Summer Olympics

Ahmed Hafnaoui captured Tunisia's first medal at the 2021 Olympics thanks to his victory in the men's 400-meter freestyle.

Hafnaoui won a thriller by passing Jack McLoughlin right at the very end of the race. Kieran Smith of the United States was hot on their heels to take home the bronze medal. 

There was very little separation between the top three finishers. Hafnaoui reached the finish line in 3:43.36, just .16 seconds ahead of McLoughlin and .58 seconds in front of Smith. 

Men's 400M Freestyle Swimming Results

Gold: Ahmed Hafnaoui (Tunisia), 3:43.36

Silver: Jack McLoughlin (Australia), 3:43.52

Bronze: Kieran Smith (United States), 3:43.94

4th: Henning Muhlleitner (Germany), 3:44.07

5th: Felix Auboeck (Austria), 3:44.07

6th: Gabriele Detti (Italy), 3:44.88

7th: Elijah Winnington (Australia), 3:45.20

8th: Jake Mitchell (United States), 3:45.39

Hafnaoui was off the radar coming into the final. He advanced to this stage after posting the eighth-fastest time in qualifying (3:45.68). The 18-year-old came within .14 seconds of not even making the field. 

Once the final began, Hafnaoui appeared to find his bearings. But it wasn't initially clear that he would be the one triumphant at the end. 

Elijah Winnington was on a world-record pace off the block. The Australian made the first turn in 25.41 seconds, nearly one full second ahead of the record pace (26.29). He remained in the top spot after the 150-meter mark before falling off in the second half. 

McLoughlin had an incredibly smooth run from the second lane, leading by as much as .35 seconds over Hafnaoui after 300 meters. It was at that point when the Tunisian sensation really kicked things into gear. 

Hafnaoui erased .04 seconds off McLoughlin's lead over the next 50 meters before turning on the jets down the final stretch to get the win. 

The final margin of victory for Hafnaoui is the second-smallest in the men's 400 meter freestyle since 1996 (Mack Horton beat Sun Yang by .13 seconds in 2016). 

Hafnaoui's win makes him just the second men's swimmer from Tunisia with an Olympic gold medal. Oussama Mellouli won the men's 1500-meter freestyle and 10-kilometer marathon at the 2012 Games in London. 

Competing in his second Olympics, McLoughlin had a much better showing this time around. He missed out on the final in the 1500-meter freestyle in 2016 with a ninth-place finish in the heat. 

Smith, a senior at the University of Florida, had a lot of momentum coming into Tokyo. He qualified for this event by winning the Olympic trial by more than three seconds in June. 

The Gators star is the first American to medal in the men's 400-meter freestyle since Peter Vanderkaay won bronze in 2012. 

Chase Kalisz won the 400-meter individual medley at the Tokyo Olympics after finishing with a time of 4:09.42.

The 27-year-old American swimmer won his first-ever Olympic gold medal with the victory at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. He won silver at the 400-meter individual medley at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The United States also took the silver medal, as Jay Litherland finished second at 4:10.28. He finished a tenth of a second ahead of Australia's Brendon Smith, who earned bronze.

Those medals marked the first two for Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics.

Here's a look at the results alongside highlights from the 400-meter individual medley's conclusion.

Results

1. Chase Kalisz (United States): 4:09.42

2. Jay Litherland (United States): 4:10.28

3. Brendon Smith (Australia): 4:10.38

4. David Verraszto (Hungary): 4:10.59

4. Max Litchfield (Great Britain): 4:10.59

6. Leon Marchand (France): 4:11.16

7. Lewis Clareburt (New Zealand): 4:11.22

8. Alberto Razzetti (Italy): 4:11.32

Highlights

The win also marks Kalisz's third gold medal on the world stage. He won the 200-meter and 400-meter individual medleys at the 2017 World Championships.

The three-time NCAA champion and ex-Georgia Bulldog qualified for the final after posting a time of 4:09.65, the third-fastest mark among the eight finalists.

