Busiest day of gold medals since 2000 – Saturday in Paris

The Paris Olympics is into its final weekend so what better way to plan ahead than with our day-by-day guide – all times BST.

Team GB has named a squad of 327 athletes and UK Sport has set a target of 50 to 70 medals at the Games.

There will be live coverage of Paris 2024 across the BBC on TV, radio and online.

The Games officially opened at a unique and spectacular opening ceremony along the River Seine on Friday, 26 July and will close on Sunday, 11 August.

Gold medal events:

Artistic swimming (duet free routine), athletics (men’s marathon, men’s high jump, men’s 800m, women’s javelin throw, women’s 100m hurdles, men’s 5000m, women’s 1500m, men’s 4x400m relay, women’s 4x400m relay), basketball (men’s), beach volleyball (men’s), boxing (women’s 57kg, women’s 75kg, men’s 57kg, men’s +92kg), breaking (b-boys individual), canoe sprint (men’s C1 1000m, men’s K1 1000m, women’s K1 500m), diving (10m platform), football (women’s), golf (women’s), handball (women’s), modern pentathlon (men’s), rhythmic gymnastics (group all-around), sport climbing (women’s boulder/lead), table tennis (women’s team), taekwondo (men’s +80kg, women’s +67kg), track cycling (men’s madison), volleyball (men’s), water polo (women’s), weightlifting (men’s 102kg, women’s 81kg, men’s +102kg), wrestling (men’s freestyle 74kg, men’s freestyle 125kg, women’s freestyle 62kg).

Highlights

Yes, you read that right, there are nearly 40 different gold medals being won on Saturday – the busiest day of Olympics action, by gold medals available, since September 30, 2000. All this action means the highlight is the entire day. Order in plenty of snacks and let’s give you a taste of what to look forward to.

The women’s football final is at 16:00. There’s no Team GB, while Sweden, third-place finishers at last year’s World Cup, did not qualify either. The US, led by Emma Hayes, face Brazil in the final.

Laura Muir ran a British record in Tokyo to finish second behind Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon of Kenya. Kipyegon should start the Paris final (19:15) as the favourite as she tries to win a third Olympic title in a row. Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji could also be a big factor, but Kipyegon has already broken her own world record once in Paris this summer – at the Diamond League in July.

The final round of women’s golf begins at 08:00. Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux and New Zealand’s Lydia Ko are top of the leaderboard with a two-shot lead after three rounds.

Brit watch

After a fierce selection contest, Rebecca McGowan got the nod over three-time world champion Bianca Cook (nee Walkden) to represent GB in taekwondo’s +67kg category. European champion McGowan has come through ankle surgery and an ACL tear to be at the Olympics. “If I can get through that then I can get through four fights in Paris,” she said earlier this summer. (She fights at 11:00, with the final at 20:37).

Track cycling’s men’s madison (16:59) is a tag-team points race: you and a partner do laps of the velodrome alongside a whole host of other teams. If you can gain a lap on everyone else, you get 20 points (a big deal). Every now and then, there is a sprint that will earn you bonus points. Most points wins. GB won silver on this event’s reintroduction to the Olympics three years ago, and the event is guaranteed televised chaos.

In the men’s 800m at the athletics track, defending champion Emmanuel Korir is out, meaning there’s a chance Kenya may not win this event for the first time since 2004. Only a chance, mind you. Korir’s replacement, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, was a world silver medallist last year ahead of GB’s Ben Pattison, who failed to make the start line for the Paris final (18:25), though Max Burgin is there. Sudan-born Marco Arop won that year’s world gold medal for Canada, while Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati has looked good this season.

The men’s 10m platform diving final (14:00) is a chance for GB’s Noah Williams or Kyle Kothari to pick up a first individual Olympic medal. It is almost impossible to keep China off the top of the podium in this event but it can happen – Australia’s Cassiel Rousseau, a circus performer when he was younger, took the world title in 2023.

GB’s Erin McNeice features in the women’s boulder and lead final from 09:15. Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret, who won the lone Olympic climbing title on offer to women three years ago, is again the one to beat. France will look to 19-year-old world silver medallist Oriane Bertone.

World watch

The men’s basketball final (20:30) features the US against hosts France. Going back to 1936, there have been only three finals that did not feature the US – and one of those was a Games they boycotted. Why are they so dominant? Take a look at this year’s roster: LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry are just three of the all-star names. The US have not missed out on this gold medal since 2004.

Handball is a different story. The US have not qualified in men’s or women’s handball, other than as the host nation, since Barcelona 1992. France will be relishing the handball tournament in Paris: the hosts have the reigning Olympic women’s and men’s champions. With no Russian involvement this time, that might make more French medals even more likely. The women’s final starts at 14:00, with the hosts facing Norway.

