My 2024 Olympic Games Experience: A British Gold Medal and a World Record for Super Swede

Paris-based former sports journalist Bob Frank continues his daily account of attending the 2024 Olympic Games.

Wow, what a dramatic end to another night of superb Olympic athletics at the Stade de France last night.

Within the space of a few minutes, Keely Hodgkinson front-ran her way to 800m gold for Britain in the women’s 800m minutes and Swedish superstar Mondo Duplantis then broke the world pole vault record for the ninth time.?

Nearly all of the tickets I bought for the Olympics were purchased recently, initially opting for the men’s 100m as the tag of being the fastest man in the world is iconic within the sport I worked in for many years, and I am a fan of American sprinter Noah Lyles. But then, having enjoyed attending the Diamond League in Paris last month and with my best mate raving about his experience at the Diamond League in London, I decided to pick out a few events where there were strong British medal hopes.

I opted for Hodgkinson in the 800m, Josh Kerr in the 1,500m and Matt Hudson-Smith in the 400m, so hopefully Hodgkinson’s victory last night is a good omen and that I will see another two gold medals over the next two evenings.

Although Hodgkinson was the pre-race favourite, Olympic finals are highly-pressurised situations for any athlete, let alone a 22-year-old bidding to win her first such title, and she produced the goods to become the third British woman to win 800m gold. Cheered on by a large British contingent among a packed crowd at the impressive 60,000 stadium, Hodgkinson produced an excellent run in the final track race of the evening.

Duplantis is the New Bubka

Just moments later Duplantis, who had already clinched the gold medal and had broken the Olympic record with a 2.10m clearance, made his first attempt at breaking his own world record.

When I reported on athletics, there was an equally dominant pole vaulter - Sergey Bubka of the Ukraine, who won 10? world titles (six outdoors, four indoors) and set 35 world records (17 outdoors and 18 indoors). He had a reputation for always breaking the world record by just 1cm, as there were financial rewards if he broke the record at a meeting - so why make it harder for future attempts by breaking the record by more than 1cm in one meeting?

Duplantis is becoming the new Bubka and even though he failed his first two attempts at 6.25m last night, he looked capable of going over and he duly did so at his third and final attempt before sprinting around the stadium in celebration. The super Swede was the class act, and had even decided to pass at a couple of heights during the competition because he was so confident in his ability.

Chebet aiming for a 5,000 and 10,000m double

Other gold medals decided last night saw Valarie Allman of the USA win the women’s discus with a dominant display and Beatrice Chebet of Kenya take the 5,000m with a strong finish. It was a high quality field featuring three world record-holders but Chebet, who holds the world record for 10,000m (28:54.14) and will look to take gold over that distance on Thursday, came out on top.

Fellow Kenyan Faith Kipyegon, who was extremely impressive when breaking the world 1,500m record here in Paris last month, was initially disqualified last night for a mid-race tussle but was reinstated to the silver medal position ahead of the strong-finishing Sifan Hassan, who is also bidding for glory in the 10,000m and marathon this week.

In qualification, Darryl Neita and Dina Asher-Smith - who suffered a shock elimination in the 100m semi-finals the night before - cruised into the women’s 200m final for Britain while American ace Lyles was impressive in the men’s first round as he looks to complete the sprint double.

My day had begun with me finally seeing a triathlon at these Games - the mixed relay. I had gone to the men’s individual triathlon last Tuesday only to find it had been cancelled in the early hours of that morning due to concerns about the water quality in the River Seine, and I was unable to attend the following day when it was rescheduled to take place just after the women’s race because I was on my way to Lille to watch some basketball.

Alex Yee (gold) and Beth Potter (silver) had made the podium that day and both were in the British quartet yesterday so I was hoping to see them retain the relay title. Each of the British quartet led at some point of their stages, but they had to settle for a place of the podium.

A three-way sprint finish saw Germany take gold with Britain initially awarded silver but they were then downgraded to bronze behind the USA in a finish almost as tight as the men’s 100m the previous night!

Having only got to bed at 1am, I got up at 6am and set off for the race an hour later. I knew I would only get there around 10 minutes before the 8am start but I’m old and I need my beauty sleep!

I did at least check that the race was still on before I set off from home yesterday - something I failed to do last week (one of several silly mistakes I have made for the free events at this Olympics as I seem to have a more carefree approach to them, given that I haven’t paid for them!).?

