Olympic Highlights Day Seven: Riner's big dream and France vs Argentina
Judo
Men's over 100 kg
17:00 CET, Champ de Mars Arena
This will be one of the most important events of the Games for the home country France and the big climax of the individual judo competitions. The iconic Teddy Riner has been given the honour of lighting the Olympic flame and will be on the tatami to try to regain possession of the gold in the most prestigious category.
The Guadeloupe native is a nine-time world heavyweight champion and came close to an Olympic hat-trick as well. But in Tokyo, he was beaten by Tamerlan Bashaev in the quarter-finals and the French sporting icon took only bronze.
In Paris, the now 35-year-old Riner would love to make up for that. He may not have been at the World Championships this year, but he won last year's and is seeded straight through to the round of 16 for the Olympic tournament. However, in his second match, he will already face the experienced Georgian Guram Tushishvili, against whom he lost their last match in 2022.
Reigning world champion Kim Min-jong and Alisher Yusupov of Uzbekistan are also in the running for gold. The gold from Tokyo is defended by Lukáš Krpálek, who would record an unprecedented hat-trick if he were to triumph. The Czech flag-bearer also won the 100kg welterweight competition at Rio 2016.
Football
France - Argentina - quarter-finals
21:00 CET, Bordeaux
This match certainly wasn't planned so early. Already in the quarter-finals of the football tournament, France and another of the favourites Argentina will meet. Argentina experienced a rather bizarre piece of drama in their first match of the Olympic tournament, which ultimately sent them to second place in the group.
In a controversial ending to the duel with Morocco, the Argentines equalised in the 16th minute of added time to make it 2-2. But then the fan riots started, the teams went to the dressing rooms and then came the VAR verdict of the disallowed goal. The match was played two hours later and the South Americans did not manage to level the score for the second time.
This gives home team France probably the toughest possible opponent at the start of the knockouts. Coach Thierry Henry is happy with his team's performance so far. Apart from the third goalkeeper, he has already let all his players play and Les Bleus still dominated their group without losing a point, without conceding a goal and with seven goals scored.
Also, Argentina is led by a recent football star. Coach Javier Mascherano is particularly pleased with the form of striker Thiago Almada, who has scored twice in three games. The winner will face either Egypt and Paraguay in the semi-finals.
BMX racing
Women's race
21:50 CET, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines BMX Stadium
A relatively new discipline that made its debut at the Olympics only in 2008 will surely bring plenty of adrenaline again. The fast and furious BMX races will probably not be without crashes and drama as riders reach speeds of up to 60 km/h on the rugged track full of turns.
Alise Willoughby, in particular, is writing a big story as she heads to Paris for her fourth Olympics, and although she is considered one of the best riders of our time thanks to her three world championship titles, she is still short of gold from that Olympic event.
She finished second in Rio and crashed in the heat in Tokyo. The American, who is coached by former BMX rider and husband-of-one Sam Willoughby, will have competition, particularly in the form of reigning Olympic champion Bethany Shriever of Great Britain. However, Mariana Pajón of Colombia, who won the London 2012 and Rio 2016 races for a change, will also be at the start.
