Olympian Raina Taitingfong finished her first race during the Paris 2024 Games on Wednesday morning grateful to be representing her island.

The Team Guam athlete made her debut in the women's kayak single 500-meter race finishing seventh with a time of 2:29.

Nan Wang from the People's Republic of China, who first made her debut in Tokyo 2020, finished first at 1:51.

"I'm happy with what I did," said Taitingfong following her heat. "It was all the wake that was coming out from both sides...but it was good and it was fun. It's a lot windier today. The past couple of days have been super flat and nice. But you can't count on the water to do what you want it to do."

She now has until early afternoon in Paris to prepare for the women's kayak single 500-meter quarterfinals, which is scheduled for 9:30 pm (CHst) today.

Taitingfong will also compete Thursday, August 8 in the women's canoe single 200-meter heat scheduled for 6:30 pm (CHst).

She is a first-time Olympian and only the second paddler after Sean Pangelinan at Beijing 2008 to represent Guam at the Games.