Live updates: Tom Daley's side quest, Ant Man's ping pong challenge and more from Day 1 in Paris

By / / Sports / 12 minutes of reading


The Olympics are officially underway after a memorable opening ceremony Friday in Paris.

Saturday’s events will be headlined by gymnastics, swimming, beach volleyball and tennis. Men’s basketball will also begin, though Team USA doesn’t compete until Sunday.

Katie Ledecky’s quest for her 11th Olympic gold medal begins Saturday in the 400m freestyle, where she will compete against Australian rival Ariarne Titmus, the reigning gold medalist. Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal begin their doubles journey at Roland Garros, while Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula will do the same on the women’s side.

Heartbreak in the city of love

Serving as his nation’s flag-bearer at the Opening Ceremony came with a bittersweet trade off for Italian high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi. Tamberi, a gold medalist at the 2020 Tokyo games, took to Instagram to confirm that he lost his wedding ring in the Seine River while carrying Italy’s tricolor.

Tamberi kept positive about the situation, though, writing “May it be a good omen to return home with an even bigger gold!”

Swiatek notches opening-round win

Top-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland is stellar on clay, and she secured an opening-round victory over Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania on Saturday morning to kick off her quest to add a gold medal to her four French Open titles at Roland Garros. Swiatek won the last four games of the match en route to a 6-2, 7-5 victory.

Tom Daley’s wholesome side quest

Tom Daley is in the French capital to defend the Olympic diving title he famously won in Tokyo. First, though, he has a side quest to complete.

Daley produced one of the most wholesome moments of the Tokyo Games when he brought his knitting needles and his yarn to the stands above the diving pool in a bid to take his mind off the competition. The activity helped produce his first Olympic gold medal — at his third attempt — as well as an Instagram page called “Made With Love By Tom Daley” where he has knitted items ranging from a patchwork sweater vest to a knitted bag.

The page has provided a community for other knitters ever since. More recently, though, it revealed Daley’s inspiration for his latest Olympic jumper.

Last week, he posted a video of him sketching the design for his Paris 2024-themed crew neck jumper, as well as him knitting the first stitches. “Watch this space!” he wrote in the caption. He’s made light work of the project.

On Saturday, the first official morning of competition, Daley was spotted in the stands as he knitted the seemingly near-completed jumper, emblazoned with “DALEY” on the back in bold white letters and a red collar.

After that, he can get on with the business-side of his activities here in Paris, as he competes alongside partner Noah Williams in the men’s synchronized 10m platform on Monday. — Connor O’Halloran

Gymnastic qualifying gets underway

How it works: Teams are broken up into three subdivisions on Saturday and the U.S. men competed in the first, alongside Canada, Germany and Great Britain, the team they bumped from the podium at 2023 world championships in Antwerp.

The good: The U.S. finished second in their subdivision behind Great Britain and will likely qualify into team finals in the top five. They also will likely send two athletes to the all-around final: Fred Richard, who won U.S. trials last month, and his University of Michigan teammate, Paul Juda, who had the meet of his life. Richard finished third in the group, Juda finished fourth and the top 24 athletes (with a maximum two per country) make the all-around final.

Juda led the U.S. lineups on five of six events and hit six-for-six. “I knew I was going to be first on at least one event and have been training with that mindset,” Juda said. After each performance, Juda switched roles and became his team’s biggest cheerleader.

Richard anchored three of six events and was solid, but left room for improvement. “We’ve been preaching, ‘Just do average,’ and I think there’s still some crumbs left on the table, absolutely, for everyone, including myself,” Juda said.

The great: Stephen Nedoroscik is in Paris to do one job: hit pommel horse routines. The U.S. started on the event and Nedoroscik delivered the highest-scoring routine of the session on any apparatus, a 15.2, and likely made the event final. [The top eight athletes make event finals.] “As soon as I got down and was giving the guys high-fives, Paul pointed to my arm and said, ‘You have goosebumps.’ The moment was surreal,” Nedoroscik said. “I’m so proud of what I did.

The less-than-great: The U.S. finished more than three points behind Great Britain, a surprisingly large deficit considering the U.S. team’s scoring potential and how close the teams were at worlds. But this was not Team USA’s best day — far from it — and the scores thankfully do not carry over into team finals. Brody Malone, the only returning Olympian from Tokyo, had a rough afternoon. He fell off pommel horse and high bar, his signature event, and will not make the all-around final. He finished 11th in the group and third in the U.S.