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic's straight-set victory over Hugo Dellien highlighted the first round of men's singles tennis action at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Day 1 featured 16 matches. Other notable winners included World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev, who earned a second-set tiebreaker victory en route to defeating Alexander Bublik. 

Elsewhere, Sumit Nagal made history as the first Indian man to win an Olympics men's singles match in 25 years, while Marin Cilic won a three-set thriller over Joao Menezes after finally pulling through following his 11th match point.

Here's a look at the day's round of 64 results alongside closer looks at all four of those performances.

Round of 64 Results

Daniil Medvedev (Russian Olympic Committee) def. Alexander Bublik (Kazakhstan): 6-4, 7-6 (8)

Novak Djokovic (Serbia) def. Hugo Dellien (Bolivia): 6-2, 6-2

Lorenzo Sonego (Italy) def. Taro Daniel (Japan):  4-6, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (3)

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (Spain) def. Pedro Sousa (Portugal): 6-3, 6-0

Aslan Karatsev (Russian Olympic Committee) def. Tommy Paul (United States): 6-3, 6-2

Pablo Carreno Busta (Spain) def. Tennys Sandgren (United States): 7-5, 6-2

Fabio Fognini (Italy) def. Yuichi Sugita (Japan): 6-4, 6-3

Marin Cilic (Croatia) def. Joao Menezes (Brazil): 6-7 (5), 7-5, 7-6 (7)

Nikoloz Basilashvili (Georgia) def. Roberto Carballes Baena (Spain): 6-3, 6-2

Ugo Humbert (France) def. Pablo Andujar (Spain): 7-6 (3), 6-1

Jan-Lennard Struff (Germany) def. Thiago Montero (Brazil): 6-3, 6-4

Miomir Kecmanovic (Serbia) def. Kamil Majchrzak (Poland): 6-4, 6-2

Jeremy Chardy (France) def. Tomas Barrios (Chile): 6-1, 7-6 (4)

Egor Gerasimov (Belarus) def. Gilles Simon (France): 4-6, 6-3, 6-4

John Millman (Australia) def. Lorenzo Musetti (Italy): 6-3, 6-4

Sumit Nagal (India) def. Denis Istomin (Uzbekistan): 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-4

All tennis results can be found on the Olympics website.

Highlights

Djokovic didn't have much trouble in his first-round match en route to the 6-2, 6-2 win over Dellien, who relished the moment against the 20-time major winner and potential Golden Slam victor:

Djokovic needed just one hour and one minute to advance to the Round of 32, where he will face Jan-Lennard Struff.

The Serbian is aiming to become just the second person in tennis history to win all four Grand Slam events plus an Olympic gold medal in the same year. Steffi Graf accomplished the feat in 1988.

Medvedev worked much harder for his Round 1 victory, needing a second-set tiebreaker to earn the straight-set win. But he'll be moving on after the 6-4, 7-6 (8) victory over Alexander Bublik.

This was not an easy win, as Jose Morgado of the Diario Record noted:

Medvedev won the first set 6-4, winning a break point in the first game and cruising from there. Bublik fired back in the second set, winning an early break point and taking a 3-0 game edge.

Undeterred, Medvedev fought back and eventually forced a tiebreaker after his ace tied the second set at six games apiece. The tiebreaker was a seesaw affair, which the Russian won 10-8.

Medvedev now faces Sumit Nagal, who made some history on Saturday.

It had been 25 years since an Indian man won an Olympics men's singles match at the Olympics, but that cold spell has been broken after Nagal's three-set win over Denis Istomin:

Nagal won the first set 6-4 and served for the match up 5-4 in the second set, but a pair of double faults led to Istomin winning the break. Istomin ended up forcing a tiebreaker, which he won 8-6.

Nagal dug deep late in the third set, though. Istomin had triple game point serving with the score tied at four, but Nagal earned five straight points for the huge break. He then won four of five points in the final game for the win.

