Cycling
As It Happened: Closing ceremony concludes Paris 2024 Olympics with Tom Cruise, Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre, Billie Eilish
One of the most spectacular Olympics of the modern era have drawn to a close in Paris with smiling athletes, slick French pop and Snoop Dogg – as the Games head for La La Land in 2028.
- by Claire Siracusa, Marnie Vinall, Roy Ward, Jordan Baker, Megan Levy and Chris Paine
Latest
Analysis
Paris 2024
The embarrassment of Tokyo triggered a post-mortem. The rebirth was glorious
The last Olympics ended in snapped-handlebars and ignominy. And if the Paris response was emphatic – it could peak in LA.
- by Emma Kemp
Opinion
Five Minutes with Fitz
Phil Liggett: I was so right about Cadel Evans, so wrong about Lance Armstrong
The ‘voice of cycling’ Phil Liggett has called his last Olympic cycling event, but even as he turns 81, there’s another stage to come for the affable Englishman.
- by Peter FitzSimons
Analysis
Paris 2024
If you blinked – or slept – you’d have missed it. And it was a ‘wild, wild feeling’
Mark it down in the record books: this was the greatest day at the greatest Games in Australian Olympic history. It was a golden blur.
- by Jordan Baker
The handlebars snapped, and the fallout was dire. It’s why no one saw them coming
It was cohesive, slick and fiercely focused. It was as beautiful as it was nerve-racking. Really, it was everything Anna Meares had described.
- by Emma Kemp
Webster in Paris
Paris 2024
Anna Meares’ emotional reunion with bitter rival Victoria Pendleton
The Australian cycling legend beat Pendleton at her home Olympics in London in 2012. At the velodrome in Paris on Tuesday night, years of rivalry melted away.
- by Andrew Webster
How green pedal power misses out on perks other battery vehicles enjoy
To drive the uptake of e-bikes, riders and lenders are calling for tax rules to be relaxed as they have been for EV owners.
- by Mike Foley
‘I came back to add the gold’: Sakakibara’s hometown hails its hero
Artist Sarah Rowan had to adjust her mural of Saya Sakakibara and her brother Kai in Helensburgh after the 24-year-old’s historic BMX win in Paris.
- by Sarah McPhee
Perspective
Schools
‘Created a movement’: Old-school idea helps avoid car drop-off lines
Meet the kids who wake up early before their parents, get dressed and make themselves breakfast because they’re excited to travel to school. The secret? It’s free and totally joyful.
- by Felicity Caldwell
The circuit was a treacherous, dangerous ‘horror show’. It was perfect for Grace Brown
Brown’s local cycling club president says the Paris conditions played to the strengths of the cyclist who became Australia’s first gold medallist in Paris.
- by Mathew Dunckley
‘I’m sorry, I think I might have just ruined our lives’
The job Anna Meares wanted above all others required big sacrifices from her and her family.
- by Jordan Baker