Track and field: Lyles receives medical treatment (2024)

Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo won gold in the men’s Olympic 200m final as Noah Lyles was denied a sprint double at Paris 2024.

Lyles, who required medical assistance after the race and needed a wheelchair to leave the track, later said that he had tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the event.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone meanwhile smashed her own world record as she claimed a sensational victory in the 400m hurdles gold.

Elsewhere, the United States men’s basketball team was made to work hard in a thrilling 95-91 win over Serbia. The U.S. will play France in the final.

Medal table | How to follow | U.S. men's basketball

American Noah Lyles appeared to receive medical attention after his bronze medal finish in the 200-meter sprint, a race where he was one of the top favorites especially after winning the 100-meter race earlier this week. He was pushed away from the track on a makeshift wheelchair, after spending several moments talking with officials while sitting on the side of the track.

He’s scheduled, at least for now, to race again as part of a relay. He’ll obviously need more clarity before then to continue with that plan.

Wow! Letsile Tebogo of Botswana ran an African record 19.46 to beat American Kenny Bednarek and Noah Lyles to the line in the 200 meters.

It was the fourth fastest time in the race’s history. No 100-200 double for Lyles.

Noah Lyles has to make do with bronze! Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo is the new men’s 200m champion! 19.46.

He will be joined by two Americans on the podium: Kenneth Bednarek finished second in 19.62, with Lyles behind him, with a time of 19.70.

American Noah Lyles is attempting to become just the 10th man in history to win both the 100m and the 200m at the same Olympic Games!

Here's his competition, by lane order:

2. Tapiwanashe Makarawu (Zimbabwe)
3. Makanakaishe Charamba (Zimbabwe)
4. Alexander Ogando (Dominican Republic)
5. Noah Lyles (United States)
6. Erriyon Knighton (United States)
7. Letsile Tebogo (Botswana)
8. Kenneth Bednarek (United States)
9. Joseph Fahnbulleh (Liberia)

Wow — that second semifinal was a lot quicker than the first!

Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji wins it and is almost three seconds quicker than Faith Kipyegon, our first winner.

Nikki Hiltz of the United States comes third with a 3:56.17 — which, again, would have seen her win the first semi — and is through to the final.

After the first round of attempts in the women's long jump final, American Tara Davis-Woodhall trails her teammate Jasmine Moore atop the standings. Davis-Woodhall went seventh in the order and jumped 6.93m taking the top spot.

But her teammate Moore, who picked up a bronze in the triple jump on Saturday, nipped her by 0.03m as the penultimate jumper of the first round with a 6.96m leap. Still four rounds of jumps left to go, plenty of time for drama to play out.

Canadian loonie luck! Skylar Park made it back into the taekwondo women's 57kg division medal hunt after defeating Turkey's Hatice Kübra İlgün 2-0 in the repechage. Park qualified for the repechage after South Korea's Kim Yujin - who defeated Park earlier Thursday - advanced to the final. Park outscored Ilgan 6-4 in the first round and 3-2 in the second.

Park will face Lebanon's Laetitia Aoun for a bronze medal.

Ethiopia's Diribe Welteji won the second semifinal of the women's 1500m and is the fastest qualifier advancing to Saturday's final.

The 12 runners that have advanced:

1. Diribe Welteji (Ethiopia)
2. Jessica Hull (Australia)
3. Nikki Hiltz (United States)
4. Gudaf Tsegay (Ethiopia)
5. Susan Ejore (Kenya)
6. Agathe Guillemot (France)
7. Faith Kipyegon (Kenya)
8. Georgia Bell (Britain)
9. Elle St. Pierre (United States)
10. Laura Muir (Britain)
11. Klaudia Kazimierska (Poland)
12. Agueda Marques (Spain)

France are guaranteed a medal in the Paris 2024 men’s basketball tournament.

They have just defeated Germany 73-69 and will next face the United States or Serbia in Saturday’s final.

You can follow play-by-play coverage of Team USA’s penultimate match of the 2024 Games with my colleague Michael Dominski by clicking here.

Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon has just won the first women’s 1500m semifinal of the evening in a time of 3:58.46. There was also a very strong performance from the two British runners, Georgia Bell and Laura Muir, who finished second and fourth respectively.

Elle St. Pierre of the United States was in third, with Poland’s Klaudia Kazimierska and Spain’s Agueda Marques also making it into the final.

