If you were, like me, wrestling with the alarm clock and searching out woolly socks in the dark this morning – and wondering how you’ll keep this up for another fortnight – you would have been consoled to see Paris finally bathed in sunshine on Day 2 of these Olympic Games.
New Zealand’s medal table still looks a little bleak, though, on three zeroes. Nonetheless, there have been some impressive performances to start these Games, some of them unexpected.
Performances of the Day
Erika Fairweather‘s Olympic schedule was always going to be demanding. But it must be even stiffer when you narrowly miss a medal in your main event on Day 1, then have to give your all in another three events over the next seven days on the world’s greatest sporting stage.
Half a day after finishing fourth in the 400m freestyle final – the “Race of the Century” – just 0.26s off the bronze collected by freestyle legend Katie Ledecky (her 11th Olympic medal), the Dunedin 20-year-old dove back in the pool in her less-fancied 200m freestyle.
“Super-stoked” to finish second in her heat, Fairweather then lined up in the semifinals this morning. Although she finished fifth in a tough semi, won by 400m freestyle gold medallist Ariarne Titmus, the Kiwi’s time of 1m 56.31s was fast enough to get her into tomorrow’s final, the seventh-quickest qualifier.
“The time isn’t quite what I wanted it to be, but that’s okay. I’m really happy with how I backed up from yesterday,” Fairweather told Sky Sport. “An Olympic final is an Olympic final – it never gets old.”
The rowers and the Black Ferns Sevens are off to a strong start.
Almost all our female rowers are through to their next rounds at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium. Defending single sculls champion Emma Twigg comfortably won her heat, as did double sculls mums Brooke Francis and Lucy Spoors, and lightweight double scullers Shannon Cox and Jackie Kiddle, who were almost a second clear of their closest rival. The coxless four are straight through to their final after comfortably finishing second in their heat.
Michaela Blyde, still on a high from meeting her idol Jamaican sprint queen Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, scored a record-equalling four tries in the Sevens Sisters’ opening 43-5 victory over China. The win was also notable for the return of captain Sarah Hirini from an ACL rupture; she also crossed the tryline in a full-game performance.
“Amazing… you could probably see my smile at the end of that game, just how happy I am to be representing Aotearoa again,” Hirini told Sky Sport afterwards.
New Zealand remain undefeated, with their second win, 33-7, over Canada – Jorja Miller scoring twice. Tokyo Olympic bronze medallists Fiji lost twice on the opening day, including a 40-12 thrashing from China.
Quote of the Day
“Well the women just finishing up. You know what women are like… hanging around, doing their make-up,” Eurosport commentator Bob Ballard, removed from their Olympic coverage after his sexist remark at the swimming pool.
Image of the Day
The Good News
While cycling stars fell around her, Kim Cadzow not only stayed upright on the rain-slicked streets of Paris, but she’s rode the final kilometre of the women’s individual time trial with a flat tyre to finish an impressive seventh – just 24s off a medal. She still has the cycling road race in a week’s time.
There were two top 10 finishes in the forest and the whitewater for a newbie and a five-Games veteran.
Mountainbiker Sammie Maxwell, has validated her appeal to compete in Paris, by finishing eighth in the cross-country. The 22-year-old ended up 4m 41s behind French gold medallist Pauline Ferrand Prevot – 10 years her senior – on the Elancourt Hill course.
“This is my best placing ever in an elite race, I’m stoked,” an emotional Maxwell, last year’s U23 world champ, told Sky Sport. “Last year I didn’t even think I was going to come to the Olympics, and it’s been a long time to get here.”
Canoe slalom star Luuka Jones has missed out on a second medal in the K-1 slalom, finishing eighth with her final run. It was a step up from 19th and 15th in her heats – where she copped a couple of penalties and wanted to tighten up her accuracy – and ninth in the semis.
“I was just a little bit off my game out there, with time losses and a touch, which put me back quite a lot. I gave it my all and that’s all I could do really,” she told Sky Sport.
Winner of silver in Rio 2016, Jones was disappointed with her sixth at the Tokyo Games too. But she’s a real medal prospect for the next Olympic canoe slalom event – the kayak cross – next weekend.
The Not-So-Good News
Experienced equestrian Jonelle Price is out of the running for an individual medal in the three-day eventing, but New Zealand have an outside chance of a medal going into the showjumping round.
Price picked up 20 penalties on the stunning cross country course within the grounds of the Palace of Versailles, saying her 11-year-old horse, Hiarado, was a little green to the big crowds. She is now 41st individually, while the New Zealand team are sixth.
The Football Ferns have suffered their second straight loss in France, going down 2-0 to Colombia, conceding a goal in each half. It’s been a tough Olympics for the New Zealanders, with Dronegate continuing to hang over them. While the Canadians were dealt some firm punishment from FIFA – including a year-long ban for the three coaches involved and a six-point deduction at these Games – NZ Football are disappointed their team’s disadvantage as the spying victims wasn’t addressed.
