Simone Biles begins her Paris Olympic journey on day two of the Paris Games

The U.S. women’s gymnastics team qualifying rounds are taking place today. As the favorite to win the team gold medal, the U.S. is hoping to qualify in first place as a team and advance two athletes to the all-around final and multiple athletes to the individual finals.

The US team, led by Simone Biles, will compete in Subdivision 2, which begins at 5:40 a.m. ET, early in the morning for US viewers.

Just like yesterday, China won their first gold medal of the day in shooting.

This morning in the men’s 10m air pistol, Xie Yu won the gold medal, with Italy taking silver and bronze.

The water quality of the Seine has become a hot topic in the run-up to the Olympics, with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo even wading in the river herself to prove that it is safe.

But after two days of heavy rain in the French capital, the Seine’s water failed tests, forcing organisers to cancel the triathletes’ familiarisation swim.

“Paris 2024 and World Triathlon reiterate that the health of the athletes remains their number one priority,” organisers said in a statement, but also expressed optimism: “Given the weather forecast for the next 48 hours, Paris 2024 and World Triathlon are confident that water quality will return to within acceptable limits before the start of the triathlon competition.”

But if the Seine does not meet the standards, the triathlon will likely be postponed for a few days to see if the situation improves. If the Seine still does not meet World Triathlon standards, the event will drop the swim and become a duathlon.

The men’s triathlon is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, with the women’s the following day.

After two days of constant rain, blue skies finally spread over Paris as the second day of the Olympics began, with 13 sets of medals due to be handed out on Sunday.

Already this morning, beach volleyball qualifying was continuing in the sunshine and shadow of the Eiffel Tower, and women’s gymnastics qualifying was also underway, with Simone Biles and Team USA scheduled to compete in the second group at 5:40 a.m. ET (11:40 a.m. local time).

Sailing and skateboarding are among the first Olympic events to take place on Sunday, while tonight’s swimming final will feature France’s Leon Marchand, who is hoping to end hosts France’s 12-year gold medal drought, and Gretchen Walsh of the U.S. team, who qualified in the women’s 100-meter butterfly in the fastest time.

You may have seen the unusual ritual of someone slamming a stick into the ground before an Olympic session begins. Why is that?

This is a tradition that originates from classical French theater called “les trois coups,” which means “the three blows” in English.

A carved wooden baton, called the Brigadier, is rapped three times on the ground to grab the audience’s attention before the curtain rises, preparing them for the upcoming show.

The tradition has been carried over into the Olympics, where notable former athletes, officials and volunteers have the honor of taking three strokes before the session begins.Last night at Roland Garros, American tennis star Billie Jean King kicked off the evening tennis session with “Les Trois Couves.”

In gymnastics, only the top two athletes from each country can compete in individual finals, such as the individual all-around final and the artistic gymnastics final.

Longtime Olympic fans may remember the dramatic qualifying rounds at the 2012 London Olympics, when then-world all-around champion Jordyn Wieber lost in the Olympic all-around final, losing points to teammates Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman.

Wieber technically placed fourth but missed out on a spot due to the two-sports-per-country rule, and Biles, Lee and Chiles could all suffer similar heartbreak today.

While no medals are awarded in the qualifying rounds, mistakes made in today’s competition have the power to shatter Olympic dreams.

The top eight teams advance to the women’s team final on Tuesday, while the top eight individual finishers in each event will advance to the event finals. In the individual all-around, the top 24 will advance to the finals.

A single misstep in the preliminaries can eliminate an athlete from the individual all-around, artistic gymnastics and even the team final, so an untimely mistake in this competitive round tends to set off a heartbreaking chain reaction.

Gymnastics judging has changed a lot since the days of Nadia Comaneci and her famous “Perfect 10.” For spectators who don’t follow the sport between Olympics, the current scoring system may seem more confusing than its predecessors.

While a perfect 10 still exists in artistic gymnastics, it is no longer the only standard used to calculate scores. Gymnasts today receive scores in two separate categories for each routine: difficulty and execution. Difficulty scores are unlimited, but execution is scored out of 10.00 points.

The difficulty level and performance scores are combined to arrive at a final number. To maximize their score, gymnasts will perform the most difficult routines possible while minimizing performance deductions.

We’ll take a closer look at how gymnastics is judged and why Simone Biles is so good.

Lauren Scruggs of the United States, who placed 32nd in the women’s foil individual event, will compete against Amita Berthier of Singapore.

Scruggs is one of only two black U.S. fencers to win an individual title, men’s or women’s.

This will be Scruggs’ Olympic debut. She qualified for the Olympics after winning a bronze medal at the 2024 Washington D.C. Grand Prix. The Harvard senior won the 2023 NCAA foil championship and was runner-up at the 2024 foil championship, losing to Harvard teammate Jessica Guo of Canada.

Guo will face Chile’s Arantxa Hinostroza in this round.

Also competing in the foil individual event, in 32nd place, are Americans Lee Kiefer and Jacqueline Dubrovic.