The green and GOLD: Australian Olympians claim three more gold medals and a bronze in Paris

It was a glittering end to day seven of the 2024 Olympic Games for our Australian athletes.
Our Dolphins stars continued to dominate the United States in the pool — with Kaylee McKeown and Cameron McEvoy claiming historic wins — and BMX star Saya Sakakibara weathered years of setbacks, including a horror crash at the Tokyo Games, to claim BMX racing gold.
Three years after Sakakibara was lying in a Japanese hospital after being carried from the Tokyo Games track on a stretcher. On Saturday morning (AEST), she was an Olympic gold medallist — and she did it in spectacular style.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.She won all three of her qualifying races and all three of her semifinal heats. She hit the first corner in the lead and was hardly challenged again in a dominant final that completed a stirring Australian sporting story.
“This means so much, my family is here. Everything that I’ve been through the last two years, three years — this was what got me going,” Sakakibara said as she fought back tears after the race.
“Every setback I had since the moment I thought ‘I’m going to give this another crack’, I just had that in mind. I wanted it.
“All I had to do was just f...ing go and I f...ing went for it and I didn’t want to leave here without just making myself proud and make these setbacks worthwhile.”
Meanwhile, in the pool, Cameron McEvoy won the “splash and dash” men’s 50m freestyle in a stunning finish to his swimming career.
He is the first Australian man to win a gold at the Paris games after a dazzling start by our women, who have done almost all of the early heavy medal lifting.
However, McEvoy was not to be outdone by Kaylee McKeown, who won a historic gold in the women’s 200m backstroke.
The backstroke queen became the first Australian to win four individual Olympic gold medals, successfully defending her 100m and 200m titles from Tokyo in the process.
It was also a great night for rowers Jess Morrison and Annabelle McIntyre, who claimed bronze in the women’s pair event.
Their podium finish was Australia’s first rowing medal of the Paris games and a second for the Morrison-McIntyre partnership, who were part of the gold medal-winning four crew in Tokyo.
OTHER HEADLINE GOLD MEDALLISTS
Superstar French swimmer Leon Marchand captured his fourth gold medal of his home Games, saluting this time in the 200m individual medley.
Ugandan distance running great Joshua Cheptegei hung tough to salute in the men’s 10,000m. He has also won the last three world titles at this distance and the 5000m Olympics gold in Tokyo.
WHAT ELSE HAPPENED
High jump queens Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson advanced to Sunday’s final with little fuss, along with new world record holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh.
Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic set up a heavyweight men’s singles gold medal match by winning their semis at Stade Roland Garros.
Big Teremoana Teremoana Jnr came up just short in his super-heavyweight boxing quarter-final against defending Olympic champ Bakhodir Jalolov from Uzbekistan.
Chasing a third gold medal in Paris, Jessica Fox was second fastest in the kayak cross time trials. Younger sister Noemie was eighth quickest on her Games debut.
WHO SAID WHAT?
“I wanted to race against someone really cool and Sha’Carri is probably the coolest you could get.” Australian Bree Masters on being drawn alongside world champion Sha’Carri Richardson in the opening round of the women’s 100m. Both advanced to the semis.
“The first half was ‘hero ball’, head dropping, poor defence, that all circulated,. The second half was huddles, talk, grit, ball movement.” Australian men’s basketball coach Brian Goorjian after the Boomers’ 77-71 loss to Greece. But Canada’s win over Span later in the day meant the Australians still snuck into the quarter-finals.
“Not in a million years ... I couldn’t ask for much more.” Kaylee McKeown’s reaction to her fourth individual Olympic gold.