Our sole artistic gymnast in Paris, Georgia-Rose Brown, has fallen agonisingly short of making the cut for the all-round final, finishing 25th – with the top 24 going through. Aussie-born Brown performed best on her strength, the uneven bars, scoring 13.666.
“I’m actually stoked because this is the first all-round competition I’ve done for six years. Yeah there were a few mistakes here and there, but it’s the Olympics; I hit everything, I couldn’t be happier,” Brown said.
Crowd favourite Simone Biles made a spectacular return to the Olympics, becoming the first woman to ever land a Yurchenko double pike vault in Games competition.
Surprise Wimbledon star Lulu Sun was a late call-up into the women’s singles draw, and went down 6-3, 6-4 to Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk. “I had my opportunities, especially in the first set, so there’s a bit of disappointment there. I tried to go in and give my all. It’s pretty amazing to play against a top 20 player at the Olympic Games,” she said.
But Sun stays in the frame at Roland Garros, waiting for her rain-delayed first round doubles match alongside world No.1 Erin Routliffe to be played.
Our flagbearer, Jo Aleh, got off to a rough start on the water in her fourth Olympics – she and sailing partner Molly Meech are in 20th after the first day of 49erFX racing in Marseille. They finished the light winds day with a 15th, 17th, and a discarded 20th – well off the pace of Dutch world champions Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz, who scored two victories.
Boardsailor Veerle ten Have will have to wait to make her Olympic debut, after the iQ Foil racing was called off before it even started.
First-time Olympian surfer Saffi Vette‘s Games are done, eliminated in round two of the shortboard competition in Tahiti by Portugal’s Yolanda Hopkins.
Hazel Ouwehand‘s Olympics were over in 58.03 seconds on the first morning session at La Défense Arena pool on Day 1. The 100m butterfly swimmer was fifth in her heat, and 18th overall, missing out on the semifinals. But it was still one of the fastest times a New Zealand woman has swum over that distance.
What the?
It was great to see our own Rikki Swannell commentating all the final games of the men’s sevens over the weekend. A decade ago, a woman fronting an international rugby event like the Olympics would have been unthinkable.
In the IOC’s strategy to make Paris the first gender-equal Games, the Olympic Broadcasting Services have increased the number of female commentators to 40 percent – a 200 percent increase on the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Spare a thought for commentators at these Games who have to untangle some genuine tongue twisters. The longest female names in Paris 2024 include: Faithmath Nabaaha Abdul Razzaq (badminton, Maldives), Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya (trampoline, Armenia), Kaelyn Ciara Suryanti Djoparto (swimming, Suriname), and Blandina Mokulubete Makatisi (athletics, Lesotho).
And even the simplest names can cause colossal problems, it seems: The IOC have had to “deeply apologise” to South Korea for introducing their athletes as North Korean – in French and English – during Saturday’s opening ceremony broadcast; describing the embarrassing gaffe as an operational error.
Sez says
LockerRoom writer and London Olympics heptathlete Sarah Cowley-Ross is on the ground in Paris and will make her daily pick of who she’s looking forward to watching. First up, it’s the Sevens Sisters – can they do what their brothers failed to do?
“Day 3 is quarterfinals day in the women’s sevens and New Zealand will be aiming to clear the hurdle that tripped the men – who ended their tournament in fifth on Sunday. But the Black Ferns Sevens are confident they can become the first team to win back-to-back gold medals.
“And if try-scoring star Michaela Blyde can move as rapidly as she did to meet her idol, Jamaican sprinter and three-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in the Olympic Village on the weekend, they should be sweet.”
And… the men
Lewis Clareburt, touted to break New Zealand swimming’s 28-year medal drought, finished sixth in the final of the 400m individual medley this morning – one place better than he fared in Tokyo. “Something just didn’t click today… you train your whole life for this one moment, and if you don’t get it right, that thing happens,” he said pointing back to the pool. The hockey and football men both suffered losses on the pitch overnight. But the rowing men are looking strong, all through to their next rounds.
Who’s up tonight/tomorrow morning?
Equestrian: Jonelle Price, eventing showjumping final, 9pm and 1am.
Rowing: Kate Haines and Alana Sherman, coxless pair repechage, 8.30pm.
Rugby Sevens: Match 3 NZ v Fiji, 2.30am; quarterfinal 7am.
Sailing: Jo Aleh and Molly Meech, 49erFX races 4-6, 10:15 pm; Veerle ten Have, Foil races 5-8, 1.45am.
Surfing: Saffi Vette, shortboard round 3, 10am.
Swimming: Erika Fairweather, 200m freestyle final, 8am
Tennis: Erin Routliffe and Lulu Sun, doubles second round, 2am.
To see the full schedule of when New Zealand athletes are competing on Sky Sport, go to https://www.sky.co.nz/discover/sky-sport/olympics#schedule
To watch in New Zealand go to Sky Sport, stream on Sky Sport Now, or watch free-to-air on Sky Open (Freeview Channel 15 or stream free via Sky Go).
