Canadian rugby sevens women defeat Fiji to kickstart Paris campaign | CBC Sports

Florence Symonds and Charity Williams scored tries in the first half to lead the Canadian women’s rugby sevens team past Fiji 17-14, opening their Paris 2024 campaign with a victory on Sunday.

Keyara Wardley added another try for Canada in the second half to get Canada to 17 points, which were enough to see out the match. Chole Daniels contributed with one conversion of the three she attempted.

Maria Rokotuisiga posted a try early in the second half for Fiji, with Laisana Likuceva adding another late in the game. Fiji added both conversions, first with Ana Maria Naimasi, then with Reapi Ulunisau.

The Canadian team will get back on the Stade de France pitch at 3.30 p.m. ET to face New Zealand.

Olympics pre-race triathlon event in Seine cancelled over water quality concerns

Concerns over the water quality of the Seine have continued into the Paris 2024 Olympics, with a pre-race triathlon event there cancelled Sunday.

Organizers said they nixed the swimming leg of the triathlon familiarization scheduled for Sunday morning after a meeting about water quality among authorities tasked with carrying out water quality tests. That included representatives of World Triathlon, as well as city and regional authorities.

Swimming in the Seine has been banned for over a century in big part due to poor water quality. Organizers have invested $1.5 billion US to prepare the Seine for these Games, and the government has said the river would be clean enough to hold events, including the swimming portion of the triathlon and the marathon swimming event.

Daily water quality tests in early June indicated unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria, followed by recent improvements. Parisian Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a famous dip in the river less than two weeks before Olympic events were set to start, fulfilling a promise to show that the long-polluted waterway was clean enough to host swimming competitions.

Heavy rain during the opening ceremony revived concerns over whether the long-polluted waterway will be clean enough to host swimming competitions, since water quality is deeply linked with the weather in the French capital.

Since 2015, organizers have invested heavily to prepare the Seine for the Olympics and to ensure Parisians have a cleaner river after the Games. The plan included constructing a giant underground water storage basin in central Paris, renovating sewer infrastructure and upgrading wastewater treatment plants.

Triathleletes have expressed hope that the waters would be clean enough for them to swim in.

“Hopefully we get to swim, bike and run because I don’t swim this much to just run and bike,” American triathlete Taylor Spivey said at a news conference Saturday.

Holmgren 17th in cross-country mountain bike

In her Olympic debut for Canada, Isabella Holmgren earned a top-20 finish against the world’s top cross-country mountain bike athletes in Elancourt, France.

The 19-year-old from Orillia, Ont., posted a time of one hour 33 minutes 43 seconds across 30.8 kilometres for 17th place on a sunny and warm afternoon at Elancourt Hill.

With Hardwood Ski and Bike hosting a watch party in Oro Station, Ont., Holmgren, who sat 21st early on, worked her way as high as 16th before slipping one spot on the seventh and final lap of the 4.4 km course built on a former landfill.

Pauline Ferrand-Prevot of France won gold in 1:26:02, with American Haley Batten (1:28:59) and Sweden’s Jenny Rissveds (1:29:04) rounding out the medal podium.

Holmgren, who began her competitive career at nine, told orilliamatters.com in early July racing at the Olympics has been a lifelong goal.

“It’s pretty cool that it’s happening sooner than I thought it would,” said Holmgren, who finished her Olympic preparation with her Lidl-trek team at a camp in Andorra between France and Spain.

Holmgren clinched an Olympic spot by topping the women’s podium at a recent World Cup race in the Czech Republic.

Orillia’s 2023 athlete of the year was fresh off a pair of gold medals at the Mountain Bike World Cup in Les Gets, France.

Her parents, Lisa and Rob, who is also her coach, were in attendance at Elancourt Hill along with Isabella’s twin sister Ava — also a competitive racer — and brothers Max and Gunnar, the 2023 Pan Am gold medallist who will compete in the men’s cross-country race on Monday at 8:10 a.m. ET.

WATCH | How does mountain biking work at the Olympics?:

How does mountain biking work at the Olympics?

Not sure how mountain biking is set up at the Olympics? This quick explainer will get you up to speed.

South Sudan claims 1st-ever Olympic basketball win

As South Sudan players jogged onto the court on Sunday amid cheers from fans waving the flag of their home nation, Nuni Omot slowed, stopped and pressed his hand to the Paris 2024 logo embossed across the surface.

He and his teammates were officially Olympians. Less than two hours later, they were celebrating their country’s first-ever Olympic win.

Carlik Jones scored 19 points and South Sudan rallied in the second half to beat Puerto Rico 90-79 in the Paris Olympics opener for both teams on Sunday in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France.

“We’re not a secret anymore,” South Sudan coach Royal Ivey said afterward.

It was the culmination of a morning that began with officials playing the wrong national anthem for South Sudan before tipoff. But Omot said it only inspired them to play their best basketball.

“It gave us fuel. It gave us fuel to the fire,” Omot said. “Obviously, we felt disrespected when that happened. … I feel like for us we’ve got to continue to show the world what we’re capable of.”

South Sudan nearly pulled off a stunning exhibition upset of the U.S. leading into the start of the Olympics. It showed that same scrappiness Sunday against a Puerto Rico team it lost to in last year’s World Cup.

Australian cyclist undergoes surgery after fall during Olympic time trial

Australian cyclist Lucas Plapp underwent abdominal surgery overnight at a Paris hospital following a hard crash on rain-slicked roads during the Olympic time trial on Saturday, the Australian team said.

AusCycling, Australia’s cycling governing body, confirmed the procedure early Sunday. No other details were available.

Plapp was among the last riders to start on the 32.4-kilometre course and was laying down a medal-worthy ride at the first time check, trailing then-leader and eventual bronze medallist Wout van Aert by just two seconds. But when Plapp reached a technical portion of the course, his bike slid out from under him and he crashed hard onto the pavement.

The crash was not shown on the race broadcast, but AusCycling said Plapp was conscious and moving afterward. He was lifted into the team vehicle and taken to the hospital for precautionary scans, and later he required the abdominal procedure.

The 23-year-old Plapp, who won bronze at the Tokyo Games as part of the Australian pursuit team, is the reigning national time trial and road race champion. He was supposed to ride alongside Simon Clarke in support of teammate Michael Matthews in the Olympic road race next Saturday.

Remco Evenepoel won the time trial, giving Belgium two riders on the podium, while Filippo Ganna of Italy finished second. But both the women’s and men’s races were marred by a series of crashes on a course made treacherous by the rain.

Among those who fell was American rider Chloe Dygert, the reigning time trial world champion, who remounted her bike and rallied to finish third behind gold medallist Grace Brown of Australia and Anna Henderson of Britain.

“If we were in Britain, these [conditions] would be absolutely perfect. The roads are better to take corners on. When we’re in Spain, France or Italy, I feel like it’s a little more icy,” said Dygert, who still plans to compete in the road race and team pursuit this Olympics. “But for sure it definitely plays a factor into the race itself. And I think it totally changed the ballgame.”