Paris Olympics 2024 as it happened: Day 8 – Ledecky powers past Titmus; Shock for McKeown in DQ drama; US star stunned in 100m

That’s day eight of our live coverage done and dusted, but don’t worry, day nine is already up and running.

Thanks for following along, here are a few things to look forward to in the next 24 hours:

• 5pm - golf: Min Woo Lee and Jason Day in action
• From 8pm - tennis: Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz face off in the men’s singles final
• 11:40pm - gymnastics: Simone Biles will try to make it four from four gold medals in the uneven bars final
• 2:30am - swimming: Shayna Jack and Meg Harris feature in the women’s 50m freestyle final
• 3:55am - athletics: Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson are both in medal contention

Nicola Olyslagers flew through the high jump qualification on Friday.Credit: AP

The Sam Short mystery remains unsolved. After one of Australia’s strongest multi-medal chances failed to make another final on day eight in Paris, Short then avoided the media once more.

It marked a devastating end to a debut Olympics for the 20-year-old endurance swimmer, who placed seventh in his men’s 1,500m freestyle heat – the final event on his program.

Having managed to keep on the tails of the top two for the first half the race, the subsequent fade-out was fast. He finished in 14:58.15, almost 18 seconds slower than Ireland’s heat winner and overall fastest qualifier Daniel Wiffen.

Sam Short has finished a disappointing Paris 2024 campaign.Credit: Getty Images

The time was 21 seconds slower than the personal best he set last year en route to world championships bronze in Fukuoka, and the shell-shock of such a disappointing meet was clear from the moment he touched the wall.

Short floated in lane five for an age, before finally making his way to the edge of pool well after the rest had already gotten out.

Then he walked through the media mixed zone with a Swimming Australia official, but did not stop to answer any questions, before being met by his coach Damien Jones for a moment away from the cameras.

Short has not given a single interview since the swimming began.

Requests to interview Jones and Dolphins head coach Rohan Taylor were declined on Saturday, which has only further fuelled speculation about what could have happened to the Queenslander this week.

Read Emma Kemp’s full analysis of a bewildering Olympic downfall here.

Rohan Browning knows he has a mountain to climb just to get back to where he was.

Browning was a regular semi-finalist, at world championship level and at Tokyo 2020. On Saturday morning, Paris time, Australia’s fastest man was run out in the heats at Paris 2024 in a performance he admitted was his most disappointing at a major championships.

Rohan Browning of Australia (left) competes during the men’s 100m heats on Saturday.Credit: Getty Images

Browning has been knocking on the door of something special for years. He has been at pains to unlock what he needs to go from semi-finalist to finalist, to go from being a 10 seconds flat runner to a sub-10 second runner.

On Saturday he clocked 10. 29 in the heats. He wasn’t even the fastest Australian in the field; that honour went to Josh Azzopardi (10.20), and he didn’t make the semis, either.

Read the full story from Michael Gleeson here.

The mixed medley is a bizarre race, but one with more tactics than meets the eye.

Selection is vitally important and so too is the order in which teams roll out their swimmers for races that generally have lots of lead changes given the disparity in personal best times between men and women.

It is widely accepted that teams must pick a male breaststroker, given the difference in times is greater between men and women, and every team in Sunday’s final opted for a female freestyle anchor.

Here’s how Australia’s bronze-medal effort, behind the US and China played out and what you might not have noticed.

Read Tom Decent’s full analysis of the mixed 4x100-metre medley relay here.

If you wanted proof that the debate concerning Imane Khelif competing in Paris had descended into farce, you only had to witness the disgusting spectacle in the media mixed zone following her unanimous points victory over Hungarian Anna Luca Hamori.

Khelif had entered the ring for the 66-kilogram quarter-final to rousing cheers and chants from the strong Algerian contingent in the stands. Hamori was booed.

The media tribune, which had been relatively quiet before her controversial round-of-16 win over Italian Angela Carini, was full hours before her bout.

After a slow start, in which she struggled to get inside Hamori’s left jab, Khelif eventually got on top of her opponent with a combination of big left-handed punches and even bigger rights.

When her victory was confirmed by the judges, she ran to her corner and burst into tears as her coaches hugged and consoled her.

A stampede of about 300 reporters and photographers then rushed to the mixed zone – the area where athletes are obliged to speak to the media.

I’ve never seen anything like it. The reporter who kept pushing me in the back as we made our way down the stairs was in danger of wearing a straight right himself.

Khelif was then bombarded with questions from journalists screaming at her in different languages as two Algerian officials flanking her shouted back at them.

Soon enough, it became too much. She was whisked away by her support team, again in tears and refusing to answer further questions from the print media.

Read Andrew Webster’s full column here.

Australia hold a narrow lead over great rivals the USA with one day left on the swimming card in Paris.

The pool is always Australia’s most important Olympic battleground and after a blistering start by Australia’s women, the Americans have slowly chipped away to set up a tantalising final day’s competition.

Seven gold medals for the Aussies have them just ahead in the count that counts (get in the drink anyone who’s claiming total medals are suddenly the new standard), but the US enjoyed the better of Sunday with Katie Ledecky besting a gallant Ariane Titmus in the women’s 800m freestyle and the American mixed medley relay team finishing ahead of China and Australia.

Monday morning’s swimming finishes with 4 x 100m women’s and men’s medley relays featuring both nations prominently, as well as the women’s 50m freestyle final and men’s 1500m freestyle.

Bobby Finke will swim for the States in the long-distance event and is considered an outside medal chance.

That 50m freestyle though will be worth the 2:30am AEST wake-up - Shayne Jack and Meg Harris will swim for the good guys, while Gretchen Welsh has qualified second-fastest for the final behind Swedish star Sarah Sjoestrom, whose 23.66 finish time was an Olympic record.