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It was another golden day for Australia as Mollie O'Callaghan pipped Ariarne Titmus in the 200m freestyle, while Chris Burton added a silver to Australia's tally in the equestrian.
But there was plenty more action overnight in Paris to keep across, with the weird, the wacky, and the beautiful capturing the eye.
Here are the quick hits from day three of the 2024 Games.
1. Ukrainian fencer's emotional moment in face of adversity
A handshake could have cost Olga Kharlan her place at the Olympics.
Instead, she won Ukraine's first medal of the Paris Games to give a country at war something to celebrate.
Kharlan overturned a six-point deficit to beat South Korea's Choi Sebin 15-14 for the women's sabre fencing bronze medal in a comeback that energised the crowd.
She counted to five on a hand decorated with nail varnish in Ukrainian yellow and blue, a five-time Olympian winning her fifth career medal.
Kharlan's latest medal is nothing like the others.
"I brought a medal to my country, and it's the first one, and it's going to be a good start for all our athletes who are here because it's really tough to compete when in your country is a war," she said.
"Every medal, it's like gold. I don't care (that) it's bronze. It's gold."
Kharlan was disqualified from last year's world championships — a key Olympic qualifier — for refusing to shake the hand of a Russian opponent after winning their bout.
It was an incident that highlighted the tension over whether to allow Russian athletes to keep competing following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Amid a mounting backlash, the International Olympic Committee stepped in to hand Kharlan a "unique exception" — a guaranteed spot at the Games. Fencing's governing body rescinded a two-month ban it had imposed along with the disqualification and made handshakes optional soon after.
"I can say that I wouldn't change anything," Kharlan said about whether she had thought her Olympic dream was over.
"What I went through, it represents my country, what it goes through, and I wouldn't change anything. This is my story."
2. Harry’s honesty about mental health worth more than gold
Australian boxer Harry Garside set out to do something special at Paris. He wasn't able to achieve that in the ring — defeated in just nine minutes by Hungarian Richard Kovacs.
But in a post-bout interview, Garside did something far more profound.
He was raw, emotional and impossibly human.
"I feel like a failure," he said, holding back tears.
Still catching his breath, Garside gave a compelling, almost uncomfortable appraisal of his own mental health.
"I feel pretty numb right now, but I'm sure the next month or two will be quite challenging," he said.
"I know sportsmen are supposed to say the right thing, but deep down inside I fear for what the next couple of months looks like for myself. I'm sure there'll be some dark times. I've got to prepare for that now."
In a subsequent, even more reflective video on his Facebook page, which he said came after eating a cookie, Garside spoke with a tender honesty that belied boxing-world cliches.
"I've had a couple of screams and a couple of cries," he said.
"But I had this realisation that I went on a two-year journey to get that gold medal. I didn't get that gold medal, but I've become my own friend in that journey ... that is the greatest reward."
If sport provides a lens through which to view our own humanity, having a male boxer front up about his own mental health struggles in such a remarkably candid way is of true value and inspiration to us all.
3. Former NBA player Chase Budinger takes his beach volleyball chance
The USA's beach volleyball campaign got off to a strong start on day three as they downed France in the shadows of the Eiffel Tower and NBA trainspotters may have spotted a familiar face out on the sand.
Chase Budinger put together a solid NBA career from 2009 to 2016, playing for Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Indiana Pacers and Phoenix Suns before a stint in Spain.
A talented volleyball player in high school – Budinger was named Volleyball Magazine's National High School Player of the Year in 2005 — he retired from basketball in 2017 to focus on making it as a beach volleyballer.
He has risen through the professional scene enough that his inclusion for Paris is far from a stunt — he and partner Miles Evans are currently ranked 13th in the world.
At 198cm, Budinger has the height to be a terror at the net and his jumping ability is well-known given he participated in the NBA’s Slam Dunk Contest in 2012.
He and Evans ran out 2-0 winners over French pair Youssef Krou and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat in the opening match of Pool F with Budinger dominating and while they’re long odds to claim a medal Budinger has the chance to become one of the cult heroes of this Olympics.
4. More concerns about Seine water quality arise
Concerns about the water quality in the Seine River led officials to call off the swimming portion of an Olympic triathlon training session for a second straight day.
Organisers overseeing the event at the Paris Games are optimistic that triathletes will be able to swim in the city's famed waterway when the competition starts tonight (AEST).
The sport's governing body, World Triathlon, its medical team and city officials are banking on sunny weather and higher temperatures to bring levels of E. coli and other bacteria below the necessary limits to stage the swim portion of the race, which also includes biking and running.
