Best bets and predictions for day 16 of the 2024 Paris Olympics: Kopecky could be foiled again

Where to watch the Olympics in the UK and Ireland

Daily coverage on BBC, RTE and Discovery+

Best bets for day 16

Jennifer Valente to win women's omnium
1pt 9-4 bet365

Australia to win women's basketball bronze-medal match
1pt 4-5 bet365 

Croatia to win men's water polo gold-medal match
1pt 11-10 Coral, Ladbrokes

Paris 2024 Olympics day 16 predictions

Cycling predictions

Starts 10am

The final cycling event of the Paris Olympics is the women's omnium and it's one of the most competitive heats of the whole meeting in the velodrome.

Belgium's Lotte Kopecky is the 11-8 favourite as she makes her third attempt to win gold at the Games. 

Kopecky was sixth in the time trial and a beaten favourite when winning bronze in the women's road race, but she has a decent pedigree in this event, winning the silver medal in the 2021 world championships and the bronze in 2023.

Even so, she looks a short price in a tough field with the strongest opposition likely to come from defending champion Jennifer Valente of the United States.

The Californian cyclist won the omnium world championship in 2022 and 2023 and already has a gold in the bag in Paris from the team pursuit.

At 9-4, the American looks the best value bet, although New Zealand's Ally Wollaston is also a major contender. 

Her New Zealand team were just beaten by the US squad in the team pursuit, when the 23-year-old showed she is back in good shape after a knee injury earlier this year. 

Basketball predictions

Starts 10.30am

The final gold medal to be won in the 2024 Olympics will go to either hosts France or favourites the United States in the women's basketball.

The US women are 1-16 to claim it with France 10-1 to conjure up a fairy-tale finish. 

The handicap for the final is around 15.5 points, which could be in range for the favourites, who have won their five games by margins of 26, 13, 19, 14 and 21 points. France should be happy enough to have made the gold-medal game after an overtime win over Belgium in their semi-final.

Australia ought to be capable of grabbing the bronze. They beat the hosts in a tough group and comfortably dispatched Serbia in their quarter-final, while Belgium finished third in their group.

There are also other team sport golds to be decided. Croatia are worth backing to overcome Serbia in the men's water polo after impressively ending the unbeaten run of Spain in the quarter-finals before taking down a Hungary team who had beaten Serbia in their group.

Denmark are 1-5 to beat Germany in the men's handball final while Italy are 2-5 to see off the United States in the women's volleyball.

Click for free bets and betting offers from the Racing Post

Commercial notice: This article contains affiliate links. Offers are handpicked and come from operators our experts have first-hand experience of. Opening an account via one of these links will earn revenue for the Racing Post, which will be used to continue producing our award-winning coverage of horseracing and sports betting.