Jess Hull claims Olympic silver in stunning 1,500m run, as Stingers finish runner-up in the water polo (2024)

Australia has won two silver medals on day 15:

• 🥈Water polo — Australia, SILVER
• 🥈 Athletics — women's 1,500m, Jess Hull,SILVER

Another spectacular day of action from the Paris Olympics, and another day of medals for our Australian legends.

The stunning run from the women's water polo team came to an end at the hands of Spain in the final, but the Stingers showed incredible fortitude and will to claim their silver medal.

Jess Hull more than lived up to the lofty expectations we had going into the Games, becoming the first Australian woman to claim a medal in the 1,500m with a barnstorming final sprint that secured an historic silver.

And it was a day of close calls and almosts for other Aussie athletes, with Eileen Cikamatana finishing fourth in the women's 81kg class weightlifting, Cassiel Rousseau finishing in the same position in the men's 10m platform diving final, and Hannah Green also coming fourth in the women's golf.

All efforts that should make Australia proud.

Thanks for joining the ABC Sport team, and we'll back to do it all again for the final day of action at the Paris Olympics.

We'll be back on deck this evening to live blog the final day of action from Paris, with medals still up for grabs in the cycling and bronze on the line for the Opals.

Here's everything you need to be across Sunday into Monday.

We’re keeping a running tally of all the medals Australia wins each day.

And we've got the overall leaderboard to see how we compare against our rivals. We currently remain in third overall, but Japan has drawn level on gold.

The much-anticipated rematch of the Tokyo Olympics gold medal clash between France and the US hasn’t disappointed. It’s been a tough, high-quality extravaganza all the way.

With the French firing early, and the boisterous home crowd backing them to the hilt, the US team had to absorb the pressure and build on a slender lead going into the final phase. Their aim, to steadily sap the energy of the fighting French. And tellingly, the US were seven for seven on the free-throw line.

As the US ramped it up, owning the outside shooting, the French were hard pressed to make more threes and keep up. But they weren’t going quietly, finding some spectacular threes to stay within reach.

For the US, it was Kevin Durant and Anthony Edwards who started to put their sharp-shooting stamp on the game.

But inside four minutes in the fourth, there was only 5 points in it — and the US team’s to lose as Guerschon Yabusele went rampagingly close to another huge three-pointer. Then big “Wemby” closed the gap to 3 points, only to have cool-hand Steph Curry find a triple, and breathing space. With barely a minute on the clock, Curry did it again — back to back triples to all but ice the game.

The long limbs of Victor Wembanyama helped the French at both ends, and Yabusele never took a step back, but the Americans’ bursts of brilliance proved too much for the host nation. And then there was that man Curry … a magician to the end.

The US hold firm with too much firepower, finishing worthy winners 97-87.

After winning the world championships (in a tie) last year, Nina Kennedy went to Paris as one of the favourites for gold in the pole vault.

She came to the Games having missed the Tokyo final, hampered by injury. She's battled poor mental health, injury and self-doubt.

But now she's an Olympic champion.

She went to Paris with the mantra "someone literally has to win it, so why can't it be you?"

And win she did.

As Dean Bilton wrote from Stade de France, it was fitting that Kennedy's gold was the one that made Paris Australia's most successful Games ever.

US gymnast Jordan Chiles is expected to lose her bronze medal in the women's artistic gymnastics floor exercise competition.

The development comes after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled in favour of an appeal by Romania's Ana Bărbosu, who will move up to third place.

Bărbosu and her team had appealed to CAS that an inquiry filed over the results in that event was done so past the one-minute deadline.

They argued Chiles should not be awarded the score of 13.766 that lifted her to third place behind winner Rebeca Andrade of Brazil and silver medallist Simone Biles of the United States.

Chiles had initially been awarded a score of 13.666, while Bărbosu scored 13.700.

"The inquiry submitted on behalf of Ms Jordan Chiles in the final of the women's floor exercise was raised after the conclusion of the one-minute deadline," CAS said.

"The initial score of 13.666 given to Ms Jordan Chiles in the final of the women's floor exercise shall be reinstated."

