Virginia Thrasher went through a three-week spring whirlwind, winning three NCAA titles and a spot on the United States Olympic shooting team.

The precocious 19-year-old closed out the summer with her biggest surprise yet.

Keeping her nerve on sport’s biggest stage, Thrasher on Saturday earned the first gold medal of the Rio Olympics, outlasting two-time gold medalist Du Li to capture the women’s 10-meter air rifle title.

‘‘This is beyond my wildest dreams,’’ Thrasher said. ‘‘I knew it was a realistic expectation for me to get into the finals and once you get into the finals, anything can happen. For me, this year has been incredible.’’

Thrasher had a quick rise to the top. A figure skater growing up, she switched sports five years ago after a hunting trip with her family. Thrasher killed a deer with her first shot of her first hunting trip and has continued to hit the mark wherever she’s gone.

Thrasher was not expected to be among the top five scorers — all that counts in NCAA competition — at shooting powerhouse West Virginia, yet got better as the season progressed. She became the first freshman to win both NCAA rifle titles and led the Mountaineers to the team championship.

Less than a month later, Thrasher won the US Olympic Trials, earning a spot in Rio.

She didn’t flinch at the sport’s brightest spotlight — or an air horn.

Though not expected to be a medal contender, Thrasher finished a spot behind fellow American Sarah Scherer at sixth in qualifying to make the eight-person final.

She opened the elimination finals — a new format in this year’s Olympics — with a perfect 10.9 and was in the lead after Scherer became the first shooter knocked out.

Thrasher stayed in the top spot as her competitors fell off, consistently hitting 10s despite a fan blowing an air horn at random times.

Thrasher entered the final with a 0.7-point lead and opened with a solid 10.5, which Li matched. Thrasher smiled after a 10.4 left a slight opening, but Li’s 10.1 on her final shot sent Thrasher on a surprising trip to the podium.

‘‘In the finals, about halfway through, it kind of became clear to me that I was in contention for a medal,’’ Thrasher said. ‘‘But I quickly pushed that thought away and focused on breathing, just taking one shot at a time.’’

Thrasher pulled it off against two of the world’s best rifle shooters, Li and Yi Siling.

Li won gold medals in air rifle in 2004 at the Athens Games and in 3-position rifle in Beijing four years later. She also competed in the 2012 London Games and pulled off a clutch shot in the Rio final, hitting 10.9 to stay alive in the second round.

Yi took a similar path as Thrasher's, earning air rifle gold at the 2012 London Games just three years after starting her international shooting career.

Thrasher stood her ground against the two Chinese shooters in the medal eliminations, hitting nothing lower than 10.4. Yi went out after a 9.8 on her final shot to earn bronze and Thrasher finished with a cumulative score of 208.0 to beat Li by a point in front of a rowdy crowd.

‘‘I heard the cheers and the horns and it was very disturbing,’’ Yi said. ‘‘But I just had to control myself. I also looked up and saw that Virginia and Du Li were doing well themselves.’’

Thrasher ended up on top of the podium and her whirlwind will wind down soon; a biomedical engineering major, she starts classes again at West Virginia on Aug. 17.

‘‘I'm actually looking forward to getting back to school again,’’ Thrasher said.

She will have a new title when she returns: Olympic champion.

Men’s archery — One of the South Korean archers had a perfect response for a nearly flawless show.

‘‘We shoot always like this,’’ Lee Seungyun said through a translator. ‘‘It’s Korea.’’

Even for the archery powerhouse, though, this was some kind of shooting display. The South Koreans captured gold by placing 15 of its 18 arrows in the top scoring ring to knock off the Americans, 6-0, in the men’s team final.

The US took home silver for a second straight Olympics, while Australia beat China in the bronze-medal match.

Still, the buzz was all about the clinic put on by Kim Woojin, Ku Bonchan, and Lee. It was so impressive that American archer Jake Kaminski went over to the South Korean squad after the match and simply bowed.

Nothing else needed to be said as South Korea earned its fifth Olympic title in the men’s team event.

‘‘We just got outclassed,’’ said Kaminski, whose team beat Indonesia and China to reach the final. ‘‘A match like that has never been shot before. That would've been a world record if world records still existed in this format.’’

