Gold medalist Teddy Riner of Team France bites his medal after the Judo Men’s +100kg Medal Ceremony on Day 7 of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Champs-de-Mars Arena on Aug. 2, 2024 in Paris, France.David Ramos/Getty Images
French judo icon Teddy Riner wins third gold
PARIS The stands at Champs de Mars filled up quickly. One fan dressed in a white martial arts uniform waved a French flag. A woman next to him held up a poster with the face of one of the biggest sports stars in France. Crowds of people bounced up and down and shook the floor of the arena where judo is being played in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Many of them were there to see Teddy Riner, the hometown judo icon who delivered once again for France on Friday. He capped his incredible career by becoming the second three-time individual Olympic gold medalist in judo history in one of the most electrifying events of the Paris Games so far. The 35-year-old heavyweight defeated South Korea’s Kim Min-jong for the gold in his fifth Olympics. Riner, an 11-time world champion and four-time Olympic gold medalist, is one of the most popular and beloved figures in any sport from France. He was France’s flag bearer during the opening ceremony and joined retired French track and field sprinter Marie-Jose Perec in lighting the cauldron at the end of the night. He is widely considered the greatest judoka the sport has ever seen.
Swiatek wins Poland’s first tennis medal
PARIS Iga Swiatek used a towel to wipe tears from her eyes at the Paris Olympics after earning a bronze for Poland’s first tennis medal at any Summer Games by beating Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-1 on Friday. The match took just 59 minutes, and Swiatek played much more cleanly than she did a day earlier in a straight-set loss to Zheng Qinwen of China in the semi-finals. That result ended Swiatek’s 25-match unbeaten streak at Roland Garros, the clay-court facility used for the French Open each year and for the 2024 Olympics. The No. 1-ranked Swiatek was a popular pick to leave Paris with gold, in large part because she has won four of the past five French Open titles, including the last three in a row.
Giannis helps Greece stay alive
VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France Giannis Antetokounmpo had 20 points and seven rebounds as Greece outlasted Australia 77-71 on Friday to keep alive its hopes of advancing to next week’s quarterfinal round in Olympic men’s basketball. Thomas Walkup added 18 points for Greece. Jock Landale led Australia with 17 points. “We didn’t want to leave this tournament without getting a win,” Antetokounmpo said. Greece’s six-point victory and Canada’s win over Spain gave Greece a third-place group finish, though advancing isn’t guaranteed. Canada and Australia are moving on from Group A, along with France, Germany and Brazil in Group B and the U.S. in Group C. The final two spots will be determined by what happens Saturday in the Group C matchup between Serbia and South Sudan.
Spain, Netherlands win first sailing golds
MARSEILLE, France In what sailors called the first “normal wind” day of the 2024 Olympics, Spain and the Netherlands won gold medals in the men’s and women’s skiffs respectively on Friday, while the United States snagged its first Olympic sailing medal since Rio eight years ago. Fickle winds forced medal races for the skiffs known as 49er and 49erFX – powerful, bird-like two-person boats – to be abandoned or rescheduled Thursday in Marseille. On Friday, the women’s race started on time just after noon and gave a wild finish to the Dutch team of Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz, who had entered it with the second-best score. Sweden got the silver and France took bronze. In the men’s race, Diego Botin and Florian Trittel won Spain’s first Olympic sailing gold since London 2012 in their boat “Samatha,” or “calm” in the Buddhist practice they follow.
Three-way tie for lead at men’s golf
SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France British golfer Tommy Fleetwood is on familiar turf and chasing another gold trophy at Le Golf National, this one an Olympic medal instead of that 17-inch Ryder Cup trophy. The medal chase in men’s golf began to take shape Friday with Fleetwood sharing the 36-hole lead with defending Olympic champion Xander Schauffele and Hideki Matsuyama, giving another sellout crowd plenty of star power at the top. They were at 11-under 131, two ahead of Jon Rahm (66). Thomas Detry of Belgium had the low round at 63 that got him within three shots of the lead, along with 22-year-old Tom Kim of South Korea (68) and C.T. Pan of Taiwan (65), the bronze medalist from the Tokyo Games. Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., shot a second-round 69 and is tied for 13th, at five under. Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., is one over, tied for 46th.