In athletics, the 4x400m relays (from 20:00) extend the relay drama into four nail-biting laps of the Olympic track. The US look like hot favourites in the men’s event. In the women’s event, Jamaica are always big relay contenders and GB won two world bronze medals last year.

The men’s marathon starts at 07:00 as the Olympics uses one of its few remaining opportunities to milk every last drop of Paris scenery. Kenya’s two-time champion Eliud Kipchoge is one of the favourites in an event where many people will take time to remember the late Kelvin Kiptum, a compatriot of Kipchoge who broke the world record shortly before being killed in February when his car reportedly veered off the road and hit a tree.

Men’s breaking gets its chance to shine (gold medal at 20:29). American b-boy Victor was the 2023 world champion.

Expert knowledge

Water polo reaches its women’s final at 14:35. The US are in the bronze medal match, meaning they fail to become the first team in water polo to win gold at four consecutive Olympics. Instead, it’s Australia versus Spain for the gold medal.

Gold medal events:

Athletics (women’s marathon), basketball (women’s), handball (men’s), modern pentathlon (women’s), track cycling (men’s keirin, women’s sprint, women’s omnium), volleyball (women’s), water polo (men’s), weightlifting (women’s +81kg), wrestling (men’s freestyle 65kg, men’s freestyle 97kg, women’s freestyle 76kg).

Highlights

The final day of the Games brings three more gold medals to be won in the velodrome if Team GB are looking for a late boost.

Option one: the women’s sprint (final from 11:45). While you have to go back to Victoria Pendleton in 2008 to find the last Briton who took gold in this event, GB’s Emma Finucane is the defending world champion.

Option two: the men’s keirin (final at 12:32), an event beloved first by Sir Chris Hoy with gold in 2008 and 2012, then by Sir Jason Kenny with gold in 2016 and 2021. Imagine adding your name to that list. That’s the task ahead of GB’s Commonwealth silver medallist Jack Carlin, but the likes of the Netherlands’ Harrie Lavreysen could be hard to defeat.

Option three: the women’s omnium (decided at 12:56). This is the final event in the velodrome at Paris 2024 and presents one last opportunity for GB, but perhaps even more of an opportunity for US rider Jennifer Valente, the defending world and Olympic champion.

Emily Campbell took Britain’s first medal in women’s Olympic weightlifting with silver in Tokyo. She has since added world silver and has won four successive European titles. Her +81kg category begins at 10:30, with China’s Li Wenwen the favourite for gold.

The Paris 2024 closing ceremony is due to begin at 19:00. This time, we are back in the traditional stadium setting as the Stade de France hosts the world’s athletes for a final goodbye. The show you will see performed during the closing ceremony is titled Records, although not too much has been given away by its creators. This also marks the handover to Los Angeles 2028 for the next Olympics and to the Paris 2024 Paralympics, which begin on Wednesday, 28 August.

Brit watch

Rose Harvey, Calli Hauger-Thackery and Charlotte Purdue are the British athletes in the women’s marathon, which starts at 07:00. The name to watch is Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa.

World watch

We have discussed the dominance of the US men’s basketball team. How about the women’s team? If the Americans win Sunday’s gold medal (14:30), it will be the nation’s eighth consecutive Olympic women’s basketball title, the record for any Olympic team sport.

Women’s volleyball concludes with the gold-medal match at 12:00. The US beat Brazil and Serbia to gold in 2021, but expect recently dominant Italy to be a big factor in Paris.

The men’s water polo final is at 13:00. Hungary won this event three times in a row from 2000 to 2008 but have not been in a final since. However, they enter Paris 2024 with a 2023 world title to their name.

Expert knowledge

There’s a really good chance for another GB medal in the women’s modern pentathlon (from 10:00), and perhaps another gold, as defending Olympic champion Kate French lines up alongside world bronze medallist Kerenza Bryson.

You are also about to see the last Olympic modern pentathlon involving horses.

The sport’s world governing body has been trying to find a way to, er, modernise the sport, since modern pentathlon was given that name in 1912 (when it made its Olympic debut) and may no longer feel quite so up-to-date to many viewers.

The showjumping leg of modern pentathlon – the others being fencing, swimming, running and shooting – has always attracted criticism because it involves pairing athletes with randomly assigned local horses, sometimes to competition-destroying effect when horse and rider fail to find the same wavelength. Those moments have become less a test of skill than a form of equestrian roulette that can make or break four years of training.

While some athletes advocated for simply improving the showjumping with various changes, the world governing body has pursued the idea of obstacle course racing as a replacement. Think Ninja Warrior, Total Wipeout, that kind of thing. Proponents say younger people will be more likely to watch that kind of event than showjumping, no matter how good the jumping is. While modern pentathlon was briefly threatened with being dropped from the Olympics entirely, it is on the schedule for LA 2028 with obstacle included at the expense of jumping.