Cao Yuan defended his title in the men’s 10m platform on Saturday and gave China an unprecedented sweep of the diving gold medals at the Paris Olympics.

China won all eight gold medals at the Olympic Aquatics Centre, most of them with dominating victories.

That wasn’t the case in the final diving event of the Games. With teammate Yang Hao having an uncharacteristically poor day and Rikuto Tamai of Japan keeping the pressure on until a botched dive in the next-to-last round, the burden of completing the sweep fell entirely on Cao’s slender shoulders. He was up to the task.

The 29-year-old Cao essentially locked up the gold with big scores on his toughest dive of the competition, a forward 4 & 1/2 somersault in the fifth of six rounds.

He finished with 547.50 points to become the first male diver since Greg Louganis in 1988 to win a second straight gold off the big tower.

Cao now has four gold medals in his career. He also won the springboard at Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and a 10m synchro gold in London in 2012.

Football gold

The United States women’s team have been crowned football champions. They defeated Brazil 1-0 at the Parc des Princes on Saturday with Mallory Swanson scoring the decisive goal. The last time they had won the gold was in 2012.

China women best

Chinese paddlers won the women’s team event on Saturday, compensating for the disappointment of missing out in Tokyo. In a repeat of the team event final three years ago, China faced Japan once again and triumphed 3-0

China have now won 37 of the 42 gold medals since table tennis was introduced to the Summer Olympics in 1988.