Capsules of Saturday's events at the Summer Olympics:
BASEBALL
The opening of another Olympic competition meant another struggling performance by the United States.
The young Americans were outclassed early by a 35-year-old Nicaraguan pitcher before gradually pulling away for a 4-1 victory.
"A lot of people didn't expect the game to be that close," said Anibal Vega of the Nicaraguan team, which was outscored 47-11 in losing four games to the Americans during a pre-Olympic tour.
The U.S. team finished fourth in Barcelona, the first time baseball was an official Olympic sport. Defending gold medal-winner Cuba opened with a 19-8 win over Australia behind the hitting of Antonio Pacheco, who set an Olympic record with seven RBIs.
Japan, also a medal contender, got three homers to win 12-2. The game was called in the seventh inning by the Olympics' 10-run rule.
BASKETBALL
The Dream Team looked shaky to start, but pulled away in the second half for a 96-68 victory over Argentina. It was the first sub-100 point game since NBA stars replaced collegians in 1992. The Dream Team led by just two points at the half. David Robinson was the leading scorer with 18 points. The Americans meet Angola, who lost to China 70-67.
Lithuania overcame the loss of several key players to edge Croatia 83-81 in two overtimes. Australia built a 36-point advantage on the way to a 111-88 victory over South Korea.
Yugoslavia avoided an upset by Greece by closing the game with a 15-5 run for a 71-63 victory.
BOXING
Zahir Raheem got the U.S. team off to a rousing start by dominating his North Korean opponent at 119 pounds. The 19-year-old Philadelphian staggered Hoe Jong-Gil only seconds into their fight, leading to a 19-4 victory in front of a flag-waving group of fans and teammates who chanted "USA, USA."
"I heard the crowd and I heard my teammates," Raheem said. "That motivated me."
Fernando Vargas, a 147-pounder from Oxnard, Calif., won a 10-4 decision over Tengiz Meskhadze of Georgia.
FENCING
Russia's Aleksandr Beketov eliminated a pair of defending medalists and defeated fellow Olympic rookie Ivan Trevejo-Perez of Cuba 15-14 to win the gold medal in men's individual epee.
FIELD HOCKEY
The U.S. women salvaged a 1-1 tie with the Netherlands when Marcia Pankratz of Wakefield, Mass., scored on a deflection with 1:57 left. The U.S. men fell 4-0 in their opener to perennial world powerhouse Pakistan. American men are winless in 24 Olympic games.
GYMNASTICS
The U.S. men had a strong showing in their compulsory pommel horse routines, moving into Monday's finals.
Leading the way for the Americans were four-time national champion John Roethlisberger, who had a 9.70, and Mihai Bagiu, who posted a 9.637.
"I don't sell snake oil and I don't make predictions, but I know we'll compete with a lot of pride and we'll represent our country very well," coach Peter Kormann said.
JUDO
David Khakhaleichvili of Georgia, a favorite to repeat as the heavyweight champion, was disqualified when he missed the weigh-in for his first-round match. Khakhaleichvili went to the wrong site.
France's David Douillet won the gold medal. The women's heavyweight champion was Sun Fuming of China.
SOCCER
Hernan Crespo and Diego Simeone scored second-half goals to lead Argentina to a 3-1 win over the United States in an opening-round match in Birmingham, Ala. The paid attendance of 81,067 was the sixth-largest crowd to watch an American soccer team play.
SHOOTING
China's Wang Yifu lost the gold medal to Roberto Di Donna of Italy with a dreadful final shot in the men's 10-meter air pistol event and fainted minutes later. Officials said Wang collapsed because of the heat.
The first gold medal of the 1996 Olympics went to Poland's Renata Mauer, who won the women's 10-meter air rifle competition.
Mauer won after Germany's Petra Horneber put her final shot three-quarters of a millimeter too far from the bull's eye.
SWIMMING
Le Jingyi won the gold medal in the women's 100-meter freestyle, and the U.S. took a pair of silvers and a bronze on the first day.
Angel Martino, 29, of Americus, Ga., the oldest U.S. Olympic swimmer in 72 years, won bronze in the 100 free as hometown fans cheered her on. She waved as she received her medal and, a few minutes later, handed it to a friend suffering from cancer.
Allison Wagner of Gainesville, Fla., won a silver in the women's 400-meter individual medley, won by Ireland's Michelle Smith.
Belgium's Fred Deburghgraeve set the first world record of the Olympic competition with a time of 1 minute, 00.60 seconds in the 100-meter breaststroke preliminaries.
Deburghgraeve later won the gold medal in 1:00.65. Jeremy Linn of Harrisburg, Pa., won the silver in 1:00.77.
New Zealand's Danyon Loader won the gold in the 200-meter freestyle.
VOLLEYBALL
Sisters Bev and Elaina Oden dominated the first set and the United States beat Ukraine 15-8, 15-5, 15-11 in women's volleyball.
Rebuilding after two poor showings recently, China opened with a 15-10, 15-5, 15-7 victory over the Netherlands. Bronze medalists in Seoul in 1988, the Chinese finished seventh out of eight teams in Barcelona, then were eighth in the 1994 World Cup.
WATER POLO
The U.S. water polo team lost its opening game 10-7 to Italy, the defending gold medalist and reigning world champion.
Three-time champion Yugoslavia, banned from the Barcelona Games because of United Nations sanctions, opened this year's competition with an 11-8 victory over the Netherlands.
Hungary, the 1995 FINA World Cup champion, defeated Russia 8-7 on a lob by Tamas Kasas with eight seconds left.
WEIGHTLIFTING
Halil Mutlu of Turkey won the gold medal in the 119-pound division. No Americans competed at that weight.
WRESTLING (GRECO-ROMAN)
World champion Dennis Hall was one of six Americans to win opening-round matches.