Paris Olympics Day 1 Recap: Summer McIntosh nabs Canada's 1st medal, FIFA hits women's team hard

While the watching experience and timing for the 2024 Paris Olympics isn't quite as challenging for Canadian viewers as it was for Tokyo 2020 or Beijing 2022, a good chunk of action during these Games happens when plenty of Canadians are fast asleep.

Whether you were crushing some zzz's, had family activities to partake in or just didn't have a chance to tune in, we have you covered throughout these Olympics from start to finish.

Here's what you missed from Day 1 of the 2024 Summer Games:

Canada gets 1st medal in women's 400-metre freestyle

Teenaged phenom Summer McIntosh got Canada on the medal board on Saturday afternoon, winning the silver medal in the women's 400-metre freestyle. Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus successfully defended her gold medal from Tokyo, narrowly edging out McIntosh and American Katie Ledecky with a time of 3:57.49. McIntosh finished in 3:58.37, while Ledecky touched at 4:00.86.

McIntosh, 17, nearly medalled in this race three years ago in Tokyo. However, she wound up finishing fourth in her Olympic debut at age 14. Her silver medal on Saturday is the first Olympic medal of her career.

The Toronto swimmer is the current world-record holder in the women's 400 individual medley, and she'll get her chance at another medal when that event takes place on Monday.

FIFA strips Canadian soccer team of 6 points in Olympics, bans coaches

FIFA, soccer's international governing body, has come down hard on Canada's women's soccer team over a drone-spying scandal that came to light earlier this week. The club was deducted six points from the Paris Olympics women's soccer tournament and saw three coaches banned for one year each on Saturday.

Canada's national soccer federation had already suspended and sent 2021 gold medal-winning head coach Bev Priestman home after the allegations came to light. Now, Priestman and two of her assistant coaches implicated in the scandal, Joseph Lombardi and Jasmine Mander, are banned from international soccer for one year.

The punishment also includes a $200,000 Swiss franc fine for the Canadian Soccer Federation in a case that has stolen headlines before the Paris Olympic Games have even begun. Two assistant coaches were caught using drones to spy on opponent New Zealand’s closed training sessions ahead of their Olympic-opening match on Wednesday, a game which Canada won 2-1.

FIFA officials reportedly found Priestman and her two assistant coaches "responsible for offensive behaviour and violation of the principles of fair play."

The Canadian Soccer Federation, meanwhile, was reportedly punished for not ensuring its coaching staff complied with tournament and international rules. The disciplined coaches and the Canadian federation can challenge their sanctions at the Court of Arbitration for Sport's special Olympic court in Paris.

Soccer fans, as you'd likely expect, were quick to voice their frustrations on social media.

The points deduction, although not necessarily catastrophic, does put Canada in an extremely tough spot for the Olympics. The team now must win all three games in Group A and hope to advance with just the three points it's already earned, likely as runner-up in their group if all goes right.

The Canadian Olympic Committee is reportedly "exploring rights of appeal" over the six-point penalty.

Canada faces France on Sunday, Followed by a showdown with Colombia on Thursday.

Canada beats Greece to kick off men's basketball tournament

The men's national basketball team's first appearance at the Olympics since 2000 in Sydney got off to a great start with an 86-79 win over Greece on Saturday.

RJ Barrett and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 23 and 21 points in a tight win over a Greek team that featured NBA Superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had a game-high 34 points. After finding itself in foul trouble late in the game, Canada allowed Greece to cut the lead down to two before Jamal Murray iced the game with two clutch free throws late in the fourth quarter.

Canada is considered one of the greatest threats to Team USA, which is a heavy favourite to win gold in Paris. The Canadians earned their first trip to the Olympics in more than 20 years at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, where they won a bronze medal.

Canada faced off against Team USA more than two weeks ago in an Olympic exhibition game in Las Vegas, where Anthony Edwards led the Americans to an 86-72 win. The seventh-ranked Canadians will next play Australia (ranked fifth) on Tuesday, July 30.

Canadian ends Hungarian fencer's historic Olympic gold medal streak

Team Canada opened the 2024 Paris Olympics with a stunning takedown of a legend, as Canuck fencer Fares Arfa defeated Hungarian Aron Szilagyi, who was gunning for his fourth-straight Olympic individual gold.

Szilagyi won gold in men's individual saber in 2012 (London), 2016 (Rio) and 2021 (Tokyo) and is the only male fencer to be a three-time individual champion. Szilagyi was attempting to become the only fencer in Olympic history with four individual gold medals.

The 27th-seeded Canadian defeated Szilagyi 15-8 in the round of 32 for one of the biggest early upsets of these Olympics so far. Arfa, who's competing in his first Olympic Games, put up six unanswered points to begin the bout and never looked back. Szilagyi did close the gap to 6-4, but couldn't overtake the Laval, Que. product who finished strong.

"I'm in a bit of shock right now, so I'm not even disappointed or angry at myself yet. It happened so fast, and I've never thought that my individual competition here in Paris would be so short," Szilagyi said.

"It's really a shock. It's like my opponent read me. I was an open book to him. In every touch, what he wanted, it happened. All his parries worked, all his attacks landed."

The glory for Arfa was short-lived, however, as the Canadian fencer narrowly lost in the men's individual sabre quarterfinal just hours after his stunning upset of the three-time defending Olympic gold medalist, losing 15-13 to fourth-ranked Oh Sang-uk of South Korea.

Men's, women's 4x100 freestyle relay teams fall short in final

Canada's 4x100 freestyle relay teams came up short in their bid for a podium finish after both teams had qualified for the final heat earlier in the day. The men's team — consisting of Finlay Knox, Yuri Kisil, Javier Acevedo and Josh Liendo — finished in sixth place as the United States, Australia and Italy won gold, silver and bronze, respectively.

The women's 4x100 freestyle relay team failed to find the podium as well, finishing in fourth place. Australia, the United States and China claimed gold, silver and bronze, respectively.

Maggie Mac Neil qualifies for women's 100m Butterfly semifinal

London, Ont. swimmer Maggie Mac Neil finished second in her heat and seventh overall to qualify for the women's 100-metre butterfly semifinals. That competition will be held on Sunday, July 28.