The last Indian man to win was Leander Paes, who engineered a phenomenal run into the semifinals as a wild card at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He lost to eventual gold medalist Andre Agassi in the semifinals but defeated Fernando Meligeni in the bronze-medal match.

Paes and Nagal are the only two Indian men to reach the second round of the Olympic men's singles tournament.

The match of the day occurred between Cilic and Menezes.

Cilic appeared as if he would cruise into the second round after he found himself up 5-0 in the third set. A win appeared to be even more of a formality when Menezes fell behind 40-0 while serving.

However, Menezes somehow survived five match points to stay alive and win the game. He proceeded to win six straight games, taking a 6-5 lead to earn an opportunity to serve for the match.

He earned his own match point up 40-30, but Cilic bounced back with three straight points to earn the tiebreaker.

Once there, Cilic earned the 9-7 win, getting the victory on his 11th match point. 

He'll take on Pablo Carreno Busta in Round 2.

Can we just pretend that first game didn't happen?

If Saturday's 6–1 win over New Zealand had been the United States women's first game at these Olympics, rumors of their untimely demise would have been much quieter. It wasn't a perfect performance, but it was a massive improvement over the team's miserable loss to Sweden earlier this week—and in any case, the only fans in the world who would expect a perfect match midway through the group stage in a tournament are American ones.

Of course, the difficulty in evaluating a victory over an opponent such as New Zealand, which looked hapless, is teasing apart how much came down to one team being good and the other team being bad—and it's hard to overstate how limp-wristed an opposition the Football Ferns mounted.

The key to the USWNT's dominance is always that their players are better than the players on other teams, but New Zealand's problem was worse than individual matchups. Unlike Sweden, it gave the Americans little trouble as they moved the ball wherever they wanted, and worse, even when it dropped into a defensive block, it conceded ample space and opportunities out wide. The second- and third-to-last U.S. goals—both of which Christen Press had a hand in, one as a scorer and the second as a facilitator—were made possible by a back line with no shape of which to speak. It was like playing FIFA against the AI with the difficulty turned all the way down.

Still, sometimes turning the difficulty down can be useful both as a confidence builder and to lock in certain patterns of play, and the Americans looked like their old selves in a lot of areas in which they struggled in the first match. The single biggest improvement came in the midfield, where starters Lindsey Horan, Julie Ertz and Rose Lavelle had great outings.

Lavelle, for her part, was fine against Sweden. Her problem was that she was cut off from Horan, Samantha Mewis and both wingers. With that sorted out, she offered quality, opening her Olympic scoring account with a beautiful first-touch finish on a Tobin Heath assist for the first goal.

With Ertz starting in the No. 6 spot, Horan was in her usual No. 8 position, and she notched a goal, a goal that was called offside but should not have been and an assist that didn't count, as the ball bounced off Abby Erceg for an own goal. As she does when she's playing her best, Horan was active across the full length and width of the field, dropping deep to cover for Ertz when necessary, combining with the outside backs and wingers, sending balls into the box and finding scoring chances herself. But again, it's difficult to compare her two performances given her skill advantage over the Kiwis tasked with marking her.

The other major factor in the midfield was Ertz's start. This game was a reminder of just how pivotal she is to the U.S. For one thing, having her as an anchor deep in the midfield frees up Horan to do what she does best. The team also benefits from her aerial dominance in the box and from her vision and long passing accuracy. More intangibly, Ertz is loud.

She's the person who makes sure the group project gets done on time, whether she has to do it herself or delegate. At one point in the first half, she pointed up the field, where she wanted right back Emily Sonnett to pass, then loudly told Sonnett off when she instead passed back to Abby Dahlkemper. You get to do that when you're always right.

That brings us to one of the few areas wherein the U.S. needs to make a change. Dahlkemper has been consistently poor; her performance against Sweden was maybe excusable given, well, everything, but this one sealed it. She was stunningly bad. In the early minutes, when the U.S. still looked a little nervy and was having to go end to end, the Kiwis easily split her and Sonnett multiple times.

