Olympics 2024 LIVE: Katarina Johnson-Thompson takes silver in thrilling heptathlon 800m finale

Pin swapping is big business in the Olympic village. Every country has their own unique little pin and a popular way to pass the time outside training and competition is to collect as many as you can by trading your own.

Andy Murray is an expert. After gathering a hefty collection at his final Games in Paris, Murray began seeking out the rarest pieces which sent him on the hunt for Liechtenstein’s sole athlete: the 20-year-old mountain biker Romano Puntener, one of nearly 15,000 people staying in the 54-hectare Olympic Village.

Murray being Murray, he found him. “I was really surprised,” says Puntener. “It was after dinner when me and my mechanic took some bikes and rode through the village, and he saw me. I didn’t expect to meet him on my first evening there at the Olympic Village.”

The quality of the Olympics medals awarded to athletes at Paris 2024 has come under scrutiny after a Team USA skateboarder claimed the bronze he won had deteriorated after just a week.

Nyjah Huston, who came third in the men’s skateboard street, said in a video posted to Instagram that his bronze was already chipped and losing its colour days after winning it.

He said the medal was looking like “it went to war and back” and added that it was “not as high quality as you’d think” as the bronze appeared to have rubbed off.

There will come a point, presumably, when Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone reaches the outer limits of human possibility in the women’s 400m hurdles and stops rewriting the laws of physics. Not here, not yet. In front of a rapt Stade de France crowd in Paris, she tore another chunk off the world record in a stunning defence of her Olympic crown.

The race was billed as a showdown between McLaughlin-Levrone and her Dutch rival Femke Bol, the only two women in history to break the 51-second barrier. But the American was on another plane, winning gold in 50.37 sec, well clear of the rest.

There were times this year when Neah Evans could not walk up the stairs, let alone envisage winning an Olympic medal.

Yet at the end of a gruelling and chaotic 30km, 120-lap madison, she and teammate Elinor Barker charged home to a super silver that made a hellish 18 months more than worth it.

At 34, this is almost certainly Evans’ last Olympics and she had no shame in showing those emotions after going through the ringer just to make the start line.

Speaking of beautiful moments, Cindy Ngamba’s medal for the Refugee Team was one to savour. Alex Pattle tells the tale of a boxer who has overcome so much to stand on an Olympic podium:

It was a beautiful moment on Thursday night, though, as Letsile Tebogo triumphed for Botswana and his late mother with a run of real majesty. Jamie Braidwood was there to watch it:

A bronze medal for Noah Lyles was some achievement given his positive Covid test, but should he have been allowed to run at all? Sean O’Grady argues that the decision to let the American race was reckless…

Tebogo was speaking at a post-race press conference when he was asked whether he aspired to become the face of track and field athletics. He suggested that his more laid-back demeanour means he wouldn’t be able to reach Lyles’ levels of fame.

“For me, I can’t be the face of athletics because I’m not an arrogant or loud person like Noah,” he said.

Kyle Kothari hopes his maiden Olympics appearance acts as inspiration for British Asians as he bids to make the 10m platform final.

The 26-year-old diver, who studied at Dr Challoner’s Grammar School in Amersham, made it through the preliminary stage in ninth position to make it through to Saturday’s semi-finals, with medals on the line later the same day.