls and the showjumping team.
British divers celebrated a record-breaking fourth medal at the aquatics center, marking their best performance ever in Olympic history. Additionally, silver medals were earned by the men’s four in rowing, as well as Ben Proud in the 50m freestyle and Duncan Scott in the 200m medley.
Highlighting the day’s events, golfer Tommy Fleetwood shot an impressive 64 in the men’s tournament, finishing the day sharing the lead with two-time major winner Xander Schauffele and Japanese ace Hideki Matsuyama.
With spirits soaring, the track and field events kicked off strongly, featuring a standout performance from Josh Kerr, who breezed through to the Olympic 1500m semi-final and brushed aside a comment from Norwegian competitor Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
The 26-year-old finished first in the initial heat with a time of 3min 35.83sec, securing his spot in Sunday’s semi-finals while countering earlier remarks from Ingebrigtsen suggesting he lacked competitive experience.
Kerr, the reigning world champion who triumphed over Ingebrigtsen in 2023, expressed confidence to reporters: “I’ve heard the comments. I aim to define my career on my own terms, and I feel like I’m just getting started.
“I hope that entails medals, fast times, and exciting head-to-heads. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, and I’m hopeful that my legacy will be viewed slightly differently than that.”
In the women’s 100m, European champion Dina Asher-Smith, Daryll Neita, and Imani-Lara Lansiquot all advanced to Saturday’s semi-finals. “I just wanted to get started. It felt like we were waiting forever. Tokyo was unusual in many ways,” Asher-Smith shared.
“The overwhelming presence of British fans in the stands warmed my heart. Their energy creates an incredible atmosphere that we athletes can truly feel and thrive on.”
The remarkable British achievements in Paris after a week of competition outshine both Tokyo and Rio at a comparable stage, setting the team on course for an unprecedented medal tally that could align with UK Sport’s projection of 70 medals.
In her post-trampoline victory interview at the Bercy Arena, Page, who has triumphed over Lost Move Syndrome (LMS) earlier in her career—a psychological condition that affects an athlete’s ability to execute previously automatic skills—shared her experiences of the struggles and victories in elite sports.
“I’ve been dealing with ankle issues,” said the 33-year-old. “I had to adapt my approach. I was eager to go for the three triple routine as I did at worlds, but I had to switch to something more manageable to ensure I made it to the Olympics in good form.
“Then yesterday, I felt a twinge in my neck, and my ankles were painful, which made me doubt myself. So, the surprise is that I managed to achieve it.”
Page, who earned silver in Rio and bronze in Tokyo, added a gold to her Olympic collection by defeating Belarus’s Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya, marking the latter as the first neutral athlete to win a medal with her silver.
Page expressed her aspiration to join Cirque du Soleil as an acrobat, but hinted that she might also consider returning to the Olympics in four years.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” she expressed. “I’m currently in shock, surprised, and overwhelmed—every emotion you can imagine. I do feel a bit sad that it’s all over now.”
Redemption came for Emily Craig and Imogen Grant in the women’s lightweight double sculls, after narrowly missing a medal in Tokyo by just 0.01 seconds. Craig had even put up a copy of the photo-finish in her living room for motivation.
“That was a chapter in our story and this Olympics is the grand finale,” reflected Grant. “Not every Olympian gets it right the first time, and it wasn’t about any mistakes we made back in Tokyo. We’ve worked incredibly hard and emerged better people this time around. It felt like there was inevitability to our race today.”
Team GB’s time of 6min 47.06sec secured them gold, with Romania taking silver, over a second later, and Greece rounding out the podium in third.
The British showjumping team clinched gold when Scott Brash, Ben Maher, and Harry Charles—with a bandaged arm after a recent fracture—successfully outperformed the US team, while the French team placed third behind the Americans after Julien Epaillard’s missed fence in the final round. “I’m pretty speechless, I need a few hours to reflect,” said Charles, hailing from Alton.
In a remarkable display, Jack Laugher and Anthony Harding secured bronze in the men’s 3m springboard synchronized final after executing the most challenging dive in their category, solidifying Paris as the most rewarding Games for the British diving squad.
Laugher, a seasoned Olympian with a record of medals, recognized the pressure he and Harding faced following their team’s early successes, including a bronze win for his girlfriend Lois Toulson in the synchronized 10m platform.
“I would never have heard the end of it if I didn’t medal and she did,” the 29-year-old admitted.
In unfortunate news, Kye Whyte, Britain’s silver medalist in BMX from Tokyo, was carried off on a stretcher after a serious crash during the semi-finals and taken to a hospital.
In addition, the Hungarian Boxing Association lodged a protest with the International Olympic Committee regarding the decision to allow Algerian fighter Imane Khelif to compete at Paris 2024, prior to her quarter-final match against one of their boxers.
On Thursday, Italy’s Angela Carini withdrew from her match against Khelif, who had previously failed a gender eligibility test conducted by the International Boxing Association (IBA) at the 2023 world championships, stating she “preferred to stop for my health” and declaring: “I’ve never experienced a punch like this.”
Meanwhile, Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu-ting, another fighter who failed a gender test by the IBA but was cleared to compete in Paris, scored a victory over Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova.
IOC spokesperson Mark Adams indicated that the IBA’s decision was made “arbitrarily” and explained that Khelif “was born female, registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, and possesses a female passport.” He further clarified: “There has been some misunderstanding that somehow it’s a man competing against a woman. This is simply not the case scientifically.”
