Dame Sarah Storey to compete in her record ninth Paralympics

Thanks Yara. Enjoyed this piece on Adam Peaty, the supremely talented British swimmer chasing a third consecutive gold medal in the 100m breaststroke. I think there are a lot of people that can find common ground with some of these words.

The past three years have tested the 29-year-old in ways he could have never imagined. Since 2021, he has split from his former partner Eiri Munro, the mother of their three-year-old son; he suffered a broken foot; and he seriously considered retirement after surviving what he described as a breakdown that caused him to become reliant on alcohol as an escape from his problems. In order to make it back for a third Olympic Games, Peaty has had to approach his sport differently.

“When you have children, when you hug them, you realise that it is something greater than anything can ever provide,” he said. “If I touch the wall, if it’s not the result I want I’ll be disappointed. But before, in comparison, in 2021, even 2022 and way before that, I’d be almost tearing myself apart that my life isn’t worth living, because I lost. That isn’t sustainable because that’s not an attitude to have.

“I’m not defined as a human by that. Maybe an athlete and maybe other people will define me that way. But I’ll still have my family; they’re healthy, they’re happy. The sun always rises the next morning no matter what. That’s not defeatist, in any sense. That just gives me peace, so you can attack.”

Michael is back and ready to take over from here. Thanks for joining me!

As with every Olympic Games, there are discussions surrounding what benefits the host city actually receives.

However, against a backdrop of political uncertainty, people in Paris seem sanguine about sporting spectacle despite grumbles over inconvenience.

Preparations for the massive opening ceremony are well under way. Here are some photos from today.

Hopefully, we don’t see something like this in Paris … A 16-year-old British athlete was leading the race for most of the men’s 200m at the European Athletics U18 Championships before he slowed down far too early, enabling half of his competitors to beat him to the finish line. “A lesson learned the very, very hard way,” the commentator exclaims.

Victoria Pendleton is one of Britain’s greatest ever athletes. But has often felt like a failure and fraud.

Here is an extract from her fascinating conversation with Simon Hattenstone where she speaks on her Olympic golds, the misery that came with them, and the joy she has found since she retired.

In her memoir, Between the Lines, Pendleton claims the chief coach, Shane Sutton, told her variously to “man up”, “be more of a bitch” and “get more c-u-n-t in you”. (She says he spelled it out so as not to cause offence.) How did she react? “Back in the day you didn’t think anything of it. I was so familiar with that language it didn’t hurt me. It didn’t cut me up inside, but I couldn’t deliver what they were asking.”

The situation reached its nadir after Pendleton admitted to having a relationship with a member of her coaching staff, sports scientist Scott Gardner. In the buildup to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, they kept it secret because they knew it could prove disruptive and that her fellow cyclists might regard it as unprofessional. A couple of months before Beijing, Gardner told Sutton about their relationship and Sutton informed the performance director, Dave Brailsford. Sutton and Brailsford told Pendleton and Gardner that it would be best not to tell other team members until after the Olympics.

Shane Lowry has his sights on Olympic gold after a second major near miss of the year. Lowry will travel to Paris next week where he will represent Ireland at the Olympics along with Rory McIlroy, who failed to even make the cut at Royal Troon.

On moving on from his Open disappointment:

Onwards and upwards and on to the Olympics and try to win a medal for Ireland and get on from there. I’m playing good golf and I’d love to win a medal. Obviously I’d want it to be gold, but I’d probably take either three.

I’m very excited about it. Obviously Le Golf National is going to be a great test and a great course and that medal isn’t going to be around your neck until you’re finished on that 18th green at that place.

Matt Fitzpatrick will also hope Paris will be fruitful after a disappointing season. The Sheffield golfer has not finished higher than 22nd in any majors this year and since his 2022 US Open win he has had only one Top 10.

[The Olympics are] something different, something I haven’t done before, so I’m definitely looking forward to it. It would probably be right under there, just under a major. It’s not something that golf has put on the calendar at the start of the year that’s a must.

I wouldn’t say it’s always been high on a golfer’s agenda, but this year it is.

Thanks Michael and hello all! Happy Monday! Such a big part of the Games is how many medals each country racks up. National Olympic committees really take pride in where they rank on the leaderboard.

For Team GB, there are some big names that are aiming for gold in athletics and swimming but the expectation is that there is an improvement on the rowing showing from Tokyo.

So who are Team GB’s best chances at medaling? Our all-star lineup of inhale Sean Ingle, Andy Bull, Jeremy Whittle, Donald McRae, Nick Ames and Tumaini Carayol exhale take you through it all.

Just like Macron, I’m off for a bit of lunch. Yara El-Shaboury will take you through the next hour or so. Cheers!

Speaking of Simone …

Not exactly a shock appointment, here. The US female flagbearer will be revealed later this week, surely it will be Simone Biles?

President Emmanuel Macron visits the Olympic village

Perhaps more so than in any other sporting event, watching some of the superhuman Olympic talent can sometimes be a humbling experience. Watching my wife wince as I ask her to watch me practice my swan dives on holiday hasn’t really got anything to do with what Tom Daley and co will be up to in Paris. However, our Midas Touch series is meant to explain how some of these athletes got so good at their craft, and maybe provide some nifty tips on how you can improve your Parkrun time, or flatten that forehand. Here is what we have published so far, with more to follow.

I mentioned in my intro that there were some changes to some events. Here is a complete run down, courtesy of PA Media, of what differs at Paris 2024 compared to previous Olympic Games.

Breaking to make its debut

A competitive form of breakdancing that blends artistry and dance with acrobatic moves, breaking will debut at the Paris Olympics. The urban dance style, which originated in the Bronx borough of New York in the 1970s, was announced as part of the Paris 2024 programme in late 2020.