CAS also ordered the international gymnastics federation FIG to determine the ranking of the final and "assign the medal(s) in accordance with the above decision".

The decision does not affect either Andrade or Biles, who scored 14.166 and 14.133 respectively.

In a joint statement, US Gymnastics and the U.S Olympic and Paralympic Committee said they were devastated by the decision.

Reuters

Jess Hull is no overnight success.

While she was a talented junior, she has had to chip away to become a contender at the international level and is now reaping the rewards for her hard work.

You can read more about Hull's silver-medal performance in Paris below:

I love a story of perseverance.

Stories of athletes who haven't met their own expectations, gone away, done the work, taken on enormous pressure, and come back even better.

So, I've got Saya Sakakibara and Cam McEvoy's gold medal efforts right near the top of my most memorable moments.

But number one for me was Matt Denny's bronze in the discus.

A ripping fella from a little country town. He's been around for ages but never cracked the podium at the majors. He was fourth at the last Olympics and fourth at the last World Champs.

He was on a mission in Paris and delivered — all with a huge smile on his face.

It’s half time in a star-studded rematch of the Tokyo Olympics gold medal clash, and this young French team is looking utterly unfazed in a big physical clash against the US.

The Americans have the edge 49-41 on the scoreboard but it’s evens in every other way. With tempers fraying, the US look a little frustrated. Good signs for the French, who are clearly testing their big-name arch-rivals.

France’s big weapon Victor Wembanyama has got things going for the host nation, along with “the Stifle Tower” Rudy Gobert. And Guerschon Yabusele leads all scorers, topped off with a thundering three-point play that left LeBron James on the deck.

For the Americans, it’s been Steph Curry with the typically telling touches.

The French defence has done well to hold the US, but the always dangerous James, and fellow LA Lakers star Anthony Davis, have found a way through.

Canadian b-boy Phil Wizard (Philip Kim) took gold in the first Olympic men's breaking tournament.

Hometown favourite French b-boy Dany Dann (Danis Civil) won silver, and American b-boy Victor (Victor Montalvo) was awarded the bronze after taking out Japanese b-boy Shigekix (Shigeyuki Nakarai).

"Local hero" Dany Dann, as the emcees referred to him, took the stage each round to rapturous applause, with the crowd chanting "Dany! Dany!" every time he landed a power move.

Kim amazed spectators with his powerful moves, quick feet and quirky personality that he synced to the music.

The entire stadium cheered on its feet as both b-boys hugged before the judges announced their scores.

Although the battles sparked fierce competition, between rounds and after each battle, the breakers exchanged hugs, pats on the back and sometimes even synced up their movements with each other.

It contributed to an atmosphere that remained true to the party culture of hip-hop "jams" and "cyphers" — an informal circle formed by breakers in which they enter one by one to dance and battle.

"We're all representing hip-hop here, we're all a big family right now," Montalvo said.

AP

They're playing for the ultimate gold medal glory in the men's basketball — the US Dream Team versus the in-form French hosts.

The Americans had quite the scare against Serbia and have come out firing. But the French are looking lively as the buckets start raining.

A bit of a sloppy start from the US thus far, with scoring tight at 11-12 the US way.

New Zealand has topped the podium in the men's high jump after Hamish Kerr triumphed in an enthralling final.

A jump-off was needed to decide the gold after Kerr and Shelby McEwenboth finished with a best height of 2.36m.

They couldn't be separated on countback and rather than share the gold — as Mutaz Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi did in Tokyo — Kerr and McEwen entered a jump-off.

Both missed at 2.38m and 2.36m in the jump-off, but Kerr cleared 2.34m when the bar was lowered and McEwen missed.

After the gold was clinched, Kerr set off in wild celebrations, running onto the infield with his arms spread wide open.

It is New Zealand's first gold in the men's high jump and its ninth of the Paris Olympics.

Qatar's Barshim, who had earlier been eliminated, was bronze medallist this time around with a clearance of 2.34m.

Meanwhile, the US won both the men's and women's 4x400m relay finals.

