Australia topped the medal tally with three golds and two silvers on the first day of the Olympics 2024. Australian athletes bagged two golds and two silvers in swimming and one gold in cycling.

Here is the roundup of what happened on Day 1 of the mega sporting extravaganza:

Shooting:

Chinese teen duo Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao upheld a Chinese shooting tradition as they won the first gold of the Paris Olympics in the 10-metre air rifle mixed team event on Saturday.

Their 16-12 win, quelling a late challenge from the South Korean pair of Keum Ji-hyeon and Park Ha-jun, ensured China remained the only country to win the gold in the mixed-team event.

Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev gave Kazakhstan the bronze with a 17-5 romp against the German pair of Anna Janssen and Maximilian Ulbrich.

Diving:

Chen Yiwen and Chang Yani began China’s bid to capture all eight women’s Olympic diving golds by winning the synchronised 3-metre springboard event on Saturday.

Americans Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook, who performed the same routines as Chen and Chang, gave the Chinese duo a scare after scoring equal points in the second round.

The Americans fell short in following dives, however, and took silver with 314.64 points.

Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jenson took bronze, Britain’s first medal in Paris.

Cycling:

Australian Grace Brown destroyed the field to claim the gold medal in the women’s individual time trial and claimed a major title in a crash-riddled event on Saturday.

Britain’s Anna Henderson took second place, one minute 31.59 seconds behind Brown’s winning time of 39 minutes 38.24 as the Australian gave her country its first title at the Paris Games.

Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel added an Olympic gold medal to his world title as he won the men’s individual time trial at the Paris Games in emphatic fashion to continue his meteoric rise.

The 24-year-old, who finished third overall in the Tour de France earlier this month, clocked 36 minutes 12.16 seconds over 32.4km in driving rain to beat Italian Filippo Ganna by 14.92 seconds.

Another Belgian, Wout van Aert, won bronze.

Swimming:

Germany’s Lukas Maertens won his first Olympic gold in the men’s 400-metre freestyle at the Paris Olympics on Saturday.

Leading from start to finish, Maertens touched the wall in a time of three minutes 41.78 seconds to finish 0.43 seconds ahead of Australian silver medallist Elijah Winnington and South Korean bronze-winner Kim Woo-min at La Defense Arena.

Maertens, a 22-year-old from Magdeburg, turned the tables on all three at La Defense Arena, however, with a barnstorming start, shooting out to a big lead and holding his place to the finish.

Ariarne Titmus got Australia’s women off to a golden start by winning a race of record-breakers on a rocking opening night of the Paris Olympic swimming meet at the La Defense Arena.

Titmus set the tone by defending her 400-metre freestyle title in a huge battle with Canada’s Summer McIntosh and American great Katie Ledecky.

Ledecky, gold medallist in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and silver in Tokyo in 2021, had to settle for bronze as 17-year-old sensation McIntosh secured the silver and her first Olympic medal.

The Dolphins added another gold in the 4x100 metres freestyle relay, with Australia also taking two silvers from the four finals and with their reputation as a powerhouse of the pool as bright as ever.

The quartet of Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Emma McKeon and Meg Harris clocked at 3:28.92, just under a second short of Australia’s world record, to hold off runners-up United States, while China took the bronze.

But the American men denied them another gold with their country’s first of the Games in the 4x100 freestyle relay.

The United States beat Australia and Italy to win the 4x100 metres freestyle at La Defense Arena as Dressel swam the anchor leg and brought gold home.

Jack Alexy, Chris Giuliano, Hunter Armstrong and Caeleb Dressel combined to beat Australia, with Italy coming third.

Fencing:

Hong Kong’s fencing queen Vivian Kong claimed her first Olympic gold medal in a nerve-wracking bout against local favourite Auriane Mallo-Breton of France in the women’s epee at the Paris Games on Saturday.

Kong, who prevailed 13-12 in sudden death, was in floods of tears after coming back from six touches down.

Eszter Muhari of Hungary took bronze.

Oh Sang-uk of South Korea won gold in the men’s sabre individual event against Tunisia’s Fares Ferjani with Italian Luigi Samele taking bronze.

Out of the six French fencers taking part in both events, Mallo-Breton was the only one to make it to the quarter-finals.

Rugby Sevens

France claimed their first gold medal of their own Olympics and first of any kind in men’s rugby sevens when Antoine Dupont led them to a stunning 28-7 win over double-defending champions Fiji on an unforgettable night in the Stade de France on Saturday.

It was tight and tense at 7-7 against the double-defending champions Fiji.

Fiji had won all 17 of their previous matches in the Olympics and were hot favourites to complete a hat-trick of titles against a team that did not even qualify for Tokyo, but the bookmakers reckoned without the remarkable Dupont, who took a sabbatical from the national XV team to join the sevens project.

Earlier, South Africa beat six-man Australia 26-19 with a last-play try by Shaun Williams to take the bronze medal having only made it to Paris as the final qualifier by the repechage.

Judo:

Japan’s Natsumi Tsunoda won the gold medal in the women’s under 48 kg judo at the Paris Olympics on Saturday, while Yeldos Smetov of Kazakhstan won gold in the men’s under 60kg category.

Luka Mkheidze of France took the silver after being defeated by Smetov, while Ryuju Nagayama of Japan and Spain’s Francisco Garrigos earlier won the bronze medals.

In the women’s extra lightweight category, Mongolia’s Baasankhuu Bavuudorj took silver after her defeat by Tsunoda.

France’s Shirine Boukli claimed a bronze medal on her home soil by defeating Spaniard Laura Martínez Abelenda.

Sweden’s Tara Babulfath also won bronze after overcoming Abiba Abuzhakynova of Kazakhstan.