Men’s air rifle — Hoang Xuan Vihn won Vietnam’s first Olympic gold medal, rallying to beat hometown favorite Felipe Almeida Wu on the final shot of men’s 10-meter air pistol.

Wu was the clear crowd favorite as the only Brazilian in the field, serenaded with chants of ‘‘Wu!’’ from introductions to after his final shot.

Wu led early in the elimination finals, but Hoang was more consistent, building a 2.3-point by the time defending gold medalist Jin Jongoh of South Korea went out in fifth place.

The crowd became more raucous as Wu rallied, roaring after he hit 10.2 to Hoang’s 9.2 to take a 0.2-point lead on the penultimate shot.

Wu, the No. 1-ranked shooter heading into the Olympics, hit a solid 10.1 on his final shot, but Hoang shot 10.7 to earn gold.

Vietnam had previously won two Olympic medals: silvers in weightlifting in 2008 and taekwondo in 2000.

Hoang, who was fourth in 50-meter pistol at the 2012 London Games, raised his arms in triumph following the final shot and the Brazilian fans sent Wu off with another chant.

Pang Wei of China, the gold medalist at the 2008 Beijing Games, captured bronze.

Judo — In the women’s division, the first gold medal went not to defending Olympic champion Sarah Menezes in her home country, but to an Argentinian bronze medalist from the Beijing Games, now a qualified doctor.

Paula Pareto, ranked third, jumped repeatedly in victory when she defeated South Korea’s Bokyeong Jeong in the women’s 48-kilogram division, much to the delight of a crowd packed with Argentinians waving their national flag. Pareto climbed into the spectator section afterward to be enveloped not only by giddy fans, friends and family, but numerous flags.

After hugging one particularly patriotic fan whose face was painted in blue and white, Pareto was left with faint traces of blue paint on the right side of her face.

Her gold medal made her the first Argentinian woman in history to win an Olympic gold, in any sport.

‘‘It is really incredible for me, I never would have thought it,’’ Pareto said after her historic win. ‘‘I was especially happy to see the Argentinian flag raised.’’

Pareto’s coach Laura Martinel described her as ‘‘phenomenal’’ and credited Pareto’s exceptional technique and mental strength for her victory.

Having split her recent fights with Jeong, Martinel said their strategy was for Pareto to go on the offensive. ‘‘We knew that we could not let [Jeong] perform because she*s fast and powerful. So the idea was to let Paula attack first, we had a rough moment in the match but eventually we overcome it and she did what was necessary.’’

Argentinian President Mauricio Macri quickly tweeted his congratulations, saying ‘‘You make us all very proud.’’

The top fighter in the division, Mongolia’s Urantsetseg Munkhbat, lost her bronze-medal match to second-seeded Ami Kondo of Japan. The other bronze medal was won by Otgontsetseg Galbadrakh of Kazakhstan.

London Games champion Menezes had been hoping to repeat her victory in front of a home crowd, but lost twice.

In the men’s division, the 18th-ranked Russian judoka, Beslan Mudranov, pulled off one of the day’s biggest upsets when he defeated top seed Won Jin Kim of South Korea. Mudranov, 30, defeated Yeldos Smetov of Kazakhstan in the final, becoming Russia’s first gold medalist at the Rio Games.

Amid the widespread Russian doping scandal, the entire Russian judo team was allowed to compete. Russian president Vladimir Putin is the honorary president of the International Judo Federation; Putin holds a black belt in the Japanese martial art.

Mudranov said the doping allegations haven’t had ‘‘any effect at all’’ on the judo team. ‘‘"We were sure that they won’t exclude us, because excluding a whole country is firstly not fair and, it seems to me, impossible,’’ he said.

Mudranov said he was happy to be the first to win a gold medal for Russia but attributed that to the luck of the draw.

The men’s bronze medals were won by Japan’s Naohisa Takato and Diyorbek Urozboev of Uzbekistan.

Fencing — Hungary’s Emese Szasz rallied to win the gold medal in women’s epee at the Carioca Arena 3.

