China won its first gold at the Paris Olympics on Saturday as rain marred the opening ceremony took its toll on the first full day of sporting action.
In a closely contested 10m air rifle mixed team final, teenage duo Sheng Lihao and Huang Yuting edged out South Korea's Keum Ji-hyeon and Park Ha-jun 16-12, with Kazakhstan taking bronze.
Rain had already claimed one sporting casualty early on Saturday, while the wet weather that swamped Friday night's daring festival on the River Seine continued to cause headaches.
The men's street skate competition, due to take place at Place de la Concorde in the historic heart of Paris, has been postponed until Monday due to rain overnight, organisers said.
Torrential rain also disrupted play in the opening rounds of tennis at Roland Garros, with no activity on the 10 open outdoor courts until 1:30 p.m. local time (1130 GMT), organizers said.
Torrential rain lashed participants and spectators at Friday's amphibious opening ceremony, where around 7,000 athletes paraded down the Seine in an armada of boats before a spectacular finale culminating in a sparkling light show on the Eiffel Tower and a performance by singer Celine Dion.
The ceremony received largely favourable reviews, with French centre-right daily Le Figaro describing it as “full of surprises but often disjointed”.
However, the International Olympic Committee was forced to apologize for a mistake during the ceremony in which South Korean athletes were incorrectly presented as North Koreans.
“We deeply apologize for the mistake that occurred when introducing the South Korean team during the broadcast of the opening ceremony,” the IOC said in a post on its official Korean-language X account.
Swimming duel
In sports, swimming, badminton, rowing, cycling, hockey and basketball will be held alongside the surfing competition, almost 16,000 kilometres away on the French island of Tahiti in the Pacific.
Swimming will be the star of the show at the Arena La Defense with the women's 400-meter freestyle event, one of the most eagerly awaited events of all the Olympic Games, in which three swimmers holding the world record will compete.
Defending champion Ariarne Titmus of Australia will be the favourite after clocking the second-fastest time in history last month, behind only her own world best of 3 minutes 55.38 seconds.
Three years ago she stunned American rival Katie Ledecky in a blistering final in Tokyo, and the American tennis great was out for revenge.
Canadian teenage sensation Summer McIntosh, also a former world record holder, completes the trio of heavy favourites.
Other gold medals up for grabs on the first night of pool action will be in the men's 400m freestyle and the men's and women's 4x100m freestyle relay.
Reigning French Open champions Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz are among the stars of the first day of action on the clay courts of Roland Garros, weather permitting.
Women's world number one Swiatek will take the court first against Romania's Irina-Camelia Begu, with Alcaraz following against Lebanon's world number 275 Hady Habib.
But the main focus will be on the men's doubles, with Alcaraz teaming up with 14-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal in an all-Spanish dream partnership.
Chinese shooters Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao will be favourites to claim the first gold of the Games after a dominant victory at last year's world championships in Baku.
There will also be medals at stake in the diving pool on Saturday, with the women's 3m synchronised springboard final, where another Chinese pair, Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen, are favourites to take gold.
The first cycling medals of the Games will be decided in the men's and women's individual time trials over a challenging 32.4-kilometre course.
French rugby fans will flock to the Stade de France to see if Antoine Dupont can lead the host country to rugby sevens gold.
However, France must beat South Africa in Saturday's semi-finals to reach the gold medal match against the winner of the other semi-final clash between reigning champions Fiji and Australia.
