The United States men's 4x100-meter freestyle relay team celebrate on the podium after winning the gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

South Korea's Oh Sanguk celebrates after winning the men's individual Sabre final match against Tunisia's Fares Ferjani during the 2024 Summer Olympics at the Grand Palais, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

A light show at Eiffel Tower Stadium dazzles spectators prior to a beach volleyball match between The United States and Canada at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Antoine Dupont of France kisses his gold medal as he celebrates after France won the men's Rugby Sevens gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics, in the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis, France, Saturday, July 27, 2024. France defeated Fiji in the gold medal match 28-7. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

Spectators photograph a colorful sunset at Eiffel Tower Stadium prior to a beach volleyball match between The United States and Canada at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

A Paraguayan supporter reacts during the men's group D match between Israel and Paraguay at the Parc des Princes during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Italy's Salvatore Cavallaro hits Turkey's Kaan Aykutsun in their men's 80 kg preliminary boxing match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Ludovico Blu Art Viberti, of Italy, competes in a men's 100-meter breaststroke swim-off against Melvin Imoudu, of Germany at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Melvin Imoudu, of Germany, foreground, and Ludovico Blu Art Viberti, of Italy, before competing in the men's 100-meter breaststroke semifinal swim off at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

The United States women's 4x100-meter freestyle relay team pose with their silver medals at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Nanterre, France (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

From left, United States' players Matthew Anderson, Maxwell Holt, and Aaron Russell, block a ball by Facundo Conte, of Argentina, during the group C volleyball match between the United States and Argentina at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Supporters react as they watch the 4x100-meter relay finals at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Supporters of the Unites States react as they watch the men's 4x100-meters freestyle relay team receive their gold medals at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Andy Criere, of Spain, surfs during the first round of the 2024 Summer Olympics surfing competition Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Teahupo'o, Tahiti. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

United States' Vinson Chiu, right, and Joshua Yuan play against Denmark's Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussenduring their men's doubles badminton group stage match at Porte de la Chapelle Arena during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

United States' Sophia Gladieux, center, attempts to hit the ball during the women's field hockey match between the Argentina and United States, at the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Colombes, France. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Iran's Neda Shahsavari plays against France's Prithika Pavade during a women's singles round of 64 table tennis game at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Trey Lyles, of Canada, and Dinos Mitoglou, of Greece, get tangled up in a men's basketball game at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024 in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Ariarne Titmus, of Australia, left, celebrates after winning the women's 400-meter freestyle final as Katie Ledecky, of the United States, reacts at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Ariarne Titmus, right, of Australia, and Katie Ledecky, of the United States, react ahead of the women's 400-meter freestyle final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

China's Chen Yiwen and Chang Yani compete in the women's synchronised 3m springboard diving final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Sharon Kantor of Israel foils during the women's iQFOiL windsurfing class practice for the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Marseille, France. Competition in sailing begins on Sunday. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Britain's Ben Lane, left, and Sean Vendy play against Malaysia's Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik during their men's doubles badminton group stage match at Porte de la Chapelle Arena during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Aaron Grandidier Nkanang of France celebrates after the end of the during the men's semifinal Rugby Sevens match between South Africa and France at the 2024 Summer Olympics, in the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis, France, Saturday, July 27, 2024. France won the game 19-5 and advance to the gold medal match. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Asher Hong of the United States performs on the vault during a men's artistic gymnastics qualification round at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Spectators from Metz, France, wear hats decorated in the colors of the French flag as they watch the men's cycling time trial event at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Thailand's Jutamas Jitpong, left, exchanges punches with Serbia's Sara Cirkovic in their women's 54 kg preliminary boxing match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Akoko Komlanvi, of Togo, competes during the women's rowing single sculls heat at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Vaires-sur-Marne, France. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

China's Lihao Sheng shoots during the men's 10m air rifle pre-event training at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Chateauroux, France. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

The women's 49erFX skiff class fleet races during practice during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Marseille, France. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

South Korea's Kim Yeji receives a blast of air from a portable fan during the 10m air pistol women's qualification round at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Chateauroux, France. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Loran de Munck, of Netherlands, competes on the parallel bars during a men's artistic gymnastics qualification round at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Uzbekistan fans chant in the stands before the men's group C match between Uzbekistan and Egypt, at La Beaujoire Stadium, during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Nantes, France. (AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez)

