The country's officials were told the 100m was the only race that had the space. Firisua didn't have a time in the event, but she did have one in every distance from the 1,500m to the marathon.

Firisua's 100m time ended up being 3.37 seconds slower than what reigning world champion Sha'Carri Richardson ran in a first-round heat later in the morning.

5. Slovakian swimmer collapses in scary scenes

lovakia swimmer Tamara Potocka collapsed poolside Friday morning after a qualifying heat of the women's 200-meter individual medley at the Paris Olympics when she had an asthma attack, a team spokesman said.

Potocka, 21, was given first aid and carried off on a stretcher while wearing an oxygen mask. Medical personal at the pool said she was conscious.

"They transferred her to the hospital in the Olympic Village and our team doctor is waiting for her there," Slovakia Olympic Committee spokesman Lubomír Souček told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Potocka collapsed as she got out of the water and almost immediately was surrounded by a half-dozen medical attendants who put her on a stretcher after about a minute and carried her off the pool deck.

6. Flavor Flav comes to the rescue again for Americans

US discus thrower Veronica Fraley lamented on social media that she needed help paying the rent yesterday.

So hip-hop artist Flavor Flav and entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian decided to help.

Soon after Fraley posted on the social media platform X that she was in need of financial assistance, Flav, founding member of the hip-hop group Public Enemy and a big fan and financial backer of USA water polo, responded: "I gotchu."

Right on top that, Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit and husband of tennis star Serena Williams, wrote: "Got you!" 

He followed through, too, by posting a picture of paying $7,760.00 ($11,916AUD) and writing, "'Murica."

In her post, Fraley alluded to the fact that her school pays about 75 per cent of her rent while "they pay football players (who haven't won anything) enough to buy new cars and houses." 

She added three "thumbs-down" emojis. The Commodores football team went 2-10 last season, while Fraley won the NCAA discus title this season, set the school record, and earned a spot on Team USA at US Olympic track trials.

She said she appreciated the gesture of Flav and Ohanian and wrote: "THANKYOU & @FlavorFlav SO MUCH. This makes every difference in the WORLD & I hope to represent team USA well this week."

Flav said he will be rooting for her and added "LETZ GO!!!" 

The rapper is in Paris as part of his duties as the official hype man for USA water polo — a partnership that came together after he connected with US captain Maggie Steffens on Instagram in May.

7. Carini wants to apologise to Algerian boxer Khelif

Italian boxer Angela Carini, who abandoned her Olympic bout against Algeria's Imane Khelif inside 46 seconds, says she "wants to apologise" to her opponent for how she handled the moments after the fight.

Khelif is one of two athletes who have been cleared to compete in the women's boxing in Paris, despite having been disqualified from last year's Women's World Championships for failing to meet eligibility criteria set out by the Russia-led International Boxing Association (IBA). The IBA has refused to explain the specifics of the tests, citing confidentiality.

The 25-year-old's participation in the Games has proved controversial — despite having competed in Tokyo 2020 without issue — leading the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to defend her right to compete.

"All this controversy makes me sad," Carini told Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport.

"I'm sorry for my opponent, too. If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision."

Carini, also 25, said abandoning the fight had been a mature step to take, but she expressed regret at not shaking hands with Khelif afterwards.

"It wasn't something I intended to do," Carini said. 

"Actually, I want to apologise to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke."

She added that if she met Khelif again, she would "embrace her".

Khelif has always competed in the women's division and is recognised by the IOC as a female athlete.

"The Algerian boxer was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport," IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said on Friday.

The IOC said the IBA decision to disqualify the boxers last year was arbitrary.

Meanwhile, the IBA said it would award Carini $50,000 ($76,781AUD) in prize money.

8. British racer lands hard in BMX crash

Kye Whyte of Britain was tended to by several paramedics before he was taken off the BMX track on a stretcher following a hard crash during the semi finals at the Paris Olympics on Saturday morning.

The reigning Olympic silver medallist, Whyte had just come down the steep starting ramp and into the 410m-long course near National Velodrome of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines when he went down. He would have been going at about 56kp/h at that point in the track, and landed hard on his side before coming to rest on the dirt.

Medical staff were tending to him even before Sylvain Andre of France led the field across the finish line.

Such high-speed crashes are common in BMX racing, where riders are in tight quarters on a course that includes bumps, ramps and highly banked turns. 

One day earlier, Carlos Alberto Ramirez was taken away on a stretcher after a crash in the last-chance qualifying race, though he showed up at the track on Saturday morning to watch the semifinals and finals.

9. Fights break out after heated France and Argentina clash

An early goal was enough for France to beat Argentina 1-0 and reach the men's soccer semifinals at the Paris Olympics on Friday, in a match where fighting broke out between the players immediately after the final whistle.

There was shoving for a couple of minutes before the players were broken up. Some France players appeared to sprint down the tunnel moments later. But they came back out a short time later and did a lap of honour.

Argentina's players were booed throughout the match by a hostile crowd, which celebrated early on when striker Jean-Philippe Mateta headed home in the fifth minute for coach Thierry Henry's team, which will face Egypt in the last four on Monday in Lyon.

