Olympics 2024 LIVE: Triathlon practice cancelled over water quality plus Simone Biles and Andy Murray return

Simone Biles returns to Olympic action after a troubling time at Tokyo 2020, where she suffered from ‘the twisties’.

The American superstar takes part in the women’s qualification in artistic gymnastics, where she is a hot favourite after making her return last year following a hiatus from the sport to focus on her mental health.

Adam Peaty bids to make history, hoping to join Michael Phelps as the only men to three-peat in an individual Olympic event. He faces a tough challenge in the 100m breaststroke final with China’s Qin Haiyang a formidable swimmer after winning the 50m, 100m and 200m world titles last year. Find out what else is going on today in Paris below:

Going for tourism gold on a bronze budget, in a city where “real” tourists have vanished.

Flights to Paris for £22, decent hotels for as little as £60, no queues at the usual tourism haunts: this is the ideal summer to explore the French capital, writes travel correspondent Simon Calder.

“The city is empty,” Rachida says with a sigh. “We were expecting things to be good, but for hotels and restaurants it’s …”

She pauses and simply makes a gesture with her hands of falling from a cliff.

Rachida manages the Hotel Pax Opera: a three-star hotel around the corner from the Folies Bergère in Paris. My comfortable sixth-floor room costs a very reasonable £75 with breakfast and a friendly welcome. That is about one-third less than I paid in a similar property early in December last year.

Biles promises to be the star of the gymnastics in Paris and hopes to avoid the twisties this time. The condition, usually in high-pressure situations such as the Olympics or world championships, involves losing control midair and feeling unable to land the move, creating a high-risk and dangerous situation.

It has been likened to the yips in golf or baseball, where professionals suddenly lose the ability to perform under pressure.

Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan hinted at more surprises in store after qualifying for the Olympic pommel horse final at the top of a 65-strong field in Paris.

The Antrim-born specialist on the apparatus, who celebrated his 25th birthday in the athlete’s village on July 21, needed to finish in the top eight for the chance to fight for a medal in a week’s time.

He achieved that and then some in Saturday’s final session at the Bercy Arena, posting a score of 15.200 to draw him level on points with American Stephen Nedoroscik but holding on tenth of a point’s advantage over the day’s runner-up on tie-breaking execution.

Dark clouds continued to gather over the Olympic beach volleyball venue in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower on Saturday, but it was not only the unrelenting drizzle that was a cause for concern.

The sport has revelled in its role as a care-free and often sun-kissed pursuit since its inaugural appearance on the Olympic programme in 1996, its profile bolstered by high-profile locations from Horse Guard’s Parade to the golden sands of Copacabana.

Paris 2024 organisers were clearly intent on continuing the tradition when they placed the sport squarely beneath the city’s most famous landmark, a choice not lost on arguably its most illustrious competitor, three-time champion Misty May-Treanor.

The first training session for an open-water swimming event at the Olympics has been cancelled due to pollution in the River Seine, with a familiarisation swim for the triathlon scrapped.

Water quality is linked to the weather and levels of fecal bacteria known as E. coli are measured daily. The latest test, which was taken on Saturday, followed two days of heavy rain in Paris.

The men’s triathlon is scheduled to take place on Tuesday morning, following a period of brighter weather. The running and bike familiarisations will go ahead as planned.

ne of the defining features of Paris’s bid to host the Olympics Games was its simplicity: this great city already had the facilities required to host, and so many of the problems associated with building new venues – the spiralling costs, the environmental demands, the white elephants left scattered a decade later – would not be in play. Only one venue needed to be built from scratch: the Aquatics Centre.

The proposal written into the original bid was for an Olympic Aquatics Centre to seat 15,000 spectators, the minimum number required by swimming’s governing body, Fina, for major international events.

It would be based in the deprived northern suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, the second poorest neighbourhood in France, an area of high crime and poverty, of low education and life expectancy, where only 50 per cent of children under 12 can swim. Long after the Games, the venue would leave a lasting legacy.

Max Whitlock would be a very good poker player, apparently nerveless but inside his stomach churning perfect ten somersaults.

Whitlock is calling time on his career here in Paris and knew one slip – in a sport where the margins between champ and chump can be razor thin – could have brought the curtain down prematurely at the Bercy Arena.

However, he had nothing to worry about. Jarman, Hepworth and Whitehouse, newcomers at this level, looked totally at home under the glare of the big light.

The Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI) received a letter and photos that were sent to its president, Ingmar De Vos, from animal rights group Peta on Friday accusing Parro of mistreatment.

One photo shows Parro hyper-flexing Safira’s neck in a prohibited movement called Rollkur – whereby the horse’s breathing is compromised – and the FEI responded 24 hours later by warning Parro about his conduct.

“The FEI Officials have issued a yellow warning card (to Parro) as the action of the athlete could have caused unnecessary discomfort to the horse,” the FEI said in a statement.