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• Caribbean swimmers Grand'Pierre, Noel and Wuilliez fail to progress despite credible performances

  There were no second round fortunes for Haiti’s Alexandre Grand'pierre, Antigua and Barbuda’s Jadon Wuilliez, or Guyana’s Raekwon Noel in the pool as both failed to progress from their respective heats on the opening day of the Paris Olympic Games at the Paris La Defence Arena on Saturday.

  Wuilliez and Grand'pierre, finished second and fourth in their 100m breaststroke heats after clocking 1:02.70 and 1:02.85, respectively, but did not make the semi-finals as those times placed them 26th and 28th overall.

  Noel also had a credible second-place finish in his 400m freestyle heat, but his time of 4:02.29 wasn't enough to progress. He finished 34^th overall.

  Wuilliez, 22, has had a wonderful track record thus far, earning a gold medal in the 50m breaststroke and a bronze in the 100m event at the Central American and Caribbean Swimming Championships (CCCAN) held in Mexico in June earlier this year.

  Grand'Pierre, 21, is Haiti’s current record holder for the 50m and 200m breaststroke and the 200m individual medley (IM). He also won multiple New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) championships and is an NCAA Division III All-American. Earlier in June, he won the 100m breaststroke at the CCCAN in 1:02.39.

  Meanwhile, this was Noel’s Olympic Games debut. The 18-year-old has established himself as one to look out for in the future, as he shattered five team records for the South Jersey Aquatic Club at the Middle Atlantic Senior Championships. He finished his short course season, winning five races and setting nine personal best times in addition to his records.

  Noel won the competition and broke team records in the 500 free, 1000 free, and 200 fly. He boasts a track record in swimming, with five gold medals at the 2023 Carifta Swimming Championships. Breaking five nation records.

• “The favourite is Thompson”-Boldon highlights Jamaican champion as man to beat in 100m in Paris

  Trinidadian four-time Olympic medallist Ato Boldon has named Jamaican sprinting sensation Kishane Thompson as his favourite to take 100m gold at the Olympic Games in Paris.

  Thompson, 23, is currently the world leader in the event after running a personal best 9.77 to win the 100m title at the JAAA/Puma National Senior Championships at the National Stadium in Kingston in June.

  The MVP Track Club-trained sprinter also produced times of 9.82 and 9.84 in the heats and semi-finals, respectively, at those national championships and, most recently, ran 9.91 shutting down to win at the Gyulai Istvan Memorial in Hungary on July 9.

  “Thompson is the favourite,” Boldon said in an interview with LetsRundotcom on YouTube on Friday.

  “I know Noah (Lyles) is the World champion. I think Noah made it a little bit more interesting by running that 9.81 into a headwind which kind of almost converts to a 9.77 but there’s no way you can look at the way in which Thompson ran that 9.77 and just go ‘Oh Noah will beat him.’ Noah has his hands full with that guy,” Boldon said.

  Blazing speed acknowledged, one thing that Thompson lacks that his other competitors don’t is experience competing at the highest level of the sport with this being his first time representing Jamaica at any level.

  If there is anything to prevent Thompson from delivering on the form that he’s shown so far this season, Boldon believes that would be this lack of experience on a stage like the Olympic Games compared to his peers.

  “There are things which I see people completely ignoring. Kishane Thompson has not been under the microscope of Olympic favourite. Rounds are a great equalizer. Noah has the medals that he does because of how well he runs rounds. Is Noah suddenly a lock for the silver? No but he does have his hands full,” he said.

  “There are others who are going to be in the 100m that are used to the pressure and pressure is a big thing. If he’s able to pull this off, you write books about stuff like that,” he added.

   Thompson's quest for Olympic glory will begin in the heats of the men's 100m beginning on Saturday' August 3.

   

• Peaty ready to 'attack' Paris Olympics in search of gold medal hat-trick

  Adam Peaty insists he arrives in Paris ready to "attack" a third-straight Olympic triumph in the 100m breaststroke

  Peaty, who is a 16-time European Champion, won his first gold medal for Team GB in 2016, the first by a British male in 24 years, and has held the title ever since. 

  He became the first British swimmer ever to retain an Olympic title in Tokyo, and is eyeing a hat-trick of titles. 

  The 29-year-old also holds the world records in both the 50m and 100m breaststroke, yet getting to the Paris Olympics was far from straightforward. 

  From 2014 to 2022, Peaty was unstoppable, breaking the 100m record on five occasions while also claiming several world, European and Commonwealth titles. 

  But with the world at his feet, things came crashing down. In fact, was it not for this Olympics, he may never have returned to the pool.

  “If it wasn’t for the Olympics I don’t think I’d be still swimming,” Peaty told Eurosport. “I’m going to attack for this title, not defend.

  “I think I’ve cracked the code of balance, but also being able to train really hard for very long periods of time, knowing when I burn out or I’m pushing too hard, and listening to my team at the same time.

  “So I think this is my favourite time to train but I also had to take three or four months off from the sport completely because I burned out.

  “It cost me that kind of training period, but without that I would have just done the same old stuff and probably wouldn’t have even made it to the Olympics or the Olympic qualifiers, because I’d have completely burned out from the sport.

  “People see the end result, they’ll see you race or compete at the end of the day, but they won’t see the years and years and years of hard mornings, hard evenings, thousands of metres, gym sessions in the freezing cold.

  “People don’t see that stuff, they only see the 1%, if that. It’s 0.1%.”

  But in Peaty's absence, a new force has taken the pool by storm, with China’s Qin Haiyang establishing himself as the dominant force.

  Haiyang won the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke at the 2023 World Championships, becoming the second-fastest man in 100m history behind Peaty.

  Peaty returned to claim bronze at the World Championships this year and then won the British trials in April in a time of 57.94s.

  “I’ve been given a gift that I put myself in extreme pain for a very long time and quite enjoy it,” he continued. “Not many people can do that.

  “I enjoy the hard work because it keeps me busy. It has to be hard all the time.

  “That’s the most powerful thing. You don’t do it for the Olympic glory, you don’t do it for the medals, you do it to recognise the gift that you’ve been given.

  “If I know I’ve worked the hardest and I get to the start line at the Olympics and I couldn’t have done anything more that gives me peace, because win or lose you’ll be happy because you’ve enjoyed the journey.”