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• Biles ends Paris Olympics with floor silver after falling off beam

  Simone Biles capped her trip to the 2024 Olympic Games with a silver medal in Monday's floor final, having earlier missed out on the podium in the balance beam event.  

  Rebeca Andrade edged out the Team USA star to win her first gold of the Paris Games, having earlier claimed silver in the all-around and vault events and helped Brazil take bronze in the team event.

  Biles' compatriot Jordan Chiles took bronze following a successful appeal to her score, bumping Romania's Ana Barbosu down to fourth. 

  Biles had earlier finished outside the medal places for the first time at the 2024 Games in the beam event, a fall costing her as Italy's Alice d'Amato took gold.

  Having earlier won gold in the team, all-around and vault events, Biles placed fifth after falling off the beam at the end of Monday's final. 

  Biles appeared to express frustration with the crowd after her routine, holding her finger to her ear to question why most of those present had been silent. 

  Biles' overall medal haul at the Games now stands at 11 – seven gold, two silver and two bronze. 

  Larisa Latynina, who won 18 medals for the Soviet Union, is the most successful female gymnast in Olympic history.

• Wightman expects big things at Paris Olympics amid Team GB 'golden era'

  Jake Wightman believes Team GB athletics are enjoying a 'golden era' and could record one of their best medal hauls at the Olympic Games in Paris.

  Wightman won 1,500m gold at the 2022 World Championships, the first global gold won by a Brit in a middle-distance event since Sebastian Coe's 1,500m gold at the 1984 Olympics. 

  The Scot has been tipped to compete for a medal in the French capital, having also taken bronze at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and silver at the European Championships that same year.

  With Team GB looking to better their total of five athletics medals from the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games, Wightman thinks an impressive haul could be on the cards.

  "I think collectively it should be one of the best games we could have in athletics. I think it's a bit of a golden era at the moment," he told Stats Perform.

  "A lot of people are shaping up to give the best performance they'll ever have. Sadly, the state of global athletics is that it's probably in a bit of a golden era as well. 

  "Every event has some pretty tough competitors to beat, but if you look at all the British athletes that could medal, then you could end up with a huge tally, not just of medals, but of golds."

  Wightman finished 10th in the 1,500m final in Tokyo three years ago, when crowds were limited to fellow athletes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  He is excited to soak up a different type of atmosphere this time around, adding: "The fact that the last one was Tokyo meant people were going to be watching it in the early hours, so it probably didn't get the reach from home that it could have. 

  "Whereas this one, an hour's difference, there's no excuse for the British population to get behind it and to support our athletes.

  "Personally, it's a chance for me to go out there and try and see what I can do. Once you get to a final, who knows what you could do from there. So for me, it's just taking it each day at a time."

  Wightman's father Geoff was also an endurance runner, representing England at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland. 

  Having moved into television since his retirement, he was also on commentary duties when his son triumphed at the World Championships, a moment Wightman remembers fondly.

  "It's pretty unique within sport that your dad is the one that's commentating. He's done it for a very long time," he said.

  "For me to win a global title with him on the mic was probably the dream scenario for him. It was a special moment."

• Colin Jackson hoping Paris 2024 could kick-start ‘new generation’ of GB talent

  Olympic silver medallist Colin Jackson is convinced this summer’s Paris Games could give rise to a “new generation” of household names in British athletics.

  The decorated Welshman secured a silver medal in the 110 metres hurdles at the 1988 Games in Seoul and five years later won gold at the world championships with a world record time of 12.91 seconds that would stand for 11 years.

  Jackson, 57, accepts his friend Usain Bolt’s now hung-up spikes might occupy an unfillable place in athletics, but feels the sport is more than ready for new superstars to emerge – an occurrence he believes is only possible at an Olympics.

  He told the PA news agency: “If we have a successful team, which it’s believed to be, and we get five or six medals, if we achieve a ‘Super Saturday’ as we did in London 2012, that will be another kick-start, because that signifies a new generation.

  “We won’t be looking at Jess (Ennis-Hill), Mo (Farah), Greg (Rutherford) any more. You’re looking at the next generation, touching distance for all up-and-coming athletes, and us pre-historic athletes will be happy to celebrate their success.”

  Bolt stepped away from competition in 2017, nine years after the 2008 Beijing Games where he became the first man in history to win 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay golds in world record times in the same Olympics.

  The “fastest man on earth” would go on to defend his 100m and 200m titles at an unprecedented two successive Games at London 2012 and Rio 2016, becoming box-office viewing and one of the most recognisable names in sport.

  Jackson said: “When Usain [broke through], it happened at the Olympic Games, so when you break through you have to break through on that Olympic level.

  “The World Championships are great, fantastic, yes, but it’s that dream of the Olympic Games that will make it come true.

  “[Usain] is once in a lifetime, seriously. As an athlete and a person, I’ve known him for a long time and he’s just brilliant. His professionalism is up and beyond. He’s just magic.

  “When you see somebody with the physical talent like that but [also] the rest of the attributes to be a global superstar, you’ve just got to tip your hat to him.”

  Jackson believes Paris’ proximity and UK-friendly time zone, combined with – unlike the coronavirus-restricted Tokyo 2020 Games – full houses and weeks of “wall-to-wall athletics” across both the Olympic and Paralympic Games could catapult his sport back into the spotlight.

  Take your pick of talent, from Zharnel Hughes – tipped by Bolt himself as a contender for 100m gold in Paris – world champion Josh Kerr hoping to upgrade his 1500m Tokyo bronze, 2024 world indoor pole-vaulting champion Molly Caudery or Commonwealth T38 100m champion Olivia Breen, who Jackson feels has “stepped up her game” since winning T38 long jump bronze at the Tokyo Paralympics.

  Jackson, now a regular commentator, has spent plenty of time around para athletes and saw his career take off alongside that of fellow Welsh athlete and prolific Paralympic champion Tanni Grey-Thompson.

  Still, he admits it was not until he became the international sports director for the Wings for Life World Run, which raises funds for spinal cord injury research, that he truly began to appreciate some of the specific challenges those affected face, from difficulties regulating temperature to insufficient government support.

  The event, backed by Allwyn in a three-year partnership, takes place on May 5 this year, with everyone departing at the same time – midday in the UK – regardless of time zone across the globe.

  Anyone can take part in the event, which embraces walkers, wheelchair-users and anyone else looking to test themselves against an in-person or virtual ‘catcher car’, covering as much distance as they are able.

  Jackson’s advice to participants feels just as poignant for the Team GB and ParalympicsGB athletes poised for Paris.

  “You should (always) be slightly disappointed,” he said. “Let me come back, work a little harder, just go a little bit further.

  “Nothing is ever perfect, but excellence is good enough.”