Swimming
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Michael Phelps won his first Olympic gold
medal and broke his own world record in the 400-meter individual
medley Saturday, an impressive start to his quest to eclipse Mark
Spitz's 1972 record of seven gold medals.
   Phelps won with a time of 4 minutes, 8.26 seconds, breaking the
record of 4:08.41 that he set last month at the U.S. Olympic
trials.
   Elsewhere, Ian Thorpe of Australia won a gold medal in the
400-meter freestyle.
   Jenny Thompson lost out on a record-tying ninth Olympic gold
medal, giving up the lead on the final lap as Australia won the
women's 400-meter freestyle relay with a world record of 3:35.94.
   Thompson still managed to tie the record for most career
swimming medals. She now has 11, equaling the mark already shared
by Spitz, Matt Biondi and Carl Osburn.
   Yana Klochkova of Ukraine won her second straight women's
400-meter individual medley.
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Shooting
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Li Du of China won the Summer Games' first
gold medal Saturday, setting an Olympic record in the women's
10-meter air rifle.
   Li scored 10.6 on her final shot, surpassing Lioubov Galkina of
Russia. Galkina had led throughout the round, but got only 9.7 on
her final shot -- her lowest mark. Katerina Kurkova from the Czech
Republic won the bronze.
   Li's overall score of 502 points set an Olympic record. Galkina,
who set an Olympic record in the qualifying round, finished at
501.5 points.
   Wang Yifu got China's second gold medal, winning the men's
10-meter air pistol on the final shot. Russians Mikhail Nestruev
and Vladimir Isakov took the silver and bronze.
   Wang finished with an Olympic-record 690 points. Nestruev's
689.8 was the second-highest total in the games' history.
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Women's Basketball
Australia 85, Nigeria 73
China 71, South Korea 54
United States 99, New Zealand 47
Brazil 128, Japan 62
Russia 69, Greece 62
Spain 80, Czech Republic 78, OT
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- The U.S. women's basketball team routed
New Zealand in its Olympic opener. Five Americans scored in double
figures, turning it on after a slow start.
   Favored to win its third straight gold medal, the United States
extended its Olympic winning streak to 18. Swin Cash, playing her
first game in the Olympics, led with 19 points. Angela Marino led
New Zealand with 13 points.
   The U.S. team won without starting guard Katie Smith, who was
sidelined by a bruised right knee. She hasn't practiced since the
WNBA season ended July 31 and it's uncertain when she'll play.
   Brazil set the women's Olympic basketball record for points and
tied the mark for margin of victory with its 128-62 win over Japan.
Alessandra Oliveira had 25 points and 13 rebounds to lead Brazil in
its opening game.
   The record for points was held by Japan, which beat Canada
121-89 in 1976. The other 66-point win was the Soviet Union's
119-53 victory over Italy in 1980.
   Lauren Jackson, the WNBA's MVP last season with Seattle, scored
27 points to lead Australia, which won the silver medal in 2000.
Chen Nan scored 17 points for China. Russia topped the host country
behind 16 points from WNBA player Elena Baranova. Spain hit a late
3-pointer to send its game against the Czach Republic into
overtime, and went on to win in the extra session.
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Field Hockey
Netherlands 6, South Africa 2
China 3, Japan 0
Germany 2, Australia 1
Argentina 4, Spain 0
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Two-time defending gold medalist Australia
was upset by Germany 2-1 on the first day of women's field hockey
pool play.
   Nadine Ernsting Krienke and Silke Mueller scored in the first
half for Germany, while Julie Towers scored in the second half for
Australia.
   Argentina, among the favorites to win the gold medal, beat Spain
with goals from four different players.
   Netherlands opened with an easy win over South Africa. Mijntje
Donners scored three goals for the Dutch, who are ranked third in
the world and are hoping to improve on their bronze medal from
Sydney four years ago.
   Ageeth Boomgaardt, Fatima Moreira de Melo and Maartje Scheepstra
also scored for the Netherlands, while South Africa got both of its
goals from Jenny Wilson.
   China got goals from Baorong Fu, Chunling Tang and Qunqing Chen
in its shutout of Japan.
