Olympics Briefing: France’s First Hero

For some athletes, Day 1 brought medals. For others, it meant the exit.

View in browser|nytimes.com July 28, 2024 Follow along during the day's action with live coverage from The Athletic. Odd Andersen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images While Andrew Keh continues to dry out from Friday's opening ceremony, Rory Smith fills in after a night at the Stade de France. By Rory Smith Reporting from Seine-Saint-Denis, France The Paris Olympics did not begin with President Emmanuel Macron's inaugural pronouncement. Or Celine Dion's stirring performance beneath the Eiffel Tower. Or even that part of the opening ceremony inspired by what might happen if Papa Smurf and the Roman god Bacchus had produced offspring. Instead — at least as far as the French popular imagination goes — the Olympics truly started the moment that Antoine Dupont ducked and wriggled and weaved through a thicket of Fijians and streamed down the sideline at the Stade de France. Not long after, the host nation had its first gold of its Games, in rugby sevens, and the French had their first Olympic hero. Dupont has been a star in France for some time. He is, by common consensus, the finest rugby player of his generation. What he has done over the course of the past six months, though, will turn him into a bona fide national treasure. The 27-year-old Dupont made his name in rugby union, a form of the sport that involves 15 players in matches that stretch past 80 minutes. He had never played sevens — a faster and more open sport tactically, physically and technically distinct — before he put his rugby union career on hold in January in order to learn it, solely to play in a home Olympics. On Saturday, his choice paid off. Dupont's breathtaking run created a try — kind of like a touchdown, but without any padding — for his teammate Paulin Riva. Dupont then scored two tries of his own, helping France beat Fiji for the gold. In the stands, 80,000 French fans, including Macron himself, exulted at the first truly great moment of these Games. For others, though, Saturday was not so much a start as an end. For dozens of athletes, including all the men's rugby sevens teams, the Games are already over, cursed by the fact that the Olympics are so sprawling and so brief that someone has to go first. Most of the eliminated we spoke to plan to stick around, at least for a while, to watch the spectacle unfold. That seems wise. The flame was ignited on Friday. Now Dupont has set the Games as a whole alight. TODAY'S TOP STORY Chang W. Lee/The New York Times Simone Biles Is Done Being Judged Three years after she dropped out of the Tokyo Games with a mental block, she is back at the Olympics with a defiant attitude — and a sense of where she is in the air. By Juliet Macur What to Watch Day 2 brings with it an unmistakable glimmer of stardust. Fans, at last, will have their first glimpse of several of this year's headliners: Biles gets underway in the women's gymnastics team event, and after that, Serbia's Nikola Jokic is in action in men's basketball. You might recognize one or two of Jokic's opponents, too: One of them, LeBron James, had a cameo role in the 2015 Amy Schumer vehicle "Trainwreck." Later, France plays Canada in women's soccer. If you can't find it on television, try watching it by drone. The Olympics are available on NBC and Peacock in the United States. MORE OLYMPICS COVERAGE First Up and First Out at the Paris Games Athletes spend years preparing for the Olympics. Some are out before lunch on Day 1. Snoop Dogg, NBC's New Voice of the People The network hired the rapper for an expanded role on its broadcasts of the Summer Games in Paris after posting record-low viewership of the Tokyo competition. By Emmanuel Morgan Chinese Swimmer Denies Cheating in First Public Comments on Doping Case Zhang Yufei, one of 23 athletes who tested positive for a banned substance before the last Olympics, said China did not allow doping, and offered a window into the stress the accusations have caused. By Jenny Vrentas Some of our Olympics coverage — including these dispatches — will also be available in Spanish. You can read them here. Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for Olympics Briefing from The New York Times. To stop receiving Olympics Briefing, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018