Sport climbing has been a resounding success since its debut in Tokyo. The program change in Paris, which separated the speedsters from the bouldering and lead technicians, worked brilliantly, allowing a wider range of competitors to shine.

The emotions in the main finale made for a gripping television experience.

It was a thrilling end to a brilliant final day of climbing that has established itself as an excellent addition to the Games. Climbing is, after all, a fundamental concept – you either climb up or you fall. While the details of the scoring system are complicated, the struggles of certain competitors provide context for how difficult certain holds and routes are. Watching the exceptional climbers in each discipline outdo their opponents and break new ground is thrilling and exhilarating.

The men’s basketball tournament at the Olympics is less a battle for gold than a five-ring banana peel for the United States and its NBA superstars. They looked destined to fall more than once in Paris, but they fought back well against Serbia, keeping France at bay despite the brilliance of rising star Victor Wembanyama.

For the USA, it is the fifth gold medal in a row in this sport and the 17th of 21 possible since 1936.

In the end, the U.S. simply had too many weapons, too many sharp edges to fall back on. As Cuba’s coach said in 1992 after his failed attempt to suppress the first Dream Team, “You can try, but you can’t block the sun with your finger.”

Let’s start our review of yesterday’s action with a shout out to Faith Kipyegon. The 30-year-old Kenyan won the gold medal in the women’s 1500m for the third time in a row. It was her second podium finish at the Paris Games after taking silver in the 5000m.

She holds the world record for 1500m and one mile and broke the 5000m record last year, although that has since been surpassed. She is also the mother of a six-year-old child.

This makes her one of only 14 athletes to win the same individual event at least three times in a row – and one of two (the other being Usain Bolt) – to do so in a pure track and field event.

Phenomenal.

This final day of the 33rd Olympiad Games is much shorter than the others to allow enough time to complete all activities before the Closing Ceremony (9 p.m. local time), but it’s all about the big picture, with medals of some kind up for grabs at every event.

It starts at 08:00 with the Women’s MarathonOne hour later, Spain will play against Slovenia for the bronze medal in the Men’s handballwhile Spain and Greece are fighting for fifth place in the Water polo for menAt 10:35 a.m. the USA and Hungary will compete for bronze in men’s water polo.

Most of the day’s activity takes place online from 11:00 a.m. with the last activity before the closing ceremony with the match France against the USA in the Women’s basketball Gold medal game. Starts at 3:30 p.m.

My favorite snapshot from yesterday: the perfectly framed table tennis action shot.

For more information on medal tables and how to assess who did well and why, check out this in-depth explainer video. I admit I’m not mathematically savvy enough to fully understand it all, but it seems logical that Australia played way above its means at these Games.

China has once again crept up on the USA in a neck-and-neck race at the top of the medal table, but the USA’s final day looks promising and could well put them in pole position for the fourth straight Games.

Australia and Japan are fighting hard for third place, while France is heading for its best result since 1948.

63 NOCs heard their respective anthems over the last two weeks and athletes from 91 NOCs received medals.

Preamble – Schedule for Day 16