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Handball
Spain 31, South Korea 30
Hungary 33, Egypt 28
Russia 28, Slovenia 25
Germany 28, Greece 18
Croatia 34, Iceland 30
France 31, Brazil 17
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Juan Garcia scored six goals, and three
other players added four goals each as Spain edged South Korea to
open the men's handball competition.
   Manual Colon, Talant Dujshebaev and Fernando Hernandez scored
four goals apiece. South Korea was led by Paek Won-chul and Yoon
Kyung-min with six goals each.
   Elsewhere, Istvan Pasztor scored nine goals to lead Hungary, and
Eduard Kokcharov scored nine for Russia. Olafur Stefansson scored
10 times for Iceland in a losing effort.
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Judo
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Tadahiro Nomura of Japan won the gold
medal in men's 60kg judo for the third straight Olympics. Teammate
Ryoko Tani won her second straight gold in the women's 48kg class.
   Nomura beat Nestor Khergiani of Georgia. Choi Min-ho of South
Korea and Tsagaanbaatar Khashbaatar of Mongolia shared the bronze.
   Tani defeated France's Frederique Jossinet in a repeat of the
2003 world final where Tani won her sixth straight world crown.
   The 48kg bronze medals went to Julia Matijass of Germany and
Feng Gao of China.
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Softball
Australia 4, Japan 2
United States 7, Italy 0, 5 innings
Canada 2, Taiwan 0
China 5, Greece 0
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Jennie Finch didn't allow a hit in three
innings, and the Americans began their run toward a third straight
gold medal with a shortened victory over Italy.
   Natasha Watley went 4-for-4, hitting a two-run triple in the
fifth inning to put the United States up by seven runs, invoking
the mercy rule that ended the game. Three-time Olympian Lisa
Fernandez had an RBI single as the U.S. team extended its winning
streak to 71 straight games since July 2003.
   Tanya Harding bailed out Australia by pitching 6 1-3 innings of
no-hit relief, and Natalie Titcume hit a two-run homer. Harding
came off the bench in the first inning to replace starter Brooke
Wilkins, who walked five to force in two runs for Japan. Harding, a
three-time Olympian, shut down the defending silver medalists the
rest of the way, retiring 19 of the 20 batters she faced.
   Wilkins combined on the fourth combined no-hitter in Olympic
play.
   Lauren Bay pitched a four-hit shutout and Jackie Lance hit a
two-run double to lead Canada over Taiwan. Bay's brother is an
outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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Cycling
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Italy's Paolo Bettini pulled away in the
final 100 meters to win the men's cycling road race, while one of
the deepest groups of American riders in an Olympics failed to
reach the medals stand.
   Bettini made a desperate surge past Portugal's Sergio Paulinho,
who led much of the final lap around the 8.2-mile circuit
   Bettini, a former world champion who built his training for the
year solely around this one race, finished the 139.4-mile test in 5
hours, 41 minutes, 44 seconds. Paulinho was one second back;
Belgium's Axel Merckx was another seven seconds back in third.
   The U.S. men's road squad, with four accomplished international
riders on the five-man roster, was paced by Tyler Hamilton's
18th-place finish.
   Temperatures reached 104 degrees on sunny sections of the
course, and several riders could not finish.
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Women's Volleyball
Brazil 3, Japan 0 (25-21, 25-22, 25-21)
Greece 3, Kenya 0 (25-7, 25-22, 25-14)
Germany 3, Cuba 2 (20-25, 24-26, 25-22, 25-15, 17-15)
Russia 3, Dominican Republic 0 (25-17, 25-13, 25-16)
Italy 3, South Korea 0 (25-17, 25-13, 25-19)
China 3, United States 1 (25-21, 23-25, 25-22, 25-18)
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Angelina Grun had 20 points, including 14
kills, to help Germany rally for a five-set upset of three-time
defending gold medalist Cuba in the preliminary round.
   Grun, the German captain, served an ace on match point to seal
the victory in the first Pool B match of the day. Zoila Barros
Fernandez had 12 kills to lead the Cubans.
   Paced by the power of outside Hao Yang, the Chinese team beat
the Americans in four sets. China's best middle blocker, the
6-foot-5 Zhao Ruirui, limped off the court after reaggravating an
injury to her right leg, but the U.S. team was unable to
capitalize.
