With time to reset and rehydrate following the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, it is time to look back on what many have called the most exhilarating Olympiad of the millennium.
It was Seine-sensational, from the opening ceremonies on.
In 16 days of days of competition, a total of 21 world records were established. The most-publicized were in swimming and track and field, but records also fell in archery, cycling, sport climbing, weight lifting, canoeing and the modern pentathlon.
There was a fortnight of firsts. Athletes from Saint Lucia, Dominica and Botswana won their country’s first golds, all in athletics. Cindy Ngamba made history as the first athlete on the refugee team to medal.
World and Olympic records were set, then set again, in the space of a few hours in both the track and field competition at the Stade de France and at the swimming venue at La Defense Arena.
Host France celebrated a new national hero when 22-year old Leon Marchand won four gold medals in swimming, and his country was right in synch — timing their cheers during the the butterfly and breaststroke portions of his individual medley races only when his head was above water to hear them.
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The U.S. men and women continued their basketball dominance. Steph Curry put French crowd to to sleep in the U.S.’s 98-87 victory in men’s finals with a clinching three-point shooting display that has marked an NBA career that includes four championships. The men have won five straight titles. The women, eight.
Katie Ledecky dominated the pool, winning four more medals, two golds. Simone Biles did the same in her gymnastics comeback, seemingly on whatever apparatus was nearby. She has 10 Olympic medals, seven golds.
No pole vaulter has ever been closer to the clouds than Armand “Mondo” Duplantis, a Cajun form Lafayette, La., who competed for Sweden, his mother’s native land. Duplantis set the world record at 6.25 meters, his ninth world record in the last four years.
American Scottie Scheffler, who has won more than $70 million on the PGA Tour, wiped tears from his eyes on the medal stand as the Star Spangled Banner played.
He was hardly the only one.
Some of the memories
The Splendor of the Opening Ceremonies
Leave it to the French, who were hosting their third Olympics after previous runs in 1900 (the second Games ever) and 1924.
France took tradition and blew it out of — into? — the water on Night One, when the delegations from all 184 countries were introduced while as the flotilla move down the Seine and past the Eiffel Tower.
The biggest countries — the U.S. France, Germany, Australia — had their own vessels, but many others were partnered three or four to a craft. No one minded. Celine Dion concluded the night with a stirring rendition of French legend Edith Piaf’s “L’Hymne à l’amour.”
Everyone Into the Pool
Ledecky, 27, continued to defy Mother Time by winning two gold medals, one silver and one bronze. She won her fourth consecutive gold medal in the 800 meter freestyle, a feat only matched by Michael Phelps.
On the end of the age spectrum, Summer McIntosh, 17, won three gold medals and a silver while becoming the first Canadian swimmer to win three golds at one Olympics.
The U.S. won eight swimming golds and Australia won seven. Why are the Aussies so good in the water? It is an island continent after all. Then there was Marchand, who, of course, is coached at Arizona State University by Bob Bowman, who also guided Phelps to 28 Olympic medals, 23 gold.
The return of Simone
Biles made an inspiring return in Paris during what the U.S. women called their “redemption tour” after withdrawing from the 2020 Tokyo Games (staged in 2021) amid a controversy surrounding the U.S. Gymnastics Federation.
Biles, 27, won gold medals in the all-around and vault competitions and also as part of the winning team competition. She won a silver in the floor exercise, where she reached heights of 12 feet above the mat during her routine.
Leaning into gold
Sprinter Noah Lyles claimed the title as the world’s fastest man when he set a personal bests of 9.79 seconds to win the 100-meter sprint, but the finish was about as close as it could have been.
With a lean at the tape, Lyles beat Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson by five one-hundredths of a second. Moments after the race, Lyles told Thompson, “I think you got that one, big dog.” Al\most.
Lyles was forced to withdraw from the 200-meter race, considered his best event, after coming down with Covid.