Twice World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) championship winner Victor Montalvo and Canadian Phil Wizard (Philip Kim) will be the favourites in the B-Boy category. Montalvo, 30, held off Wizard in the final to take the WDSF World Breaking Championship title last year and became the first American to qualify for breaking at the Olympics. Wizard, 27, won the WDSF championship in 2022.

In the B-Girl category, the 2023 world champion, 17-year-old Nicka (Dominika Banevic) of Lithuania, and Japanese Ami (Ami Yuasa) will be the ones to watch out for.

Kayak Cross also makes its debut

Having made its Olympic debut at Munich 1972, canoe slalom will see a new event added to its roster with kayak cross making its debut at Paris 2024. Kayak cross is an extreme canoe slalom, which sees competitors in kayaks race on white water, jostling each other with their paddles for pole position.

The Olympic event will begin with timed solo runs before introducing a frenetic element of head-to-head competition as four racers face off against each other, vying for position on the course with placings changing rapidly and contact almost inevitable.

Britain’s world champion Joe Clarke and Australia’s Jessica Fox are among the favourites to win inaugural gold medals in the event, but the chaotic nature of the four-person races makes them almost impossible to predict. There will be six medals up for grabs, and an equal number of men and women competing.

Which new sports are returning?

The Paris organisers have included sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing — all of which also featured as additional events at Tokyo 2020.

Climbing: There will be two events for male and female competitors in Paris – speed climbing and a combined bouldering and lead competition.

Skateboarding: Skateboarding will have two disciplines, street and park.

Surfing: Almost 16,000km from the main Games venues, 48 surfers will compete in the shortboard events in Teahupo’o in Tahiti.

Which sports have been dropped?

Having made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, karate was not included in the 2024 Games. Baseball-softball has also been dropped for Paris but will return at Los Angeles 2028.

There has never been a 32-year-old female gymnast competing at this level in Great Britain. Tumaini Carayol meets Becky Downie, who has shown courage and resilience to reach Paris after suffering tragedy and a cruel backlash for exposing abuse in her sport.

This is a great little exclusive story from Sean Ingle.

Great Britain’s triathletes will pursue Olympic gold in Paris with the help of a new weapon: cutting edge trisuits designed to make them go faster on the water or a bike.

The new kit, which uses different materials and covers more of the body than conventional trisuits, was tested secretly in competition by Team GB’s Alex Yee and Beth ­Potter in a world series race in Cagliari in May. Yee won his race, while Potter was third.

One nice little subplot for the Olympic football – from a British point of view – will be to see how former Chelsea manager Emma Hayes gets on as head coach of USWNT.

Incidentally, we published an extract of Hayes’s new book yesterday.

Authorities recall Paris 2024 metal water bottles on health grounds

The last time that China and the US didn’t top the summer Olympics medal table was 2016, when Team GB snuck past China into second place, beating the Asian nation by one gold medal, 27 to 26. Before that, you have to go back to Sydney 2000, when Russia comfortably secured second place behind the US.

It would be a shock to see anyone but USA and China claim the one-two spots this time around.

The other key question to ask is: what will we do with our post-Games blues when it’s all over? Let’s not think about that just yet.

Team GB to take part in military-style decompression interviews after Games

A nice little detail from this piece: more than 8.8 million tickets have already been sold for Paris 2024, more than for any other Olympics. A further million tickets remain available for members of the public to buy from the official website.

I would tentatively add to that venues list the venue for surfing, which will not take place in Paris at all, but 15,000km away in Tahiti, part of French Polynesia. That beats the record for the furthest event from a host city, set at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics when equestrian events were held in Stockholm due to quarantine restrictions.

Here is a bit more background on the surfing. Interesting that competitors will have six days prior to the start of the contest to practise. However, security is expected to bar surfers from assessing the wave from watercraft, and sessions will be regimented. “We normally are free to roam and can surf whenever we want, and we are our own dictators on when we want to surf and how we want to approach the event,” Australia’s Molly Picklum has said. “But for the Olympics, you get given a time slot, and then that’s the time you have to surf, and you’ve got to make it work if the waves are good or bad.”

It is a world-renowned spot for surfing, with a wave previously considered so dangerous that women’s events were banned in 2006, and only reintroduced to the World Surf Tour in 2022 after the Olympic announcement. The decision to cancel the event in 2006 was reportedly made without consultation and has drawn criticism over the years since.

Cancellation of the world tour event didn’t spell the end of women surfing the wave. In 2015 the Hawaiian world champion longboarder Kelia Moniz famously attempted to surf the heavy wave on a longboard – a challenge far greater than surfing it on a shortboard. In 2016 Kennelly won the WSL XXL Big Wave Awards Barrel of the Year at Teahupo’o, an award with no gender criteria. Kennelly was the first and only woman to have achieved this feat, and was also the first woman to tow surf the wave when pulled in by a jet ski in 2005.

I enjoyed this piece, on the most iconic venues at the 2024 Games.

First venues on the list are obviously the beach volleyball arena, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, as well as the Champ de Mars Arena venue for judo, wrestling, which will also host the para judo and wheelchair rugby during the Paralympics.

This is a good place to whet your appetite: our writers have rounded up six GB athletes, six Australians, six Americans and six from around the world who have stories well worth following.

The opening ceremony is on Friday, involving a waterborne extravaganza in which more than 10,000 athletes and national officials will sail down the Seine in 160-plus open-topped boats, and will be watched from the river’s banks by 300,000 spectators.

As is customary, there will be a few events this week, starting on Wednesday with the men’s football – including France v USA and Argentina v Morocco.

Preamble