2024 Olympics live updates: Day 1 of the Summer Games …

After a tense first half that ended with both sides tied at 1, Spain took the lead over the Dominican Republic in the 55th minute of the match. Álex Baena broke the tie with a strike from outside the box to the bottom-right corner of the net. The Dominican Republic is playing with 10 men after Edison Azcona was given the first red card of the Olympics during stoppage time in the first half.

Earlier today, Katie Ledecky posted the fastest time of the women’s 400m freestyle preliminary heats, overtaking Australia’s Ariarne Titmus who won gold in Tokyo and holds the current world record.

This is Ledecky’s only event where she faces a rival expected to challenge her dominance. The final race is scheduled for 2:52 p.m. ET.

Chloe Dygert has won bronze in women’s road cycling.

Dygert has recently come off a devastating injury in 2020, going off the guard rail at the time. She recently overcame an Achilles heel injury this year.

At the first time check, Dygert was looking like a contender for gold, but after wiping out lost ground. Australia’s Brown and Great Britain’s Henderson took gold and silver, respectively.

This is the third-ever Olympic medal for Dygert.

Freddie Clayton and Nancy Ing

Olympics organizer said the triathlon events will take place as scheduled despite adverse weather conditions.

Heavy rainfall over the last 24 hours is likely to affect the water quality in the Seine in the coming days, organizers told NBC News, which may result in Sunday’s training swim being canceled.

However, they were “confident’ that events would go ahead as planned on Tuesday, the day of the triathlon. 

The triathlon and marathon swimming events have already come under intense scrutiny with doubts over the quality of the water in the Seine. Swimming in the river has been banned for over a century, but organizers have invested $1.5 billion to prepare it for the Olympics and ensure Parisians have a cleaner river after the games.

But tests results released Friday showed that water quality was slightly below the standards needed to authorize swimming.

Team USA had a strong start in the 4x100m free relay, winning the preliminary heat with impressive legs from Simone Manuel and Kate Douglass. Great Britain came in second, with Italy close behind.

The women’s free relay final is scheduled for 3:34 p.m. ET, where the U.S. will face a tougher challenge from Australia, who won their heat. The U.S. has medaled in this event every time it has competed but hasn’t secured gold since 2000.

Only a few minutes short of a potential victory, road cyclist Chloe Dygert takes a fall on the road.

While the race remains neck and neck between her and Australia’s Grace Brown, things suddenly look grim for favorite Dygert as she aims to recover from the spill.

The Eiffel Tower Stadium is arguably the most dramatic venue at the Olympics. It’s also the most exposed — and its first spectators of these Games are currently getting utterly drenched.

Dressed in ponchos or hunkered under umbrellas, the crowd has attempted to keep their spirits high with Mexican waves, chanting and stomping their feet on the temporary bleachers under the imposing iron latticework of Paris’ best-known landmark.

Miles Partain and Andy Benesh, the youngest American volleyball duo in U.S. history, were beaten in straight sets by Nolsen Diaz and Jorde Alayo from Cuba in the first match of the men’s Pool D.

As did the top ranked pairing, Sweden’s David Ahman and Jonatan Hellvig, against Australia’s Mark Nicolaidis and Izac Carracher in Pool A.

Novak Djokovic was utterly ruthless in his opening match of the Olympics, dispatching Australia’s Matthew Ebden 6-0, 6-1 in just 53 minutes.

The Serbian is the top seed in the men’s singles and is chasing an elusive gold medal at Roland Garros, the only prize missing from the 24-time Grand Slam champion’s glittering CV.

At 0-6, 0-2 down, 36-year-old Ebden jokingly offered his racket to a member of the crowd, asking if they would like a go. The crowd went wild when Ebden won his only game of the match shortly after, but it was still a brutal beatdown for the Australian.

In what would be a blockbuster match-up, Djokovic could face Rafael Nadal in the second round.

Women’s world no. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland is safely through in the women’s draw. The French Open champion beat Romania’s Irina-Camela Begu, 6-2, 7-5.

In a surprising start to the men’s volleyball schedule, No. 11-ranked Germany defeated the No. 2-ranked Japan in a thrilling 3-2 match at South Paris Arena. Germany hasn’t competed in men’s volleyball at the Olympics since the 2012 London Games.

