Swimming costume raises eyebrows; China star explodes over doping saga

A mouth-watering 400m women’s freestyle headlines the first full day of sporting action at the Olympics after a soggy but spectacular opening to the Games in Paris.

Fourteen golds are up for grabs, with the first to come in the mixed-team 10m air rifle finals, taking place around 10:30am local time. Chinese shooters Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao will start as favourites for the first gold of the Games.

Tennis, badminton, rowing, cycling, hockey and basketball get under way along with the surfing competition, nearly 16,000km away on the French Pacific island of Tahiti.

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Rugby Sevens is already at the semi-final stage, with hosts France, led by Antoine Dupont, desperate to win gold in front of a packed and passionate Stade de France crowd.

All eyes will be on the Paris 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.

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.

10.20PM — CHINESE STAR RAGES AT DOPING TESTS

Chinese swim star Qin Haiyang has launched into a bitter rant on social media over his team’s doping scandal, accusing rivals of ‘dirty tricks’.

Haiyang is one of 23 swimmers that tested positive for banned substances ahead of these Olympics, but were cleared to compete after Chinese anti-doping officials claimed a team kitchen had been accidentally contaminated.

The Chinese camp has claimed that their swimmers were being tested by anti-doping officials an average of five to seven times each in the first ten days after arriving in Paris.

China’s team nutritionist Yu Liang posted on social media on 15 July that “each athlete has been tested 5-7 times on average”.

He added, in the post that has now been deleted: “The tests come early in the morning before we’re even awake, during midday rest periods, forcing us to rest on hotel lobby sofas, and even late at night, keeping us up past midnight.”

Haiyang, who struggled in his 100m heat on Saturday night to only qualify ninth for the semi-finals, has now launched into a fiery tirade against opposition swimmers.

The 200m world record holder, who is a top medal chance against the likes of Great Britain’s Adam Peaty and Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook, wrote on social media that the increased doping was a ‘trick’ to unbalance the Chinese team.

“This proves that the European and American teams feel threatened by the performances of the Chinese team in recent years,” Qin posted.

“Some tricks aim to disrupt our preparation rhythm and destroy our psychological defence! But we are not afraid.”

Stubblety-Cook has threatened to protest should he and Haiyang both finish on the podium.

8.20PM — SWIMMING COSTUME RAISES EYEBROWS …

8.10PM — CHINA CLAIMS FIRST PARIS GOLD

China took the first gold of the Paris Olympics on Saturday, as the rain that dampened the opening ceremony took its toll on the first full day of sporting action.

In a closely fought final of the mixed-team 10-metre air rifle, teenage duo Sheng Lihao and Huang Yuting outscored Keum Ji-hyeon and Park Ha-jun from South Korea 16-12, Kazakhstan grabbing the bronze.

The rain already claimed one sporting casualty early Saturday as the wet weather which deluged Friday night’s audacious festival on 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 downpours also disrupted play at the opening rounds of tennis at Roland Garros, with no action on the 10 uncovered outside courts until 13:30 local time (1130 GMT), organisers said.

TOP TENNIS STARS IN ACTION

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.

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.

after a dominant victory at last year’s world championships in Baku.

Medals will also be up for grabs early Saturday in the diving pool, with the women’s synchronised 3m springboard final, where 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 32.4km course. The event will start and finish on Paris’s golden Pont Alexandre III and head east to the Bois de Vincennes, sweeping past landmarks such as Notre Dame and the Place de la Bastille.

French rugby fans will flock to the Stade de France to see if 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.

Yuto Horigome of Japan is defending his skateboarding street crown as he aims to fend off challengers including Nyjah Huston of the United States and France’s Aurelien Giraud.

IOC APOLOGISES FOR SOUTH KOREA CEREMONY GAFFE

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has apologised for a gaffe during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics in which South Korean athletes were incorrectly introduced as North Korean.

As the South Korean delegation sailed down the Seine River in the French capital, they were introduced with the official name for North Korea: “Republique populaire democratique de Coree” in French, then “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” in English.

“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.

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.

South Korea’s sports ministry said in a statement it “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”.

Second vice sports minister Jang Mi-ran, a 2008 Olympic weightlifting champion, has asked for a meeting with 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, the statement 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.

North Korea was correctly introduced with the country’s official name. Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, with the North bolstering military ties with Russia while sending thousands of trash-carrying balloons to the South.

In response, Seoul’s military blasts K-pop and anti-regime messages from border loudspeakers and recently resumed live-fire drills on border islands and near the demilitarised zone that divides the Korean peninsula.

— AFP