China won its first two gold medals of the Paris Olympics on Saturday, continuing its dominance in diving and defending its victory in the 10-meter air rifle mixed team event.
China has dominated diving for decades, winning seven of the eight gold medals in Tokyo three years ago, but it has never won a gold medal sweep. That is the goal this time.
In the women’s synchronized three-metre springboard diving, the team of Zhang Yani and Chen Yiwen got off to a perfect start, winning 337.68 points from five dives, followed by USA’s Sarah Bacon and Cassidy Cook with 314.64 points and Great Britain’s Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew-Jensen for bronze with 302.28 points.
The same Chinese pair had won gold medals in the previous three World Championships and were considered one of the favorites to win.
The crowd, full of Chinese fans and flags, chanted “Jiayou” (which translates to “Go!”) every time a Chinese person came out to dive.
The event was added in 2000 and the Chinese women’s team has won gold six times in seven Olympic Games, with their only loss coming to Russia in 2000. China won in Tokyo three years ago thanks to the efforts of Shi Tingmao and Wang Han.
Starting with China’s first gold medal in diving at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, the country has won 47 of the 64 gold medals in diving, as well as 23 silver and 10 bronze medals.
Earlier, in the 10-meter air rifle mixed team event held at the Olympic Shooting Range in Chateauroux, Hwang Yu-ting and Sheng Li-hao took a four-point lead early on in the gold medal showdown against South Korea’s Keum Ji-hyun and Park Ha-jun, and continued to hold on to win 16-12.
“The biggest feeling is just being happy. The competition was quite tough but it helps a lot that I was able to achieve my personal best result,” the 19-year-old Shen said.
China also won the event in Tokyo three years ago when team air rifle shooting made its Olympic debut, with Yang Qian and Yang Haoran winning gold medals.
Kazakhstan’s Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev won the bronze medal, beating Germany’s Anna Jansen and Maximilian Ulbrich 17-5.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
