Paris Olympics Day 16 Highlights: USA Top China In Medal Tally Race Via Women's Basketball Gold; Closing Ceremony To Follow

15 days done, one to go. Over 300 medal events done, 13 more to go. Are you ready to here, we, gold for one last time in Paris for 2024?

• 11:30 - Athletics - Women’s Marathon

• 12:30 - Handball - Men’s Bronze Medal Match - Spain vs Slovenia

• 14:05 - Water Polo - Men’s Bronze Medal Match - USA vs Hungary

• 14:30 - Wrestling - Men’s Freestyle 65kg, 97kg Medal Rounds; Women’s 76kg Freestyle Medal Rounds

• 14:30 - Modern Pentathlon - Women’s Individual Final

• 15:00 - Basketball - Women’s Bronze Medal Match - Belgium vs Australia

• 15:00 - Weightlifting - Women’s +81kg

• 16:15 - Track Cycling - Women’s Sprint, Finals

• 16:30 - Volleyball - Women’s Gold Medal Match - USA vs Italy

• 16:53 - Track Cycling - Men’s Keirin, Finals

• 17:00 - Handball - Men’s Gold Medal Match - Germany vs Denmark

• 17:26 - Track Cycling - Women’s Omnium, Points Race 4/4

• 17:30 - Water Polo - Men’s Gold Medal Match - Serbia vs Croatia

• 19:00 - Basketball - Men’s Gold Medal Match - USA vs France

The Paris Olympics 2024 closing ceremony is today, August 11, Sunday, at the athletics site of the Stade de France. What has been a spectacular event in Paris, with stars from various countries going head-to-head for medals, the Summer Games comes to a close.

Real-life couple Rossella Fiamingo and Gregorio Paltrinieri will proudly represent Italy as flag bearers at the Paris Games closing ceremony on Sunday. The Italian Olympic Committee made the heartwarming announcement.

Fiamingo and Paltrinieri did their magic act at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Fiamingo won gold in team fencing, and Paltrinieri won silver and bronze in the 1500m and 800m freestyle swimming events.

India's men's hockey team goalkeeper and bronze medallist PR Sreejesh alongside pistol shooter Manu Bhaker will bear the Indian flag at the Closing Ceremony of the Paris Olympics, as confirmed by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President PT Usha on Friday, August 9.

Day 15 of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games saw great sporting action including the United States winning the men's basketball final against France 98-87 and claiming gold. Read about all the medal winners of yesterday here.

Lin Yu-ting fought to remain poised and calm throughout the Paris Olympics boxing tournament, even when it seemed like most of the chattering world was maligning her, misrepresenting her and questioning the very nature of her being.

The flyweight shut off her social media, kept up her training and focused on earning one proficient victory after another.

On Friday, Khelif won Algeria's first women's boxing medal with a decisive victory in the welterweight division final, beating Yang Liu of China.

Both fighters were disqualified last year from the world championships organized by the International Boxing Association, a Russian-dominated governing body that has been banished from the Olympics since 2019. (AP)

Today (August 11, Sunday), no Indian athletes will be in action at the Paris Olympic Games 2024, as Reetika Hooda, the last hope, failed to qualify for the repechage round in women's 76kg freestyle wrestling.

With only six medals - five bronze and one silver, India stand on the 71st position. The contingent will attend the closing ceremony led by flagbearers shooter Manu Bhaker and hockey player PR Sreejesh which will start at 9 PM Local time (12:30 AM, August 12).

The women's marathon event of the Paris Olympics has started, with 92 athletes running on the Parisian streets. Kenya's Peres Jepchirchir is the defending champion and will seek to become the first woman to win two gold medals in the Olympic marathon this time at the Games 2024.

Family members and fans of the Indian men's national hockey team accorded a boisterous welcome of the Olympic bronze medal-winning team at the Amritsar airport with celebratory ‘dhol’ drumming in the background. India clinched the bronze medal in the at Paris 2024, beating Spain 2-1.

The nascent governing body fighting to keep boxing in the Olympics is about to get a major membership boost.

World Boxing expects to expand its membership base to 50 national federations or more in the weeks after the conclusion of the tumultuous Paris Olympics, President Boris Van Der Vorst told The Associated Press. The organization already has 37 members, including most of the top Western national federations. (AP)

Women's Marathon

Sifan Hassan won the women's marathon, overcoming Tigst Assefa in a thrilling race for gold. The Dutch star surged ahead in the final 100 meters to secure the victory with a new Olympic record time of 2:22:55.

1st - Sifan Hassan (NED): 2:22:55 OR
2nd - Tigst Assefa (ETH): 2:22:58
3rd - Hellen Obiri (KEN): 2:23:10

Men's Handball

Spain won the bronze medal match against Slovenia 23-22 in the Men's Handball event at the Paris Olympics. Once again!

