PARIS: On the first sunny day of the Olympic Games in Paris, the stars from the USA shone brightly.
Simone Biles and LeBron James shined, as did the U.S. women's soccer team, Torri Huske took the spotlight, and Haley Batten made a name for herself by winning a silver medal in mountain biking for the best finish ever by an American cyclist.
Although it was French swimmer Leon Marchand who received the loudest applause as he beat the field to take gold in the men's 400-meter individual medley, the United States put in a strong performance on Sunday, the second day of the Games.
Simone shines
Three years after withdrawing from several finals at the Tokyo Olympics due to safety concerns, sparking an international discussion about mental health, Biles made her Olympic comeback by competing despite pain in her calf to lead the U.S. gymnastics team to the finals.
Biles, Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the all-around early qualification. However, Chiles will miss the all-around final because of rules limiting countries to two athletes per competition.
Chiles has a chance to make the floor final if she finishes in the top eight. Lee is virtually a surefire candidate for the balance beam and parallel bars finals, and 2020 floor champion Jade Carey has a good chance of joining Biles in the vault final.
But all eyes were on Biles, who briefly terrified a nation when she left the field after her floor routine to receive medical attention. She had pulled her calf during warm-ups, but U.S. coach Cecile Landi said it was a minor injury.
She performed in front of a star-studded audience that included Tom Cruise, Jessica Chastain, Snoop Dogg, Anna Wintour and Lady Gaga, who wrote of Biles on social media: “She did it, what an honor to be so close to her!”
LeBron James leads Team USA
Two of the U.S. men's basketball team's most experienced Olympians, James and Kevin Durant, began their team's attempt at a fifth consecutive gold medal with a nearly flawless performance.
Durant converted his first eight shots and scored 23 points, James contributed 21 points, nine assists and seven rebounds and the USA won clearly 110-84 over Serbia in the two teams' opening Olympic game.
James and Durant combined to make 18 of 22 shots – Durant 8 of 9 and James 9 of 13 – and the USA had no problems with the reigning World Championship silver medalists.
Jrue Holiday scored 15, Devin Booker 12 and Anthony Edwards and Stephen Curry each contributed 11 goals for the Americans.
Pool Party
Huske defeated world record holder Gretchen Walsh in the women's 100-meter butterfly, using a strong finish to get her hands on the wall just ahead of her teammate and earn a 1-2 finish for the United States.
The favorite went into the race with her usual strategy: start fast and try to hang on. That worked at the U.S. Trials, where she set her world record of 55.18 last month, and she was under record pace at the turn.
But in the decisive race, Huske caught up with her. The winner crossed the finish line with a time of 55.59 – about a finger length faster than Walsh's time of 55.63.
When Huske saw the “1” next to her name on the scoreboard, she reached across the track to hug Walsh as she burst into tears.
Marchand, however, lived up to the high expectations at his home Games, with the flag-waving crowd cheering his every stroke. He was off world record pace on the final turn, but eased off a little on the way to the finish, crossing the line in 4 minutes 2.95 seconds – an Olympic record but just under his own world best of 4:02.50.
Marchand set the mark at last year's World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, beating a record held by Michael Phelps for 15 years.
And surprisingly, Italian swimmer Nicolo Martinenghi shocked record holder Adam Peaty in the 100-meter breaststroke.
Peaty, the gold medallist in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo, had taken a long break due to mental health problems. After his return, he worked his way back into form and entered the final as the best qualifier, but had to settle for silver as his quest for a third consecutive gold medal ended.
US soccer wins
Sophia Smith scored two goals to lead the USA to a 4-1 win over Germany, putting the team in a good position to advance from their group at the Olympics.
Mallory Swanson and Lynn Williams also scored for the Americans, who beat Zambia 3-0 in their opening match, but their fate in the knockout rounds will not be certain until the final Group B matches on Wednesday.
At the end of the group phase, the Americans will play against Australia in Marseille.
Mountain bike medals
Batten broke a rule but still achieved the best result in American mountain bike history by winning the silver medal.
Batten was penalized by Olympic mountain bike judges for a rule violation on the final lap of her race, battling for second place when she rode through an alley designated for food and drink pickup and stops for mechanical problems.
After reviewing the footage, judges concluded that Batten had done neither, and thus broken any of the racing rules. She was fined 500 Swiss francs, or about $565, for “failing to comply with the instructions of the race organization or the race stewards,” although judges apparently decided the violation was not serious enough to warrant disqualification.
At the Olympic Games in Tokyo three years ago, Batten finished ninth.
Tennis veterans win
Rafael Nadal was unsure the day before his match whether he would even be able to play in the men's singles on Sunday, but then he competed at Roland Garros and defeated Hungarian Marton Fucsovics in the first round 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.
The victory enabled an exciting showdown with his rival Novak Djokovic.
It will be the 60th meeting between these two greats, more than they have ever played each other in the sport's Open Era that began in 1968. Djokovic, a 37-year-old Serb, leads the head-to-head 30-29, and with his 24 Grand Slam titles he is the only man in tennis history to have won more than Nadal's 22 titles.
Andy Murray's tennis career, meanwhile, was extended by at least one more match as he and British partner Dan Evans fended off five match points in a first-round doubles win. Murray and Evans defeated Japanese pair Taro Daniel and Kei Nishikori 2-6, 7-6 (5), 11-9.
In the decisive tiebreak, which is played instead of a third set in doubles, the British were behind 4:9.
Murray, 37, had announced before the Summer Games that it would be the last tournament of his career and subsequently withdrew from the singles, leaving him only the doubles.
Murray is a three-time Grand Slam winner and the only tennis player with two Olympic gold medals in singles – in London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016.