Chloe Dygert, of United States, gets ready to start the women's cycling time trial event, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Brazil's Carlos Parros and his horse Safira during the Equestrian Eventing Dressage competition, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Versailles, France. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

Sideris Tasiadis of Germany competes in the men's canoe single heats during the canoe slalom at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Vaires-sur-Marne, France. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Fiji's Selesitino Ravutaumada goes over the line to score a try during the men's semifinal Rugby Sevens match between Fiji and Australia at the 2024 Summer Olympics, in the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis, France, Saturday, July 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Juliette Labous, of France, is seen through a spectator's umbrella while competing in the women's cycling time trial event, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Swimmers compete during a heat in the men's 100-meter breaststroke at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Spain's Laura Martinez Abelenda, left, and Kazakhstan's Abiba Abuzhakynova compete during their women's -48 kg quarterfinal match in team judo competition at Champ-de-Mars Arena during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Haiyang Qin, of China, competes during a heat in the men's 100-meter breaststroke at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Poland's Renata Knapik Miazga, left, and France's Coraline Vitalis compete in the women's individual Epee round of 32 competition during the 2024 Summer Olympics at the Grand Palais, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Carlos Alcaraz, left, talk with Rafael Nadal from the Spanish team during the men's doubles tennis competition against Andres Molteni and Maximo Gonzalez from the Argentina team, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

PARIS — Australia took the lead in its swimming showdown against the United States at the Paris Olympics by claiming two of three gold medals on the first full day of competition.

Ariarne Titmus turned one of the most anticipated races of the Games into a blowout when she left Katie Ledecky in her wake at La Defense Arena. Titmus led from start to finish in the 400-meter freestyle Saturday night.

The Australian star known as “The Terminator” handed Ledecky a second straight Olympic defeat in an event the American won at Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

Titmus faced her stiffest challenge from 17-year-old Canadian phenom Summer McIntosh, but she won comfortably as McIntosh claimed the silver. Ledecky settled for bronze.

Titmus swept the 200 and 400 free in Tokyo, and she is going for the same double in Paris. Ledecky is going for a double in the 800 and 1,500.

Australia then made it 2 for 2 against the Americans in the women’s 4x100 freestyle relay, claiming its fourth straight Olympic title in that event.

The quartet of Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Emma McKeon and Meg Harris set an Olympic record with a winning time of 3 minutes, 28.92 seconds.

The Americans — Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh, Torri Huske and Simone Manuel — rallied to take silver. China took bronze.

The U.S. finally got its first gold in the men’s 4x100 freestyle relay. The Americans were anchored by Caeleb Dressel, who won the eighth gold medal of his career.

Australia took the silver.

CHINA TAKES FIRST GOLD OF GAMES

The when Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao beat South Korea’s Keum Jihyeon and Park Hajun in the final of the 10-meter air rifle mixed team event Saturday morning.

Shortly before that, Kazakhstan’s Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev became the first medalists of the games when they beat Germany’s Anna Janssen and Maximilian Ulbrich 17-5 for the bronze.

WEMBY’S DEBUT

Victor Wembanyama did not disappoint in his Olympic debut as the NBA Rookie of the Year had 19 points, nine rebounds, four steals and three blocked shots for host France in a 78-66 win over Brazil.

The game was played in front of a sold-out crowd in support of last year’s top pick in the NBA draft.

Wembanyama and the French team skipped the opening ceremony in Paris on Friday night to rest for their Saturday game in Lille, which is about an hour from Paris by train.

FRANCE’S FIRST MEDALS

Luka Mkheidze and Shirine Boukli won France’s first two medals of the Olympics when Mkheidze claimed silver and Boukli earned bronze in judo.

Mkheidze lost 1-0 to Yeldos Smetov of Kazakhstan in the final of the men’s 60-kilogram division — a disappointing result for the raucous crowd at Champ-de-Mars Arena. About 30 minutes before Mkheidze’s loss, Boukli claimed France’s first medal of its home Olympics with a victory over Spain’s Laura Martinez in a bronze-medal match.

