Tokyo 2020 Olympics: Max Whitlock wins gold, men’s 100m and more – live!

Bigntian Su (China) 9.83

Ronnie Baker (USA) 9.83

Gymnastics: Max Whitlock tells BBC he’s “lost for words”, “completely overwhelmed,” and it’s “totally surreal”. It’s been an incredible journey, he says, and retaining the gold is “a million times harder”, noting “the most pressured environment I’ve ever been in”. He’s only getting older, but “experience pays a lot” and he “can’t quite believe it”.

He doesn’t know if it helped going first. It’s easy to say with the gold around his neck now, but every gymnast knows it’s hard to go first and he had to lay down a big routine, he couldn’t wait to see what others did. He can’t believe he’s done it, but he’s done the job, scored near his target score, and knew that if someone beat it, he’d still done his job. He now has six Olympic medals and when he was younger, he only did the sport because he enjoyed it – he wasn’t aiming for or expecting medals. It “feels very, very surreal” and he thinks he’s almost going round in circles trying to make sense of it.

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Tokyo 2020 Olympics: women’s 100m in athletics, Djokovic beaten again and more – live!

... and she qualifies fastest! Runs through in 10.73, no one anywhere near her, her bright yellow and red hair streaming out behind her.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is in the third heat...

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Olympic antihero: how Michael Gove trashed the legacy of London 2012 | Letter

Chris Dunne on the successful school sport partnership scheme that the Conservatives dismantled in 2010 – and on why good coaching is the crucial factor at any level of sport

Barney Ronay (Gold medals are illusory, world-class public facilities should be the goal, 23 July) says “the idea of a tangible legacy [from the London 2012 Olympics] was always flimflam”, but one of the most important factors in the Games being awarded to the UK was that we had already put in place the grassroots plan to ensure the legacy years before we even made the bid.

In 2002 the Labour government had created, in England, school sport partnerships (SSPs), based in 450 secondary sports colleges, each of which was responsible for hugely increasing participation in sport in both their own school and a network of local secondaries, each releasing PE specialists for half of every week to help train primary school teachers to widen the sports offer to their pupils and to deliver quality coaching. Identifying talent at the grassroots and nurturing it through to local clubs and on to county, national and Team GB participation was another very firm objective.

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USA swimmer Ryan Murphy sparks war of words over doping after Olympic final

  • Murphy says 200m backstroke final ‘probably not clean’
  • Russian winner Rylov says: ‘Ryan didn’t accuse me of anything’

A storm broke out at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on Friday morning when Ryan Murphy, the USA’s silver medallist in the 200m backstroke, spoke out against the sport’s doping problem and said he was “swimming in a race that’s probably not clean”. Almost any other time, this would have been an admirably honest thing to do, but the problem was Murphy had only just lost to Evgeny Rylov, representing the Russian Olympic Committee, and the comments came across as an accusation. Rylov, 24, won both the 100m and 200m backstroke this week, the 200m with an Olympic record time of 1min 53.27sec.

“I’ve got about 15 thoughts, and 13 of them would get me into a lot of trouble,” Murphy said after the race. “It is a huge mental drain to go through the year knowing that I’m swimming in a race that’s probably not clean, and that is what it is. The people that know a lot more about the situation made the decision that they did. I don’t have the bandwidth to train for the Olympics at a very high level and try to lobby the people that are making the decisions that they’re making the wrong decisions.”

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Tokyo 2020 Olympics: athletics blasts off, swimming and more – live!

Women’s 200m breaststroke final: this is all about Tatjana Schoenmaker, who starts well but is trailing USA’s Lily King at the halfway mark.

Men’s 100m butterfly semi-final 2: Dressel dominates, not in world record time but the American obliterates Milak’s semi-final winning time of 50.31 to clock in with a blistering 49.71 ahead of Noe Ponti (SUI) and Jakub Majerski (POL). Milak held the Olympic record for all of three minutes. The USA’s Tom Shields touched home in last place.

Australia’s Matthew Temple qualifies for the final sixth fastest.

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Tokyo 2020 Olympics: tennis, gymnastics, hockey and more – live!

Table tennis: The gold medal game in the women’s singles competition is an all-Chinese affair, Chen Meng against Sun Yingsha - the first and second seed. Sun won the first game though (first to seven), and leads 5-4 (first to 11) in the second. If you’re following the broadcast, the world feed commentator is a gem, bringing 10/10 enthusiasm to his task. Just as it should for a contest like this. “It’s like chess and kung fu combined... with a racket!” Love him.

