Luka Mkheidze and Shirine Boukli won France's first two medals of the Paris Olympics in judo on Saturday night, with Mkheidze claiming silver and Boukli winning bronze.

Mkheidze lost 1-0 to Yeldos Smetov of Kazakhstan in the final of the men's 60-kilogram division, disappointing a raucous crowd at Champ-de-Mars Arena. The No. 3-seeded Mkheidze made an impressive rally through the bracket in the lightest men's weight class, but he couldn't score against Smetov, who became the first Kazakh gold medal-winning judoka after taking home silver and bronze from the two previous Olympics.

About 30 minutes before Mkheidze's loss, Boukli claimed France's first medal of its home Olympics with a victory over Spain's Laura Martinez in a bronze-medal match.

The 28-year-old Mkheidze was born in Georgia, and he came to France as a teenager in 2010. He quickly rose to prominence in judo, winning a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, and he won a gold medal at last year's European Judo Championships.

The Paris crowd was vocal in support of its two judokas, who provided one of the early signature moments of these Games even before their medal triumphs.

During the morning session, both competitors ended up on the mats simultaneously in separate matches. The fans reacted with double delight, chanting “Allez Les Blues!” and even breaking into an impromptu rendition of “La Marseillaise."

Mkheidze and Boukli then dramatically finished their opponents with ippons that occurred mere seconds apart, sending the crowd into a frenzy.

Paris will have plenty of chances to cheer on its vaunted judo team, which has a competitor in all 14 weight classes in these Olympics. Teddy Riner, the two-time individual Olympic gold medalist going for a record-tying third gold next week, joined Marie-José Pérec in lighting the Olympic cauldron on Friday night.

France is one of the world's top judo nations, and its rivalry with fellow power Japan is likely to culminate next week in the mixed team competition.

Diving

One down. Seven to go.

China won its first gold medal in diving on Saturday on the first full day of competition in the Paris Olympics, a perfect start for the team of Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen.

China has ruled diving for decades, and three years ago in Tokyo it won seven of eight gold medals. But it has never pulled off the elusive gold sweep. That’s the goal this time.

The Chinese were first on Saturday in the women's synchronized 3-meter springboard with 337.68 points on five dives. They were followed by Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook of the United States 314.64 points and the British team of Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen with bronze and 302.28 points.

The same Chinese duo also won gold in the last three world championships and were heavy favorites going in.

“We're very happy to get the gold medal, of course,” Chen said.

The Americans followed China on all of their dives, seeing their performance and knowing what they had to do to match it. They also performed the same five dives as China.

“The Chinese have been the gold standard in diving for decades,” Cook said. “But we are peers with them, and the goal is to beat them one day. They are amazing competitors and hardly ever mess up.

“We're not too far off,” Cook added. "You may see another flag being raised for a gold medalist at these Olympic games.”

Cook and Bacon noted that, as the favorites, the pressure is always on China. Less so on everyone else.

“Following China certainly helped us dive better,” Bacon added.

The crowd, heavy with Chinese fans and and flags, chanted “jiayou” — roughly translated “let's go” — each time the Chinese walked out to dive.

This event was added in 2000, and Chinese women have won gold six times in seven Games. The only loss was to Russia in 2000. China won three years ago in Tokyo with Shi Tingmao and Wang Han.

Starting with the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics where China claimed its first diving gold, it had won 47 of 64 gold medals in diving. Add to that 23 silver and 10 bronze.

Starting the count from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China had won 27 of 32 gold at the Olympics.

These are the numbers before Paris. Now add another gold to the total and watch the numbers climb as the Olympics roll on.