The final heat of the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay came down to a duel between closers Caeleb Dressel for Team USA and Kyle Chalmers for Australia, with Chalmers narrowly edging out Dressel.

Later today, the rival teams will meet again for the free relay final, set to start at 3:44 p.m. ET.

Nancy Ing and Freddie Clayton

Some rail traffic has resumed as normal in France but disruptions remain after part of the nation’s high-speed rail network was paralyzed yesterday by an arson attack that upended service for hundreds of thousands of passengers.

France’s national railway company SNCF said that normal rail traffic resumed this morning on the eastern high-speed lines, but that other services were still facing severe delays that will continue throughout the weekend.

SNCF said all transportation for Olympic teams will be maintained as planned.

First lady Jill Biden attends the fencing competition at the Grand Palais during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games on Saturday. United States’ fencer Eli Derschwitz was eliminated from the Games in the round of 32, ending his hopes of winning a medal. 

In a shocking upset, U.S. fencer Eli Derswhitz, the reigning world champion who was expected to be in serious medal contention for men’s individual saber, lost his match in the round of 32. 

This eliminates him from future rounds, including the semi-finals and finals.

In another shock, Hungary’s reigning Olympic saber champion Aron Szilagyi has been eliminated during the round of 32 as well. If Szilagyi had come out victorious and ultimately earned Gold, he would have join Michael Phelps and only a few other Olympians who have won the same individual event four times.

Dershwitz and Szilagyi were the favorites for the event, widely expected to face off in a final match. 

Tahiti, an overseas French territory famous for its surfing, will host 48 athletes this summer for surfing events. 

And 9,759 miles away from Paris, it is the farthest an Olympic competition has been held from the host city since 1956. Back then, the equestrian events at the Melbourne Olympics were held in Stockholm, Sweden, due to some strict Australian policies on equine quarantine.

The first round of the men’s event will take place at 7 a.m. local time in Tahiti, 12 hours behind France, and 1 p.m. ET.

An Olympic gold medal is the only major title missing from Serbian superstar Novak Djokovic’s trophy cabinet, while Coco Gauff is going for gold for Team USA, but how exactly does the tennis event at the Olympics work?

The men’s and women’s singles events feature a field of 64 players, half the number of players who compete at Grand Slams including the U.S. Open. Both fields will play best of three sets with the winner of a set being the first to reach six games (winning by at least two games). That means to win a match, you need to win two sets.

If the scores are tied at 6-6 in a set, a tiebreaker is played where the first player to seven points, winning by two, wins the set.

Reuters

Freddie Clayton and Reuters

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has told IOC President Thomas Bach that mistakes should not be repeated after South Korean athletes were incorrectly introduced as being from the Democratic People’s Public of Korea, also known as North Korea, during the opening ceremony.

North and South Korea have been in an ongoing conflict since 1948.

Yoon and Bach have since spoken by telephone, and Bach has apologized. Yoon said the incident left the people of South Korea surprised and baffled, but has expressed his wish for a successful Olympics Games, his office said on Saturday.

A similar incident occurred at the 2012 Olympics in London when a South Korea flag appeared alongside North korea’s women’s football team on stadium screens as players warmed up before their opening match. 

Despite a steady drumbeat of rain, it’s a nearly full stadium at Stade de Eiffel Tower for beach volleyball — Cuba vs. USA.

The announcments are in English and there was plenty of applause for Cuba. 

And in case anyone was wondering, yes there are cheerleaders in beach volleyball.

Kevin Durant is set to be fit for Team USA’s opener against Serbia tomorrow, according to coach Steve Kerr.

Durant, who is aiming to win a record fourth gold medal at these Games, missed all five of Team USA’s exhibition games in the build-up with a calf injury, but Kerr is confident of having his entire roster — including Joel Embiid and Anthony Davis, who have both had bouts of illness this week — available.

“Hopefully,” Kerr responded when asked whether Durant will play. “He came through the scrimmage two days ago pretty well, and we’ll have another practice today and we’ll just keep taking it day by day.”