Dahlkemper hardly made a move toward the ball on those occasions. She lost several aerial duels in the box, something American center backs are not supposed to do. Worst of all, she was pivotal in allowing New Zealand's consolation goal. Becky Sauerbrunn was probably always going to rotate out of the lineup for this one, but going forward, the pairing has to be Sauerbrunn and Tierna Davidson.

That goal is worth unpacking. Forward Paige Satchell momentarily stole Dahlkemper's soul from her body, cutting inside after the center back mishit her clearance and then easily finding Betsy Hassett after Dahlkempter was in a pile on the ground. On the other hand, the ball got into that area because Horan and Crystal Dunn, whether out of complacency or fatigue, allowed Katie Bowen to set a quick transition play in motion.

That's the sort of thing the U.S. has to tighten up if it's going to make a deep run. You can't drop six on every opponent. On the other hand, it's the sort of thing you expect early in a tournament. But the U.S. will need to continue rounding into form, as Australia presents a step up in quality compared to New Zealand, and the Americans need to avoid a loss to guarantee advancement into the knockout phase.

As the optimal starting lineup shakes out and the pressure ratchets up, expect this team to keep getting better. That's what it's all about, really.

The United States women's national team rebounded from its opening defeat at the Tokyo Olympics with a blowout victory over New Zealand on Saturday.

The Americans took down the Kiwis 6-1, but the score could have been even more lopsided had a few more goals counted in the first half.

The USWNT went into the half with a two-goal advantage, but it had four goals disallowed because of offside calls in the opening 45 minutes.

Christen Press, Alex Morgan, Rose Lavelle and Lindsey Horan all scored for the USWNT, while a pair of own goals from New Zealand added to the tally.

The USWNT is now in good shape to secure second place in Group G behind Sweden, which is one of two teams with six points through two matches.

Saturday Women's Soccer Results

Group E

Great Britain 1, Japan 0

Canada 2, Chile 1

Group F

Netherlands 3, Brazil 3

China 4, Zambia 4

Group G

United States 6, New Zealand 1

Sweden 4, Australia 2

United States 6, New Zealand 1

The USWNT looked more like itself in the dominant win over New Zealand.

From the first minute on, Vlatko Andonovski's side had the look of the unit that entered the Olympics on a 44-match unbeaten streak.

Julie Ertz's introduction to the starting lineup was a massive help in earning the bounce-back result.

Ertz did not participate in any of the buildup games on home soil while recovering from injury. She entered as a halftime substitute against Sweden and played the entire match Saturday. The midfielder produced two assists and broke up countless passes in the middle of the park as New Zealand attempted to surge forward.

The USWNT was able to play with a high level of comfort early on. Lavelle netted the first of six tallies in the ninth minute.

The second goal was not scored until Horan beat Anna Leat right before halftime, but before that, four goals were taken off the board because of offside calls. Horan's goal came in her 100th appearance for the USWNT.

In the second half, the USWNT's onslaught continued, with Press and Morgan scoring off the bench and two own goals being forced.

The Americans were not perfect over 90 minutes since Betsy Hassett pulled back a goal for the Kiwis in the 72nd minute.

The three goals that followed the New Zealand tally aided the USWNT's goal differential, which will come into play on Matchday 3 against Australia.

The USWNT leads Australia by three on goal differential. If the Americans win or draw their final group-stage match, they will advance as the second-place team in Group G.

Sweden will likely top the group with a win over New Zealand. The Swedes put four goals past Australia in Saturday's other Group G contest.

Netherlands 3, Brazil 3

Two of the top challengers to the USWNT in its quest for gold played out a thrilling six-goal affair Saturday.

The Netherlands and Brazil were involved in a back-and-forth 3-3 draw that was the embodiment of the wild play going on in Group F.

