Paris Olympics 2024 live updates

One week ago, Brazilian soccer legend Marta’s Olympics — her sixth, and final major tournament — looked to be over. She had come in with her boot high on a rash challenge in Brazil’s final group stage match against Spain.

A deserved red card was thrust into the air, and Marta could not stop the tears that came, spilling them into the grass at Stade de Bordeaux.

Down to 10 players, Brazil gave up two goals in that final group stage match. They snuck through into the knockout rounds as a third-place team, thanks to the slimmest of margins: a -2 goal differential, compared to Australia’s -3.

For the next two matches, all she could do was wait and watch. Now Marta, twenty years out from making her Olympic debut, has been gifted a new chance to write her own ending here in France in the gold medal match. Perfect endings are hard. They sometimes feel impossible in this sport.

But Marta has been writing her own story, full of hunger, full of passion, and most of all, full of joy, for a while now. No matter what, she’s heading back to Orlando with a medal around her neck. Read more below.