Waiting game ends as Paris Olympics open amid high Australian expectations | Jack Snape

Surpassing the nation’s record of 17 golds would not be a surprise at these Games but talk of medal tallies is being hosed down inside the camp

Eighty-five barges will float down the Seine on Friday, Saturday morning AEST, to officially open the Paris Olympics, in a final meander for the athletes before the games end and the Games begin. Australia’s chef de mission Anna Meares, when asked on Thursday how many medals the team will win, said bluntly: “As many as we can get.”

Her response was partly in jest, a wry acknowledgment of the question she has been asked perhaps more than any other in the build-up to the Games. But it offered a plain description of the Olympics’ ruthless character.