SportsHounds Editor at Large Louise Evans previews the key medal events for the Australians on Day 2 of 16 at the Paris Olympics.
Sunday July 28 – possible Australian medals = 2 | Street Skate 1 | Kayak 1 |
Action on day 2 of the Games starts at the white water venue 30km east of downtown Paris where the paddling GOAT – the Greatest of All Time – Jessica Fox kicks-off the toughest Olympic campaign of her already impressive career with the first of three events – the canoe kayak.
We then return to the heart of Paris to the Place de la Concorde in a purpose-built stadium at the bottom of the Champ Elysees avenue with views of the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre.
One of the babies of the entire team Chloe Covell, 14, will be in action here in the newish Olympic sport of Street Skateboard.
Next stop is Nice all the way south to the Mediterranean where the Matildas play their second Pool match against lower ranked Zambia.
Then we’re back to the pool for Emma McKeon’s individual swansong in the 100m butterfly.
1530-1850 (01:30-03:30 AEST) Kayak Single women – Jessica Fox
This is the opening event of three for Jessica Fox, 30, who’s competing in three events – the kayak and canoe singles and the aggressive new Olympic event of kayak cross. Fox is a medal contender in all three events. Enroute to Paris she’s already won 10 world championships plus four medals from three Olympics so far, including canoe gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
17:00-19:00 (01:00-03:00 AEST) Skating Street women – Chloe Covell
Try and get your head around this: a frontside boardslide on the long, mellow down rail then a crooked grind nollie flip out on the flat bar. These are two of the tricks Chloe Covell can execute en route to becoming Australia’s youngest ever Olympic champion. But the tiny world championship silver medallist hasn’t decided what tricks she’ll perform in Paris yet because she will “just try to be unique”. Covell and Co will contest two 45‑second runs + five tricks. Her best run score + 2 highest-scoring tricks = the 0=300 score. Eight skaters qualify for the final.
19:00 (03:00 AEST) Football women – Matildas
Matildas v Zambia in Nice is the second and “easiest” of three very tough pool matches for the Tillies following their July 25 opening 0-3 loss against 2016 Rio champion’s Germany in Marseille. The third match on July 31 is against four-time Olympic champions USA in Marseille. The brutal reality is that the venerated Tillies are ranked world No12 and below seven other nations in the 12-country Olympic competition – Brazil No9, Canada No8, France No2, Germany No4, Japan No7, Spain No1, United States No5. At the last Olympics in Tokyo 2012 the Tillies finished fourth, losing the semi final to Sweden and then beaten to bronze by America.
20:45 (04:45 AEST) Swimming women 100m Butterfly – Emma McKeon
At the Australian trials the only individual event five-time Olympic freestyle champion Emma McKeon qualified for was the 100m butterfly – an event which scored her bronze in Tokyo. She was bidding for a lane in the 100m freestyle again but “my body and shoulders probably haven’t held up as well as I would have wanted”. With her best butterfly time of 56.58s McKeon sneaks into the world top eight. So she should make the final which is likely to be dominated by USA powerhouse Gretchen Walsh who shattered the 100m butterfly world record at her June trials in 55.18sec.
Who to watch & who can medal in the Paris pool
Louise Evans is an award-winning journalist who has worked around Australia and the world as a reporter, foreign correspondent, editor and media executive for media platforms including The Sydney Morning Herald (eight years), The Australian (11 years) and Australian Associated Press (six years in London, Beijing and Sydney).
A women sports’ pioneer, Louise was the first female sports journalist employed by The Sydney Morning Herald and the first female sports editor at The Australian. Louise went on to work at six Olympic Games, six Commonwealth Games and numerous world sporting championships and grand slam tennis events.
Louise is the Founding Editor of AAP FactCheck, the Creator of #WISPAA – Women in Sport Photo Action Awards and national touring Exhibition and the author and producer of the Passage to Pusan book, documentary and exhibition.
In 2019 she was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) Queen’s Honour for services to the media and sport and named an Australian Financial Review Top 100 Woman of Influence for services to the arts, culture and sport.
In 2020 she won a NSW Volunteer of the Year Award plus the NSW Government Community Service Award for her women-in-sport advocacy work.
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