Park’s Hollywood finish at Chariots of Fire stadium sets GB flying in hockey

It has been 100 years since they staged an Olympic event at this stadium in Colombes: those were the 1924 Games made famous in Chariots of Fire. A century later Nick Park picked up where Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams left off with a spectacular Hollywood finish of his own – his first international goal on his Olympic debut – to set Great Britain’s men on their way to an impressive 4-0 win over Spain in their Pool A opener.This storied venue also hosted the 1938 World Cup final but can’t have witnessed many better strikes than Park’s solo effort late in the first quarter when GB had been under the cosh. The 25-year-old dispossessed one opponent just inside the Spanish half before setting off on a solo 40m run, brushing off another defender, drawing the keeper, and flicking the ball high into the top right corner. Park has 19 caps and had never scored: this one bore all the hallmarks of Maradona or Messi

First US medal of Paris 2024 Olympics comes in women’s synchronised diving

Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook took home the first medal for the United States at the Paris Olympics on Saturday afternoon, winning diving silver in the women’s 3m synchronised event.Bacon and Cook finished with 314.64 points on five dives, leaving them 23.04 points adrift of China’s Yani Chang and Yiwen Chang, the first-time Olympians who entered as prohibitive favorites after winning the event at the past three world championships. It marks the sixth consecutive Olympic gold medal for China in the event since the 2004 Athens Games

Dutch Olympian who raped a 12-year-old girl ‘is not a paedophile’, official says

A senior official with the Dutch Olympic committee has insisted that a convicted child rapist in its beach volleyball team is not a paedophile, in an email seen by the Guardian.A concerned British man who has lived in the Netherlands for more than a decade, wrote to the Dutch Olympic committee and called the inclusion of Steven van de Velde in the team “a stain on the Dutch national side”. In a reply the Dutch Olympic committee spokesperson wrote: “Steven is NOT a peadophile [sic]; you really don’t think that de Dutch NOC would send someone to Paris who IS a real risk? No, he isn’t a risk.”There has been mounting public anger at the presence of the beach volleyball player Van de Velde, who was convicted of raping a 12-year-old British girl in 2016. Earlier this week the International Olympic Committee faced calls for an investigation into how a convicted child rapist has been allowed to compete at Paris 2024

‘A great champion’: Andy Murray remembered by rivals before retiring at Olympics

Over the past 20 years, Andy Murray has built one of the greatest tennis careers. As he prepares to hang up his racket at the Paris Olympics, those who know him well reflect on the early days of his career and his legacy.Jamie Murray, Andy’s elder brother and a former doubles No 1 At our tennis club, we were probably the youngest ones that were playing there. We’d always muck in with the older kids. Our mum was the club coach at the time and had a ton of junior players

Team GB make splash with first medal of Paris Olympics in dramatic diving event

A sumptuous Chinese procession, an epic Australian choke and a first medal of the 2024 Olympics for Team GB. On a dramatic opening morning in the Aquatics Centre, Scarlett Mew Jensen and Yasmin Harper claimed a bronze medal in the women’s synchronised 3m springboard, proving one of the oldest truisms in diving. You need talent, you need training, you need dedication and you need resilience. But sometimes, you also need a little luck.Luck was scarcely a factor for the Chinese pair of Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen, unbeaten at global level since 2022, and who glided to victory by a margin of more than 23 points here