Paris will have plenty of chances to cheer on its vaunted judo team, which has a competitor in all 14 weight classes in these Olympics. France is one of the world’s top judo nations.

CANADA SOCCER SCANDAL

FIFA deducted six points from Canada in the Olympics women’s soccer tournament and banned three coaches for one year each for a drone spying scandal.

Two assistant coaches were caught using drones to spy on New Zealand’s practices before their opening game last Wednesday. Head coach Bev Priestman, who led Canada to the Olympic title in Tokyo in 2021, already was suspended by the national soccer federation and then removed from the Olympic tournament. She is now banned from all soccer for one year.

FIFA fast-tracked its own disciplinary process by asking its appeals judges to handle the case.

TENNIS CONTROVERSY

Novak Djokovic was perplexed by the Olympics rules after his 6-0, 6-1 rout in less than an hour against an overmatched Matthew Ebden, a 36-year-old doubles player from Australia who hadn’t competed in a tour-level, main-draw singles match since June 2022.

Djokovic felt other singles players deserved a spot at the Olympics instead of Ebden.

Ebden was in Paris to compete in men’s doubles, where he’s been as high as No. 1 and currently is No. 3 and has won two major championships. That made him available for the singles competition when 16th-ranked Holger Rune of Denmark pulled out because of a wrist injury.

Ebden was not the first doubles player asked to fill in, but he was the first to say yes. He hadn’t even practiced singles in about two years until playing a tiebreaker in training on Friday.

In other tennis action, Rafael Nadal is not sure whether saying after he paired with Carlos Alcaraz to win their first-round doubles match Saturday night that he wants to “make the smartest decision possible to have the best chances to bring (a) medal back home.”

Nadal’s first match in singles, against Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics, is scheduled for Sunday.

Also, Angelique Kerber eliminated Naomi Osaka 7-5, 6-3 in the first round in a matchup between former No. 1-ranked players with multiple Grand Slam titles.

RAIN DISRUPTIONS

Rain continued from the opening ceremony through the first full day of competition and caused several postponements and delays at the Paris Olympics.

Men’s street skateboarding was supposed to start Saturday but was pushed to Monday because of the showers. The start of play in the scheduled tennis matches on the 10 smaller courts at Roland Garros was delayed because of rain, but action started as scheduled in the two main stadiums that have retractable roofs.

The rain could threaten the water quality for swimming in the Seine when the triathlon begins Tuesday with the men’s event at the Alexander III bridge next to Grand Palais.

10-TIME OLYMPIAN

Georgian shooter Nino Salukvadze made history as the first woman to compete at 10 in a career which began representing the Soviet Union. She has competed at every Summer Olympics since 1988, when she won gold as a 19-year-old Soviet prodigy.

She set her latest record when she stepped into the shooting range for qualification in the women’s 10-meter air pistol. Salukvadze placed 38th and didn’t advance to Sunday’s eight-shooter final. She gets another shot at a medal Friday in qualification for the 25-meter pistol event.

In a career spanning five decades, the 55-year-old has competed on three different Olympic teams: the Soviet Union in 1988, then the Unified Team which was organized for ex-Soviet athletes in Barcelona in 1992 after the Soviet Union collapsed.

She has represented her home country of Georgia following its independence for the last eight Olympics.

CHINA’S DIVING QUEST

China has ruled diving for decades and came to Paris seeking to sweep all eight gold medals. The nation got off to a perfect start Saturday when the team of Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen won gold in the women’s synchronized 3-meter springboard with 337.68 points on five dives.

Three years ago in Tokyo, China won seven of eight gold medals. It has never pulled off the elusive gold sweep.

HUNGARIAN FENCER LOSES

An era-defining streak in Olympic fencing was snapped by an upset when Hungarian fencer Aron Szilagyi lost his opening bout while chasing a fourth consecutive gold medal.

Szilagyi won gold medals in men’s individual saber in 2012, 2016 and 2021 and was trying to become the only fencer in history to win a fourth.

Instead, the streak ended in Szilagyi’s first bout of the Paris Games as he was beaten 15-8 by the 27th-seeded Canadian Fares Arfa in one of the biggest upsets so far at the 2024 Olympics.

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