Paris Olympics: Alex Yee and women's quad sculls rowers win golds (2024)

Published

31 July 2024

Two gold medals in 15 minutes were the highlight of Team GB's fifth day of the Paris Olympics, which ended with more Marchand mania.

Triathlete Alex Yee and the women's quad sculls rowers won the fifth and sixth gold medals, while there was a BMX silver and bronze medals in triathlon and diving.

Yee looked set for silver in the men’s event when he trailed New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde late on but the 26-year-old Londoner found something extra in the closing stages to go one better than his Tokyo silver.

The women's crew of Lauren Henry, Hannah Scott, Lola Anderson and Georgie Brayshaw had trailed the Netherlands for all of the final but put in one last push to win in a photo-finish.

In the evening, France's Olympic poster boy Leon Marchand took centre stage, completing an unprecedented 200m breaststroke and butterfly double.

The 22-year-old has now collected three gold medals at the Games, after also winning the individual medley on Sunday.

It ensured a golden finale for the host nation, who were also able to celebrate as Cassandre Beaugrand took the gold medal in the women's triathlon, with Britain's Beth Potter in third.

British success also saw Kieran Reilly collect a silver medal in a thrilling conclusion to the men's BMX freestyle final, while diving pair Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and Lois Toulson won bronze medals.

Great Britain now have 17 medals in total, which is their highest tally at this stage of a Games ever.

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The men’s triathlon had been due to take place on Tuesday but was rescheduled until after Wednesday’s women’s race because of poor water quality in the River Seine.

Both races were given the go-ahead early on Wednesday after further quality checks on the water.

Yee was in touch with the leaders during the 1500m swim and was in a large leading group for the 40km bike leg.

His team-mate Sam Dickinson, who sacrificed himself to help Yee, led going into the 10km run but stepped aside in a pre-planned move. Yee quickly took the lead only for Wilde to first bridge the gap and then overtake him.

Wilde held a lead of 14 seconds over the Briton going into the final lap but Yee, a former British 10,000m champion, had enough left and he surged past the Kiwi in the closing stages to win in one hour 43 minutes and 33 seconds – six seconds clear of his rival, with France’s Leo Bergere in third in 1:43.43.

The win sees Yee emulate Alistair Brownlee and become Britain's second Olympic triathlon champion.

In the women’s triathlon, Beaugrand's gold was set against a scenic backdrop of iconic Parisian landmarks and cheering crowds waving tricolores.

The world number one was in a leading pack of four athletes from the start of the run and made a decisive break in the final kilometre to triumph in 1:54:55, leaving Switzerland's Julie Derron and Britain's Potter behind.

Potter, who competed on the track for Team GB in the 10,000m at the 2016 Rio Games, came to Paris as the defending world champion and the winner of last year’s test event.

At the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, the GB women's quad were chasing a first Olympic title in the event.

But the Dutch made the strongest start with the GB crew trailing in third before overtaking Ukraine and moving into second.

The 2023 world champions upped their pace and worked hard to stay in touch before unleashing a strong finish over the final 250m to win by 0.15 seconds.

"It’s been a long time in the making and I still can’t quite believe it," Scott, who became Northern Ireland’s third gold medallist of the Games, told BBC Sport.

"I don’t know if I’m emotional yet but that will come. I think we were so process-driven and the immensity of what this is, it hasn’t caught up with me.

"The crew were amazing. We kept it so cool to the end. We had the confidence, we’ve done so many hard miles in training."

On a historic night at La Defense Arena, Marchand underlined his status as the new superstar of the pool as he dethroned two reigning champions within the space of two hours in front of a euphoric crowd.

A turbo-charged finale saw him upset Hungarian world record holder Kristof Milak to win the 200m butterfly and he then powered away from Australia's Zac Stubblety-Cook in the 200m breastroke - both in Olympic record times.

Meanwhile, Katie Ledecky became the first woman swimmer to secure gold medals at four separate Olympics with a dominant victory in the women's 1500m freestyle.

The American great, who now has eight golds in total, came home in an Olympics record and more than 10 seconds ahead of France's Anastasiia Kirpichnikova in second and now holds the 20 fastest times ever in the event.

The 27-year-old will aim to become the first American female to win 13 Olympic medals when she competes in the 800m freestyle.

World champion Reilly, 23, scored 93.70 points in the first of his two runs in Wednesday's final at the Place de la Concorde to put himself in second place behind Jose Torres Gil.

And by the time he reappeared for his second run which concluded the final, he was already guaranteed a bronze medal.

However, while he was unable to overturn the 94.82 marker laid down by Argentina's Gil, a 93.91 score was awarded after a spectacular routine and nervous wait, to ensure the Englishman reclaimed second spot from French favourite Anthony Jeanjean, who had earlier posted a 93.76.

Before the start of these Games, Britain had waited 64 years for a female diving medal at the Games but Spendolini-Sirieix and Toulson made it two in five days after Scarlett Mew Jenson and Yasmin Harper's earlier bronze.

The duo came into the event in good form having won silver at last year’s World Championship and bronze this year.

But although they were second after round two behind red-hot favourites and defending champions Chen Yuxi and Quan Hongchan of China, they had a poor third round to drop to fifth.

However they regrouped and finished strongly with a final round of 77.76 for a final total of 304.28 which secured their place on the podium after Canada could only manage 68.16 for a tally of 299.22.

Chen and Quan finished on 359.10 with North Korea pair Jo Jin Mi and Kim Mirae winning silver on 315.9.

And finally, instead of playing matchmaker on Channel 4’s First Dates, Fred Sirieix, the father of Spendolini-Sirieix, was able to celebrate in style at poolside with his daughter.

The French TV personality, who has joined the BBC's line-up of presenters for the Games, even helped conduct an emotional post-event interview, before later taking to social media, , externalwith a glass of champagne in hand, and saying: “I am bursting with pride, bursting with happiness and joy. It feels like I’m going to explode."

“Girls, well done. Thank you very much for this amazing day.”

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