“Brody is our leader. He’s calm, collected and is that headstrong person that brings us back to reality,” Richard said. “When I watched him miss today, I wasn’t worried because I know he’s the type of person who learns from his mistakes. He’s going to come back stronger in the team final. I’m not too worried. I believe in all of us, and I think we’re gonna be deadly in two days.” — Alyssa Roenigk

The First Fan

The U.S. men’s gymnastics team had quite the cheering squad during team qualification Saturday afternoon. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden was in the stands, sitting with Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass, South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley and 1984 gymnastics gold medalist Bart Connor. The group was decked out in red, white and blue and cheering loud for Team USA.

“I don’t think about who’s watching as I’m performing,” Stephen Nedoroscik said. “I just lock into what I’m doing. But afterwards, I can appreciate who was there and that’s really cool.

After the meet, as the gymnasts began their interviews in the mixed zone, the U.S. team was whisked away briefly to meet Dr. Biden. “That was pretty sick. I did not expect today that I would meet the First Lady,” Frederick Richard said after the meet-and-greet. “But I’m grateful for the opportunity and I’m glad they were watching. [Dr. Biden] said that she’s very proud of me and was impressed. That means a lot.” — Alyssa Roenigk

Anthony Edwards’ cross-sport confidence

First it was claiming he’d take on any of his teammates in the swimming pool. Now it’s become a challenge in table tennis. Regardless of the sport, nobody can question the self-assurance of Team USA men’s basketball guard Anthony Edwards. From stating he’s still the No. 1 option on a stacked Team USA roster to dunking on Kevin Durant in practice, Edwards has made plenty of headlines already in Paris. But pulling off an upset with a paddle in his hands would be his most noteworthy moment yet.

Team USA battling illness ahead of men’s basketball opener

Team USA boasts a stacked men’s basketball roster, but the squad hasn’t been at full strength as it prepares for its opening game Sunday against Nikola Jokic and Serbia. Both Joel Embiid and Anthony Davis have missed time over the past few days with an undisclosed illness, according to coach Steve Kerr. Kerr says, however, that he’s ‘confident’ the full roster will be ready for Sunday’s game.

Cyclists critique venue

Cycling trials began Saturday, but the results weren’t the only thing from the event that generated buzz. A number of competitors offered criticism of the respective venues for both cycling and mountain biking. Belgian cyclist Remco Evenepoel noted that while the Parisian view was beautiful, stretches of road left something to be desired in terms of quality, while Team Switzerland’s Nino Schurter noted that the man-made nature of the mountain biking paths created a slippery side.

Swimming gets underway

Olympic swimming officially got underway at La Defense Arena with six preliminary events. There was a large — and very spirited — crowd on hand complete with air horns, drums, flags and even an inflatable kangaroo.

Perhaps no event got the fans more fired up than the qualifying heats for the women’s 400m freestyle — and specifically the final heat that featured American Katie Ledecky, the 2016 gold medalist in the race and the Olympic record holder, and her Australian rival Ariarne Titmus, the 2020 champion and current world record holder. Titmus led for most of the race before Ledecky picked up the pace in the final 100 meters and overcame her.

New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather and Canada’s Summer McIntosh — the other two favorites to medal in Saturday night’s final — competed in the second heat and qualified in third and fourth, respectively. Safe to say, this race is already living up to the hype and tonight could be epic. Was Titmus just preserving herself for the final? Will Ledecky be able to find that other gear again when the stakes are highest? We’ll find out soon enough.

In the men’s 400m freestyle, Lukas Maertens of Germany recorded the best qualifying time (3:44.13). Aaron Shackell was the lone American to qualify for Saturday night’s final with the sixth-fastest time of the morning.

The women’s 100m butterfly heats kicked off the action with Yufei Zhang of China notching the fastest time (56.50). Americans Torri Huske (56.72) and Gretchen Walsh (56.75), who earned the world record at trials last month, qualified for the semifinals with the third- and fourth-best times.