Marta Martyanova, Larisa Korobeynikova, Adelina Zagidullina and Inna Deriglazova are Olympic champions, the latter holding her nerve after a late rally from the French quartet to triumph 45-34.

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Japan urges young people to get jabs and stay in amid Tokyo Covid surge

Health experts say surge in cases amid Olympics could overload hospitals unless action taken

Health experts in Japan have warned that a recent surge in coronavirus cases in Tokyo, six days into the Olympics, could put hospitals under severe strain unless young people stop socialising at night and get vaccinated.

Tokyo reported 3,865 daily coronavirus cases on Thursday, up from 3,177 on Wednesday, as rising infections in the capital cast a shadow over the Olympics. Wednesday was the first time cases in Tokyo had exceeded 3,000 since the start of the pandemic.

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Tokyo 2020 Olympics: men’s golf begins, heat forces tennis change – live!

We’ll have a rundown of Thursday’s early medal action shortly. But first, enjoy this lovely updated gallery from day five in Tokyo:

Related: Tokyo Olympics 2020: day five – in pictures

More fun from the 1900 “Olympics” in Paris – thanks to vastariner:

The 1900 competition in particular was strikingly odd, with competitors not realising it was part of the Olympic programme.

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Simone Biles pulls out of Olympics all-around gymnastics final to focus on mental health

  • Biles cited mental health concern in Tuesday’s withdrawal
  • No decision on her participation in individual finals

Simone Biles has withdrawn from the women’s all-around gymnastics final at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday after a further medical evaluation determined that she is not yet ready to compete. The news followed her dramatic decision to stop competing in the women’s team event on Tuesday after only one rotation on the vault due to mental health issues.

However, a statement from US gymnastics left open the possibility that Biles, who could still compete in four more finals, may return for the individual events at the Games next week.

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Simone Biles exits women’s Olympic team gymnastics final over mental health concern

  • Four-time champion: ‘There’s more to life than gymnastics’
  • American pulls out after vault early in Tuesday’s competition
  • ROC team wins gold with USA second and Britain in bronze

Simone Biles was forced to withdraw from the women’s team final at the Tokyo Games on Tuesday, citing mental health concerns after a difficult opening vault.

The four-times Olympic champion said that she had been struggling mentally in recent days and after the vault, she decided that she wanted to “take a back seat” in the team final and she had full faith in her teammates to win a medal.

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‘We’re so proud of her’: Afghanistan’s gutsy female cyclists ready to cheer on Ali Zada

Watching an Afghan refugee in the Olympics is a source of inspiration to many women in a country where riding a bike is seen as a political statement and the Taliban are gaining ground

When Masomah Ali Zada makes her Olympic debut at the women’s cycling time trial this week, speeding her way around the 22km route with Mount Fuji in the background, it won’t just be her teammates in Japan cheering her on. In Kabul, where the 25-year-old joined the national squad as a teenager, a small but gutsy group of female cyclists will be glued to the television, willing her to do the best she can.

“I’m really, really proud of her and so are all of the team members, and we are really looking forward to watching her race and seeing her do great,” says Zahla Sarmat, assistant development director of the Afghan cycling federation’s women’s division. For her and her fellow riders, Ali Zada is a source of huge inspiration, even if her sporting success eventually led her to leave Afghanistan and claim asylum in France. She is competing in Tokyo as part of the Refugee Olympic Team.

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Tokyo Olympics 2020: swimming medals at stake, Bermuda’s Duffy wins triathlon and more – live!

Swimming: Onto the men’s 200m freestyle final...

Swimming: We’re in for a blockbuster 200m freestyle final. Katie Ledecky saw what Ariarne Titmus accomplished in her first semi and laid down a marker, leading from the front to win in 1.55.34. Barbora Seemanová (CZE) finished second, Italy’s incredible champion Federica Pellegrini powered home at the death to snatch third, beating out Maddy Wilson (AUS) and 14-year-old Summer McIntosh (CAN).

Wilson’s time was good enough to sneak into the final in eighth spot, but all eyes will be on another Titmus v Ledecky duel in the pool.

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Tokyo Olympics 2020: Titmus beats Ledecky to gold, Peaty wins Team GB’s first gold – live!

An update from the hockey stadium: Team GB have secured their second win the tournament, running out 3-1 winners over underdogs Canada after a nervous start. “You have to understand when you’re playing teams that rank lower than you, they have nothing to lose. It’s a win-win for them,” said the team’s head coach Danny Kerry.