Mateta was celebrating with captain Alexandre Lacazette when they noticed the skirmish. Lacazette rushed back to help break it up, as did Henry and counterpart Javier Mascherano, who appeared to block one of his own staff members from joining in.

"I went to shake the opposing coach's hand and all of a sudden I saw a lot of things happening," Henry said. "I don't like seeing this kind of thing. It wasn't necessary."

As France fans continued celebrating, stewards and a handful of riot police formed a ring around the pocket of Argentina fans inside the stadium.

A racism scandal had heightened pre-match tensions, following a video of Argentina players singing an offensive song about French players of African heritage as they celebrated their Copa America victory last month.

10. Chinese swimmer defends himself over cheating claims

Wang Shun vehemently denied that he ever cheated after winning a bronze medal in the men's 200m individual medley at the Paris Olympics.

Wang became the second swimmer linked to a Chinese doping scandal to claim a spot on the medal podium at these games, following Zhang Yufei.

Zhang has won three medals at La Defense Arena, taking bronze in both the 100m and 200m butterfly as well as a relay bronze in the 4x100 freestyle.

Zhang and Wang were among 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance ahead of the Tokyo Olympics. They were allowed to compete without any sanctions, and they weren't identified until media reports this year reported failed tests that went unpunished.

Wang, mirroring Zhang's comments earlier this week, said he was tested extensively ahead of Paris.

"Chinese swimmers only compete cleanly," he said through a translator. "That's our goal."

Wang said he was tested 28 times — "an average of twice a week" — while completing his qualification for the Olympic team in May.

"The two weeks before the Olympic Games, I was tested 11 times," he added. 

"All these tests had proven my innocence."

11. Cape Verde boxer secures his country's first medal

Cape Verde boxer David De Pina clinched his island nation's first Olympic medal with a quarter-final victory in the boxing.

Cape Verde, a nation of about 600,000 people on 10 isles more than 480km west of continental Africa, had never taken home a medal in its previous seven appearances in the Olympics.

But De Pina has won twice in the men's 51kg division in Paris to secure at least a bronze medal — and a monumental achievement for sports in his country.

"I did it for my country because we deserve it," De Pina said. 

"We are a small country, a small island, and we never did this before. I'm the first one to write this story, ever. I felt the support my country gave to me, and we deserve it because we've been through rough moments to get here."

De Pina beat Zambia's Patrick Chinyemba in an extraordinary showdown between boxers from African nations. Chinyemba, the African champion and a Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, fell just short of winning only the third Olympic medal in his much larger nation's history.

But Chinyemba simply couldn't solve De Pina, who has been a thrilling presence in the Paris ring. He combines his athleticism with a versatile, intelligent style of fighting that has flummoxed his opponents.

12. Emotional Djokovic sets up final with Alcaraz

When Novak Djokovic's first berth in an Olympics tennis final was secured, when he was assured of a chance to win the gold medal that's missing from his lengthy list of accomplishments, he fell back on the clay, limbs spread apart — the sort of pose generally reserved for securing a championship.

"This," he said after beating Lorenzo Musetti of Italy 6-4, 6-2 by taking the last four games, "is a big deal."

Already the owner of a men's-record 24 Grand Slam titles and more weeks at number one in the rankings than anyone in tennis history, Djokovic will try to add to his legacy when he faces Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday night (AEST) in the men's singles title match.

Alcaraz was even more dominant in the semi finals, eliminating Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada 6-1, 6-1.

Djokovic is 37, which makes him the oldest man to play in a Summer Games tennis final. Alcaraz is 21, which makes him the youngest.

"The way he's playing, he's definitely a favourite," said Djokovic, who came into his match 0-3 in Olympics semi finals.

Djokovic's best medal to date for Serbia was a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games. Now he'll do no worse than a silver.

13. Neutral athletes win their first medals

Ivan Litvinovich and Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya of Belarus won the first medals by neutral athletes at the Paris Olympics, each doing so on trampoline.

The 23-year-old Litvinovich defended the gold he won in Tokyo three years ago with a fairly comfortable victory in the men's final, hours after Bardzilouskaya earned silver in the women's competition.

Litvinovich's final-round score of 63.090 was over a point ahead of silver medallist Wang Zisai and bronze medallist Yan Langyu, who are from China.

Bardzilouskaya and Litvinovich are two of 17 Belarusians competing as a neutral athlete. Russia and Belarus are barred from team sports at the Paris Games because of the war in Ukraine.

Litvinovich was embraced by the crowd as he accepted his gold medal on the podium. 

At one point, he lifted it off his teal sweat suit to show it to various corners of a packed Bercy Arena.

He stood dutifully, if a little bored, while the IOC-commissioned anthem for AIN athletes played. 

Several times, he peeked around the rest of the arena after the green-and-white flag with AIN was raised rather than the red-and-green banner of his native country.

"At the next Games, I would like to compete with my flag and with my national anthem and I'd like to represent my country in the best possible way," Litvinovich said.

ABC Sport is live blogging every day of the Paris Olympics