Biles shines as USA grab team gold

Having dazzled on her long-awaited return to the Olympic stage on Day Two of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, gymnastics icon Simone Biles was wowing crowds once again Tuesday as part of the Team US. 

The 27-year-old was joined by Jordan Chiles, Hezly Rivera, Jade Carey and Sunisa Lee delivering excellent bars and beam routines to collect gold ahead of Italy, who took home silver, and Brazil who sealed bronze.

The world's most decorated gymnast, with 37 world and Olympic medals, returned to the floor Sunday having pulled out of several events at the Tokyo Games in 2021 for mental health reasons earning a total of 59.566 and continued to wow crowds today. 

Following the trend of naming the gold-winning team, Biles dubbed this group “F Around and Find Out”, a slightly different take than "The Magnificent Seven" of Atlanta 1996 in Atlanta, "The Fierce Five" of London 2012" or "The Final Five" of Rio 2016.

Both Biles and Sunisa Lee will go for individual gold on Thursday 1 August. 

Israeli athletes snubbed by opponents

Day Three at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games saw 33-year-old fencing great Olga Kharlan secure Ukraine's first medal of the Paris Olympics. The win had extra meaning as she was at the centre of a media storm last year when, as the first Ukrainian athlete to officially face a Russian opponent since the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine, she refused to shake the hand of her beaten Russian opponent, Anna Smirnova. 

Kharlan was consequently disqualified which cost her a chance of entering the Paris 2024 Olympics only to be given a wildcard by the President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, himself a former Olympic fencer, for her "unique situation".

There were echoes of the Kharlan situation today as Israeli judo stars were snubbed by rivals with both Nurali Emomali of Tajikistan and Morocco’s Abderrahmane Boushita refusing to shake hands with their Israeli opponent.

The triathlon wait goes on

Heavy rain on the first couple of days of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games caused issues for some outdoor events but it has been particularly disruptive for triathletes in Paris. 

Triathletes were expecting a few days to familiarise themselves with the Seine in anticipation of the start of the triathlon event today but on Sunday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and World Triathlon revealed that, with the recent rain exacerbating the River Seine water quality, the first Seine triathlon training sessions needed to be cancelled.

With the water quality still not reaching the required standard, both the men's and women's triathlon races set to go ahead today have instead been postponed until tomorrow but organisers have said that it isn't certain and that there is a 60% chance of going ahead tomorrow.

Friday is a back-up date for both races but if the water quality still isn't of a sufficient level by then organisers say the event could become a duathlon as a last resort with just the cycling and running legs taking place.

A photo to go down in history

One of the most unique photos of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games has been doing the rounds today and it was taken almost 10,000 miles (15,700 km) away from the French capital in Teahupo’o in Tahiti.

Three-time Surfing World Champion, Gabriel Medina, scored a 9.90 becoming the highest surfing score in the history of the Olympic Games having only been introduced to the Olympics at Tokyo 2020.

Medina, who is nicknamed 'El Mago' (The Magician), came out of the tube with both hands raised and spread to signal to the judges to give him a 10 out of 10.

He then came elegantly off the board giving photographers ample to time to snap him midair making him look as if he was levitating and consequently producing one of the most iconic photos of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

So, who's at the top of the medal table at the end of Day Four?

As Day Four of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games draws to a close Japan continues its fine form to secure its place at the top of the leaderboard for the third day running.

Of Japan's 13 medals, seven are gold, the most of any nation, while two silvers and four bronzes complete its count.

The People's Republic of China has moved up a place to oust France from second place with six golds, six silvers and two bronzes while Australia now sit below them in third with six golds, four silvers, and a bronze.

France dropped two places down to fourth with five of its 18 medals gold, nine silver and four bronze. 

The Republic of Korea makes up the top five for the second day running with five gold medals, three silver medals, and three bronze medals while the United States, Great Britain, and Italy follow in sixth, seventh and eighth.

The United States has the highest medal count overall with its 26 medals made up of four golds, eleven silvers, and eleven bronzes.

Bring on Day Five!