“He looked extremely well the other day in practice,” added LeBron James. “Obviously his wind and his rhythm is going to continue to come, but if we’re able to get him back and make a huge impact to our club.”

Team USA face Serbia, who features three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic, tomorrow at 11:15 E.T. in Lille.

With First Lady Jill Biden watching, Team USA’s men’s gymnasts have wrapped up their qualifying efforts, and now the wait is on to see who will advance to the various finals.

Finishing second behind Great Britain in the first subdivision of the team all-around, their score of 253.229 should be comfortably enough to finish in the top eight overall to advance to Monday’s team final.

Having finished third at last year’s World Championships, they are aiming to end a 16-year wait for an Olympic medal in the team event. With China and Japan set to dominate, Britain is expected to be Team USA’s main competition for bronze.

Germany was leading Japan 27-21 after the first quarter in men’s basketball.

Germany, led by NBA players Franz Wagner and Dennis Schröder, is considered one of the stronger teams in the Olympics. They won last year’s FIBA World Cup over Serbia after beating the USA in the semi-finals.

Team USA’s swimmers produced a dominant display to win the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay heat.

Abbey Weitzel, Simone Manuel, Erika Connolly and Kate Douglass clocked in at 3.33.29, almost three seconds ahead of Great Britain in second place.

But the U.S. will have to overcome reigning champions Australia in the final this evening to take home gold.

The first of the medals in Paris have already been dished out, but what exactly are athletes getting their hands on?

As usual, Olympic gold medals are actually made from mostly silver, with just six grams of gold used as coating.

But unique to this year’s Games, the medals have a hexagon-shaped center forged using metal scrapped from the Eiffel Tower.

The back of the medal features Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, alongside the Acropolis in Athens, an homage to the Games’ Greek origins. 

Team USA men’s gymnastics are going along nicely in the qualifiers at Bercy Arena with Stephen Nedoroscik nailing his pommel horse routine.

The Penn State graduate had a huge smile on his face after posting a statement score of 15.200, out of 16. That will almost certainly be enough to get him into the pommel horse final and put the 2021 world champion in medal contention in what will likely be a stacked field — Max Whitlock of Great Britain, who has won gold in the last two games posted a score of 15.166.

Americans Fred Richard and Paul Juda are also on track to qualify for the individual all-around final, sitting third and fourth respectively after five of the six rotations. Team USA last medalled in the individual all-around in 2012.

American swimmer and seven-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky has won her first race of the games, finishing just ahead of Australian world record holder and reigning Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus in the women’s 400m freestyle heats.

The two will go head-to-head again in the final this evening.

Snoop Dogg has shared his experience carrying the Olympic torch through the streets of Paris yesterday as part of the opening ceremony.

“It’s too hard to put in words, baby,” he said. “I was waving, shaking hands, kissing the babies. Doing what I do. We here for peace, love and unity, and great sportsmanship, that’s what we here for.”

The men’s and women’s tennis singles start this morning on the familiar clay courts of Roland-Garros.

The iconic venue hosts the French Open Grand Slam each year, but this summer athletes can also win an Olympic gold on the hallowed red dirt.

The women’s singles has just started with Polish world number one Iga Swiatek going up against Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu. Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Coco Gauff are also in action today.

And once the tennis is over on August 4, organizers have 36 hours to transform Court Phillipe-Chatrier into a boxing arena, with the venue hosting the semi-finals and finals of the women’s and men’s events.

Kassidy Cook and Sarah Bacon have won silver in the women’s 3-meter synchronized springboard event, bringing home America’s first medal of the games.

The gold was taken by reigning world champions Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen from China, who win their second gold of the games. It is the sixth Olympics in a row that a Chinese team has won the event.

Team GB’s Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen took bronze for a first British women’s Olympic diving medal since 1960.

Badminton can often be a fast and frantic game, requiring lightning-speed reflexes and incredible hand-eye coordination. It is also one of the few sports the U.S. has never medalled in.

Team USA pair Jannie Gai and Vinson Chiu got their mixed doubles campaign underway earlier this morning but were beaten by Chinese medal contenders Huang Dongping and Feng Yanzhe, who were at the top of their game in this frenetic point from this morning’s match.