The Los Hispanos win came mostly with the efforts of goalkeeper Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas. It was him who changed the game by denying Borut Ma?kov?ek and sealing the bronze!

The Defending champion Kate French of the great Britain withdraws from the women pentathlon event due to illness. The contingent have announced that the athlete, who won gold at Tokyo 2020, wont be participating today due to the same reason.

The silver medalist from Rio 2016  Elodie Clouvel of France is currently leading the competition with 553 points.

Men's 65kg Freestyle Wrestling - gold

Kiyooka Kitaro of Japan clinched the gold in the men's Men's 65kg Freestyle Wrestling with a dominative win over Rahman Amouzadkhalili of Islamic Republic of Iran 10-3. Scoring all 10 of his points in the first period the Japanese set the victory stage.

Women Basketball - Bronze

The last 30 seconds of the bronze medal match of Australia vs Belgium, decided the winner. And it was the Australia who knocked down all of their free throws to win 85-81 and claim the bronze! 

Wrestling, Men's 97kg freestyle - gold

Akhmed Tazhudinov claimed the gold for Bahrain – their first Olympic medal in a sport other than athletics.

Fighting against Givi Matcharashvili of Georgia, Akhmed claimed victory by 2(F) in the final match.

Volleyball - Gold

Italy reached the finals of women's volleyball for the time at the Games, and won the gold defeating the reigning champions United States 25-18 in straight sets. Just extra-ordinary they were.

The bronze went to Brazil as they defeated Turkiye 3-1.

Dutch distance running sensation Sifan Hassan has etched her name in Olympic history with an unprecedented triple. In a feat of endurance and skill, Hassan competed in the 5,000m, 10,000m, and marathon events, covering a staggering 65 kilometers in just two weeks.

Her performance is even more remarkable considering she clinched medals in all three races - bronze in the 5,000m and 10,000m, and gold in the marathon.

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An absolute humdinger caps off the Paris 2024 Games on a thrilling note. The women's basketball final between the United States and France went right down to the wire. With around 30 seconds remaining, France had the chance to reduce USA's lead to one or even tie with a three-pointer, but an untimely shot from Marine Fauthoux was blocked by Breanna Stewart. It then became a free-throw game, with France now having to foul to stop the clock and hope that the USA would miss.

But despite the home crowd clamouring against them at the Bercy Arena, the USA come up clutch at the line to extend their lead. Gabby Williams hits a shot as time expires that sends the crowd into raptures as they believe she has tied the game, but Williams is just inside the three-point line, which means the USA win 67-66 in an all-time classic finale.

The United States of America has leapfrogged China in the Paris Olympics medal tally with a gold medal in the very last event of the Games. Both the USA and China have won 40 gold medals, but the Americans claim the honour thanks to a higher silver count, 44 to 27. The USA also has a bigger medal haul, 126 as against China's 91.

Japan (45 - 20, 12, 13) finishes third, ahead of Australia (53 - 18, 19, 16) and host France (64 - 16, 26, 22).

Home favourite Leon Marchand emerged as the man with the most medals at the Paris Olympics. The 22-year-old swimmer bagged four gold and one bronze in a scintillating display. He clinched gold in all four of his individual events, and a bronze medal in the men’s 4x100m medley relay.

Among the women, the 21-year-old American swimmer Torri Huske ruled the roost with three gold and two silver medals. She claimed gold and set a world record in the 4x100m mixed medley relay, while repeating the feat in the women’s 4x100m medley relay event.

Reiterating its utter dominance in the two sports, China completed a clean sweep of the Paris Olympics gold medals in both table tennis and diving. In table tennis, the Chinese ended the competition by winning the women's team title, marking the sixth time they have collected the full set. They swept all five gold and also claimed one silver in the five TT events. As for diving, China pulled off a historic sweep of all eight gold medals after Cao Yuan won the men's 10m platform final on Saturday.

Meanwhile, South Korea again showed just how hard it is to shake it from the top, when it comes to archery at the Olympics. Kim Woo-jin completed a South Korean sweep of the Paris 2024 archery titles when he won the individual men's gold. It was their fifth gold in the sport, adding to the women's individual title and the three team golds in men's, women's and mixed.

With all sporting events done and dusted, we now await the closing ceremony of Paris 2024 to formally conclude the Games and signal the hand-over to Los Angeles, the venue for the 2028 Olympics. The gala closing ceremony in Paris will feature more than 100 performers comprising acrobats, dancers, and circus artists, along with some internationally renowned artists like Snoop Dogg, Billie Eilish and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The ceremony begins at 12:30pm IST and we will bring you live updates from there. 

With that, our coverage of the 16th and final day of action at the Paris Olympics ends. The sporting events have concluded, but the gala opening ceremony is yet to come. We are running a dedicated blog for live updates from the ceremony, so head over there to not miss out on anything.