U.S. gold medal hopefuls Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes began Olympic play with a straight-sets beach volleyball victory over Czechia’s Marie-Sara Stochlova and Barbora Hermannova at Eiffel Tower Stadium in Paris.

Hardly half a day passed before politics, the pandemic and blistering heat impacted events across the Tokyo Olympics.

The Olympic beach volleyball tournament got off to the quintessential coronavirus-era start.

The full beach volleyball schedule for the Tokyo Olympics is here.