I had looked down at the river when going over a bridge the day before and I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to swim in it. You’re always likely to swallow some water when swimming, and it didn’t look too pleasant to me. Indeed, the Belgian team withdrew yesterday because one of their team had been hospitalised with an E.coli infection after last week's triathlon, while every swimming practice session in the Seine has been cancelled at these Olympics because of the water quality concerns.

When I arrived yesterday, the area was absolutely packed. It was impossible to get on Pont des Invalides, the bridge just along from Pont de Alexandre III where the swim started, without a ticket (although you can buy a ticket for all the free events to get a better view, I generally haven’t found it necessary).

Yesterday, it would have been helpful though because I could hardly see the swim from where I stood, so I soon moved to another spot to see the cycling and running. I wasn’t sure exactly where the route was going (I really should start researching before the free events!) but I followed the barriers and the packed crowds, and I eventually found a spot where I had a very good view of the cycling but could hardly see the running stages as they only went by the top of the road where I was, and it was so packed there that I decided to stay where I was.

Competitors did two laps of the cycling route, so I saw Yee, Georgia Taylor-Brown and Sam Dickinson twice, but after Potter went through for the first time, I decided to move to the end of the road and try to see some of the running stage rather than stay and see her go by on the bike a second time.

I found the best place I could but I had a very poor view as there were so many people ahead of me. There were even grown men sitting on the shoulders of their mates to get a better view, but from what I could see, Potter looked to have been beaten as her German and American rivals had gone ahead of her.

Potter staged a brave bid to fight back approaching the bridge finish though and was pushing for gold, but in the end Germany won by one second with the USA and Britain given the same time.

When I reported on athletics, Potter was one of Britain’s best young athletes - indeed she ran in the Olympics over 10,000m - but I overheard one person from the UK yesterday who clearly doesn’t rate her.?

She couldn’t accept that Potter had running ability, given that she had led going into the run and had eventually finished third, and commented to her friend: “If you’re telling me Potter used to be a good runner, I’m saying that is bullshit!” One thing I have noticed at these Olympics is that many people have become ‘experts’ on sports they perhaps have never even seen before! I have been to watch basketball at this Olympics, and I would never dream of thinking I know everything about it, I just wanted to sample several sports at these Games.

It’s not as if Potter blew a big lead. She led by one second coming out of the transition into the run (although she had gone into the transition just behind in third place) and she finished one second behind the winner, so she only lost two seconds on the run, and it's not as if she was racing against joggers.

As I headed home from the triathlon, I received an unexpected message from a former international runner - Steve Brooks - who told me he had been on the opposite side of the road to me but hadn’t recognised me at first in my Tour de France cap.

The cap has become essential for any daytime events I attend after burning my head when spending four hours in scorching conditions at the hockey last week, but given that I haven’t seen ‘Brooksy’ for more than 20 years I wouldn’t expect him to recognise me given that I now look older than the Eiffel Tower (and it’s not as if I had boyish good looks the last time he saw me!).

Today I have a more leisurely start to the day as I only have tonight’s athletics to go to. The grudge clash between Britain’s world champion Josh Kerr and Norway’s reigning champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the 1500m final should be the highlight, as the pair clearly don’t like each other.

Other finals are the women’s 200m, women’s 3,000m steeplechase, women’s hammer throw and men’s long jump final, while Hudson-Smith goes in the 400m semi-finals and there is also the women’s 400m hurdles semi-finals where Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Femke Bol are the big names. Bol’s amazing finish to anchor the Netherlands to glory in the mixed 4x400m relay is one of the highlights of the Games so far.

My Olympic schedule:?

Events been to

July 27: Cycling (men’s and women’s individual time trials).

July 28: Women’s hockey (Belgium v China, and Australia v South Africa)?

July 29: no events (just fan zones)

July 30: Men’s triathlon (cancelled)

July 31: Basketball (Puerto Rico v Serbia)

August 1: 20km race walk

August 2: no event

August 3: Men’s cycling road race

August 4: women’s cycling road race and athletics

Yesterday (August 5): Triathlon mixed relay and athletics

Events still to Come

Today (August 6): Athletics

Tomorrow (August 7): Athletics

August 8: Women’s open water swim

August 9: Men’s open water swim

August 10: Men’s marathon

August 11: Women’s marathon