POOL OF DREAMS
Tunisia's Ahmed Hafnaoui not only stunned swimming superpowers with his gold medal performance in the 400m freestyle - he didn't quite believe the result himself.
Michael Phelps hailed Hafnaoui for his "unbelievable swim," saying the 18-year-old Tunisian's shock victory was a great example of how swimming at the Tokyo Games was likely to have a series of wide open races.
The first world record fell in the pool when Australia won the 4x100 women's freestyle relay Olympic gold for the third time in a row. The quartet of sisters Bronte and Cate Campbell, Meg Harris and Emma McKeon took 0.36 seconds off their previous best.
American Chase Kalisz won his country's first gold in the 400m individual medley with a swim of 4:09.42, leading an American one-two with Jay Litherland collecting silver.
JAPAN UP
It was a golden day for the host nation, which shared the lead with China for the most gold medals at the conclusion of events on Sunday.
Skateboarder Yuto Horigome, who grew up in the Tokyo ward where the event is being held, took gold at the Games debut of a sport once seen as a symbol of counter-culture.
In a nail-biting final, Horigome stumbled through the two initial runs, but regained his signature cool in landing four of the five final tricks, earning 9.50 for a nollie backside 270.
Swimmer Yui Ohashi held on to beat the Americans in the women's 400m individual medley.
Judoka Uta Abe triumphed in the women's 52kg category in Tokyo, hours before her brother Hifumi took gold in the men's 66kg final, making history as the first siblings to win gold medals on the same day.
Tennis player Kei Nishikori upset fifth seed Andrey Rublev 6-3 6-4 on home soil. Naomi Osaka powered through her opening match.
DREAM TEAM DOWN
The US basketball team fell to France 83-76 on Sunday as the Americans suffered their first defeat since 2004 at the Olympics.
The French had upset the US men when they last met in the 2019 FIBA World Cup quarter-finals and they had their number again on the first day of group play at the Saitama Super Arena, powered by a game-high 28 points from Evan Fournier.
MISTAKEN CELEBRATION
When Annemiek Van Vleuten crossed the line with her arms in the air at the Fuji International Speedway, the Dutchwoman thought she had won the women's Olympic road race.
Only a few moments later, however, an emotional Van Vleuten realised she had finished second behind Austrian Anna Keisenhofer by a healthy margin of one minute and 15 seconds.
Unlike the professional world cycling tour events, riders in the Olympic races cannot communicate with their team via radio and it appeared to be the undoing of Van Vleuten and her three teammates, who were not aware that the Austrian was up the road ahead of them.
DEPARTURES
World No. 1 tennis player Ash Barty spun out of the first round with a dismal defeat to 48th ranked Sara Sorribes Tormo.
Andy Murray withdrew with an injury before he started.
Golfing world number one John Rahm and world number six Bryson DeChambeau both tested positive for COVID-19 before their departure for the Games.
VIETNAM’S MEDAL HOPE FADES
Thach Kim Tuan, Vietnam’s medal hope in men’s weightlifting event at Olympic Tokyo 2020, failed to perform at his best in the 61-kg category.
Tuan failed in his first attempt at snatch of 126kg and succeeded at the second attempt. However, when the weight was raised to 130kg, he could not make it, and had to settle at the 8th place with 126kg.
In the clean and jerk lift, Tuan failed the first two attempts of 150kg. In his third attempt, when the weight was increased to 153, his performance was rejected by two judges, leaving him without any points.
Boxer Nguyen Thi Tam was defeated 2-3 by Stoyka Krasteva of Bulgaria in women's fly (48-51kg) Round of 32.
Earlier on the day, Vietnamese athletes were also not successful in their competition in rowing and judo.
Top badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh was defeated 0-2 (13-21 and 13-21) by world no. 3 Anders Antonsen of Denmark in the first group match of badminton’s men’s single.
