Photo: Getty Images
Photo: Getty Images
Even before the Olympics began, there were moments that seemed custom-built to fly across the internet (Mayor Hidalgo in the Seine! Lady Gaga in feathers! Céline Dion on the Eiffel Tower!)—but now that the Games are nearly over, we’ve been stunned and amazed by more athletic accomplishments. Here, a running list of highlights at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
USWNT defeats Brazil to collect Team USA’s first gold medal in women’s soccer since 2012
On August 10, the US women’s national team beat Brazil 1-0 in the gold medal match, securing the top stop at the Olympic Games for the first time since 2012. The sole goal was scored in minute 57 by Mallory Swanson, off an assist from Korbin Albert.
Sha’Carri Richardson and Team USA win gold in the women’s 4x100m relay
Team USA continued an impressive showing in track and field, with the women winning gold in the 4x100m relay. The participating sprinters were, in order, Melissa Jefferson, Twanisha Terry, Gabby Thomas, and Vogue’s August digital cover star, Sha’Carri Richardson. Though she was behind opponents from Great Britain and Germany upon taking the baton—and despite the rain at Stade de France—Richardson flew by the competition in the anchor leg.
Team USA track star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone breaks her own world record in the 400m hurdles, and wins gold alongside long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall
August 8, 2024 will go down in track and filed history. Defending Olympic champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won gold in the 400m hurdles, finishing the race in just 50.37 seconds. En route to victory, McLaughlin-Levrone—who turned 25 the day the before the competition—broke her own Olympic record (51.46) and the world record she set back in June (50.65). After clearing all ten hurdles on the Stade de France track, the New Jersey native shared an embrace with her family, who crowned her with a tiara. Later, McLaughlin-Levrone posed with teammate Tara Davis-Woodhall, who won gold in the long jump (and accessorized with a cowboy hat).
In two short days, three countries—and the Refugee Olympic Team—collected their first-ever medal
Two Carribean islands captured their first Olympic medals ever on August 3—and both of them golds: Dominica (thanks to triple-jumper Thea LaFond-Gadson) and St. Lucia (thanks to sprinter Julien Alfred—who had to beat out Sha‘Carri Richardson in the process). A day later, David de Pina’s bronze in boxing also became Cabo Verde’s first medal.
In yet another exciting first, the Refugee Olympic Team will win its first-ever medal in these Games: When Cameroon-born, United Kingdom-based boxer Cindy Ngamba advanced to the women’s middleweight semifinal (set for August 8), she was guaranteed at least a bronze. “I want to tell the refugees around the world, keep on working hard, keep on pushing yourself and you can accomplish anything,” Ngamba said in a statement.
Two different athlete couples got engaged
On August 2, shortly after Team China’s Huang Yaqiong won the gold—alongside parner Zheng Siwei—in mixed doubles, Huang’s boyfriend, felllow badminton player Liu Yuchen, became her fiancé: He got down on one knee right after the medal ceremony. “For me, the proposal is very surprising because I have been preparing for the game,” Huang told the press through an interpreter later that day. “Today I am an Olympic champion and I got proposed [to], so that’s something I didn’t expect.”
Four days later, after French athlete Alice Finot finished fourth in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, she walked up to the stands and proposed to her boyfriend, Spanish triathlete Bruno Martínez Bargiela, with an Olympic pin. (He said yes, and put it on his shirt.)
“I told myself that if I ran under nine minutes, knowing that nine is my lucky number and that we’ve been together for nine years, then I would propose,” Finot told reporters. (Her time was 8:58.67.) “I don’t like doing things like everyone else. Since he hadn’t done it yet, I told myself that maybe it was up to me to do it.”
Noah Lyles ends a drought in the men’s 100-meter
After running in a blisteringly fast semi that saw Lyles narrowly lose to Jamaica’s Oblique Seville, the 27-year-old sprinter took the gold in the 100-meter final—becoming the first American since 2004 (Justin Gatlin) to do so. It was a thrilling photo finish, with Lyles besting Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson by five-thousandths of a second. Another American, Fred Kerley, won the bronze.
After 24 Grand Slams, the Djoker wins his very first Olympic gold medal
A few short weeks after falling to Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s singles final at Wimbeldon, Novak Djokovic thoroughly turned the tables, beating the 21-year-old Spaniard in straight sets (7-6, 7-6) at the Paris Olympics on August 4. In a match that came down to tiebreakers in both sets—and attracted an audience including Billie Jean King, Serena Williams, and Sharon Stone—each player was competing at his highest level, with Djokovic falling to his hands and knees in tears after match point. (Incredibly, Olympic gold was the only major title in tennis that had so far eluded him.) Currently ranked number two in the world, Djokovic, playing for his native Serbia, then flew into the stands to hug his family and hold up a huge Serbian flag for the crowd.
Djokovic’s win came a day after Qinwen Zheng beat Donna Vekic of Croatia in the women’s final—claiming China’s first gold medal in tennis singles in the process.
All the planning pays off, and Olympians…actually swim in the Seine!