   Also in Pool B, Russia defeated Dominican Republic in three
sets. Ekaterina Gamova had 22 points for Russia, the 2000 silver
medalist in Sydney.
   In Pool A, second-ranked Brazil beat Japan behind 11 kills from
Virna Dias. Greece gave the crowd of 2,650 plenty to cheer with a
sweep of Kenya. Maria Gkaragkouni had 16 points for the host
nation.
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Fencing
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Italy's Aldo Montano rallied to defeat
Zsolt Nemcsik of Hungary 15-14 in the men's saber final. Keeth
Smart, who last year became the first American to be ranked No. 1
in the world, lost in the round of 16.
   Montano trailed by four points early in the gold-medal match,
but came back to take the lead at 12-11. With the score tied at 14,
Nemcsik retreated slightly and Montano thrust forward to make the
last touch and win.
   Smart lost to Montano 15-7. In the same round, American Ivan Lee
lost to four-time gold medalist Stanislav Pozdniakov 15-9. Jason
Rogers, the third member of the U.S. team, lost 15-3 in the round
of 32 to Luigi Tarantino of Italy.
   Vladislav Tretiak of Ukraine defeated Dmitri Lapkes of Belarus
to win the bronze.
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Rowing
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Britain's Matt Pinsent started out well in
his attempt for a fourth straight gold medal by winning his heat in
the men's four. In the past three Olympics, Pinsent has won two
gold medals in men's pair and one in men's four.
   There were heats in four men's and three women's events with
some boats advancing directly to semifinals and others moving to
repechage, or second-chance, races.
   Americans Aquil Abdullah and Henry Nuzum advanced to the
semifinals in the double sculls and the men's pair of Artour
Samsonov and Luke Walton also advanced.
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Sailing
   The Olympic sailing regatta began with two races in four
different events with Greeks doing well on home waters.
   Greece's duo of Sofia Bekatorou and Aimilia Tsoulfa had the top
performance of the day, placing first and second in the women's 470
class to give them the lead in that event. Aimilios Papathanasiou
had a second-place finish behind Mateusz Kusznierewicz of Poland in
the men's Finn class.
   The French crew topped the Yngling class, which was making its
Olympic debut. Britain topped the men's 470 class.
   There are 11 sailing events.
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Table Tennis
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Americans Ilija Lupulesku and Jasna Reed
each won their first-round matches.
   Lupulesku advanced with a 4-0 win over Juan Papic of Chile in
men's singles, while Reed beat the Czech Republic's Renata
Strbikova 4-2 in women's singles.
   Lupulesku and Reed won medals for Yugoslavia at the Seoul
Olympics in 1988.
   American Tawny Banh also advanced, but Khoa Nguyen lost to
Australia's William Hentzell.
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Badminton
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- France's Pi Hongyan, the No. 8 seed in
women's singles, lost her first-round match against Seo Yoon-hee
from South Korea, 11-6, 6-11, 11-7 in the biggest upset on the
opening day of badminton competition at Goudi Olympic Hall.
Top-seeded Gong Ruina of China trailed Singapore's Li Li in the
first set before rallying to win 11-9, 11-4.
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Women's Soccer
United States 2, Brazil 0
Australia 1, Greece 0
China 1, Mexico 1, tie
Nigeria 1 Japan 0
   THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) -- Abby Wambach scored her 16th goal in
17 games to help the United States beat Brazil. Wambach made a
brilliant run in the 77th minute after Mia Hamm opened the scoring
in the 58th minute on a penalty kick.
   The U.S. team became the first side to earn a berth in the
quarterfinals. The Americans can clinch their group with a win or a
tie against Australia in their final first-round match Tuesday.
   Elsewhere, Australia beat the host nation on a lone goal scored
by Heather Garriock. Nigeria beat Japan on a goal from Vera Okolo.
Maribel Dominguez scored for Mexico and Ji Ting tied the game for
China.
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Men's Soccer
South Korea 1, Mexico 0
Australia 5, Serbia-Montenegro 1
Argentina 2, Tunisia 0
Mali 2, Greece 0
   THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) -- Mali upset Greece to put the host in
danger of exiting the Olympic soccer tournament in the first round.