Earlier today, the three starting forwards for the USWNT, Sophia Smith, Mallory Swanson and Trinity Rodman — now having dubbed themselves “Triple Espresso” (or at least, they’re throwing it out there for workshopping purposes) — spoke to reporters at the Olympics’ press center. In two days’ time, they’ll have their chance to truly stamp their mark on this program with a major tournament victory.

“This team has always had a standard of winning, and winning on the biggest stage,” Smith said Thursday. “We take so much pride in that, and want to uphold that in everything that we do to pay our respects to the players that have come before us.”

Nine men have won both the 100m and 200m at the same Olympic Games. They are as follows:

• Archie Hahn, United States (1904)
• Ralph Craig, United States (1912)
• Percy Williams, Canada (1928)
• Eddie Tolan, United States (1932)
• Jesse Owens, United States (1936)
• Bobby Morrow, United States (1956)
• Valeriy Borzov, Soviet Union (1972)
• Carl Lewis, United States (1984)
• Usain Bolt, Jamaica (2008, 2012, 2016)

The fact Usain Bolt did it THREE times is crazy.

• Women’s long jump final (2pm ET): American Tara Davis-Woodhall hopes to improve on her sixth-place finish at Tokyo 2020
• Men’s javelin final (2:25pm ET): India’s Neeraj Chopra aims to win back-to-back gold medals
• Men's 200m final (2:30pm ET): American Noah Lyles will attempt to become just the 10th man in history to win both the 100m and the 200m at the same Olympic Games
• Women's 400m hurdles final (3:25pm ET): Features a massive clash between favorites Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (United States, pictured above) and Femke Bol (Netherlands)
• Men’s 110m hurdles (3:45pm ET): Field features defending Olympic champion Jamaican Hansle Parchment and three American contenders in Grant Holloway, Daniel Roberts and Freddie Crittenden

For the third time in a little more than three weeks, this time with a berth in the gold medal game, the United States and Serbia will go head-to-head in men's basketball. The U.S. won the first two, 105-79 in an exhibition game and 110-84 in the group stage in Paris.

The U.S. cruised past Brazil in the quarterfinals, 122-87, as six players scored in double figures — led by Devin Booker with 18. LeBron James, meanwhile, averaged 16 points, 5.5 assists and 3.5 rebounds in the two games against Serbia.

Serbia advanced in far more dramatic fashion, overcoming a 24-point deficit to beat Australia in overtime Tuesday. Nikola Jokić, much like he does with the Denver Nuggets, leads Serbia in points, rebounds and assists. He’s averaging 19.3 points, 11.8 rebounds and 7.5 assists per game in the Olympics.

The game gets underway at 9pm Paris time, which is 3pm ET and 12pt PT. It will air on USA Network and Peaco*ck.

Well, that is an emphatic way to win an Olympic bronze medal.

Morocco dispatches Egypt 6-0 in the men’s third-place playoff in Nantes. Morocco led 2-0 at half-time after Abdessamad Ezzalzouli and Soufiane Rahimi scored within three minutes of each other midway through the first half.

Rahimi added his second after Bilal El Khannouss made it three six minutes into the second 45, before Akram Nakach and Achraf Hakimi completed the scoring.

Host France faces Spain in the gold medal match in Paris tomorrow.

U.S. wrestler Spencer Lee advanced to the gold-medal match with three consecutive victories at 57 kilograms.

Lee, who won three national titles at Iowa, beat Gulomjon Abdullaev of Uzbekistan 14-4 in today’s semifinal. He will face Japan’s Rei Higuchi tomorrow in the final.

But he is the only American men’s wrestler advancing to a gold-medal match.

In a shocker, Bulgaria’s Magomed Ramazanov upset Aaron Brooks 4-3 with a two-point turn in the final three seconds.

Brooks, a four-time NCAA champion at Penn State, will wrestle for bronze tomorrow.

Fresh off helping the U.S. women’s gymnastics team to gold and winning an individual bronze medal on floor exercise at the Paris Olympics, Jordan Chiles has announced today she will rejoin UCLA’s gymnastics team.

Chiles, 23, competed for the Bruins during the 2022 and 2023 seasons before stepping away from college gymnastics to focus on training for the 2024 Olympics.

She teased her return to the NCAA level in an Instagram post shared yesterday and made it official while speaking with Today host Hoda Kotb in a video on X. Chiles said:

💬 “I am returning back to UCLA to represent the Bruins for my two remaining years of college. You guys will see my back in Pauley (Pavilion) this season.”

You can read more on this one from our reporter Tess DeMeyer with the link below.