By James Reid

The curtain comes down on Paris 2024 with Sunday’s closing ceremony, but there will still be plenty of sport on offer before the torch is handed over to Los Angeles at the Stade de France.

Thirteen gold medals are on offer on the final day of action, and there will be no lie-ins for those looking to cram in their final dose of Olympic action for another four years as the women’s marathon gets underway at 7am UK time.

The Paris Games is inverting tradition with the women’s marathon closing out the athletic programme for the first time in Olympic history, and it won’t be one to miss.

Tigst Assefa will look to add Olympic gold to the world record she set last September but faces stiff competition from a star-studded line-up that includes Tokyo medallists Peres Jepchirchir and Brigid Kosgei plus the alarmingly talented Sifan Hassan.

Jepchirchir will bid to become the first woman to successfully defend the Olympic title and arrives off the back of setting a new women's world record at the London Marathon in April.

The gold medal should be wrapped up by 9.30am, but there’s no time to catch a breath, with bronze medals to be decided in men’s handball and water polo from 8am before the gold medal matches in the afternoon.

Great Britain have not medalled in water polo since 1920, with the sport dominated by Eastern European nations in recent times, while there has never been a British handball medal, with no signs of the record changing in either sport this summer.

However, those looking to roar on Team GB can turn their attention to the velodrome, where there are much greater British hopes of the podium.

Sir Chris Hoy and Sir Jason Kenny were the past four Olympic champions in the men’s keirin, but with both now retired the mantle transfers to Jack Carlin and Hamish Turnbull to extend the record to five.

The women’s sprint title is also up for grabs, with Emma Finucane, Sophie Capewell and Katy Marchant all hoping to become the first British champion since Victoria Pendleton in 2008.

Elsewhere, weightlifter Emily Campbell goes in the +81kg women’s category where she will look to upgrade her silver medal from Tokyo.

That was won in the +87kg category which has been reduced to +81kg for Paris, but Campbell will still need to beat the formidable defending champion and world and Olympic record holder Li Wenwen to win gold.

The other major medal chance for Team GB may lie in the women’s modern pentathlon final, where Kerenza Bryson will look to add an Olympic medal to the World Championship bronze she earned in 2023.

Sunday also sees three freestyle wrestling gold medal bouts but for a final bit of stardust, look no further than the Bercy Arena, where the USA women's basketball team will likely be out for their eighth straight Olympic gold.

They boast one of the most dominant Olympic records in history, with just three losses to their name since the sport’s introduction in 1976, and are unbeaten since 1992.

Do not miss: Weightlifter Emily Campbell has promised big things this summer. The 30-year-old only started the sport in 2016 but won silver in Tokyo and now has eyes on gold. Campbell is also famous for her eye-catching hairstyles and says she has something ‘extraordinary’ up her sleeve for Paris.

Star of the day: Set your alarms bright and early for the women’s marathon at 7am. A stacked line-up headed by world record holder Tigst Assefa makes it the perfect start to the final day, with the Ethiopian looking to surpass the blistering 2:11.53 she recorded at the Berlin Marathon.

Best Brit: Emma Finucane has been the fastest woman on two wheels in the world over the past year, and will look to add Olympic gold to the world sprint title she won last summer. The 21-year-old from Carmarthen is making her Olympic debut but could become one of the stars of the Games.

Watch every moment of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 live only on discovery+, the streaming home of the Olympics.