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Paris Olympics day 14: Australia wins medals in track cycling, diving and canoe sprint

Paris Olympics day 14: Australia wins medals in track cycling, diving and canoe sprint

Australia added to its record-breaking performance this year with two silver and one bronze medals at the Paris Olympics.
Matthew Richardson won silver in the velodrome and Maddison Keeney won another in the diving pool. Canoe sprinters Tom Green and Jean van der Westhuyzen won bronze.

Australia has now won a total of 48 medals: 18 gold, 16 silver and 14 bronze.

Australia's medal count.

Matt Richardson is racing towards silver

In the track cycling sprint race, Matt Richardson finished second behind Dutch star Harrie Lavreysen.
It was Richardson’s first individual Olympic medal after winning bronze in the team sprint earlier this week.

“I did the best I could, I left nothing undone on the track. He (Lavreysen) is one of the greatest sprinters we’ve ever seen on this planet,” Richardson said.

Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen and Australian Matthew Richardson compete in the sprint final.

Richardson finished second behind Harrie Lavreysen, who has won the last five sprint world championships. Source: Environmental Protection Agency / Martin Divisek

“I’m extremely proud of the silver. I’ve got a bronze and a silver – there’s another one to collect and we’ll try to do that in the keirin.”

On Saturday he will take part in his first keirin series alongside Matt Glaetzer.

Maddison Keeney shines on the springboard

Maddison Keeney became the first Australian diver to win an individual 3m springboard medal – a stunning silver – in Paris.
The 28-year-old from Perth received her biggest medal yet on the podium from one of her heroes, Oscar-winning actress and IOC member Michelle Yeoh.
The 2016 springboard synchro bronze medallist put on her best performance under extreme pressure on Friday but lost to Chen Yiwen, one of the seemingly invincible Chinese athletes.

Chen, who earned 343.10 points in his five-dive program, won the event by a wide margin with 376.00 points.

Maddison Keeney dives into the water.

Necessary to make his final and most diabolical jump — a two-and-a-half forward somersault with two turns — Keeney did just that, barely skipping a jump on entry. Source: SIPA USA / Bildbyran/Jon Olav Nesvold

“I was very nervous today,” she explained. “But I have been working very closely with my psychiatrist for the last 10 years.”

“Many times my legs buckled under me, but going through all those experiences, falling off the board, made me who I am today. I feel like I was forged in fire.”

Champion sprint rowers Green and Van der Westhuyzen won bronze medals this time

Australian rowers Tom Green and Jean van der Westhuyzen will leave Paris with bronze medals after failing to repeat their Olympic heroics in the men’s K2 event.
Despite breaking a 20-year-old Olympic record in the semi-finals at the Vaires-sur-Marne Maritime Stadium on Friday, Green and van der Westhuyzen fell short of Germany’s Max Lemke and Jacob Schopf in the medal race, finishing third.

Sandor Totka and Bence Nadas from Hungary won silver medals.

In the men's 500m doubles skiing final, Australians Thomas Green and Jean van der Westhuyzen competed.

The Australians would have won gold if they could repeat the 1 minute 26.85 seconds they achieved in the semi-finals of the medal race. Source: APPLICATION / Ibrahim Noroozi

The duo won the title in Tokyo, but the 1000m race was changed to a 500m race for the 2024 Games.

“We would love to come here and win gold again but we will live to fight another day and it wouldn’t be so bad to come home with dirty gold,” said van der Westhuyzen, 25.

Breaking’s Olympic debut

The first Olympic breakers took the stage at Place de la Concorde this Friday, and even rapper Snoop Dogg showed off a few of his own moves ahead of the event’s opening.
Australia’s Rachael Gunn, aka Raygun, made history as one of her country’s first Olympic breakers, but she retired from the competition without firing a single shot.
Gunn’s first fight was against American Logistx but the Australian failed to score in three bouts, including against 16-year-old French B-girl Syssy.
Australian breaker Rachael Gunn watches French breaker Sya Dembélé compete

Rachael Gunn lacks the athleticism of young French goalkeeper Sya Dembele, known as Syssy. Source: AAP / Dan Himbrechts

Athletes were evaluated on creativity, personality, technique, variety, musicality and vocabulary – that is, the variety and quantity of movements.

Australian B-boy Jeff Dunne, 16, known by his nickname ‘J Attack’, will take part in the boys’ competition on Saturday.

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif wins gold medal fight

Khelif won the gold medal at the Paris Olympics and emerged as a champion from a turbulent period in which he achieved great success.

Khelif completed the best match streak of her boxing career by defeating China’s Yang Liu 5-0 in the women’s cruiserweight final.

Algerian Imane Helif poses while kissing her gold medal.

Khelif’s gold medal is Algeria’s first in women’s boxing, joining Hocine Soltani (1996) as only the country’s second gold medalist in boxing. Source: SIPA USA / Bildbyran/Petter Arvidson

France’s large Algerian community has embraced Khelif, but outside the competition venues she has faced extraordinary levels of criticism, pushing her further into a divide over changing attitudes towards gender identity and regulation in the sport.

Khelif said the level of harassment was “undermining human dignity” and called for an end to bullying of athletes. He also said a gold medal would be the “best response” to the backlash against him.

Khelif’s gold medal is Algeria’s first in women’s boxing, joining Hocine Soltani (1996) as only the country’s second gold medalist in boxing.