Olympic Highlights Day 10: Duplantis aiming for record, Biles looks to go out with more gold
Gymnastics
Women's floor final
14:23 CET, Paris, Bercy arena
Leaving aside Michael Phelps, who, with 23 Olympic triumphs, will probably be forever the most unmatched athlete in history, six other people have won nine gold medals at the Games in history. They are swimmers Mark Spitz, Caeleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky, athletes Paavo Nurmi and Carl Lewis and gymnast Larisa Latynina.
Simone Biles will join that special group on Monday if she can win her last two events of the gymnastics competition at the Berca Arena, the balance beam and floor exercise finals.
On the beam, only China's Zhou Yaqin was better in qualifying. On the floor, on the other hand, Biles excels and it would be a surprise if she doesn't win the final event of the entire gymnastics portion of this summer's Games.
This will probably be Biles' last-ever competition at the Olympics. She has already hinted during the Parisian festivities that it is time to pass the sceptre to others, mentioning rival Rebecca Andrade of Brazil in her head.
It's also clear that at 27, she is one of the oldest big-stage gymnasts ever and the second-oldest Olympic champion in history. Only Maria Gorochovskaya managed to win gymnastics gold in her 30s, and that was back in Helsinki in 1952.
Badminton
Men's singles final: Kunlavut Vitidsarn vs Viktor Axelssen
15:20 CET, La Chapelle Arena
Viktor Axelssen defied the Asian enclave in the badminton world beyond belief. The Danish player, who speaks Mandarin Chinese, recently made an important decision: he left his native country with his family and two children to settle in Dubai for badminton, in order to be closer to the big tournaments in Asia.
The decision seems to be bearing fruit. He won the singles competition at the last Olympics and although he finished in the quarter-finals at last year's world championships at home in Denmark, he is in contention for gold again at the Paris Olympics.
The 30-year-old Dane's final opponent will be the reigning world champion, 23-year-old Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand, who after a relatively slow start to the tournament dispatched the world number one in utterly sovereign fashion - Shi Yuqi of China scored just 22 points in their quarter-finals (22:12, 22:10).
The finalists' head-to-head record is strongly on the side of the experienced Danish player (six wins to one), but the last duel was won by Vitidsarn after a three-set battle in the final of the India Open last year.
Athletics
Men's pole vault final
19:00 CET, Paris, Stade de France
It's time for arguably the biggest personality in world athletics today. Swedish pole vaulter Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis last lost a major competition in 2019, when he was beaten by American Sam Kendricks at the World Championships in Doha.
Since then, however, he has focused on pushing the world record rather than competing against rivals. He has managed to improve that record eight times in his relatively short career and most recently - in April in Xiamen, China - set the record at 624 centimetres.
Only two men have gone over six metres this year - Chris Nilsen and Duplantis. But the American, who cleared exactly 600 centimetres in February, failed to qualify in Paris and finished at 540 centimetres. So the medals will probably be fought for by Ernest John Obiena, who shone this year with 597 cm, the aforementioned Sam Kendricks or the home hope of Thibaut Collet (both 595 this year).
In the end, however, it will probably still come down to whether Duplantis clears the 625cm bar. It will be nice out, it isn't due to rain, so the weather should be in his favour.