Here are five takeaways from Day Thirteen at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The first African winner of the Olympic 200m

Following American Cole Hocker taking a surprise gold in the men's 1500 metre on Tuesday, Day 13 saw another shock win as Botswana's Letsile Tebogo became the new 200m champion beating pre-race favourite Noah Lyles.

Much of the focus had been on 27-year-old Noah Lyles, who on Sunday became the first American to win an Olympic 100m title since Justin Gatlin in 2004 when he beat Jamaica's Kishane Thompson to gold by five-thousandths of a second.

Lyles was bidding to become the first man since Usain Bolt to complete the Olympic 100m and 200m sprint double but lost out to Botswana's 21-year-old Letsile Tebogo.

Tebogo stopped Lyles' attempt to make history, instead writing his own name in the history books by winning in 19.46 seconds to become the first African to win the Olympic 200m. He dedicated the win to his mother who died earlier this year.

Covid-19 lingers in the periphery

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games has been dogged by health concerns both before and during its run. Firstly poor air quality in Paris was highlighted when experts publicly scrutinised pollution levels and then once it had all kicked off, there were numerous cancellations and setbacks due to the poor water quality in the River Seine, where some events were scheduled to take place.  

More recently Covid-19 has reminded us that it is still very much around affecting even the best athletes in the world. On Tuesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) released a statement emphasising a new global rise in cases expressing that over 40 athletes competing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games had tested positive for Covid-19.

Today Covid-19's rise was accentuated further as Noah Lyles said he'd tested positive before his 200m race and was seen being spoken to by medical staff before being taken off the track in a wheelchair.

"It definitely affected my performance," said Lyles. "I still wanted to run. They said it was possible." 

Delays and a Dutch dog

The water quality in the River Seine has posed a persistent problem for Paris 2024 organisers with numerous training sessions and events delayed or cancelled since the summer games began. Today, however, the women's 10km marathon swim was cleared and took place this morning. 

After two hours of rigorous swimming Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands took gold winning her second Olympic title after winning at Rio 2016.

Van Rouwendaal had her own dedication to make after the race, only this time it was to her pet dog Rio, who died in May.

"My world stopped and I didn't care about swimming for like three weeks," said the 30-year-old. "He was my little baby. I swam for him with my whole heart. I won it for him."

The gender controversy rumbles on

A controversy involving two boxers who previously failed gender tests has dogged the summer games but it reached a boiling point in the last week with various parties trading blows.

Boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu Ting of Taiwan were disqualified from the Women's World Championships last year for failing gender eligibility tests but have both made it to the final in their respective categories at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), who released a statement last week warning against the amassing outcry turning into a "witch-hunt", have come under fire from the International Boxing Association (IBA) which carried out the eligibility tests last year. 

Outcry gathered steam when the two boxers began competing, especially when Imane Khelif forced a 46-second withdrawal from Italy's Angela Carini who claimed she had never been hit so hard in her life.

Now there is another chapter in the gender controversy which has become synonymous with the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. 

After Bulgaria's Svetlana Staneva was eliminated by Lin Yu-Ting in the women's -57kg category she held up crossed fingers in the form of an X to allude to the single X chromosome that men have. When Esra Yildiz of Turkey lost to Imane Khelif in the 66kg semi-final she did the same thing. 

Now with the IBA threatening to release information about the confidential eligibility tests that it carried out the Olympic Committees of Algeria and Chinese Taipei have threatened legal action against the IBA.

The controversy will no doubt continue indefinitely with both boxers set to play in their respective finals on Saturday. 

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

As Day Thirteen at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games draws to a close the United States of America has consolidated its position at the top of the table staying ahead of the People's Republic of China by one gold medal.

Team USA also has the highest number of medals overall with 103, 30 of them gold, while the People's Republic of China has 29 golds and 73 medals overall. 

Australia make up the top three with 18 golds considerably less than the top two while France follows Australia with 14 golds.

Great Britain, the Republic of Korea, and Japan sit in fifth, sixth, and seventh respectively having all won 13 golds though Great Britain's total medal count of 51 some way more than the other two. 

Bring on Day Fourteen!