Olympics 2024: All the latest qualifying news as Australian athletes chase ticket to Paris
Catherine Skinner, who won gold at the Rio Olympics then failed to qualify for the Tokyo Games, is among the medal contenders in Australia’s 10-strong shooting team for Paris 2024.
A doctor, the son of a six-time Olympian and an Olympic champion are among the 10 shooters named to represent Australia at the Paris Games.
The 10-athlete team was announced in Brisbane and Melbourne on Thursday morning.
Pistol shooter Elena Galiabovitch has been selected in her third Olympic team.
The last one was extra special for Galiabovitch, who is also a urologist.
She carried the IOC flag at the Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony to represent the health workers during the pandemic.
“It was pretty special,” Galiabovitch said. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get such a high in my life again.
“It was quite strange and a bit surreal walking in and waving to an empty stadium.”
Fellow pistol shooter Dan Repacholi, who had been gunning for a rare sixth Olympics and what would have been his first Games as an MP after being elected in 2002, failed to make the cut.
Sergei Evglevski has been selected to compete in the rapid-fire event. It will be his second Olympics.
Evglevski is the son of six-time Olympian Lalita Yauhleuskaya, who represented Belarus at the 1996 and 2000 Games before switching allegiances and competing for Australia through to the 2016 Games.
Evglevski said he was excited for his second Olympics and to make his parents proud.
“I’d always follow mum up on the podium when I was three or four years old,” he said.
“It’s the family sport and I took advantage of having a coach at home.”
Catherine Skinner, who collected one of Australia’s eight gold medals at Rio 2016, is back in the team after not competing in Tokyo.
Skinner won a World Cup bronze medal in Italy this month.
“I have a self-acknowledgment that Rio wasn’t a fluke and that I do have what it takes to succeed,” Skinner said.
“I am looking forward to going to my second Olympics in Paris and will once again strive for success.”
World No.2 trap shooter James Willett is returning for his third Olympics alongside Penny Smith, Aislin Jones and Mitchell Iles return for their second Games, while Joshua Bell will make his Olympic debut.
Deputy chef de mission and four-time Olympian Mark Knowles said every athlete deserved their position.
“This team has a great breadth of experience and talent,” Knowles said.
“From athletes who have won a medal on the Olympic, world championship and World Cup stage, to shooters who have represented Australia since the London 2012 Olympics, I am excited to see this team perform in Paris.”
The shooting competition will be held at the Châteauroux Shooting Centre, 290km south of Paris, and run from July 27 to August 5.
AUSTRALIA’S PARIS OLYMPICS SHOOTING TEAM
Pistol: Elena Galiabovitch, Sergei Evglevski.
Rifle: Dane Sampson, Jack Rossiter.
Shotgun: Joshua Bell, Aislin Jones, James Willett, Penny Smith, Catherine Skinner, Mitchell Iles.
The unexpected boost for Aussie Olympians
- Robert Craddock
Australian athletes who face being kicked out of the Olympic village may not have to abandon Paris after all.
In a major surprise which goes against widespread early predictions, accommodation prices in Paris during next month’s Olympics have suddenly fallen due to a flood of people putting their apartments up for rent.
French newspaper Le Monde has reported that rental prices for apartments during the Games will rise to about 1.5 times their standard level but that is a major fall from the mega-high asking prices of just two months ago. And there are plenty of vacancies.
Under new rules, Australian athletes must leave the Olympic village within about two days of the end of their event due to a shortage of beds.
They are allowed to return for the final night to attend the closing ceremony but must find alternate accommodation in the meantime.
Several swimmers were planning to go to Greece while others are considering heading to Italy or London in the belief Paris would be booked out or too costly.
The cheaper than expected rooms will give the athletes a better chance of staying in Paris. The decision to ask them to leave the village drew criticism from current and former Olympians including pool gold medallist Duncan Armstrong.
“Really disappointed - with Covid over I don’t know why we have to put up with that sort of stuff,’’ Armstrong told this masthead.
“I know it’s a room thing and a budget thing but I really feel for the athletes because that second week of the Games is a reward for all the pressure, the hard work and sacrifices it took you to get there. It’s for the hard choices you made.’’
A spokesman for the rental management firm Wehost told Le Monde Airbnb was running at 25%-30% occupancy rate for Games bookings but that figure is expected to rise to around 70%.
There are still 145,000 accommodation options available on Airbnb in the Paris region.
It has been estimated that 4.5 million tourists will visit Paris throughout the Games. Paris has 700,000 hotel rooms.
Australia’s fastest ever 800m runner in danger of missing Paris
- Scott Gullan
Australia’s fastest ever 800m runner Catriona Bisset is in danger of missing selection for the Paris Olympics after a stunning career best performance by rival Bendere Oboya.
With the Olympic selection deadline just a week away, Oboya put her name at the top of the list with a brilliant 1min58.56sec run in Vienna which was not only a personal best but also under the Olympic qualifying time.
There is only one spot available in the 800m with young Victorians Claudia Hollingsworth and Abbey Caldwell both getting their tickets to Paris after the national championships in April.
