Paris 2024: Five takeaways from Day One

With Friday's unprecedented Opening Ceremony officially opening the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the best athletes from around the globe have begun going head-to-head in an attempt to clinch gold, see their hard work come to fruition, and push their nations up the medal table. 

As with every Olympic Games, there is pride at stake, records to be broken, and success stories to be made all providing the ingredients for an array of iconic moments each day.

With a backdrop of wars and political tensions frequently coming to the fore, some misbehaving Parisian weather causing disruption early on, and of course, the thousands of prolific athletes pushing their bodies to the limits, the variety of topics is boundless. 

We've rounded up five key takeaways from Day One of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

A View of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. GETTY IMAGES.

Rugby earns early host nation pride

The host nation got its hands on an opening-day gold in the rugby sevens in front of an ecstatic crowd at the Stade de France beating reigning champions Fiji 28-7.

Fiji, winners of both Tokyo 2020 and Rio 2016, went into the face-off with an enviable record of having never been defeated at the Olympic Games so the stage was set for a momentous final between favourites and hosts.

Coming from behind, in no short part thanks to the inspirational captain Antoine Dupont who scored two of France's four tries, the French Rugby Sevens Team secured the host nation's first gold medal of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to the jubilance of a packed out Stade de France.

Gold medalists of Team France on the podium during the Men’s Rugby Sevens medal ceremony at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. GETTY IMAGES.

It's not ideal if you're competing outdoors 

The first official day of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games has seen weather in the French capital continue to disrupt proceedings. 

The first to bite the dust was the men's street skateboarding competition which was due to take place outdoors at the Place de la Concorde in the heart of the city. 

Due to the relentless downpour, the skateboarding was postponed until Monday meaning Yuto Horigome of Japan will have to wait two days to try and defend his skateboarding crown from challengers such as Nyjah Huston of Team USA and France's Aurelien Giraud.

For those competing in beach volleyball, it proved a far cry from past events held in Shiokaze Park during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games or Rio De Janeiro's sunny Copacabana Beach in 2016. 

Instead, the improvised beach volleyball court in an arena logically named the Eiffel Tower Stadium was a sorry sight dogged by rain which brought puddles and forced spectators to huddle under umbrellas.

Despite the rain, neither the beach volleyball nor today's cycling events were called off with many of the athletes competing in the latter falling off on tight corners. A tough day to be competing in the outdoor events.

Spectators during a beach volleyball event at the Eiffel Tower Stadium during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. GETTY IMAGES.

The Chinese swimming doping scandal will inevitably go on

A tenacious feud has rocked the Olympic swimming community since the 23 Chinese swimmers were cleared of wrongdoing after testing positive for the banned substance Trimetazidine in 2021.

When it was announced that 11 of the 23 swimmers were allowed to compete in Paris tensions flared with The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) eventually publishing a 16-page document outlining its “deep concern” and the body's CEO Travis Tygart accusing The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) of speaking “half-truths” and covering up the cases. 

WADA hit back at the "very serious allegations" threatening legal action which prompted a retort from Tygart criticising the move as "threats and scare tactics".

The acrimony showed no signs of subsiding with USADA taking to X on Wednesday to say "WADA is just a sport lapdog and clean athletes have little chance". 

On the same day, US Olympic chiefs called for calm in the relentless doping dispute stressing the International Olympic Committee's ability to strip the USA of its newly awarded 2034 Winter Olympics if the media melee didn't subside.

Swimmer Zhang Yufei, one of the Chinese swimmers in question who won two golds and two silvers in Tokyo, defended the Chinese track record today moving through to the finals in third and speaking out against continued criticism consequently adding another chapter in this neverending doping dispute.

Yufei Zhang of Team People's Republic of China competes in the Women's 100m Butterfly Semifinals on day one of the Olympic Games Paris 2024.  GETTY IMAGES.

Age is just a number

A special shout-out must go to table tennis player Zeng Zhiying who made her Olympic debut at age 58.

Born in China, she represented China as a young player but retired at age 20 and moved to Chile where she has lived for the past 35 years. 

Having not touched a table tennis bat for decades she picked up the sport once again during the Covid-19 pandemic and shot through the ranks to quickly become one of the best female players in South America eventually earning an invite to Paris.

Speaking in Spanish with a Chilean accent Zhang told reporters that despite suffering defeat it was a dream come true to represent her adopted country at the Olympic Games.

Chile's 58-year-old Zhiying Zeng competes in the women's table tennis singles at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. GETTY IMAGES.

So, who's at the top of the medal table at the end of Day One?

At the time of writing, as midnight nears on Day One of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Australia has set the early pace in the medal table.

Three golds and two silvers make up the five medals that put Australia on top followed by the People's Republic of China with two golds and a bronze and then Team USA completing the top three with one gold medal, two silver medals and two bronze medals.

France sits in fourth with one gold, two silvers and one bronze while Great Britain, usually towards the top of the table, is currently down in 12th with one silver and one bronze.

The medal table at the end of Day One at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. OLYMPICS.COM.

Bring on Day Two!