In the women's final, the American quartet of Shamier Little, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabby Thomas and Alexis Holmes — were only 0.10 shy of the world record set by the Soviet Union at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Australia's artistic swimming duo of Rayna Buckle and Kiera Gazzard have finished second-last in a 17-strong field in the duet event of the artistic swimming.

They came into this final section in 14th place after their technical routine a few days ago, but tumbled two places after other teams scored higher in their free routine this morning.

The gold medal was won by China, the final duet of the day, who did just enough to defeat Team GB by 7.9 points.

The silver was Team GB's first ever medal in artistic swimming, while the Netherlands finished third to claim bronze.

After missing the podium in the men's 1,500m, Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen has bounced back to claim gold in the 5,000m.

Ingebrigtsen, who was fourth in his attempt to defend his 1,500m title, won the second Olympic gold of his career in a time of 13:13.66.

Kenya's Ronald Kwemoi (13:15.04) won silver and Grant Fisher (13:15.13) of the US picked up the bronze.

Australia's Stewart McSweyn was 18th in 13:31.38.

Jess Hull has spoken with the Nine Network after she became the first Australian to win an Olympic medal in the women’s 1,500m.

My mum, this morning, she sent me a photo of me at [a] state little athletics [championships].

I was probably 12, and she just said, 'Do it for this little girl tonight', and that's all I needed to hear from her.

It brought me to tears a little bit, so I'm glad she sent it early on in the day so I could just have that moment and then recalibrate again.

I hope that I'm the first of many middle-distance stars to come because it's a pretty special feeling.

Kathryn Mitchell, at 42, has reason to proud after achieving her fourth consecutive top-eight finish in the Olympic women's javelin final.

Mitchell threw a best of 62.63m to place seventh in Paris.

She was sixth in Tokyo and Rio, and eighth on Olympic debut at the 2012 London Games.

Mitchell's teammate Mackenzie Little finished in 12th position, unable to do better than her opening throw of 60.32m.

Japan's Haruka Kitaguchi won gold with 65.80m.

South Africa's Jo-Ané van Dyk was the silver medallist via a throw of 63.93m and Czechia'sNikola Ogrodníková won bronze with 63.68m.

Despite some typically deft goal scoring from Australia’s Milos Maksimovic and Luke Pavillard, it was all Italy in the men’s water polo wrestle for 7th and 8th place.

The Aussie Sharks go down 6-10.

Both these sides have claimed some big scalps in high-stakes games, but this classification match wasn’t one of them.

With the Italians ranked number two in the world — and the Aussies having beaten medal contenders Hungary and Serbia, and lost in a heartbreaker to the US — neither team can be too thrilled with those placings.

Their long campaign over, the Australian men can but look to their counterparts the Stingers for consolation, and some reflected silver medal glory.

There's so much focus on reigning champions and medal favourites coming into any Olympic Games, but for me, Paris has been memorable for the athletes who became overnight sensations for all sorts of weird and wonderful reasons.

There was USA women's rugby player Ilona Maher, who TikTok'd her way through the Olympic Village while providing powerful commentary on patriarchy and body image.

There was Norwegian distance swimmer Henrik Christiansen, whose obsession with the chocolate muffins in the village cafeteria sent him viral (in a positive online way, not in a dirty-Seine way).

There was American gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik, a.k.a. "Pommel Horse Guy," whose iconic glasses and Zen-like preparation gave nerds everywhere hope that they, too, could achieve Olympic glory.

There were two medal-winning shooters, South Korea's Kim Ye-ji and Turkiye's Yusuf Dikec, who both looked like undercover assassins sent to the Olympics for one last hit-job before retirement.

There was Raygun, Australia's first ever Olympic breakdancer, whose... um... creative approach to the event sparked memes all over the world.

There was Raven Saunders, the non-binary American shot-putter who wore a full-faced black mask, neon-green and purple hair, gold grills, and long fingernails as they transformed into their competition persona, "Hulk".

And then there was Imane Khelif, the Algerian welterweight boxer, whose battle against a vicious, reactive, and misinformed media questioning her eligibility outside the ring fuelled her first gold medal within it.

Thank you for reminding us why we ruin our sleep patterns once every four years to watch sports we've never cared about before.