Olympics schedule: Today’s guide to key events & Team GB medal hopes at Paris 2024

Brit watch

Rose Harvey, Calli Hauger-Thackery and Clara Evans – a late replacement for the injured 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

If the United States beat France in Sunday’s gold medal match (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, who beat Brazil and Serbia to gold in 2021, faced recently dominant Italy.

The men’s water polo end is at 13:00. Hungary won this event three times in a row from 2000 to 2008 but has not been in a final since and will face the USA for bronze in Paris, with the final to be contested by Serbia and Croatia.

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 medalist 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, modernize 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.