That means selectors will have to choose between Oboya and Bisset, who has also been putting together an impressive set of overseas races in recent weeks.
The national record holder has a season’s best of 1:58.44sec which she set at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene last month.
But the sticking point for Bisset, 30, and what gives Oboya an edge is what happened at the national championships in Adelaide.
In what was essentially an Olympic selection trial, Hollingsworth won the race ahead of Caldwell with Oboya finishing third and Bisset fourth.
The selectors will have to weigh up Bisset’s experience and regular appearances in Diamond League races with the untapped potential of Oboya who has only switched to the 800m over the past two seasons.
After once being dubbed ‘the next Cathy Freeman’, Oboya, 24, represented Australia in the 400m making the semi-finals of the 2019 world championships in Doha.
She then took a break from the sport after becoming disillusioned before being lured by former middle-distance champion Craig Mottram when he set up the On Athletics Club Oceania division.
Teenager Hollingsworth - who finished third (2:00.02sec) behind Oboya in the Vienna race - has been the headline act of the On team and is viewed by many as a potential surprise packet in Paris.
There was another breakthrough performance in Vienna with Peyton Craig, also a member of Mottram’s On team, locking up his spot for Paris with a massive personal best which pushed him to No.3 on Australia’s all-time list.
The 19-year-old clocked 1:44.12sec which was not only an Olympic qualifying time but also a new Australian U/20 record.
A former elite junior triathlete, Craig has enjoyed a stellar season including capturing the Oceania title in Fiji earlier this month.
Tokyo Olympic finalist Peter Bol has already been selected in the 800m with Craig and Luke Boyes, who won the national title in April, almost certain to get the remaining two spots.
National record holder Joseph Deng, who has moved to South Africa to train, is the wildcard and he ran his first 800m race for four months in Vienna finishing fourth behind Craig in 1:46.41sec.
The MP scrapping to get to sixth Olympics
– Hayden Johnson
One stray bullet delivered a crushing loss for Paris hopeful Dan Repacholi and set up a must-win shoot in Munich to qualify for a rare sixth Olympic Games.
Repacholi today has his final shot to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games after falling one point short in the men’s 10m air pistol in Baku last month.
The 42-year-old, who represents Cessnock’s federal electorate of Hunter, would become just the second federal politician to compete in a Games while serving.
Dubbed the “man mountain” for towering over Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during the 2022 election campaign, Repacholi needs to finish in the top 50 in Munich this week to secure a ticket to Paris.
The must-win shoot follows heartbreak in Baku last month when he missed out on a top 50 place by one point.
His score of 570 was enough to secure 27th before the next wave of sharp shooters pushed him towards the cutline and, eventually, one point short.
Despite setting up a clutch shootout in Germany, the calm and charismatic Repacholi appears unfazed.
“I shot well in Baku, it was just everyone else had a good day out as well and my score just wasn’t quite good enough on the day,” he said.
“I have been back home and training as much as I possibly can around my job and recently won the national title with a good weekend of shooting.”
Repacholi has three Commonwealth Games gold and three bronze medals under his belt and is confident he still has what it takes.
“I am shooting well enough to shoot a score good enough to earn a qualification ranking for the Olympic Games,” he said.
“This is the most difficult qualification for a Games that I have been through, especially with my role as the local federal member.
“I know what I have to do and it’s a matter of putting together 60 good shots in the qualification round.”
Just seven Australians have competed in six games, but that exclusive list isn’t what’s driving Repacholi.
“Making a sixth Games will be a great achievement but winning a medal is what I want more than anything,” he said.
Australia’s shooting team left Tokyo in 2021 without a medal.
Melbourne sparky’s last minute marathon reprieve
– Scott Gullan
Melbourne sparky Liam Adams has received a last-minute reprieve and will line-up for Australia in the marathon at the Paris Olympics.
There had been confusion surrounding his selection which was why Adams’ name was missing from Monday’s AOC announcement of the men’s and women’s marathon team.
A change of the goalposts by World Athletics completely blindsided Adams. Seventy runners satisfied the entry standard with the Australian believing the remaining 10 places in the 80-runner field would be filled via world rankings.
When the qualification period closed on May 5, the 37-year-old sat inside the top 80 but a few days later World Athletics added “universality places” to 11 athletes which saw his name disappear from the Paris list.
The International Olympic Committee awards “universality places” to athletes from under-represented National Olympic Committees.
“They are designed to increase the diversity of participating nations across the sports programme of the Olympic Games,” the IOC states.
Adams just missed the entry standard of 2hr08min10sec, clocking a career-best 2:08,39sec at the Gold Coast Marathon in July last year.
After lobbying by Athletics Australia and other country federations whose runners had also been impacted, World Athletics updated their Road to Paris list on Wednesday with Adams listed at 85th with “Qualified by World Rankings” next to his name.
Adams balances his training with working as a full-time electrician and has raced in the marathon at the past two Olympics with a best result of 24th at the 2021 Tokyo Games.
His best finish at a major championships was fourth at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Adams will officially be named on Thursday in the team alongside national record holder Brett Robinson and Pat Tiernan as the men’s selections for the Paris marathon.
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