Léon Marchand, 22, gave himself a chance for a fourth individual gold medal. But the old man was looking distinctly creaky as young Summer McIntosh claimed another title.
Fine
Léon Marchand won his semi-final to advance to the final on Day 7 of the 200m individual medley. The Frenchman declared himself a tad fatigued. Hardly surprising after his exploits on Day 5 when he became the first man to win gold in the 200m butterfly and the 200m breaststroke on the same evening.
While he recovers for his next tilt, he can share the glory with Summer McIntosh, who as her first name suggests, was born of a summer – 18 August. On Day 2, McIntosh won the silver in the 400m freestyle to give Canada its first medal at the 2024 Games. She went one better in the 400m individual medley and then claimed her second gold in the 200m butterfly in an Olympic record of two minutes, 03.03 seconds.
Genetic pool
Both of Léon Marchand's parents swam for France at the Olympics. Summer McIntosh's mother, Jill Horstead, swam for Canada at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. But the 17-year-old has entered another realm as the first Canadian to win two gold medals at a summer Olympics since sprinter Donovan Bailey in 1986 and the first Canadian swimmer to win three individual medals at a single Olympics.
'What did you do during the summer, Summer?' isn't a question likely to be doing the rounds at her 18th birthday party.
Baby boom
Brian Pintado from Ecuador won the men's 20km walk but further back down the field there were a couple of big victories for Aurélien Quinion. The Frenchman came ninth but was perhaps running on fumes after only getting a catnap at the hospital where his partner gave birth to their daughter.
"I went to the hospital at 10pm on Wednesday night and got a taxi to come for the start of the race," he explained. Quinion finished the walk in one hour, 19 minutes and 56 seconds – a minute off Pintado's mark.
"Did the birth give me a boost? Well, it doesn't look like it does it?" deadpanned Quinion. "But the birth and then racing in the Olympics will stay with me for ever. Honestly it was brilliant." Quinion beat his personal record by a second.
Hobbling Matildas
So off to another dance goes Tony Gustavsson after Australia were eliminated from the women's football competition. The Matildas – as they are nicknamed – finished third in Group B after defeats to the United States and Germany. They managed to beat Zambia 6-5. During his four years with the side, Australia finished fourth at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. They also finished fourth at the 2023 women's World Cup.
"It has been a great honour and privilege to have been able to be the head coach of the Matildas over the past four years," Gustavsson said. "This journey with the team has had many incredible moments and memories that I will forever treasure. Australian football will be forever in my heart, and I will be watching on and cheering on your success in the future." Ah, nice.
Looking at beyond happy
Tennis world number one Iga Swiatek was the hot favourite to take the gold medal in the women's singles for Poland. But the 23-year-old came a cropper in the semi-finals against Qinwen Zheng from China. It finished 6-2, 7-5.
Zheng is assured of delivering her country's first medal in the tennis. "I feel more than just happy – happy isn't enough to describe how I feel," said the 21-year-old who came through last-16 and quarter-final ties that both lasted nearly three hours. "If you ask me to play another three hours for my country, I would." That seems the right thing to say.