   First-half goals by Mamadi Berthe and Tenema Ndiaye put the
Africans in control while Greece squandered chances to get back in
the game and even missed a penalty kick in injury time.
   The win gave Mali four points in two games. Greece has one point
and must beat Mexico in its final game to have any chance of
advancing.
   In other matches Carlos Tevez and Javier Saviola put Argentina
into the quarterfinals with a victory over Tunisia.
   Australia routed Serbia-Montenegro thanks to two goals each from
John Aloisi and Ahmad Elrich. South Korea edged Mexico on a goal
from Kim Jung-woo. 
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Gymnastics
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Eight teams advanced to the finals after
men's preliminaries, including the United States, Japan and
reigning world and Olympic champion China.
   Most top athletes competed without issue, although a few had a
tougher time.
   Blaine Wilson, the top American gymnast of the past decade,
banged his head on the mat after missing a move on the high bar. He
needed smelling salts to finish the meet. Russia's Anton
Golotsutskov got hung up on the parallel bars and dislocated his
finger. Spain's Victor Cano fell off the high bar and straight onto
his coach.
   European champion Romania, Russia, Ukraine, South Korea and
Germany also qualified for the final. The U.S. team placed second,
but its rank matters little because preliminary round scores will
not count in Monday's final.
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Diving
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- China won both synchronized diving events.
Wu Minxia and Guo Jingjing took the women's synchronized 3-meter
springboard title by beating defending champions Vera Ilina and
Julia Pakhalina of Russia.
   Irina Lashko and Chantelle Newbery of Australia won the bronze.
Lashkoa competed in the 1988 games for the Soviet Union, won a
world gold for Russia in 1998 and a silver medal for Australia in
2001.
   Tian Liang and Yang Jinghui of China won in men's synchronized
10-meter platform diving. Britain's Peter Waterfield and Leon
Taylor took the silver and Australia's Mathew Helm and Robert
Newbery the bronze.
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Boxing
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Middleweight Andre Dirrell got the U.S.
boxing team off to a strong start, beating China's Ha Dabateer
25-18.
   A left-hander from Flint, Mich., Dirrell counterpunched his way
to an easy victory in the second fight of the day at Peristeri
Olympic Boxing Hall as the other eight members of the U.S. team
cheered him on.
   In the first bout of the Olympics, Algeria's Nabil Kassel beat
Glaucelio Abreu of Brazil 41-36.
   The light heavyweights also got started, but U.S. hopeful Andre
Ward received a first-round bye. Ward and Dirrell generally are
considered the Americans' top gold medal prospects.
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Beach Volleyball
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Americans Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs,
seeded No. 4, cruised past 21st-seeded Norwegians Susanne Glesnes
and Kathrine Maaseide 21-14, 21-14 under the lights at the Olympic
Beach Volleyball Centre.
   Dain Blanton and Jeff Nygaard, the top American men's team, were
not nearly as sharp in a 21-16, 21-14 loss to 17th-seeded
Australians Julien Prosser and Mark Williams in the last match of
the night.
   Canadians Guylaine Dumont and Ann Martin upset the ninth-seeded
Swiss pair Simone Kuhn and Nicole Schnyder-Benoit 21-16, 21-13.
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Weightlifting
   NIKAIA, Greece (AP) -- Turkey's Nurcan Taylan pulled off a
surprise, turning a world-record lift into an upset of heavily
favored Li Zhuo of China in the 1051/2-pound weight class.
   The loss was a stunning start for China's women's weightlifting
powerhouse, whose assistant coach had predicted a sweep of all four
events it could enter. China was 4-for-4 in the sport's debut in
Sydney.
   Defending gold medalist Tara Cunningham of the United States
wasn't a factor, dropping the bar on her left leg on her second
lift en route to finishing 11th of 14. Thailand's Aree Wiratthaworn
won the bronze.
   Taylan broke Li's 2003 world snatch record of 2051/2 pounds by
slightly less than nine pounds -- or almost one-tenth her own
weight.
   Taylan followed that with a lift of 248 pounds in the clean and
jerk.