Summer Olympics 2016: Winners and Losers in Rio on Day 1
The first day of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro went off mostly without a hitch.
The focus, thankfully, was on the athletes and not what's been built up as an unfit setting in Rio.
Virginia Thrasher kicked things off for the Americans with a surprising win in the 10-meter air rifle. She had never medaled before in an international event.
Rugby returned to the Olympics after a 92-year break, and the opening matches were a snooze. The men's cycling road race was anything but, featuring many crashes and a controlled explosion. (Doesn't that sound like an oxymoron?)
In the pool, the Aussies and Hungarian Katinka Hosszu ruled the night. The Americans are yet to win a swimming gold and saw a streak ended. But don't worry, my fellow Americans. Katie Ledecky swims the 400-meter freestyle on Sunday.
The United States ended the first day tied for the lead in the medal count with China and Japan at five apiece. Australia and Hungary lead in golds at two each.
Let's take a look at the rest of the winners and losers from Day 1 in Rio.
Winner: Virginia Thrasher
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It didn't take long for a great American underdog story.
Virginia Thrasher gave the United States its first gold of the Olympics with a win in the 10-meter air rifle.
Thrasher, 19, shot a gun for the first time about five years ago. She had been visiting her grandparents and asked on her family's trip home why she couldn't go hunting with her grandfather. She soon became obsessed with shooting, but becoming one of the best shooters in the world wasn't her vision.
"I didn’t really care much about the Olympics," Thrasher told the Washington Post's Joon Lee. "I knew shooting was an Olympic sport, but I never really thought, ‘Oh, I want to go to the Olympics in shooting.’ I was just shooting because I loved shooting."
The Springfield, Virginia, native was a natural and soon started competing for her high school team. As a freshman at West Virginia this past year, she won the national title in both air rifle and small bore.
But winning at the Olympics? That was a long shot. Her father told Lee after the U.S. trials that the family thought the 2020 Olympics was a more realistic goal.
Thrasher arrived in Rio ranked 23rd in the world in the 10-meter air rifle. She's now a gold medalist and set an Olympic record with a score of 208.0, beating China's Du Li, by a point.
Loser: French Basketball
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France was one team thought to have enough talent to play with the United States, but that hardly looked like the case on Saturday in an 87-66 loss to Australia.
The French have four accomplished NBA players—Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, Nicolas Batum and Rudy Gobert—and came into the Olympics fifth in the world rankings, but the 11th-ranked Boomers looked much more talented and organized.
France's defense, in particular, was disorganized and got back-cut to death. Parker had his moments offensively, but he needed 14 shots to get 18 points.
Not only should France be worried for these Games, but the future of the French program looks bleak. Parker and Diaw are likely playing in their last Olympics, and the team is built around them. Both Batum and Gobert were almost invisible against Australia.
Frank Ntilikina, an 18-year-old French point guard expected to be a lottery pick next summer, could become the country's next star, but he's far from proven.
The good news is the schedule gets easier for France from here with China, Serbia and Venezuela up next leading to next Sunday's game against the U.S.
Winner: Vietnam
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Entering these Games, Vietnam had never won a gold medal. That's no longer the case.
Xuan Vinh Hoang won the 10-meter air pistol to give his country its first gold.
It was only Vietnam's third medal of any kind since the reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1976.
Hoang took the lead on his second-to-last shot over Brazilian Felipe Almeida Wu, who entered the Olympics as the sport's top-ranked shooter and ended up taking silver.
"I think this is a huge achievement, not just for me, but for my whole country, for all the Vietnamese people," Hoang said (via International Shooting World). "I would like to exploit this result to start teaching shooting sport to the younger generations in Vietnam."
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Loser: Women's Rugby
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Rugby returned to the Olympics for the first time since 1924, but the first day of matches on the women's side was a bore.
The winners outscored the losers 448-29 in 12 games with seven shutouts.
The only close game all day was Fiji's 12-7 upset win over the United States. This was a disappointment for the Americans, who entered the Games ranked seventh in the world. Fiji came in ranked 32nd. The U.S. bounced back with a 48-0 win over Colombia later in the day.
New Zealand is the favorite on both the men's and women's side, and the New Zealand women did not disappoint. They opened with a 52-0 win over Kenya and then had the most impressive victory of the day, knocking off ninth-ranked Spain 31-5.
Winner: Refugee Swimmer Yusra Mardini
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Refugee swimmer Yusra Mardini fled war-torn Syria a year ago and made her Olympic debut Saturday.
Mardini won her 100-meter butterfly heat in one of the more heartwarming moments of the first day. Her time (1:09.21) was not fast enough to qualify for the semifinal, but you cannot beat her story.
Mardini and her sister left Syria in August 2015 on an amazing journey the New York Times documented this past week.
While on the water trying to reach the Greek island of Lesbos, their dinghy broke down, and Mardini and her sister Sarah jumped in the water to try to help guide the boat to safety.
