Day 14 Olympics Live: Ariarne Titmus Under Scrutiny in ‘Olympics on Steroids’ Controversy

The controversial Enhanced Games have named a hit list for their first event with Aussie Ariarne Titmus at the top.

Welcome to news.com.au’s live coverage of day 14 of the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Today’s highlights include the Opals’ Olympic basketball semi-final against the US, Maddison Keeney in the women’s 3m Springboard diving final, our women’s beach volleyball team playing for bronze, and the debut of breaking at the Olympics.

You can catch up on yesterday’s action, including the Aussie Stingers making the Olympic final in water polo, Jess Hull’s incredible 1500m semi-final run, and two silvers and two bronze medals across the women’s marathon swimming, canoe sprint and boxing, here.

Joel Embiid was one of the heroes on Thursday who helped Team USA reach the gold medal game in a 95-91 comeback win over Serbia, but the 2023 NBA MVP embraced his inner villain after the victory.
The 76ers star — playing for Team USA after picking them over France or Cameroon — stood at center court dancing and egging the crowd on to boo him.
Then he appeared to do a “suck it” motion made famous by the WWE’s D-Generation X before walking toward the American locker room. We’ll leave it to your imagination what the “it” is.
Embiid has had no problem encouraging the fans to boo him during the tournament and has clearly reveled in it at times over the course of the 2024 Olympics.

“I mean, I play in Philly. They boo their own guys,” Embiid said. “Sometimes, it feels like our fans are more against us when they’re supposed to be against our opponent. But like I said, it’s all love, is all, because they want to push you.”
The animosity from the French dates back to Embiid’s decision to play for the United States over France despite being granted French Citizenship in 2022.
Embiid, born in Cameroon, claimed that the talks with Team France about playing for them never got any further than his initial expression of interest in playing for the country.
The United States, fittingly enough, will face the French in the gold medal game on Saturday.

The Olympics is coming to an end but the Enhanced Games is about to kick into high gear – and they’re targeting some of Paris’ biggest stars.
The brainchild of Australian Aron D’Souza, a lawyer and businessman raised in Melbourne, the Enhanced Games claim to be the “Olympics on steroids”, boasting that athletes will dope “out in the open and honestly”. Former Aussie 100m champion James Magnussen has already signed up to the event – despite copping massive backlash – but the Games are looking to build out their roster, sending a recruitment team to Paris.
A News Corp report revealed Enhanced Games bosses were attempting to convince Aussie golden girl Ariarne Titmus, US sprint king Noah Lyles and marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge to compete – saying they don’t need to take drugs to enter and try to win an unprecedented $US1m prize money for every world record broken.
D’Souza confirmed to News Corp the trio were at the top of the hit list.
Asked if he would like to see Titmus compete in the inaugural Enhanced Games, slated for next year, D’Souza said: “Oh, absolutely.
“All athletes are welcome, natural or enhanced … I believe it would make for great television.
“We want to create an opportunity for athletes to really monetise their ability and it would be attractive for any of the top competitors at the Paris Games — a $1 million prize for breaking a world record.”

Paris Olympics 200m gold medallist Letsile Tebogo has given American sprint star Noah Lyles a driveby swipe while also calling him “the face of international sprinting”.
Tebogo, who hails from Botswana, claimed the final in 19.46 ahead of Americans Kenny Bednarek in silver and Lyles in bronze, in an event that was widely expected to go to Lyles.
When asked if he was the face of sprinting after his victory in Lyles’ pet event, Tebogo said: “I think, for me, I can’t be the face of athletics because I’m not an arrogant or a loud person like Noah. I believe Noah is the face of athletics.”
It comes as Lyles was taken from the arena in a wheelchair after competing in the 200m final despite being diagnosed with Covid.
“I’ve run with worse conditions, I felt, and we just took it day by day, trying to hydrate as much,” he said after the race.
“Quarantined off. I’d definitely say that it’s taken its toll for sure, but I’ve never been more proud of myself for being able to come out here and getting a bronze medal — where last Olympic I was very disappointed (with a bronze medal), and this time, I couldn’t be more proud.”
Lyles said on Instagram that he’s likely done for the Games, likely ruling himself out of the 4x100m relay despite being the reigning gold medallist.