Beijing Day 1: China leads in gold medal count, U.S. ahead in total

China bagged two gold medals on the opening day of the Olympic games in Beijing. United States has swept the three medals in fencing competition.

The medals tally after the first day of competition in Beijing appears to be an early indicator of the competition for the top spot in the days to come. A total of seven gold medals were decided on Saturday, while the preliminary round competitions were conducted for many other events. China had a disastrous start in the beginning with Du Li, the gold medalist in Athens in Women's 10-meter air rifle failing to make it to the top three. Czech shooter, Katerina Emmons won the event comfortably. She had come under a lot of pressure fro Chinese media which had projected her to win the first gold medal of the games. But Pang Wei in Men's 10m Air Pistol and Chen Xiexia in Women's 48kg weightlifting gave China the start they had expected. United States came to the medal table with a clean sweep of the final event of the day - Women's Individual Sabre in fencing. Zagunis Mariel, Jacobson Sada, Ward Becca won the medals in that order. For a detailed medal tally, medalists see the official Olympics results site.