Through four Group F games, the Netherlands, Brazil, China and Zambia have combined for 32 goals.

Vivianne Miedema bolstered her case to win the Golden Boot by scoring twice against Brazil. She opened the scoring in the fifth minute and gave her side a 2-1 advantage in the 59th minute.

Miedema is tied with Zambia's Barbra Banda on six goals, but the Dutch forward should have the inside track to the Golden Boot since Zambia will likely be eliminated in the group stage.

Brazil answered Miedema's second goal with two tallies in a three-minute span. Marta netted from the spot in the 65th minute, and Ludmila sent home a strike in the 68th minute.

The Netherlands secured a point through one of the best goals of the competition with a little more than 10 minutes remaining. Dominique Janssen sent a 30-yard free-kick into the upper-left corner of the net to level the contest at three goals apiece.

Janssen's equalizer kept the Dutch on top of Group F by two on goal differential. The Netherlands put 10 goals past Zambia in their opener.

The dynamic of Group F could change on Matchday 3 since Brazil gets its shot at Zambia. The Netherlands likely need to beat China by three or four goals to remain in front.

The Group F winner will take on the Group G runner-up, which looks set to be the USWNT.

With Friday's opening ceremony officially getting the 2021 Summer Olympics underway, the curtain raised for the the men's gymnastics competition at Ariake Gymnastics Centre.

Qualification is broken into three subdivisions, with the first beginning Saturday morning in Tokyo.

Japan, China and the Russian Olympic Committee set the standard in qualifying.

Team All-Around Standings

1. Japan (262.251)

2. China (262.061)

3. Russian Olympic Committee (261.945)

4. United States (256.761)

5. Great Britain (256.594)

6. Germany (249.929)

7. Switzerland (249.193)

8. Ukraine (247.492)

9. Brazil (247.263)

10. Chinese Taipei (246.263)

11. South Korea (244.794)

12. Spain (241.462)

Individual All-Around Standings

1. Daiki Hashimoto, Japan (88.531)

2. Nikita Nagornyy, ROC (87.897)

3. Xiao Ruoteng, China (87.732)

4. Sun Wei, China (87.298)

5. Joe Fraser, Great Britain (86.298)

Full results available at Olympics.com

Russia bettered China in 2016 with a second-place finish. Nagornyy, Denis Ablyazin and David Belyavskiy are all holdovers from that squad, so it's not surprising to see the ROC hovering near the top of the team standings already.

Artur Dalaloyan is making quite the impact in his Olympic debut, especially considering he isn't too far removed from a tear of his Achilles tendon.

"It was not just a partially torn tendon, but severed tendon," he said to Scott Bregman and Ekaterina Kuznetsova in an interview for the Olympics official site. "A lot of media reported that I had just a partially torn tendon, that it is nothing scary. But when I got an MRI in the hospital, I was told I had a severed Achilles tendon and it needs a surgery."

Somehow, Dalaloyan is forging on.

Nagornyy was the gold medalist in the vault in the 2019 World Championships and helped the Russians dominate that portion of qualifying. With a score of 14.783, he led the way and was followed closely behind by Ablyazin (14.733).

For China, the parallel bars were where it did the most damage. Jingyuan Zou, Hao You and Ruoteng Xiao were the top three finishers.

While the competition is still young, the ROC and China are already shaping up to be medal contenders and appear to be safely through to the final given the gulf between them and the rest of the field.

Japan lived up to expectations on the strength of a terrific performance from Daiki Hashimoto, who moved to the top of the individual standings.

The United States didn't have a competitor finish inside the top 10, but all four of the Americans ranked inside the top 21. Brody Malone (No. 11 overall) and Samuel Mikulak (No. 14) earn the country's berths in the individual all-around final.

While the Americans also safely qualified for the team final, they have a lot of ground to make up on the top three finishers if they're going to win a medal in Tokyo.

