Broadening our horizons s little now, it’s worth savouring the return to Olympic competition of Simone Biles yesterday.

Of course she nails the floor routine, lands the Yurchenko double pike on the vault, follows it up with the straight somersault with 1½ twists, sails through to the all-around final with another entry on the all-time points list. Sometimes, she wobbles a little. Sometimes, she takes an extra steadying step. Even her stumbles seem graceful. Because if Biles has taught us anything over the last decade, it is to reframe the way we think and talk about star athletes, to refuse the instinctive deification that is really also a form of dehumanisation. To stop demanding perfection and miracles as a condition of our love. Biles is perfect, because she isn’t.

Also coming up today we have the start of The Opals’ Olympic campaign, a tournament that promises to see the baton passed from the great Lauren Jackson to a new generation of Australian basketballers, like Ezi Magbegor.

The New Zealand-born forward/ centre, moved to Australia with her Nigerian parents at age six. She has long been touted as the woman to claim the mantle of Australia’s next great basketball talent after Lauren Jackson retires for good, and following the false start of Liz Cambage in green and gold.

It’s another massive night in the pool for Australia’s Dolphins with a one-two expected in 200m freestyle, but who out of Ariarne Titmus and Mollie O’Callaghan will take gold?

Titmus will go into the 200m final as the defending champion and world record-holder, having taken that mark from O’Callaghan at the Australian Olympic trials in June. She approaches the 200m with the strength of her 400m-800m training.

O’Callaghan, twice the world 100m freestyle champion, and world 200m champion last year, but competing in an individual event for the first time at the Olympics, will bring her dynamic finishing power and superb underwater skills.

The Matildas, arguably Australia’s most popular team at the Olympics, notched their first win of the Games, a madcap 6-5 victory over Zambia. Qualification to the quarter-finals now looks probable, but not yet assured. Even so, after displaying such poor form in their opening two matches progress deep into the tournament seems unlikely.

For the optimists, this remarkable comeback victory will buoy the Matildas ahead of their crunch match against the United States on Wednesday in Marseille. It is just the sort of win needed to invigorate their Olympic campaign. Next stop – an Olympic medal?

Then there is a less charitable way to assess the group stage clash on Sunday night. Zambia are ranked 64^th in the world. They have two of the best attackers in the world, yes, but as a cohesive national team, they are far from the finished product (the untenable position of their coach does not help). This is a game the Matildas, who have finished fourth at consecutive international tournaments, should have controlled and won comfortably.

We’ll stay on Australian topics for a little while, starting with a celebration of Jess Fox, Australia’s flag bearer, after she dominated the K-1 Canoe Slalom to win the first of up to three gold medals at the Paris Games.

The medal is Fox’s fourth in the kayak event stretching back to London 2012, and her second gold after she won in the canoe in Tokyo. She improved her time from the semi-final by a barely believable six seconds, avoiding any penalties. It left her competitors having to take more risks to navigate the tricky course.

And here’s a rundown of the day from an Australian perspective. One that will see the Opals, Kookaburras and Hockeyroos in action early, before swimmers Ariarne Titmus and Mollie O’Callaghan go head-to-head in the women’s 200m freestyle later on.

Here’s today’s full schedule with Badminton again leading things off at 8:30 local time (just under two hours from now).

The boxing image in here is an immediate entry to the Olympic photography hall of fame.

Flava Flav, Water Polo, and the First Lady of the United States sounds like a combination of words that would only come about using Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies, but this has been a celeb-heavy opening to the Games.

Yesterday also witnessed one of the youngest podiums in Olympic history with Coco Yoshizawa (14), Liz Akama (15), and Rayssa Leal (16) the medallists in the women’s street skateboarding.

Brazilian Leal is actually among the record holders after she made the podium in Tokyo, alongside Momiji Nishiya and Funa Nakayama. Their collective age was just 43 years 208 days (or one Lauren Jackson).

South Korea have the joint-third most gold medals and joint-fourth most medals overall. This includes yesterday’s gold to the women’s archery team, extending their unbeaten run to an extraordinary 10 consecutive Olympics. South Korea are the only nation to have won that particular medal since it was introduced at Seoul 1988.

By the end of day two Japan had moved alongside early pacesetters Australia on top of the medal table. France’s three memorable golds keep the hosts in the mix, while the USA are getting used to occupying the lower two steps on the podium.

Preamble – Day Three Schedule

Jonathan Howcroft