Skateboarder Nishiya Momiji, 13, just became one of the youngest gold medal winners ever

Japan’s Aori Nishimura competes in the Street Prelims on July 26th. (Patrick Smith / Getty Images)

The Olympic Games only started on Friday and the Games have already given us some incredible moments and surprises. What you need to know on the first Monday of Tokyo 2020 (in 2021).

Does the Japanese public participate in the games? The Japanese government’s decision to move the Olympics forward was not popular at home. A petition to cancel the games garnered 350,000 signatures in May. Ahead of the Games’ official start on Friday, almost eight in ten (78%) people in Japan said they thought the Olympics shouldn’t have happened as planned, according to a poll by Ipsos Mori.

But has the spirit of the Olympics proven contagious? Japan did particularly well on the first weekend of competition, picking up five gold medals – including the very first skateboard gold. Only China has more with six.

Some people have made it their business to show up outside at events even though they can’t come in. And according to Yiannis Exarchos, CEO of Olympic Broadcasting Services, more than 70 million people in the country watched the opening ceremony.

“Interest in the games is booming,” he said. “To date, I think more than 80% of all Japanese have seen some of the games.”

Big surprises and surprises: It’s only been a few days and the Olympics have given us the feel-good stories of triumphs and human accomplishments for which they are known.

The Austrian Anna Kiesenhofer eclipsed a field of big names with the performance of her life and won the women’s road race. She only started the sport in 2014 and currently has no professional contract.

Tunisia’s Ahmed Hafnaoui shocked the swimming world by winning gold in the 400m freestyle. In the preliminary round he qualified with the slowest qualification time of all finalists in 8th place.

The U.S. men’s basketball team, dotted with NBA stars, lost their first game against France on Sunday night. The French took advantage of the greatness of three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert and a great performance from NBA colleague Evan Fournier to shock the Americans who couldn’t benefit from multiple attempts to finish the game.

Some other premieres: Anastasija Zolotic became the first American woman to win Olympic gold in taekwondo and Fencer Lee Kiefer became the first US woman to win gold in individual football.

What is on tap in Japan today:

• Swim: Brit Adam Peaty won gold in the 100m breaststroke, while Ariarne Titmus defeated American Katie Ledecky in the women’s 400m freestyle final.
• Skateboarding: That The first gold is at stake in the women’s street final.
• Rugby Sevens: Rio 2016 winners Fiji beat hosts Japan 24:19 that morning, while New Zealand, another favorite, beat South Korea 50-5. A second round of the games will be played in Japan from 4:30 p.m.

The full schedule can be found here on the Olympia website.