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The Tokyo Summer Olympics officially got underway on Friday with the opening ceremony. While several sporting events began earlier in the week—including softball and soccer—the first full day of competition followed the ceremony.
We’ve reached the end of the first full day of competition, with most of the events coming in the early morning for those in the Western audience—it’s a good time to remind fans that Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone.
Day 1 featured several notable events, including beach volleyball, 3-on-3 basketball, boxing, gymnastics, rowing and soccer. It also featured medal events for weightlifting, Taekwondo, Judo, shooting, fencing, archery and cycling.
In all, 11 gold medals have been awarded. The medal-count leaders after Day 1 are as follows:
Tokyo Olympics Medal Count, Day 1
China: 3 Gold, 1 Bronze, 4 Total
Italy: 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 2 Total
Japan: 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 2 Total
Republic of Korea: 1 Gold, 2 Bronze, 3 Total
Ecuador: 1 Gold, 1 Total
Hungary: 1 Gold, 1 Total
Islamic Republic of Iran: 1 Gold, 1 Total
Kosovo: 1 Gold, 1 Total
Thailand: 1 Gold, 1 Total
Russian Olympic Committee: 1 Silver, 1 Bronze, 2 Total
Serbia: 1 Silver, 1 Bronze, 2 Total
*Full results and medal standings can be found at Olympics.com
Day 1 Recap and Highlights
Day 1 saw China take an early lead in the medal count, with the county winning gold in women’s air rifle, women’s 49Kg weightlifting and women’s epee individual fencing. No other country has yet to win multiple gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics.
However, Ecuador did make a bit of history when Richard Carapaz won the men’s road race in cycling. It marked the second-ever gold medal and third medal overall for Ecuador.
“This has been an almost crazy day today, and I just waited for the good moment, the right moment,” Carapaz said, per the Associated Press. “My country, they’re over the moon right now. It’s a very special moment for us.”
Carapaz outlasted some of the biggest names in the sport, including defending Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet of Belgium and 2018 Tour de France-winner Geraint Thomas of Great Britain.
Thomas sustained an early crash with teammate Tao Geoghegan Hart and eventually pulled out of the event:
Host country Japan won its first gold of the games when Naohisa Takato took the men’s 60kg Judo competition. He defeated Taiwan’s Yang Yung-wei in the final match to notch an emotional victory for his home country.
“This is heavy. It makes me feel like dreaming,” Takato said, per Tetsushi Kajimoto of Reuters.
Judo is a sport that originated in Japan more than 100 years ago. Japan’s Funa Tonaki took silver in the women’s 48kg Judo event. Kosovo’s Distria Krasniqi took gold.
The Republic of Korea has only notched one gold-medal win—in mixed-team archery—it ranks second in the overall count with three total medals. Korea’s Jun Jang took bronze in men’s 58 kg Taekwondo, while Jungkwan Kim took bronze in men’s sabre fencing.
While the United States has yet to medal at the Tokyo Olympics, the U.S. Women’s soccer team did find a bit of redemption on Saturday. After falling 0-3 to Sweden early in the week, the women’s national team bounced back with a 6-1 victory over New Zealand. It was a confidence-building win for the Americans.
“We know we don’t go from being a really great team two days ago to not being a great team anymore,” defender Crystal Dunn said, per Adam Kilgore and Thomas Floyd of the Washington Post. “I think we just came in a little more relaxed, trusting each other.”
The U.S. women’s team will face Australia on Tuesday.
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