A look at five things to know from Monday at the 2024 Paris Olympics

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This article was published 29/07/2024 (410 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PARIS – From Canada’s first-ever judo gold medal to a surprise bronze in men’s 10-metre synchro diving, here are five things to know from Monday at the 2024 Paris Games:

WAZA GOLDEN MOMENT

It took 28-year-old Canadian Christa Deguchi a few seconds to catch her breath, regroup and comprehend her golden feat. After knocking off crowd favourite Sarah-Leonie Cysique of France in the semifinals, Deguchi then defeated world No. 3 Huh Mimi of South Korea in a close final that required four minutes of extra time to capture Canada’s first-ever judo gold — and the country’s first gold of the Paris Games. Deguchi became the first Canadian to ever win a world judo title in 2019, a feat she repeated in 2023. Earlier this year she won a silver at the IJF World Championships — losing in the final to Huh.

SUMMER MAGIC CONTINUES

Swimmer Summer McIntosh of Toronto struck gold about an hour after Deguchi, winning the women’s 400-metre individual medley. The 17-year-old became the first Canadian woman to win gold in the race that combines butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. She clocked in at four minutes 27.71 seconds and touched the wall two body lengths ahead of silver medallist Katie Grimes of the United States. McIntosh had already won a silver in 400-metre freestyle on opening night at the pool.

A FIRST FOR MEN’S DIVING

Divers Rylan Wiens of Saskatoon and Nathan Zsombor-Murray of Pointe-Claire, Que., captured Canada’s first-ever medal in the men’s 10-metre platform synchronized final when they took bronze with 422.13 points, finishing behind China (490.35) and Britain (463.44). It is also the first Canadian men’s diving medal since Alexandre Despatie’s silver in 3m springboard 16 years ago in Beijing. Wiens and Zsombor-Murray clinched their podium spot by scoring 79.68 points on their sixth and final dive.

THUMPING DUE TO TURNOVERS

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Canada’s women’s basketball team looked good for the first quarter, then host France took over en route to a 75-54 victory in the Olympic opener for both squads. After building an 18-15 lead, Canada then suffered a rash of turnovers, missed shots and defensive lapses as France went on a 22-0 run. France recorded 19 points off of Canada’s 25 turnovers. Canada didn’t look like the world’s fifth-ranked team, and France used the extra-charged home-crowd advantage to play better than its No. 7 ranking. Canada will have a chance to rebound on Thursday when it faces Australia, which lost 75-62 to Nigeria earlier in the day.

MIXED RESULTS IN TENNIS

Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa and Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., bounced Clara Burel and Varvara Gracheva of France in women’s doubles, but Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal and Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., lost in men’s doubles to third seeds Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul of the United States. Fernandez also became the first Canadian woman to ever reach the Round of 16 singles at the Olympics when she defeated Cristina Busca of Spain in straight sets. Bianca Andreescu Mississauga, Ont., battling a nagging thumb injury, was beaten by Wimbledon semifinalist Donna Vekic of Croatia, and Raonic lost in three sets to Dominik Koepfer of Germany.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 29, 2024.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version of this story had the wrong hometown for Rylan Wiens.