US win basketball and football gold as GB earn six medals on day 15

The United States claimed gold in the women’s football and men’s basketball as Great Britain and Northern Ireland won medals in artistic swimming, athletics, diving and taekwondo on day 15 of the Paris Olympics.

GB’s first ever medal in artistic swimming arrived as Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe took silver with an exquisite free routine in the duet.

Noah Williams won Britain’s first medal of the day – and his second of the Games – with bronze in the men’s 10m platform diving final.

Meanwhile, Caden Cunningham narrowly missed out on becoming the first British man to win Olympic taekwondo gold as he took silver in the +80kg category.

Georgia Bell ran a British record time to earn 1500m bronze, while both the men’s and women’s 4x400m quartets also claimed bronze medals on the final night of track and field at the Games.

Great Britain have now won 63 medals – one fewer than they secured at the Tokyo Olympics – with one day to go.

Team GB are sixth in the medal table with 14 golds, 22 silvers and 27 bronzes.

If they can win five medals on day 16, the 2024 squad will overtake the record overseas tally of 67 medals achieved at Rio 2016.

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In the women’s football competition, Englishwoman Emma Hayes led the United States to glory in her first tournament since taking charge in May.

A serial winner in club management, the 47-year-old maintained her golden touch in her first act on the international stage as Mallory Swanson’s composed second-half finish helped the Americans win the gold medal for the first time since 2012.

It ensured there would be no fairytale ending for Marta. An icon of the women’s game and six-time world player of the year, she heads into retirement at the end of her sixth and final Olympics, aged 38, with a third silver medal.

The US have been crowned champions five times since women’s football was introduced to the Olympic programme in 1996.

American dominance also extends unsurprisingly to the basketball court, where they have now won every single men’s competition they have entered, aside from in 1972, 1988 and 2004.

A star-studded side containing LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant proved too strong for a French squad that included NBA rookie of the year Victor Wembanyama.

Leading 49-41 at half-time the US eventually sealed a 98-87 win, with Curry contributing 24 points.

Britain’s previous best finish in artistic swimming – formerly synchronised swimming – was the fourth place achieved by Caroline Holmyard and Carolyn Wilson in Los Angeles in 1984, when the event made its Olympic debut.

However, Shortman and Thorpe’s Olympic success had been in the making for a while after they became the first Britons to win a duet medal at the World Championships earlier this year – where they took a silver and bronze.

The pair were fractionally outside the podium positions after Friday’s technical routine although a score of 264.0282 was less than a point off the Netherlands, who held third place overnight.

And a superb free routine was adjudged the best of the 17-strong field on Saturday, an overall score of 558.5367 points lifting Shortman and Thorpe above both Austria and the Netherlands to take silver behind China.

One week after winning his first Olympic medal with silver in the men’s synchronised 10m platform alongside Tom Daley, Noah Williams has another to add to his collection.

The 24-year-old earned bronze in the individual men’s 10m platform final, improving significantly as the competition progressed.

He qualified for the final in 12th, before capitalising on the mistakes of others in the final, scoring 94.35 on his final dive to secure his place in the top three.

China’s Cao Yuan won gold, with Japan’s Rikuto Tamai taking silver.

Cao’s victory means China have won all eight diving medals on offer at the 2024 Games, completing an Olympic clean sweep in the diving for the first time.

Cunningham said he could become the “king of taekwondo” after winning a silver medal in the men’s +80kg category.

The 21-year-old defeated three world champions en route to the gold-medal contest, which he narrowly lost 2-1 to Iran’s Arian Salimi.

“It’s the start of whatever I want,” said Cunningham. “I work very hard, if I choose something else I choose something else and I’ll master it.

“If I stay with this, I’ll be the king of taekwondo for the next four years, no problem.”

Cunningham’s silver ensured that Britain maintained their record of winning an Olympic taekwondo medal at every Games since Athens 2004.

Fellow Briton Rebecca McGowan missed out on a place on the podium when she was beaten by Turkey’s Nafia Kus Aydin in their +67kg bronze-medal match.

Great Britain picked up six medals in total on Saturday, with half of that tally coming in a frenetic period on the track.

Bell’s sensational 1500m performance saw her run a personal best and post a new national record as she finished behind Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon and Australia’s Jessica Hull.

The men’s 4x400m quartet – featuring Alex Haydock-Wilson, Matthew Hudson-Smith, Lewis Davey and Charlie Dobson – set a European record of 2:55.83 as they earned bronze behind the United States and runners-up Botswana.

And as they celebrated at the Stade de France, their third-place run was matched by Victoria Ohuruogu, Laviai Nielsen, Nicole Yeargin and Amber Anning, who clocked a British women’s national record of 3:19.72 as the USA again took gold, this time ahead of a Netherlands team anchored by the fast-finishing Femke Bol.

It marked a fifth relay podium result for GB, who also won a silver in the women’s 4x100m and men’s 4x100m bronze on Friday, following mixed 4x400m bronze last week.

That success was a huge factor in the team reaching 10 athletics medals – their highest at an Olympics for 40 years, since 16 were won by GB athletes at Los Angeles 1984.