As the 49ers rounded the first mark, the red-and-white Swiss spinnaker popped open, followed by the blue-and-yellow chute aboard Ukraine's boat and then the Union Jack.
Clay Stanley led an all-around effort with 21 points Tuesday as the US swept the Netherlands 26-24, 25-20, 25-18.
"We finally got one," outside hitter Kevin Barnett yelled as he left the floor, referring to his team's first win at the Summer Games since 1996.
The Americans ended a nine-match Olympic losing streak with very few errors, strong defense and excellent serving. Reid Priddy added nine kills.
In other matches Argentina edged Tunisia 3-2, Serbia-Montenegro swept France 3-0, Greece downed Poland 3-1 and Russia blanked Australia 3-0.
Doug Beal, who guided the US team to its first gold medal in 1984 and returned to coach again in 2000, earned his first Olympic win since Los Angeles.
Dejan Savic scored the winning goal to break a deadlock in the final quarter as Serbia-Montenegro edged Sydney 2000 silver medalist Russia 4-3 in Olympic water polo.
Greece upset Spain 8-5 with the "sirtaki" tune blaring on each of the home goals and thousands of Greek fans chanting "Hellas, Hellas, Hellas."
Spain went behind 5-1 late in the second period.
"We had lost the game from the beginning," said Spain coach Juan Jane. Anastasios Schizas scored twice for the Greeks, who'd lost to Germany in the second round.
The Germans moved to 2-0 with Marc Politze scoring five goals in a 13-3 win over Egypt, while Hungary and the US were also 2-0 going into a head-to-head on Thursday.
US captain Wolf Wigo contributed four goals in a 9-6 win over Kazakhstan that ended with two players expelled for fighting. Tamas Kasas and Peter Biros scored three goals apiece as world and Olympic champion Hungarians beat Croatia 10-8.
Francesco Postiglione scored three times for No. 2-ranked Italy in an 8-4 win over Australia.
Ilias Iliadis of Greece thrilled the home crowd Tuesday, beating Roman Gontyuk of Ukraine to win the gold medal in the 81kg class.
Japan's Ayumi Tanimoto beat Claudia Heill of Austria to win the 63-kilogram division. Japan has won four gold medals and a silver in eight judo events this year.
Dmitri Nossov of Russia and Flavio Canto of Brazil shared the bronze in the men's competition, and Driulys Gonzalez Morales of Cuba and Urska Zolnir of Slovenia did so in the women's.
Florian Wanner of Germany lost to Gontyuk in the quarterfinals. Sergei Aschwanden of Switzerland lost to Argentina's Ariel Sganga.
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