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On a day when Australia added more silver and bronze to its ever-growing Paris Olympics treasure chest, there was plenty happening elsewhere at Olympics venues that might have slipped through the cracks.
From a Jamaican runner accepting his fate as a silver medallist despite losing by the smallest of margins, to a boxer winning the Refugee Olympic Team's first medal, there was a bit on.
Here are the quick hits from day nine of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
1. Nat's back with BMX bronze
Australia's first Olympic hero has returned home, with BMX freestyle bronze medallist Natalya Diehm touching down in Brisbane overnight.
She was greeted at the airport by friends, family and young Queensland Academy of Sports riders she coaches.
"I feel overwhelmed with the amount of people that are here," she said.
"I didn't think that I was going to get that emotional but then my legs began to shake as if I was going to fall, as if I'd just won bronze again."
Diehm said she hoped to be an inspiration for the next generation of young daredevils.
"The one thing that I was looking forward to was going back to the training centre and sharing my success with these young kids that are here," she said.
2. Pure sportsmanship from Alcaraz
The tension doesn't get much higher than 6-5 in the second set of a best-of-three Olympic tennis final, especially if you're the player facing the serve and you lost the first set to a 24-time grand slam winner.
Despite finding himself in that exact position, Carlos Alcaraz could easily have allowed the umpire's call of "fault" to stand on the first point of that game.
Damien Dumusois came down from his chair, checked the mark and confirmed a fault, much to Novak Djokovic's chagrin.
But Alcaraz said not to worry about it, wiped out the mark and told Djokovic to play a let and have his first serve again.
Twelve points later, with his shot at Olympic gold gone, one gets the sense Alcaraz would do the same thing again, such is the character of the young man.
3. Belgium withdraws triathlon team due to illness
Belgium's Olympic committee announced that it would withdraw its team from the mixed relay triathlon after one of its competitors who swam in the Seine River fell ill.
Claire Michel, who competed in the women's triathlon on Wednesday, "is unfortunately ill and will have to withdraw from the competition", the Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee said in a statement.
Paris 2024 organisers had no immediate statement on Michel's illness, but said in a statement on Sunday night that the mixed relay triathlon would proceed at 4pm on Monday (AEST).
The swim portion of the competition is slated for the Seine, as well.
The Belgian committee's statement did not elaborate on Michel's illness but it comes after concerns over the river's water quality.
Organisers had said that water quality tests done the day of the individual triathlon races showed "very good" bacteria levels.
On Sunday night, representatives from World Triathlon and the International Olympic Committee along with Paris Games organisers and regional and weather authorities reviewed water tests.
The results indicated the water quality at the triathlon site had improved over recent hours and would be within the limits mandated by World Triathlon.
4. Scheffler pulls victory from the jaws of defeat
Scottie Scheffler delivered the best performance of his greatest year by rallying from four shots behind with a nine-under 62 to win the Olympics in a thriller at Le Golf National.
Already a six-time winner on the PGA Tour this year, including his second Masters, Scheffler added Olympic gold to an astonishing season with a round that kept some 30,000 fans on edge.
The world's number one player matched the course record at Le Golf National and he still needed plenty of help.
Jon Rahm of Spain had a four-shot lead over Tommy Fleetwood of England when he stepped on the 11th tee. Fleetwood caught him in two holes as Rahm had a stunning collapse.
Scheffler, who charged to the front with four straight birdies down the stretch, none bigger than gouging an 8-iron shot out of deep rough on the 17th hole and making the 18-foot birdie putt to take the lead.
He set an Olympic record for 72 holes at 19-under 265.
Fleetwood was second after a 66, and Hideki Matsuyama took the bronze medal at 17 under after a 65. Rahm tied for sixth at 15 under after a 70.
5. 'Pommel horse guy' basks in the glory of going viral
Stephen Nedoroscik is leaning into his new-found stardom as a geeky, bespectacled, Rubik's Cube-solving video gamer who just won two bronze medals at the Paris Olympics.
"It's still just surreal to me. I wake up in the morning, I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, I'm a two-time Olympic medallist!' It is so cool," he said.
With both medals hanging around his neck, he beamed and laughed as he marvelled at his rise to fame and the attention his specialty in gymnastics was receiving.
The 25-year-old US gymnast finished third in the pommel horse on Sunday, five days after helping the American men's team earn bronze — its first Olympic medal in 16 years.
Along the way, he's captured the hearts of Olympics viewers with his endearing personality and nerdy tendencies.
Images and clips of Nedoroscik removing his glasses and centring himself before hopping on the pommel horse for a focused routine have gone viral.
The memes and tweets have likened him to Clark Kent taking off his glasses and transforming into a hero.
"The memes are hilarious and I'm loving them all," he said.
