Sifan Hassan won the women's 5,000m gold to seal the first part of her attempt at an unprecedented Olympic treble and Simone Biles' gymnastics return was announced on day 10 in Tokyo.
Dutchwoman Hassan surged away on the last lap to win in 14 minutes 36.79 seconds and her victory came just hours after she had recovered from a slip in the heats for the 1500m, an event in which she is chasing a medal along with the 10,000m.
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn had earlier won an emotional first athletics gold for Puerto Rico, while Kenya's 37-year stranglehold on the men's 3,000m steeplechase came to an end with gold for Morocco's Soufiane el Bakkali.
There was also an upset in the women's football where world champions the United States lost 1-0 to Canada in the semi-finals.
China took the first title in the track cycling at the velodrome, where - after so many days of empty areas - there were fans in attendance. A 50% capacity of up to 1,800 is allowed as the venue is outside Tokyo, where stricter Covid-19 rules apply.
They witnessed a bizarre crash when Australian Alexander Porter's handlebars suddenly snapped off, throwing him forwards at speed on to the floor, with the rider escaping largely unhurt.
There was a malfunction of a different kind in the shooting, where Ukraine's Serhiy Kulish was distracted by the button on his jacket undoing and fired at a rival's target instead.
Meanwhile, New Zealand's Laurel Hubbard made Olympic history, becoming the first openly transgender athlete to compete at a Games in a different gender category to the one in which they were born.
Hubbard, however, failed to record a successful lift in the women's +87kg weightlifting.
Hassan shines and Puerto Rico celebrate first athletics gold
It was a wet evening at the Olympic stadium, where the discus final and pole vault qualifying were paused during torrential rain, but it did not stop Hassan as she sat back in the pack before launching a last-lap burst to take a convincing gold in the 5,000m.
That is the only event of the three she has entered where she is not the reigning world champion.
She was fortunate to recover earlier in the day after falling during the 1500m heats, saying she had been tired from her exploits after she got up quickly to overtake several athletes to win the heat.
"Without coffee I would never be Olympic champion. I needed all the caffeine!" she said.
Earlier in the day, Puerto Rico won their first ever track and field gold as Camacho-Quinn cruised to victory in the women's 100m hurdles.
The 24-year-old is only the second athlete from the US territory to win an Olympic gold medal, after Monica Puig in the women's tennis singles in 2016.
Greek long jumper Miltiadis Tentoglou provided another first - his country's first gold in the event - sealing the title with his final attempt of 8.41m having been outside the medal positions before that. Juan Miguel Echevarria took silver and fellow Cuban Maykel Masso got bronze.
But there was disappointment for Jamaica's 100m bronze medallist Shericka Jackson, who failed to reach the women's 200m semi-finals after finishing fourth in her heat having eased up metres before the line, and for South Africa's defending 400m champion Wayde van Niekerk, who was eliminated in the semi-finals of his event.
And there was a surprise in the men's 3,000m steeplechase where Kenya, who were going for their 10th title in a row, could only win bronze as El Bakkali - who was fourth at Rio 2016 - surged in the final lap to win in 8:08.90 ahead of Ethiopian Lamecha Girma.
In the women's discus, American Valarie Allman won gold with an effort of 68.98m.
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