Pan powered to the finish in 46.40sec, beating the world record time of 46.80 he had set in February in Doha. It was China's first swimming gold of the Paris Games.

American great Ledecky again set new standards, cementing her reputation as the greatest distance swimmer the sport has known.

Nadal ends the Games without the third Olympic gold medal he craved on what could well be his last appearance on his beloved Parisian clay.

The Frenchman will also go for gold later on Wednesday in the 200m breaststroke.

When doctors x-rayed his spine after the crash in 2021, "they said maybe I'll never walk normally again," an emotional Lind told AFP after his win on Wednesday.

For Ni, a former world champion with China who now represents Luxembourg, her stint in Paris was a dream come true.

"The Chinese train so hard, the way that they train, everything is close to perfection," the Briton said.

"I'm soaking wet, honestly," he said. "It's a very, very humid day as it was yesterday. I just hope it rains so it cools down the temperature a bit and the air," said Djokovic.

"She has given up her place in the 100 metres ... all the information that we can provide is that she is not going to participate in the 100 metres," Watts, Jamaica's track and field team manager, told Reuters.

"I can't find the words, it's crazy what's happening to me. This morning, I would never have believed it," Beaugrand said.

Nuclear-armed North Korea declared the South its principal enemy earlier this year and tensions between the two countries are at one of their highest points in years.

Five medals will be on offer in the swimming at La Defense Arena, including the men's 100 metres freestyle, 200 butterfly, 200 breaststroke and the women's 100 freestyle.

Adding to the early criticism about the quality and quantity of the food at the Olympic Village, the queen of gymnastics gave the French offerings there a thumbs-down, opining that athletes would need to get out to enjoy the "real" local cuisine.

The men's and women's triathlons were given the green light a day after the men's event had been postponed because of pollution levels in the Paris waterway.

On Tuesday, McKeown retained her 100m backstroke crown from Tokyo, crushing American rival Regan Smith to earn her fourth Olympic gold medal and join a select group of swimmers with three individual titles.

Simone Biles led the United States to a dominant victory in the women's gymnastics team final on Tuesday, laying the ghost of Tokyo to rest as she claimed a fifth career Olympic gold medal.

With the Olympics underway in Paris, hotel operators made a final push to lure last-minute travelers, lowering prices and dropping minimum stay requirements after some people balked at what they saw as price-gouging prior to the games.

Some Christian groups and conservative politicians have said they were angered by a segment of the opening ceremony showing a kitsch scene which appeared to parody Leonardo da Vinci's famous "Last Supper" painting of Jesus Christ and his disciples.

All four sides in Group B were tied on three points going into the last matches, but Javier Mascherano's Argentina qualified by beating Ukraine 2-0 in Lyon while Morocco eased through with a 3-0 victory against Iraq in Nice.

The introduction of new sports and more urban and visually spectacular venues are necessary to attract younger audiences to secure the Olympic Games' survival, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Tuesday.