The top eight countries and 24 gymnasts move on to the respective finals. Team medals will be handed out Monday, with the individual contests to follow.

U.S. Olympic fencer Alen Hadzic, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by three women and is under investigation, will not be allowed to stay at the Olympic Village with his teammates after losing an appeal Thursday, per Josh Peter of USA Today.

An arbitrator upheld the decision of USA Fencing, which said it was preventing Hadzic from staying at the Olympic Village as part of a "safety plan."

"The process was properly followed," United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee spokesperson Jon Mason said. "The athletes had the opportunity to be heard, and we are satisfied with the decision."

The arbitrator determined Hadzic, who has been staying at a hotel 30 minutes from the Olympic Village, could get a hotel room closer to the training center ahead of the Tokyo Games.

In May, three women accused Hadzic of sexual misconduct from 2013-15 to the U.S. Center for SafeSport, which temporarily suspended the Olympic hopeful June 2. He has denied the accusations.

"Frankly, they're untruths," Hadzic told Peter and colleague Christine Brennan. "They're just frankly not true."

That suspension was overturned by an arbitrator June 28, allowing Hadzic to compete at the Games.

"I find that the 'temporary suspension' is inappropriate to the allegations," Judge Sherrie L. Krauser ruled. "Specifically, I find that the lack of any allegation of misconduct in the past two years, the continuing probation supervision of USA Fencing and the strict regulation of members of the U.S. Olympic team provide sufficient guarantees to the 'safety or well-being' of others to lift the temporary suspension."

But U.S. fencer Katharine "Kat" Holmes reportedly had electronic signatures from every athlete on USA Fencing saying they did not feel Hadzic should be allowed to compete in Tokyo.

USA Fencing placed restrictions on Hadzic, including not allowing him to stay in the Olympic Village.

"I think one case is enough for you to not be allowed to compete at the f--king Olympics," one of the women who accused Hadzic of sexual misconduct told Peter and Brennan. "It really makes you question how far someone needs to go in order for them not to be able to compete."

Only days before the event, officials for the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo have fired Kentaro Kobayashi, the creative director for the opening ceremony. 

According to Motoko Rich of the New York Times, organizers in Japan announced Thursday morning, local time, that Kobayashi was let go after a past comedy skit in which he made light of the Holocaust surfaced. Tokyo Olympics CEO Toshiro Muto added that plans for the opening ceremony would be reviewed, but it was later announced in a statement that no changes would be made to the event.

According to Blake Montgomery of the Daily Beast, Kobayashi seemed to refer to the Holocaust as a "let's massacre Jewish people game" during a performance in the 1990s.

Kobayashi is the third member of the opening ceremony leadership to face scrutiny of late.

Hiroshi Sasaki resigned as the creative director for the ceremony in March after making a derogatory comment about Japanese entertainer Naomi Watanabe. Earlier this week, Keigo Oyamada's decision to step down as the showcase's composer stemmed from past comments he made about bullying former classmates.

The issues with the opening ceremony leadership have added to questions surrounding the Games, which were delayed by a full year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and are now happening amid a pandemic-related state of emergency in Japan.

Muto has acknowledged the possibility of canceling the Games altogether if COVID-19 cases related to the Games continue to rise. On Tuesday, the number of positive COVID-19 results reached 68.

The opening ceremony is scheduled to begin Friday at 6:55 a.m. ET, which doesn't leave Olympic officials much time in the event plans need to be altered.

Softball has made its return to the Olympics after a 13-year hiatus.

The sport even kicked off the athletic competition at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, with host country Japan taking on Australia to begin the round-robin group stage.

Six teams are in the Olympic competition: Japan, Australia, the United States, Italy, Mexico and Canada. A round-robin is underway, with each team facing the others one time apiece.

The top two teams will play each other in a gold-medal game, while the third- and fourth-place teams will battle for the bronze medal.

As for Day 1 of the festivities, Japan, which won gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, earned a 8-1 mercy-rule victory over Australia.