Szasz, ranked seventh in the world, stunned two-time world champion Rossella Fiamingo of Italy, 15-13, after trailing by as many as four points — a remarkable rally for the sport.

‘‘I believed in myself and my fencing, and I did it,’’ Szasz said.

China’s Yiwen Sun won bronze, beating Lauren Rembi of France, 15-13, on a stab with 37 seconds to go.

All three US fencers were eliminated in the round of 32.

Second-ranked Sarra Besbes of Tunisia was knocked out in the quarterfinals.

Unlike her highly-ranked peers, the fourth-ranked Fiamingo cruised to the semifinals. Fiamingo then fell behind by three points to Sun before a rally with 10 seconds left and a point in extra time put her through to the finals.

Szasz beat Rembi 10-6 in the semifinals, setting up a matchup of two of the world’s top fencing powers in the finals.

Fiamingo forced the action, pushing her lead to 10-6 early in the second period. But Szasz scored nine of the last 12 points, clinching the win on a simultaneous score.

‘‘Only then, when I made the last touch,’’ Szasz said when asked when she thought she had taken control of the match.

France’s Marie-Florence Candassamy entered the tournament ranked just 49th in the world, but her aggressive fighting style had Xu on her heels.

Candassamy took a 10-6 lead after the second period and clinched the blowout victory midway through the third period.

Candassamy then got a shot at Nathalie Moellhausen, an Italian fighting for Brazil to honor her Brazilian grandmother. But Moellhausen, backed by the home crowd, drubbed Candassamy 15-12 before losing in the quarterfinals.

‘‘I've done something really good for Brazil. It’s a new experience for me. I'm going to keep fencing,’’ Moellhausen said.

Americans Katharine Holmes and sisters Courtney and Kelley Hurley, all ranked outside the top 10, lost their first matches. Courtney Hurley chose to rest up for competition rather than march in Friday’s Opening Ceremony, a decision she came to regret.

‘‘It doesn’t matter. I should have just marched and had fun,’’ Hurley said. ‘‘Everyone’s hyping it up all year long and you’re done in nine minutes.’’

South Korea’s Shin A Lam, whose protest following a defeat in the semifinals at the London Games four years ago overshadowed the rest of the epee tournament, was upset by Ukraine’s Olena Kryvytska 15-14 in the round of 32.

Weightlifting — In her Olympic debut, Sopita Tanasan came away with gold.

The Thailand native won the women’s 48-kilogram category in the first weightlifting event at the Rio Games.

Tanasan snatched 92 kilograms and lifted 108 kilograms in the clean and jerk for a total of 200 kilograms.

On her first lift in clean and jerk, Tanasan easily succeeded at 106 kilos to take the lead. She lifted 108 kilos on her second attempt, but failed at 110 kilos on her final try.

In a last-ditch bid to snatch the gold, Sri Wahuni Agustiani of Indonesia twice tried to lift 115 kilos to overtake Tanasan. She failed on the first try and Tanasan celebrated by hugging her coaches in the green room.

‘‘I didn’t know what to think,’’ Tanasan said. ‘‘I didn’t think she would be able to lift it.’’

Agustiani was able to lift the bar on her second attempt and her coaches screamed in celebration, but she couldn’t jerk the weight. She said she’s lifted 118 kilos before in practice and thought she'd maybe pull it off for the gold.

‘‘It just wasn’t meant to be,’’ she said.

Indonesia’s Sri Wahuni Agustiani won silver and Hiromi Miyake of Japan took bronze.

Morghan King failed to end the United States’s 16-year streak of not medaling in the 48kg category, finishing sixth. Tara Nott was the last American to medal, winning gold in 2000. Still, King sent an American record. Her lift of 83 kilos in the snatch broke the US record of 82.5, which had been set by Nott in Sydney.

King added 100 kilos in the clean and jerk for a total of 183 kilos.

‘‘The snatch was something I've been working on for a long time. The clean and jerk, I knew it was going to be a lot tougher. But, I'm happy,’’ King said. ‘‘I still have to pinch myself that I was out there. You are in the moment and focusing on your lift, then just trying to do your best, and then it’s all over. It’s kind of surreal.’’