Not strictly speaking to do with the Olympics, but very much related given Paralympian Olivia Breen’s recent experience of being told what to wear, but remember the Norwegian beach handball team that was fined in a “case of improper clothing” for refusing to wear bikini bottoms during a tournament in Europe? The protest against what the team described as “very sexist” uniform rules cost them $1,500. But they might not have to fork out themselves after pop star P!nk showed her support for their cause.

I’m VERY proud of the Norwegian female beach handball team FOR PROTESTING THE VERY SEXIST RULES ABOUT THEIR “uniform”. The European handball federation SHOULD BE FINED FOR SEXISM. Good on ya, ladies. I’ll be happy to pay your fines for you. Keep it up.

Related: Time to give those in charge of female athletics short shrift | Rebecca Nicholson

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BBC Olympics coverage misses events after loss of TV rights

Viewers complain after rights-holder Discovery puts majority of events behind paywall

The BBC has faced a series of complaints about the lack of live Tokyo Olympics coverage on its channels, after viewers failed to realise the International Olympic Committee has sold the majority of UK television rights to pay-TV company Discovery.

During the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics the BBC was able to offer dozens of free livestreams of different sports, revolutionising how British viewers watched the games and providing much-needed publicity to niche events that would not normally have enjoyed their moment in the public eye.

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Olympics 2020: Anna Kiesenhofer takes road race glory on day of upsets – live!

The gold medallist for women’s taekwondo, the American Anastasija Zolotic said she hoped her historic win would give taekwondo a boost in her home country, where it has struggled to gain traction in a par with boxing or mixed martial arts. The 18-year-old sprung a surprise to win the USA’s first gold medal for women in taekwondo since it became a full-medal Olympic sport in 2000.

“I work my butt off for it, and I hope taekwondo [becomes] as popular as it can be in the US,” Zolotic said. “Hopefully in 2024 if I make it over there and win another gold medal and just keep grinding to LA [in 2028], by then taekwondo will be all over the map. Hopefully [my win] will give it a better image than it has and bring it back up to where USA taekwondo deserves to be - one of the best sports that you can watch,” she said.

And another, from Bradly Sinden’s nearly-but-not-quite performance in that dramatic taekwondo final

Related: Britain’s Bradly Sinden edged out for gold in Olympics taekwondo final

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Chernobyl for Ukraine, pizza for Italy: South Korean TV apologises for Olympic images

  • MBC sorry for ‘inappropriate images and captions’
  • Syria and Haiti summed up by war and unrest

A South Korean broadcaster has apologised after using offensive images to depict several countries during the opening ceremony of the Olympics on Friday.

MBC displayed photos and facts about each country as athletes walked out during the parade of nations. Most of them varied from inane to odd: Great Britain’s athletes were accompanied by a photo of the Queen, and El Salvador, where the cryptocurrency is legal tender, was summed up by a bitcoin symbol.

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Tokyo Olympics 2020: Team GB v Japan football, and swimming begins – live!

Meanwhile in the men’s hockey Great Britain are running down time in the fourth period and leading South Africa 3-1.

A deflected strike on goal from Japan was their best opening of the match so far, but England hold them at bay in the women’s football. Still no score as we tick past 27 minutes at the Sapporo Dome.

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Tokyo Olympics 2020: Naomi Osaka lights cauldron at opening ceremony – live!

Get up to speed with all the big questions with Simon Burnton’s Olympic primer:

Related: Tokyo 2020 – all your key Olympic questions answered

Some cycling news: the men’s road race takes place at 3am BST, 11am local time on Saturday, but one man who won’t be at the start line is Simon Geschke, after the German rider tested positive for Covid-19.

Geschke, who was set to be part of a four-man German team, had been staying away from the Olympic village with a group of other cyclists, all of who have initially tested negative for Covid.

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By holding the Tokyo Olympics, Japan’s government is gambling with people’s lives | Kosuke Takahashi

As Covid cases rise, vaccination lags and costs soar, most Japanese people are extremely cynical about the Games

The Olympic Games begins in Tokyo on Friday, just as Covid-19 blights the city for the fourth time – and a year after the Games were originally scheduled to begin.

Despite the latest alarming spike in coronavirus infections and hospitalisations across the city’s metropolitan area, Japan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, has reiterated his resolve to go ahead with the Games, declaring at a session of the International Olympic Committee held on 20 July that “the Games can be held successfully, with the efforts and wisdom of the people”.

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