Saturday morning closed out with the qualifying races for both the women’s and men’s 4x100m freestyle and both events had the fans on their feet throughout. The American women (which included the resurgent Simone Manuel in the second leg) easily won their heat with a 3:33.29 finish — 2.84 seconds better than second-place Great Britain. However, it was Australia, competing in the second heat, that recorded the best time (3:31.57) ahead of Saturday night’s final, setting up yet another clash between the two countries with a gold medal on the line.

The American men (3:12.61) finished second in their heat behind — you guessed it — Australia and had the fourth-best qualifying time overall. China (3:11.62) recorded the best time of the morning and will be in the coveted fourth lane in the final.

Saturday’s evening session gets underway at 8:30 p.m. local time/2:30 p.m. ET. — D’Arcy Maine

First medals of the Games are confirmed

It didn’t take long for the first Olympic hardware to be awarded. Kazakhstan earned bronze in the mixed air rifle final just after 5 a.m. ET, making it the first team to medal in Paris. In that same event, China and South Korea won the first gold and silver medals of the Games, respectively. Team USA captured its first medal later in the morning when Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook took silver in women’s synchronized 3m springboard.

Top events to watch

  • 5 a.m. ET: Gymnastics — men’s qualification: subdivision 1 floor, parallel bars, pommel horse, rings, vault

  • 5 a.m. ET: Swimming — men’s/women’s 100m breaststroke, men’s/women’s 400m freestyle and men’s/women’s 4x1000m freestyle relay heats

  • 6 a.m. ET: Tennis — women’s singles Round 1

  • 8 a.m. ET: Beach volleyball — Team USA men’s matchup against Cuba

  • 2:30 p.m. ET: Swimming — men’s/women’s 100m breaststroke semifinals plus medal rounds for men’s/women’s 400m freestyle and men’s/women’s 4x100m freestyle relay

A full list of the July 27th schedule can be found here.

Here’s what’s in store for Saturday:

Suboptimal weather

After a rainy opening ceremony, conditions in Paris haven’t improved much entering the Games’ first official day of competition. Saturday’s forecast calls for rain throughout the day, affecting the event schedule. Men’s street skateboarding, deemed too unsafe to compete in during Saturday’s rain, has been pushed back two days to July 29.

New technology

Just how high does Simone Biles fly on her triple-double tumbling pass?

After her performance on the floor at the Olympic trials in Minneapolis last month, “SportsCenter” attempted to find out with a post on Instagram. The graphic measured the top of Biles’ head where it was 12 feet from the ground, providing enough room for 7-foot-4 NBA center Victor Wembanyama to fit beneath her.

There were no measuring devices at the Target Center during trials, so ESPN’s measurement served as an approximation based on a photo.

In Paris, fans will learn exactly how high Biles flies.

Omega, the official timekeeper of the Olympics, is debuting technology across sports that uses cameras with motion, positioning sensors and AI to capture the biomechanical movement of athletes. It will also display precise measurements like height, reaction time and airtime.

“In tennis, we’ll finally be able to see if reaction times have an influence on the quality of returns,” said Alain Zobrist, CEO of Omega Timing.

For sports with a finish line like track and field, Zobrist says upgraded photo-finish cameras will capture 40,000 photos per second and deliver immediate results.

In gymnastics, the tech will be utilized during men’s and women’s competitions for storytelling purposes in live broadcasts and to aid head judges when there are discrepancies. While this technology was not used to create the “SportsCenter” post from trials, that is precisely the type of content Zobrist said can be generated during meets.

The cameras and sensors will be positioned around only the floor exercise and the data that’s generated in real time — such as height and airtime of skills — will be provided to television broadcast crews. More sophisticated data that takes a few seconds to generate — like body positioning throughout a pass — will be provided to head judges, as well as to athletes, their coaches and delegations for training purposes.

Zobrist said the tech has been tested at local and international meets for about four years to ensure judges were comfortable with them before the Paris Games. He also said that while the sensors can detect when an athlete steps out of bounds on a pass, they will not replace humans for this job, for now.

“We are still working strictly according to the rules of the federation and the rules require for judges to be around,” Zobrist says.

However, in the future that could change — for more than just out-of-bounds decisions.

“We are going to see major evolution in the technology for gymnastics in the next couple of years,” he said. “It’s difficult to say when we will be more accurate than humans to spot differences in the performances of athletes, though. It will be interesting to ask me that question again before the Olympics in Los Angeles [in 2028]. I may have a better answer to give you then.” — Alyssa Roenigk





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