Heavy rain disrupted the first full day of medal action at the Olympics on Saturday as attention turned to sport after a spectacular but soggy opening ceremony.
A total of 14 golds were due to be up for grabs, with the first to come in the mixed-team 10-metre air rifle finals, taking place around 10:30 am local time.
But that number was swiftly reduced to 13 early on Saturday as the wet weather which deluged Friday night’s audacious opening ceremony along the River Seine continued to cause headaches.
The men’s street skateboarding competition, due to take place at the Place de la Concorde in the historic heart of Paris, was postponed until Monday due to rain overnight, organisers said.
The spectre of disruption also loomed over the opening rounds of tennis at Roland Garros, where only two of the 12 courts have roofs.
Torrential rain had lashed participants and spectators in Friday’s amphibious opening ceremony, where around 7,000 athletes paraded along the Seine in an armada of boats before a show-stopping finale which climaxed with a glittering light show at the Eiffel Tower and a performance from singer Celine Dion.
The ceremony received broadly favourable reviews, with France’s centre-right Le Figaro daily describing it as “full of surprises but often disjointed.”
Swimming duel
Elsewhere on the sporting front, swimming, badminton, rowing, cycling, hockey and basketball get underway along with the surfing competition, nearly 16,000 kilometres away on the French Pacific island of Tahiti.
Swimming will take centre stage at the La Defense Arena for the women’s 400m freestyle — one of the most-anticipated events of the entire Olympics involving three swimmers who have held the world record.
Australia’s defending champion Ariarne Titmus will dive in as favourite after clocking the second-fastest time ever last month behind only her own 3-minute, 55.38-second world best.
She stunned US rival Katie Ledecky in an electric Tokyo final three years ago, with the American great gunning for revenge.
Canadian teenage sensation Summer McIntosh, also a former world record holder, completes the hotly favoured trio.
Other gold medals on offer on the first night of action in the pool come in the men’s 400m freestyle and the men’s and women’s 4x100m freestyle relays.
Reigning French Open champions Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz are among the top draws on the first day of action on the clay courts of Roland Garros — weather permitting.
Women’s world number one Swiatek is first on court against Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu, with Alcaraz to follow against Lebanese world number 275 Hady Habib.
But the biggest focus will be on the men’s doubles, with Alcaraz teaming up with 14-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal in a Spanish dream pairing.
Chinese shooters Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao will start as favourites for the first gold of the Games after a dominant victory at last year’s world championships in Baku.
Medals will also be on offer early Saturday in the diving pool, with the women’s synchronised 3m springboard final, where another Chinese pairing, Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen, are favourites to strike gold.
The first cycling medals of the games will be decided with the men’s and women’s individual times trials taking place on 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 nation to gold in rugby sevens.
France however must overcome South Africa in Saturday’s semi-finals to reach the gold medal match against the winner of the other last-four clash between holders Fiji and Australia.
South Korea ‘regrets’ incorrect introduction
South Korea’s sports ministry on Saturday expressed regret over a gaffe during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics in which its athletes were incorrectly introduced as North Korean.
As the South Korean delegation rode a boat on the Seine River and entered the ceremony as the 48th participating nation, the French-speaking presenter introduced them using the official name for North Korea: “Republique populaire democratique de Coree” in French, then “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” in English.
The error sparked displeased reactions in South Korea, a global cultural and technological powerhouse that is technically still at war with the nuclear-armed and impoverished North, as the 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
South Korea’s sports ministry “expresses regret over the announcement during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, where the South Korean delegation was introduced as the North Korean team,” it said in a statement.
Second Vice Sports Minister Jang Mi-ran, a 2008 Olympic weightlifting champion, has asked for a meeting with International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Thomas Bach to discuss the matter, it added.
The sports ministry has also asked the foreign ministry to “deliver a strong protest to the French side” over the issue, it said.
South Korea’s National Olympic Committee plans to meet with the Paris Olympics Organising Committee and the IOC to voice their protest, request measures to prevent a recurrence, and send an official letter of protest under the name of the head of its delegation, the sports ministry said.
The International Olympic Committee issued an apology for the gaffe.
“We deeply apologise 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.
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