The event became somewhat wide open after the sudden withdrawal of favorite Hou Zhihui of China. Predicted by many to win the gold, the 19-year-old left Rio with what was described as a knee injury. But there was speculation that the injury — whatever its severity — helped China decide to replace her on the team with over-75kg lifter Meng Suping.

With the Russian weightlifters banned from participating, Meng became a favorite in the heavier division.

So with Hou out of the way, the competition became a crapshoot that Tanasan quickly took control of as the last lifter in the snatch division.

She easily lifted 88 kilos on her first attempt — best of the round — and then bettered her mark twice to 90 kilos then 92 kilos.

Thi Huyen Vuong of Vietnam failed to advance past the snatch round after three unsuccessful attempts at 83 kilos and 84 kilos. It trimmed the field to 11 lifters vying for the medal, all chasing Tanasan.

The 22-year-old Tanasan dropped down from the 53kg class to make her Olympic debut. She lifted 195 kilos to win the junior world championships in that class in 2014, and she was fourth overall at the world championships last year after lifting 210 kgs.

No previous data was available for Tanasan in the 48kg class.

Cycling — Greg Van Avermaet of Belgium outsprinted Jakob Fuglsang and Rafal Majka on the long run to the finish at Copacabana Beach to win the men’s road race.

Van Avermaet threw his arms in the air and let out a roar when he crossed the line, blowing a kiss to the sky after the biggest victory of his career. Fuglsang followed him to take silver and Majka appeared content with bronze.

Van Avermaet’s victory came after Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali, one of the prerace favorites, and Colombian counterpart Sergio Henao crashed while trying to navigate a corner on the final harrowing descent of the six-hour race.

The riders were going so fast TV cameras on motorbikes couldn’t keep up, so it was unclear what caused them to crash.

Both were still on the pavement when the cameras reached them — just in time to see Majka slicing through the shadows and riding away.

Known more for his climbing chops, Majka was eventually reeled in as the race neared the finish, where a sun-splashed crowd that had spent the day on the beach gathered to welcome them.

It was unclear whether Nibali was seriously injured, though he will no doubt reflect painfully on his squandered chance.

The hard nature of the course offered a rare opportunity for the Giro d'Italia winner and former Tour de France champion to compete for gold.

The long course was tightly guarded by police, no small challenge in a host country that has been dealing with spikes in crime. The only incident occurred a few hundred meters from the finish line, where a bomb squad detonated an unattended bag hours before the riders arrived.

The race rolled off to the soundtrack of crashing waves and under clear, sunny skies buzzing with helicopters — some carrying TV cameras, others from the military to provide security.

Riders headed along the brilliant beaches of high-end neighborhoods Ipanema and Leblon, then began attacking each other on their way south. The day’s break quickly formed when six riders slipped away and built a gap of nearly 8 minutes, among them former world champ Michal Kwiatkowski of Poland.

The brutality of the course became evident over the cobblestone sectors.

Ahmet Orken of Turkey was rattled off his bike. Tour de France champion Chris Froome needed a bike change after a mechanical issue. Richie Porte of Australia had his chain bounce off.

The break stayed clear through four laps of the Grumari Circuit, a 25-kilometer loop that began stringing out the field. The riders then headed back toward Rio and began three climbs of Vista Chinesa, a tough uphill slog on forest-lined roads that splintered what was left of the peloton.

So hard was the course that reigning world champion Peter Sagan of Slovakia chose to try his luck in the mountain bike race. No doubt many rivals thought it was the right decision.

One by one, a pack driven by Britain, Spain and Italy pulled back the break, though Kwiatkowski made them work for it. His jersey flapping open in the midday heat, the Polish star was finally caught by six riders after nearly 200 kilometers spent at the front.

Time trial favorites Porte and Nelson Oliveira of Portugal crashed during one of the fast descents, and Porte spent several minutes sitting beside the road before getting to his feet.

There was more carnage on the final march over Vista Chinesa.

The images of Nibali and Henao lying on the road caused a gasp among fans watching on a big screen at the finish line. Geraint Thomas of Britain joined them on the ground moments later in a race that left plenty of riders with scrapes, bruises and road rash.

One that left a Belgian hearing his national anthem, too.