Nedoroscik is one of several athletes who have captured the imagination of Olympic watchers online, including "Turkish dad" and "cheese wheel gymnast".
6. Peaty hits out over Chinese swimmers
Olympic swimmers spoke out about the Chinese doping scandal that has hung over the Paris Olympics as the events finished on Monday morning.
China won the men's 4x100m medley relay in 3 minutes, 27.46 seconds, with two of the four members on the team listed among 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive ahead of the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.
The swimmers were allowed to compete after a Chinese investigation ruled that they consumed food that had been contaminated.
"In sport, one of my favourite quotes I've seen lately is 'there's no point in winning if you don't win it fair,'" British star Adam Peaty said after his foursome wound up fourth to miss the medal stand.
"I think you know that truth in your heart. Even if you touch and you know you're cheating, you're not winning, right? So, for me, if you've been on that and you have been contaminated twice, I think as an honourable person it means you should be out of the sport. We know sport is not that simple.
"I don't want to paint a whole nation or a whole group of people with one brush, I think it's very unfair.
"But there have been two cases of it and I think it's very disappointing, and I've tried to keep out of the conversations until now for the betterment of the team but I think we're going to use that to our advantage the next four years, whether I'm there or not. I know these boys will carry that.
"We'll see how they do in four years' time, but I think the people that need to do the job will wake up and do the job."
Qin Haiyang and Sun Jiajun were on the winning relay team and were on the list of Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance before the Tokyo Games but were allowed to compete.
"The whole Olympic Games journey for me is great," Xu said.
"I am very satisfied."
7. Ngamba wins first medal for refugee team
Boxer Cindy Ngamba made history on Monday morning by becoming the first athlete competing as a refugee to clinch an Olympic medal.
The 25-year-old, originally from Cameroon, offered hope for the Refugee Olympic Team that was created to call attention to the plight of refugees across the world.
Ngamba's victory at the Paris Games comes after a fierce bout with French boxer Davina Michel in the women's 75kg quarterfinals in front of a passionate French crowd.
Ngamba, who screamed and pumped her fist when she won, has scored at least a bronze medal as she advances to the semifinals.
She will face Atheyna Bylon, who ensured that Panama would get its fourth-ever Olympic medal with her own win shortly after Ngamba's fight.
"It means the world to me to be the first-ever refugee to win a medal," Ngamba told reporters.
"I want to say to all the refugees around the world … keep on working hard, keep on believing in yourself."
She was a flag-bearer for the 37 athletes making up the biggest Refugee Olympic Team since the idea was born ahead of the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.
The International Olympic Committee created the team as a way for displaced athletes and migrants to participate fully in the Olympics without help from national federations.
Ngamba moved to the United Kingdom at the age of 11 and said she was granted refugee status in 2021 because she could have been imprisoned for being gay in Cameroon.
She has said boxing has been her escape from the chaos — it's also lifted her up to the international stage.
8. Ceccon takes a nap in a park
We knew the sleeping situation in the village was bad, but we didn't know it was this bad.
Italian gold medallist Thomas Ceccon has been snapped sleeping on the ground in a park inside the Olympic Village, just days after publicly complaining about how difficult it was to get some sleep in the provided beds.
Ceccon won gold in the 100m backstroke but failed to reach the 200m backstroke final.
"There is no air conditioning in the village, it's hot, the food is bad," Ceccon said.
"I'm disappointed that I didn't make the final, but I was too tired. It's hard to sleep both at night and in the afternoon. Here, I really struggle between the heat and the noise."
There is no suggestion Ceccon spent the night in the park, and it was likely just a quick nap caught by fellow athlete and Saudi rower Husein Alireza.
But the quality — or lack thereof — of the sleeping arrangements in the village continues to be a point of contention for the athletes.
9. Thompson fine with not sharing gold
Kishane Thompson let out a scream after crossing the finish line that was fitting of an Olympic 100m champion. Because, for a brief moment, he thought maybe he was.
By the slimmest of margins, Thompson was beaten out for gold on a perfectly timed lean from American Noah Lyles on Monday morning.
Their times of 9.79 seconds needed to be calculated farther out to determine the winner — with Lyles winning 9.784 to 9.789. Thompson was five-thousandths of a second away from joining the company of fellow Jamaican Usain Bolt as an Olympic champion.
"I'm a bit disappointed," Thompson said.
"But I am happy at the same time. I am going to take it as what it is and move forward from here."
Someone asked Thompson soon after if he thought the gold medal could be shared, since it was that close a race.
It would be a nod to the high jumpers at the Tokyo Games in 2021, when Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy and Mutaz Barshim of Qatar agreed to split the gold medal.
Somehow, Thompson didn't think Lyles would go for the idea.
"I think the sport is too competitive, no offence to any other sport," the 23-year-old Thompson said.
"It's too competitive for us to share a gold medal."
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