World Triathlon made the decision to cancel the swim workout following a meeting over water quality in the Seine, which is closely linked to the weather. Rain deluged the opening ceremony and showers persisted after, forcing some tennis matches and the skateboarding competition to be postponed.
The representatives for Paris 2024 and triathlon's international federation said tests conducted in the Seine showed water quality levels leading into the training session that "did not provide sufficient guarantees to allow the event to be held."
The delegation blamed the recent rain.
French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra told French news channel CNEWS that officials are "absolutely serene about all of this."
Organisers say the backup plan is to postpone the events and, if elevated bacteria levels persist, the swimming portion of the race will be abandoned and the athletes will compete in a duathlon.
5. Peaty tests positive to COVID
Less than 24 hours after claiming a swimming silver medal at the Paris Olympics, British star Adam Peaty tested positive for COVID-19, sparking a flurry of face masks on the pool deck.
The British Olympic committee announced Peaty's condition on Monday night, saying he first began feeling ill a day earlier ahead of the 100m breaststroke final.
The two-time defending Olympic champion in that event, Peaty just missed out on a third straight gold when he touched two-hundreds of a second behind the winner, Italy's Nicolo Martinenghi. Peaty tied for the runner-up spot with American Nic Fink.
"In the hours after the final, his symptoms became worse and he was tested for COVID early on Monday morning," Team GB said in a statement.
"He tested positive at that point."
The 29-year-old Peaty hopes to recover in time to take part in the relays, the statement said.
"As in any case of illness, the situation is being managed appropriately, with all usual precautions being taken to keep the wider delegation healthy," Team GB said.
6. Italian star apologises to wife for losing his wedding ring
It seems Gianmarco Tamberi can do two things really well.
Jump high, and turn losing his wedding ring into the most romantic thing ever.
Tamberi, who went viral at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics when he shared a gold medal with Qatar's Mutaz Barshim, lost his ring while sailing down the Seine during the opening ceremony.
For the rest of us, that would be a nightmare situation that we'd struggle to explain.
For Tamberi, it was an opportunity to flex his romantic muscle.
"Too much water, too many kilos lost in the past few months, or maybe the uncontrollable enthusiasm of what we were doing," he wrote on Instagram.
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"Probably all three things, the fact remains that I felt (the ring) slip away, I saw it fly … I followed (it) with a glance until I saw (it) bouncing inside the boat."
Putting a positive spin on the situation, he said that if he had to lose the ring, he "couldn't imagine a better place."
"It will stay forever in the riverbed of the City of Love, flown away while I tried to carry the Italian tricolour as high as possible during the opening ceremony of the most important sport evening in the world. If I had to invent an apology, I would never have been this imaginative," he wrote to his wife.
"I think there might be a huge poetic side to yesterday's misdeed, and if you want, we'll throw yours into that river, too, so they'll be together forever, and we'll have one more excuse to, like you've always asked, renew our vows and get married anew."
Tamberi added he hoped the situation is a "good omen" for more gold coming his way.
7. De Minaur's rough Olympics run continues
Alex de Minaur's Olympic dream is over at Roland Garros after Australia's No.1 tennis player got knocked out of the men's doubles in the first round along with his old Sydney pal Alexei Popyrin.
De Minaur had been determined to push ahead with his long-held ambition of playing at the Games after recovering quicker than expected from the hip cartilage injury he suffered at Wimbledon in the final moments of his last-16 win over Arthur Fils.
Deciding he wasn't in the right shape to play a tough singles against German power hitter Jan-Lennard Struff, de Minaur then withdrew to focus his efforts on the doubles alongside Popyrin on a baking afternoon at Roland-Garros 24 hours later.
But the pair were soundly beaten by impressive American fourth seeds Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram 6-2, 6-3 in just 65 minutes to provide a miserable end to de Minaur's Games which he'd hoped would be a big success after reaching the quarter-final of the French Open at the same venue two months ago.
De Minaur doesn't seem to have much luck when it comes to Olympics, having missed the 2021 event after contracting COVID-19.
Popyrin, the last Australian singles player still in the draw, will meet Swiss veteran Stan Wawrinka, the three-time grand slam winner, in the second round on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Matt Ebden, who began his Olympics with a drubbing by Novak Djokovic in the singles, continues to thrive in his specialist doubles events.
The 36-year-old Ebden and Ellen Perez, the No.2 seeds, defeated Spanish pair Sara Sorribes Tormo and Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals of the mixed event.
On Tuesday, Ebden will team up with John Peers against Granollers and Pablo Carreno-Busta, seeking to reach the last-eight in the men's event too.
ABC/AAP/AP
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