PARIS, France — China has won the first gold medal of the Paris Olympics, but its athletes were nowhere near Paris.
The Olympic shooting range, a three-hour drive from Paris in the city of Chateauroux, was the venue for Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao to shoot for gold in the 10-meter air rifle mixed team event held Saturday morning.
Huang and Sheng opened up an early four-point lead against South Korea’s Keum Jihyeon and Park Hajun in the head-to-head for the gold medal and stayed ahead from there to win 16-12.
“My main feeling is just happiness. The match was quite hard, but being able to do a personal best performance helped a lot," Sheng said.
The 17-year-old Huang and 19-year-old Sheng's celebrations were initially subdued — in contrast to their animated coach — but they smiled and Sheng gave a thumbs-up sign on the podium when bronze medalist Islam Satpayev took a selfie with his fellow medalists.
China also won the event three years ago in Tokyo, when Yang Qian and Yang Haoran took the gold medal as team air rifle shooting made its debut on the Olympic program. Yang Qian also won the first gold medal of those Games, which was in the individual 10-meter air rifle event. She had to receive her medal in a mask because of the pandemic restrictions in place at the time.
Earlier Saturday, Kazakhstan’s Alexandra Le and Satpayev became the first medalists of the games when they beat Germany’s Anna Janssen and Maximilian Ulbrich 17-5 for the bronze.
“I’m feeling perfect. This was the first (Olympic) competition for me, and I got third place, so it’s perfect," Satpayev said.
It didn't take long for China to win another gold on the first full day of competition in the Paris Olympics. The team of Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen won gold in the women's synchronized 3-meter springboard shortly after the air rifle competition wrapped up. Americans Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook picked up Team USA's first medal of the Olympics by winning silver in that event. The duo finished with a score of 314.64 points on five dives. Great Britain's Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen won the bronze medal with a score of 302.28 points.
