Your daily guide to the Games: Boomers fight for historic bronze medal, McSweyn and Hoare to run 1,500m final
The Boomers will get one more chance to win Australia’s first Olympic medal in men’s basketball when they take on Slovenia on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Stewart McSweyn and Ollie Hoare will run for gold in the men’s 1,500m final.
On the water, Australia will also be represented in both the men’s and women’s kayak four semi-finals.
The Tokyo Olympics are broadcast in Australia on free-to-air TV on Channel Seven, as well as streaming platform 7Plus.
The ABC will be live-blogging events every day of the Olympics.
Here are the events to watch on Saturday, August 7.
Marathon: Trio of Aussie stars to run in women’s race
Australians Lisa Weightman, Sinead Diver and Ellie Pashley will compete in the women’s marathon on Saturday morning at 7:00am AEST.
Getty Images: Matt King
)All three are in great form, and the occasion is set for Weightman, who’ll run in her fourth consecutive Olympic Games.
But it’s Diver that’s been tipped to be best placed for Australia with a personal best time of two hours, 24 minutes and 11 seconds in the event.
Athletics: Stewart McSweyn and Ollie Hoare in 1,500m final
Australian distance runners Stewart McSweyn and Ollie Hoare both qualified for the men’s 1,500m final, starting at 9:40pm AEST.
Getty Images: Martin Rickett
)Both will be chasing history in the race. Australia hasn’t won a medal in the 1,500m since Herb Elliot won gold at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome.
Hoare recorded a national record time of 3:32.35 in his semi-final, before McSweyn knocked it off just minutes later in the second semi-final, recording a time of 3:29.51.
Nicola McDermott and Eleanor Patterson will also both represent Australia in the women’s high jump final at 8:35pm AEST.
Both athletes jumped over the bar at 1.95m to qualify for the final.
Basketball: Boomers fight for bronze against Slovenia
AP: Charlie Neibergall
)The Australian Boomers’ bid for a first Olympics medal in men’s basketball continues on Saturday, taking on Slovenia for bronze at 9:00pm AEST.
The Boomers went down to Team USA in Thursday’s semi-final, while Slovenia went down by just one point to France in the other semi-final.
Patty Mills will be hoping to lead his side to a medal, but Slovenia’s in-form star Luka Doncic stands in the way.
Earlier, the USA will take on France in the men’s gold medal match a 12:30pm AEST.
Football: Brazil take on Spain in gold medal match
Brazil will take on Spain in the men’s football gold medal match at 9:30pm AEST.
Getty Images: Zhizhao Wu
)Brazil secured their place in the final in a penalty shootout against Mexico, while Spain defeated Japan 1-0 in extra time.
Both sides remain unbeaten so far at the Tokyo Olympics.
Brazil’s Richarlison is the top scorer of the men’s competition, with five goals in five games, while Spain’s Rafa Mir has scored three goals.
Kayak four: Australia in men’s and women’s semi-finals
Australia will compete in both the men’s and women’s kayak four 500m semi-finals from 11:07am AEST.
Getty Images: Phil Walter
)The women will be up first, with Jaime Roberts, Jo Brigden-Jones, Shannon Reynolds and Catherine McArthur representing Australia.
The men will be represented by Lachlan Tame, Riley FitzSimmons, Murray Stewart and Jordan Wood.
If Australia gets through, the finals will begin at 1:19pm.
Diving: Cassiel Rousseau into 10m platform semi-final
Getty Images: Al Bello
)Australia’s Cassiel Rousseau will compete in the men’s 10m platform semi-finals from 11:00am AEST.
In his first Olympic Games, the 20-year-old qualified in eighth position in the preliminary rounds with 423.55 points.
The top 18 divers make it through to the semi-finals.
Australia’s Samuel Fricker missed out, finishing in 28th position in the preliminary rounds.
What else is happening?
Reuters: Gonzalo Fuentes
)Australia’s women’s water polo team will be back in action in the 5th-6th qualification match against the Netherlands at 12:00pm.
There’ll be plenty of action on the track again on Saturday night with both the men’s and women’s 4x400m relay finals from 10:30pm.
Australia will also be in action again on the cycling track with the women’s sprint and men’s keirin events, while the men’s madison final is at 5:55pm (all times AEST).
Tokyo drifting
By Cody Atkinson and Sean Lawson
Famed philosopher Andre Benjamin once posed the question: what’s cooler than being cool? Benjamin, better known by his pseudonym Andre 3000, suggested the answer was ice cold.
Eddy Alvarez knows a bit about operating in ice-cold environments. Alvarez, one of the two US flag-bearers at the games, was a short track speed skater in a previous life, and a good one at that.
Getty Images: Koji Watanabe
)The Florida native of Cuban-American descent was highly rated coming into the Sochi Olympics, qualifying in three individual events. As most Australians would know, thanks to the heroics of Steven Bradbury, falls are relatively common in short track. Alvarez went down in every one of his individual events.
Still, Alvarez and his American teammates were able to walk away with a silver in the relay, just reward for the years of work put in.
After Sochi, Alvarez hung up his skates and walked away from the track to his first love: baseball. By the end of 2014, with a newly minted Olympic medal around his neck, Alvarez entered the Chicago White Sox minor league system. Within his first year, the former fast track speed skater went from Russia to Arizona to Kannapolis.
Alvarez lined up for eight teams all across the US over six years in the minors before he got his first taste of the MLB with the Miami Marlins in the COVID-affected 2020 season. His stint was short-lived.
That’s before Mike Scioscia and the US National Baseball team called. Scioscia, one of only two athletes to guest star as themselves on The Simpsons twice, gave Alvarez the opportunity to join a relatively exclusive club: the dual Summer/Winter Olympians.
Only 147 athletes have competed at both the Summer and Winter Olympics, including Alvarez. If that club isn’t small enough, Alvarez joined an even rarer group with the USA’s win over South Korea on Thursday.
With that win, the USA advanced to the gold medal match. This makes Alvarez just the sixth athlete to win medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics. The only question now is whether Alvarez will get a second silver medal, or upgrade to a gold.
The alternative medal tally
Team sports and events mean many athletes can come away with medals from the same win. How many winners have there been in Tokyo?
Small team winners have pulled China away from the United States for now, but with both American basketball teams yet to play for gold, it may swing to the US.
The team medal tally has an Australasian flavour thanks to New Zealand’s rugby and rowing teams and Australia’s various team winners.