The United States, which fell to Japan in the 2008 gold-medal game, followed up the host's win with a 2-0 victory over Italy.

Canada, which has never medaled in Olympic softball, beat Mexico 4-0 as well.

Here's a recap of all three games alongside some highlights.

Japan 8, Australia 1

Fujita Yamato, Naito Minori and Yamamoto Yu hit home runs as Japan defeated Australia 8-1.

Starting pitcher Ueno Yukiko, who won gold for Japan at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, earned the win. She and Goto Miu allowed just two hits over five innings.

Australia had a chance to break this game open in the first inning, loading the bases and scoring one on a hit-by-pitch with one out. Ueno limited the damage to one run, however, getting the last two outs.

Yamamoto evened the game with an RBI single in the first.

Naito plated the go-ahead run after smacking a two-run homer:

Fujita crushed her homer in the fourth, a two-run blast for a 5-1 lead.

Japan scored one more run before Yamamoto's shot ended the game via the seven-run, fifth-inning mercy rule.

Both teams play Wednesday: Japan's next matchup is against Mexico, and Australia will play Italy.

United States 2, Italy 0

Starting pitcher Cat Osterman and closer Monica Abbott combined to throw a one-hitter as the United States shut down Italy 2-0.

Osterman was dealing throughout the game, registering her fifth strikeout on this fourth-inning pitch:

In the bottom half of the inning, Michelle Moultrie gave the United States all it needed with an RBI single that scored Valerie Arioto.

Janie Reed's fifth-inning sacrifice fly plated Aubree Munro for an insurance run:

Abbott shut the door in the seventh by painting the black with this strikeout:

Both teams play again Wednesday: Canada is up next for the United States, and Italy will draw Australia.

Canada 4, Mexico 0

Team Canada pitchers Sara Groenwegen, Jenna Caira and Danielle Lawrie allowed just two hits collectively in a 4-0 shutout of Mexico early Wednesday morning.

The trio struck out a total of six Mexican players and walked just one, getting Canada off to a dominant start at the 2021 Summer Olympics.

Canada jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back. The Canadians also tacked on insurance runs in the third and fourth innings.

First baseman Jenn Salling was the offensive star for Canada, going 2-for-2 with two RBI, including a solo home run in the third:

The top of Canada's batting order did a ton of damage in the game, as each of the first five hitters in the lineup had at least one hit and four of them finished with two hits.

Canada made life difficult for Mexico starting pitcher Dallas Escobedo, who was chased after four innings on the heels of allowing seven hits and four earned runs, while walking five.

The Canadians will look to keep rolling Wednesday when they face the United States, while Mexico will attempt to bounce back against Japan on Wednesday.

Paralympic world champion Olivia Breen took to Twitter on Sunday to discuss an incident at the English Championships in which she said an official told her the shorts she was wearing were "too short and inappropriate."

She posted a lengthy message that said, in part:

I feel quite disappointed because just as I finished my long jump competition at the English Championships, one of the female officials felt it necessary to inform me that my sprint briefs were too short and inappropriate. I was left speechless. I have been wearing the same style sprint briefs for many years and they are specifically designed for competing in. I will hopefully be wearing them in Tokyo. It made me question whether a male competitor would be similarly criticised.

Toyin Owoseje of CNN noted Breen plans on filing an official complaint and has been in contact with England Athletics.

"They (England Athletics) have been very supportive, which is really nice," she said.

Breen, who has cerebral palsy, also said the Adidas official 2021 briefs make her feel "more free" when they are shorter, adding, "When you are competing, you want to feel as light as possible to make you perform better."

She also said such comments "would make me burst into tears" if she was younger and pointed out that "they need to treat us with respect and not make us feel like rubbish."

Breen won a gold medal at the 2017 IPC World Championships and the 2015 World Championships. She took home a bronze medal at the London 2012 Paralympics.

She will once again compete for Britain in August's Tokyo Paralympics.