Let the games begin!
With Friday’s opening ceremony on the Seine river in Paris official opening the 2024 Paris Olympic games, it is now time to turn to the real business of top-level sporting excellence as Team GB get their medal hunt underway.
Day one of the games offers an explosive, pedal pushing, paddle splashing, rampant racket smashing 11-hours of sport for Olympic lovers to enjoy.
Team GB’s day kicks off early at 8am with the 10m air rifle mixed team qualification, which is swiftly followed half an hour later by the team and individual dressage events that will run concurrently.
The event will not be featuring three-time gold medallist Charlotte Dujardin after she pulled out of the games following the emergence of a video showing the rider whipping a horse relentlessly.
Tom McEwen, Laura Collett and Rosalind Canter will be on the horses.
Half an hour later the men’s hockey team will be starting their pursuit of gold for the first time since 1988 as they take on Spain in their first group game at 9am.
Just after 9am, commonwealth silver medallists Sean Vendy and Ben Lane partake in their opening badminton men’s double group game against Malaysia.
If GB qualify in the 10m mixed air rifle then there will be an early chance for a medal with the gold, silver and bronze events starting at 9:30am.
Meanwhile at 10am there will be a swath of sport underway with another opportunity for Team GB to medal when Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen compete in the Women’s synchronised 3M springbaord final.
At the same time Britain’s men will get their gymnastics qualification underway as Adam Peaty and fellow swimmers will get their Olympics started in a variety of heats.
If Britain’s Kieran Bird qualifies through his heats, he could be in line for a final at 7:42pm.
An hour later the first round of the men’s and women’s tennis gets underway with Jack Draper, Dan Evans, Cameron Norrie and Katie Boulter all starting their medal challenges.
One of GB’s focus sports, rowing, kicks off at 11am with Brits in the heats of the women’s double sculls followed by the men’s quadruple sculls at 11:30 and their women counterparts twenty minutes later.
After lunch the cyclists will be hitting the roads of Paris in the women’s time trial with Anna Henderson competing for Great Britain.
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Henderson is the British national time trial champion as well as European and commonwealth time trial silver medallist giving her a real shot at getting on the podium in the French capital.
At 2pm athletes will be swapping road for water as the men’s single canoe first run in the heats gets under way with Adam Burgess who will be looking for revenge after missing out on bronze in Tokyo by 0.16 seconds.
His second run will be at 16:10.
At 3pm the women’s single kayak first run in the heats will get under way with Kimberley Woods looking to improve on her 10th place at Tokyo 2020.
Her second run will be at 17:10.
The penultimate event for GB of the day will be one of their best medal hopes as Josh Tarling competes in the men’s cycling time trial on the roads in Paris.
The Welsh rider is a young superstar at only 20-years-old and is already the British national and European time trial champion while also a bronze world championship medallist in the same discipline.
He will have to fend off stern company with the likes of Italy’s Filippo Ganna, Switzerland Stefan Kueng and Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel competing to name just a handful.
And finally, Team GB’s first day of sporting competition will conclude in the boxing ring at 7pm when Charley Davison partakes in the round of 32 in the women’s 54kg boxing.
Well, there we have it, what a thrilling day of Olympic competition we have in store today for Team GB and with any luck Britain could be off the mark on the medal counter by this evening.
