On Friday, the men's marathon swimming began in the River Seine in blue skies without Sweden's Victor Johansson. He had withdrawn due to concerns over water quality. Later in the evening, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif will fight for gold.

The action on Friday follows an exciting evening of athletics at the Stade de France, where Letsile Tebogo won the 200-metre men's race and became the first African winner.

What you need to Know about the Olympics

KHELIF GOES FOR GOLD

Imane Khelif of Algeria, who found herself at the center of a gender controversy early in the Paris Games will fight for gold later on Friday in the women's category welterweight.

PISTOL SHOOTER COLLAPSES

Kim Ye-ji of South Korea, who won the silver medal in Olympic pistol shooting at the Paris Games, collapsed during a press conference. She was apparently exhausted and stressed.

Kim spoke at an event in Imsil, a southern South Korean city.

BOTSWANA TEBOGO SHOWS UP IN

Letsile Tebogo, the first African man to win the 200m men's Olympic title, won the gold medal for Botswana on Thursday. He beat out American Kenny Bednarek as well as Noah Lyles who was hit by COVID.

Lyles declared that his Games had ended. He is the Olympic 100m champion, but he had set an ambitious goal to win four golds at Paris.

JAVELIN RECORD

Arshad Nadel won gold for Pakistan in the men's Javelin on Thursday night. His throw of 92.97 meters broke the previous Olympic record.

This was Pakistan's gold medal and first medal since 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

BASKETBALL SHOWTIME

The United States men's basketball team, led by LeBron and Steph curry, came back from a 13-point deficit to beat Serbia in the semi-final. They now face France in the final for gold.

The United States was down by double-digits in the first half of the match and 76-63 at the start of the fourth quarter. Their chances of winning a fifth gold medal were rapidly fading. LeBron James, Stephen Curry and the rest of the NBA team took over to bring a packed Bercy Arena into a frenzy.

REFUGEE TEAM MEDICAL

Cindy Ngamba, the first refugee representative to win an Olympic medal, made it to the semi-finals in boxing at the Paris Games. She is guaranteed at least a Bronze but she wants more.

CHINA'S FIRST WOMEN BOXING WINNER

Chang Yuan becomes the first woman

Hatice Akbas, a Turkish boxer, was defeated by China's Hatice Wang in the final of the women's bantamweight at the Olympics.

Pang Chol Mi of North Korea, and Im Ae Ji from South Korea both took home bronze medals after their semi-final losses.

CLIMBING FAST

Veddriq Lenardo of Indonesia won the gold medal for men's speed-climbing, a first Olympic title in history for his nation. American Sam Watson took home a bronze medal despite setting a new world record during his last race.

TABLE TENNIS SUSPENSE

China's men table tennis team defeated France in the semi-finals with a score of 3-0. However, the scoreline did not reflect the close matches that had captivated the French and Chinese crowds.

The Chinese are now aiming to win the gold medals for men's and woman's teams on Friday and on Saturday, to complete the sweep of all five available at the Games.

FIRST KITEBOARD GOLD

Ellie Aldridge of Britain won the first Olympic kiteboarding Gold on Thursday. Lauriane Nolot from France took the silver, and Annelous Lammerts from the Netherlands was awarded the bronze.

(source: Reuters)