"Everyone was praying," Mardini told the Times. "We were calling the Turkish police, the Greek police, saying: 'Please, please help us. We have children! We are drowning! And they just kept saying: 'Turn and go back. Turn and go back."
The sisters didn't turn back. They swam for three-and-a-half hours to get to shore. Mardini has been training in Germany and found out in June she would be on the refugee team at the Olympics. She still has the 100-meter freestyle to swim on Wednesday. She's not expected to qualify in that event either. But she'll leave Rio with at least one victory having simply made it there.
Loser: American Tennis
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United States men's tennis is not looking promising at the Olympics.
American Jack Sock, who ranks 25th in the world, lost his first match in Rio to 118th-ranked Taro Daniel of Japan, 6-4, 6-4.
The result is not that surprising considering Sock arrived in Rio with walking pneumonia.
“I tried to come down, I wanted the experience, wanted to be part of the Olympics, and obviously went out there and did the best I could,” Sock said, per Yahoo Sports. “Obviously there will be a lot of people who thought that it didn’t look great. But I did what I could. It was tough for me to breathe at times.”
Sock will also compete in men's doubles with Steve Johnson, who is the top-ranked American competing, with John Isner choosing to skip the Games. The pressure is on Johnson to perform well in singles. It's hard to envision he and Sock have much of a chance in doubles unless Sock recovers quickly, though.
Winner: Hungary's Iron Lady
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The only race in the women's 400-meter individual medley was between Hungary's Katinka Hosszu and that yellow world-record line on NBC's telecast.
Actually, that wasn't even a race.
Hosszu's time of 4:26.36 was more than two seconds ahead of China's Ye Shiwen's (4:28.43) set in London four years ago.
"That is a crazy record that we never thought would fall, and she crushed it," American Maya DiRado, who won silver, told NBC Sports' Michele Tafoya.
This was one heck of a redemption swim for Hosszu, who was disappointed with a fourth-place finish in the event in London four years ago. That was her best finish in three Olympics.
That made Saturday's historic win even more satisfying.
"I haven't really been able to process all of what happened," Hosszu told Tafoya.
No worries. Her fist-pumping husband conveyed the significance. No one enjoyed Hosszu's swim more than Shane Tusup, who is sure to be a meme star by the end of these Olympics.
The Iron Lady—that's what Hosszu calls herself, deservedly so—is expected to crush it in the 200-meter medley on Tuesday as well. We look forward to watching Tusup celebrate.
Loser: Rio's Cycling Road Course
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The men's road race in Rio on Saturday was cycling's version of the Daytona 500. Crashes and mechanical problems ruled the day.
Sergio Henao, Rafal Majka and Olympic favorite Vincenzo Nibali broke away from the field down the stretch, and then the course swallowed up Nibali and Henao, who crashed on the final descent.
Majka held on to win bronze, and Belgian Greg van Avermaet chased him down to win gold.
But the story of the day was crashes and a controlled explosion of a suspicious package that was found near the finish during the race.
The course included dangerous turns and a one-mile stretch of cobblestone that produced a fair share of flat tires and chains falling off.
"I'm surprised someone signed off on a course this hard," New Zealand's George Bennett told the Associated Press a day before the race (via NBCOlympics.com). "It's hectic, it's dangerous. There are slippery roads, patches of oil, difficult corners. It could send you home early. But it's the kind of racing I like. I like the chaos."
Chaos certainly ensued. Bennett—in case you're wondering—survived. He finished 33rd.
Winner: Australian Swimming
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The Aussies had the most dominant night in the pool on Day 1.
Australia won two gold medals, doubling the number of golds in swimming from four years ago for a country that has historically been strong in the pool.
Mack Horton got it started in the 400-meter freestyle with a gold-medal swim to beat his rival, Sun Yang, the Chinese swimmer who won gold in London.
Horton became the first Australian male to win gold since Grant Hackett won the 1,500-meter freestyle at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Ian Thorpe also won the 400 free that year.
As expected, the Australian women won the 400-meter freestyle relay and set a new world record in the process. The United States had the lead until the third leg when Bronte Campbell took the lead and handed it off to her sister Cate Campbell, who held off American Katie Ledecky to win gold.
Loser: The U.S. Streak in the 400 IM
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The United States' gold-medal streak in the 400-meter medley is over.
The Americans had won the event in five straight Olympics, and Japan's Kosuke Hagino ended that run by edging American Chase Kalisz to win gold.
This is the beginning of a new era in swimming, as the event has belonged to Ryan Lochte (2012 winner) and Michael Phelps (2004 and 2008 winner). Lochte failed to qualify in the 400 IM at the U.S. trials, and Phelps chose not to enter.
The event should now belong to Hagino, 21, and Kalisz, 22, in years to come.
"I'm not (disappointed)," Kalisz told NBC Sports' Michele Tafoya after the race. "I think the time is great. The only thing is that's an American event. That's our deepest-rooted history. I want to continue that history, and I know I've got another four years. That's my goal now."
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