Olympic quick hits: Daggy dad goes viral, Murray’s cheeky tweet, and sponsor gets tongues wagging

Australia had another golden day in the pool, while Simone Biles stole the spotlight in the gymnastics with another dominant victory.

But there was plenty of other weird, quirky, and interesting things happening around Paris overnight, from a daggy Turkish dad going viral to a gymnast’s cheese sponsorship getting the socials talking.

Here are the quick hits from day six of the 2024 Games.

1. Murray waves goodbye to tennis on emotional night in Paris

Andy Murray’s 20-year professional tennis career finally ended with a Paris Olympics doubles loss in the quarterfinals.

The 37-year-old Murray had said the 2024 Summer Games would be the final event of his career, and he and partner Dan Evans were beaten by the American duo of Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul 6-2, 6-4 at Court Suzanne Lenglen.

The British pair had managed to stave off a total of seven match points — well, in this case, let’s call them “retirement points” — earlier in the tournament, five in the first round, and then two more in the second round, to extend Murray’s career.

But Murray and Evans could not create that sort of magic again against the third-seeded Fritz and Paul.

Murray is a three-time Grand Slam singles champion and the only tennis player with two Olympic singles golds — from London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016. His first Wimbledon championship, in 2013, made Murray the first man from Britain to win that trophy in 77 years.

He also won the title at the All England Club in 2016; his first major championship came at the US Open in 2012.

Murray has dealt with a series of injuries in the latter stages of his career, including needing two hip operations, one for a metal implant in 2019. Most recently, he had surgery to remove a cyst from his spine last month.

That forced him to skip the singles events at Wimbledon and the Olympics.

In typical Murray style, he acknowledged his doubles’ loss and its meaning on social media, changing his bio from “I play tennis” to “I played tennis”.

He also had one last crack to make about the game that has been his life for 20 years:

2. Chalmers bewildered by snub accusation

Kyle Chalmers said it was “weird” to be accused of snubbing China’s freestyle gold medallist Pan Zhanle at the Paris Olympics.

The Australian collected the silver medal behind Pan, who broke his own world record in the men’s 100m freestyle final on Thursday morning.

The Chinese swimmer then claimed Chalmers had disrespected him.

“After we finished the 4x100m freestyle relay on the first day, I greeted Chalmers but he completely ignored me,” Pan told Chinese media.

“This also included the US team’s (Jack) Alexy. When we trained, our coach was on the deck, and someone did a flip turn and splashed water directly on the coach.

“This behaviour seemed a bit disrespectful to us.

“But we beat all of them and broke the world record in such a difficult pool.”

Chalmers was bemused by Pan’s comments.

“I find it a bit weird, I gave him a fist pump before the relays,” Chalmers said Thursday night.

“And then my focus went to my teammates and my own racing.

“We had a laugh together at warm down last night, but no issues from my end.”

3. Aussies have mixed day on the golf course

Australian golfers Jason Day and Min Woo Lee have had contrasting days in the opening round of the men’s golf at Le Golf National .

Despite finishing with a double-bogey, Day carded a two-under 69 to be six shots back from leader Hideki Matsuyama.

Day enjoyed a promising front nine, making the turn at three-under, before a bogey at 12 and double-bogey on the last blemished his card.

But while Day remains in contention for a medal at the end of the tournament, Lee is all but out after finishing with a five-over 76.

Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama grabbed an early lead in the men’s Olympic golf tournament as he looked to outdo his fourth place finish in Tokyo, while French pair Victor Perez and Matthieu Pavon were roared on by the crowd in sunshine south of Paris.

Matsuyama, who missed out on bronze on home soil three years ago in a seven-way play-off, posted an eight under par bogey-free round of 63.

4. Shericka Jackson pulls out of the 100m

As the athletics events start to pull some focus, there’s been a major development on the track.

We earmarked Jamaican sprinter Shericka Jackson as one to watch coming into these Games, and she still is, but not in the women’s 100m.

The bronze medallist from Tokyo three years ago has pulled out of the event, removing another major competitor for 24-year-old American star Sha’Carri Richardson.

Jackson said she made the decision along with her coach to focus more on the 200m based on “a combination of a lot of stuff”.

The 30-year-old had the fastest women’s 100m time of last year (10.65), while her best of 10.84 this year is fifth in the world. Richardson has the top mark of 10.71.

5. Lauren Jackson says she’s ‘legitimately old’ compared to other veterans

One Jackson we are grateful to still have in the Olympics is Australia’s 43-year-old basketball icon, Lauren.

Asked in a post-match interview what it was like to be among the oldest basketballers in Paris alongside the likes of LeBron James (39) and Diana Taurasi (42), Jackson gave one of the answers of the Olympics. 

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“I’m really old. They’re still playing in the NBA and WNBA. I’m not doing that,” she said. 

“I’m legitimately old.

“It was always a pipe dream. It wasn’t something that I was given, I actually had to make this team. I know I’m not the player I was, but I’m here and playing my role.” 

This is the veteran Opal’s fifth Olympics — though remarkably, her first since London 2012. 

“It’s crazy. I never anticipated that I’d be back here again. It’s bizarre,” Jackson said.

“It’s a bit of a time warp, being in an Olympic environment again. But I’m really happy with my role.”

6. Pistol shooters go viral for their distinctive looks

Who would have guessed that pistol shooters would be the athletes to go viral at the Paris Olympics?

‘Turkish dad’ and ‘South Korean cyberpunk’ have won fans all over the world for their distinctive looks during the competition.

Kim Ye-ji was the first to get the internet tapping away furiously into the world wide web, with the 31-year-old South Korean’s effortless confidence and special eyewear standing out in a sea of conformity. 

She also went on to win the silver in the 10m air pistol.

Then, almost in an answer to how cool Kim Ye-ji looked, the internet started talking about ‘Turkish dad’, Yusuf Dikec, who also scored a silver medal in the team event.

Wearing baggy clothes, regular glasses, and foregoing any special equipment, Dikec looked like a middle-aged bloke casually watching the footy with one hand tucked in his pocket.

“I did not need the special equipment,” Dikec told Turkish media.

“I’m a natural, natural shooter.”

The contrasting looks and reaction to them feel very … Olympics. In what other major sporting event in the world would this sort of thing be a talking point?

7. Gymnast’s cheese sponsorship gets the internet talking

Speaking of weird viral things.

Italian gymnast Giorgia Villa is grabbing attention not for helping her team win silver in the women’s team event — the country’s first in almost 100 years — but for being sponsored by cheese.

“I need the people to know that olympic silver medalist giorgia villa is sponsored by parmesan cheese and regularly posts pics of herself with giant wheels of cheese,” wrote X user @slothanova wrote.

From cartwheels to cheese wheels — it feels like a sponsorship match made in heaven.

Unfortunately though, the relationship is no more.

A representative for Villa said she is unable to comment due to the IOC’s Rule 40, which prevents athletes who are competing in the Olympics from allowing their name, image or likeness to be used in advertising during the Games.

But the rep did confirm that at the moment, the partnership between Villa and Parmigiano Reggiano is no longer active.

ABC Sport is live blogging every day of the Paris Olympics