Inspired by the memory of his late grandfather and spurred on by family in the crowd, Teremoana Teremoana has become the first Australian to win a Super Heavyweight fight in Olympic history.

The 26-year-old beat Ukranian Dmytro Lovchynskyi in a first-round knockout with a devastating display of power in their 92kg+ bout at the North Paris Arena.

He will now fight reigning Olympic champion Bakhodir Jalolov from Uzbekistan at 1.54am AEST on 3 August in the quarter-finals.

“We’re here to win and I’m just glad I got it out of the way in the first round,” Teremoana said.

“I wasn’t planning to go for the knockout, I am confident in my strength, but the plan was to go out there and box, and I was landing a few clean punches and he was feeling it.

“We’ve been working on everything in the past 18 months, I fought him last February and he beat me over three rounds, so I was just very happy to get my revenge.”

Teremoana boxed as a junior but gave the sport away at 19 and later travelled around Australia in a caravan.

But the passing of his grandfather just before his 21st birthday made him return to the sport and in Paris he celebrated his victory with a special dance in a nod to his heritage.

“I’m representing my grandfather, he was a Cook Islander,” he said.

“He was a family person who led by example, and I respect him so much because he walked the talk and I’m trying to be a representation of him.

“I am Teremoana Junior, named after him. I used to be known as Sampson and I decided at my 21st (birthday) that I was going to go by Teremoana.

“Since then I wanted to put his name on the world stage and I decided I would go back to boxing and do that.

Earlier, Harry Garside put aside the personal pain of losing his opening bout of the Paris Olympics to support his teammates in their quest for gold.

Harry lost to Hungarian Richard Kovacs in the round of 16 of the men's 63.5kg division.

The 27-year-old made a strong start and took the first of three rounds on points before Kovacs fought back to progress to the quarter-finals.

"It's a wild sport, it only comes around every four years and for it to be over just like that I feel very numb right now," Harry said.

"I could see the gold medal in all my visualisations and I don't know what went wrong.

"100 percent I will stick around (in Paris). I am a team man and want to support my team and I truly believe one of the other boxers still in the competition from Australia will win a gold medal, and I want to be in the stands when it happens.

"I love our country to bits and we deserve that gold medal. It's been a long, long time for us not to have a gold medal and I really hope it's this Olympics."

Fellow Australian Tyla McDonald lost her round of 16 bout to Maria Jose Palacios Espin from Ecuador in the women's 60kg division.

While disappointed with the result, the 21-year-old was determined to come back in four years' time.

"To be honest that whole moment just got to me. It's my first Olympics and I've never been so nervous so it was a lot," Tyla said.

"But no excuses, I didn't do what I needed to do, so that's on me.

"I felt really good (with my preparation). We were in Germany and had a training camp and felt fit, and coming into the Village was amazing, we have great facilities at the Australian headquarters so can't fault my preparation at all.

"I absolutely want to come back bigger, better and stronger. I will obviously have a bit of a break and then LA 2028.”

Reece Homfray