U.S. swimmer Torri Huske has made a strong start in her bid for Olympic gold in the 100-meter Butterfly event, producing a solid display to take first place in heat 3 and move through to the semi-final round later today.

The 2022 world champion is among the favorites to take gold in the final, which takes place tomorrow.

But she faces stiff competition from compatriot and world record holder Gretchen Walsh.

The first of the 329 gold medals of these Games has been won by China, who claimed victory in the 10-meter air rifle mixed team event.

Chinese paring Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao, the reigning world champions in this event, beat out South Korea in the gold medal match.

Kazakhstan took bronze to round off the first podium of the 2024 Olympics.

You may know Frederick Richard from TikTok, but if not, he’s making his Olympic debut on the mat in Paris.

After coming in second at the U.S. Gymnastics championships and first at the Olympic trials, Richard is a welcome addition to a men’s gymnastics team that is looking to medal for the first time since 2008.

Returning to the mat is Brody Malone, who suffered a nearly-career-ending injury to his knee last March but is full steam ahead into Paris and hoping to take home a medal on his best apparatus: High bar.

“You never really know how bad you want something until you have it taken away from you,” Malone said. “And that is exactly how this ended up working out.”

For those who caught last night’s opening ceremony, you may have noticed the torrential rain pouring down on Paris.

And due to the adverse weather, organizers have pushed back the men’s street skateboarding event originally scheduled to start this morning at the iconic Place de la Concorde, Paris’ largest public square where half-pipes, skate ramps and grind rails set up for the games are still soaking wet and slippery.

The event has been postponed until Monday, July 29. 

Crowds will have to wait to see Japan’s 14-year-old skateboarding sensation Ginwoo Onodera, who is among the favorites for a medal in Paris. 

Since the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Shooting has had the honor of awarding the first set of medals of the Games, and Paris will be no exception.

The medal matches of the 10-meter mixed team air rifle final get underway at 4:30 ET, and the first gold of the Games will go to either China or South Korea — they topped the order in Saturday morning’s qualifying round to progress to the gold medal match with Kazakhstan and Germany set to compete for bronze.

Day 1 will see 13 sets of medals handed out across seven sports, with diving, road cycling and rugby sevens among those to be awarded before tonight’s box-office action in the pool.

Let the Games begin! Day 1 of the 33rd Olympiad got underway bright and early this morning, with Badminton the first sport to begin over at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena.

Team USA’s Vinson Chiu and Jennie Gai started their mixed doubles campaign but were comfortably beaten by Huang Dongping and Feng Yanzhe of China, who are among the gold medal favorites in the event.

Plenty of other sports are also already underway this morning in Paris — the dressage events in equestrian have begun in the stunning surroundings of Versailles while athletes competing in the prelims of rowing, volleyball and handball have also had early wake-up calls.

Joe Rosato Jr., NBC Bay Area

For an opponent standing across the badminton net from twin sisters Kerry and Annie Xu, it would be hard to strategize the weaknesses and strengths of each in the heat of battle.

“Very hard for the opponent to say ‘Hey, which one is not good today,’” laughed coach Harry Tan.

Though the sisters are individuals in every respect, their play on the badminton court has become one of a singular force — that’s propelled them to a spot at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the doubles category, even after a four-year layoff during which they barely touched a racket.

Read the full story here.

This year’s Olympic surfers aren’t heading to Paris.

Instead, they’ll catch waves in Tahiti and forgo the famed Olympic Village for a cruise ship stationed near their competition site.

It’s the first time Olympic athletes will spend the Games on this so-called floating Olympic Village.

That’s because the nearby village of Teahupo’o proved too small and lacking viable options for the incoming athletes, and the Paris Olympic committee requires all athletes to be housed within 45 minutes of their competition venue.

The Olympic surfers will live aboard the Aranui 5 and will each have their own private room, complete with a real bed and an ocean view, in addition to access to a fitness center, outdoor pool, library, spa and panoramic bar.

For American athletes, the first in a series of unforgettable moments at the Olympics Games in Paris is the Team USA Welcome Center where members get fitted for their official Ralph Lauren attire. TODAY’s Hoda Kotb walks through the experience and meets some of the athletes.