Who will win the first gold medal at the 2024 Olympics?

CHATEAUROUX, France (AP) — China has won the first gold medal at the Paris Olympics, but the Chinese athletes were nowhere near Paris.

The Olympic shooting range, a three-hour drive from Paris in the town of Chateauroux, was the venue Saturday morning for Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao to shoot for gold in the mixed team 10m air rifle event.

In the head-to-head match for the gold medal, Huang and Sheng quickly built a four-point lead against South Koreans Keum Jihyeon and Park Hajun. They maintained the lead and won 16-12.

“My main feeling is just happiness. The competition was quite tough, but it helped a lot that I could set a personal record,” said Sheng.

Huang, 17, and Sheng, 19, initially celebrated quietly, unlike their enthusiastic coach, but they smiled and Sheng gave a thumbs-up on the podium as 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 won the gold medal as team air rifle shooting made its debut on the Olympic programme. Yang Qian also won the first gold medal of that Games, in the individual 10-metre air rifle event. She had to receive her medal wearing a mask due to the pandemic restrictions in place at the time.

Earlier on Saturday, Kazakhstan’s Alexandra Le and Satpayev became the first medal winners of the Games, beating Germany’s Anna Janssen and Maximilian Ulbrich 17-5 to take bronze.

“I feel perfect. This was the first (Olympic) competition for me, and I came third, so it’s perfect,” Satpayev said.