Several years, some 1.4 billion euros, a highly publicized dip by Mayor Anne Hidalgo, and then a few postponements due to E. coli and intestinal enterococci levels later, Olympians completed their first swims in the River Seine. The men’s and women’s individual triathalons took place on July 31, with wins from Alex Yee of Great Britain and Cassandre Beaugrand of France. (Yes, Beaugrand vomited at the start of her race, but that was due to nerves—the event involves a gruelling 1,500-meter swim, a 40-km cycling race, and a 10K run—not the water pollution!)
Katie Ledecky ties—and then surpasses—the record for winningest American woman in Olympics history
With her jaw-dropping result in the women’s 1,500-meter freestyle—her 15:30.02 finish set a new Olympic record—Ledecky won her eighth career Olympic gold medal on July 31, tying a record set by fellow swimmer Jenny Thomson 20 years ago. When she then went on to win her ninth, in the 800-meter freestyle, Ledecky officially became the most decorated American woman in Olympic history.
Team USA wins gold in the women’s gymnastics team final
On July 30, the squad, led by the indominable Simone Biles, bested Italy and Brazil with a score of 171.296 points—even after Jordan Chiles suffered a fall from the beam at the top of her routine. The medal represented a triumphant return to form since Team USA’s final in Tokyo, where they placed second following Biles’s withdrawl partway through the event.
Later that evening, in an Instagram post celebrating the team’s achievement, Biles made cheeky reference to comments made by her former teammate MyKayla Skinner back in June, after the group competing in Paris had been finalized. Remarking, in a since-deleted YouTube video, on how new regulations implemented across the sport to stymie abusive behavior had changed the way that coaches interact with gymnasts, Skinner said, “Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be. Just notice, like, I mean, obviously a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic.” (Skinner later issued an apology, claiming that her point had been misinterpreted and was not intended to criticize the other members of Team USA.) After Biles’s post, Skinner apparently blocked her on Instagram.
Everyone discovers the air pistol—and becomes obsessed with South Korea’s Ye-ji Kim and Turkey’s Yusuf Dikec
Kim, who won silver in the women’s 10-meter air pistol event on July 28, later went viral on X on the strength of her vibes alone. “The most aura I have ever seen in an image,” one user commented, sharing a picture of Kim clad in her Team South Korea cap, black Fila jacket, and the special glasses worn by most marksmen. “This girl is a movie character like how is she real,” added another, reacting to a video of Kim at the International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, earlier this year, where she set a new world record in the women’s 25-meter.
The appeal of Yusuf Dikec, who won silver in the 10-meter air pistol mixed team event, alongside Sevval Ilayda Tarhan, was different. Wearing normal eyeglasses and a white Team Turkey tee, he looked to users on X like an assassin the Turkish government had called up specifically for the Games. (In fact, he was a five-time Olympian, having previously competed in Beijing, London, Rio de Janeiro, and Tokyo.)
An Egyptian fencer makes a striking announcement
After being knocked out of the women’s individual sabre competition by South Korea’s Jeon Ha-Young during the round of 16, Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez took to Instagram with a frankly shocking revelation: She had been competing in Paris while seven months pregnant. “What appears to you as two players on the podium, they were actually three! It was me, my competitor, & my yet-to-come to our world, little baby!” Hafez wrote. “The rollercoaster of pregnancy is tough on its own, but having to fight to keep the balance of life & sports was nothing short of strenuous, however worth it.” The 2024 Games marked Hafez’s third appearance at the Olympics; she previously competed in Rio and Tokyo.
The US men’s gymnastics team takes home its first medal in 16 years
An excellent performance on July 29 lifted the men’s team from their fifth-place position (as of the previous Saturday) to the medal podium. The victory was in part due to Stephen Nedoroscik’s heroic work on the pommel horse—the one and only gymnastics event in which he competed. (He had to sit through two hours of the competition before his turn—a winning psychic accomplishment as well as a physical one!)
Former NBA player Chase Budinger wins his first Olympic beach volleyball match
Budinger, who began his professional athletic career as a basketball player, hooping for teams including the Houston Rockets and the Minnesota Timberwolves, shifted his focus to beach volleyball in 2017. Seven years later, making his Olympic debut with playing partner Miles Evans, Budinger celebrated his premier Olympic victory, defeating Youssef Krou and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat of France in straight sets.
France’s Leon Marchand sets a new record in the 400-meter individual medley
Beating a 400-meter record set in 2008 by one Michael Phelps, Marchand, 22, finished in 4:02.95 on July 28, earning him his first Olympic gold medal (and a congratulatory call from French President Emmanuel Macron). “I had goosebumps on the podium. I felt very proud to be myself and to be also French,” Marchand told reporters.
The triumph has a nice, full-circle back story: As a teen, Marchand cold-emailed Bob Bowman, Phelps’s former coach, asking if Bowman would take him on. Bowman wasn’t familiar with Marchand but recognized the last name.
Two American fencers make history
In a women’s individual foil final that saw two Americans, Lee Kiefer and Lauren Scruggs, battle for the gold, Kiefer, 30, emerged the victor, becoming the first US woman and only the third woman ever to win two Olympic gold medals in fencing. Scruggs, meanwhile, a 21-year-old Harvard student, became the first Black fencer from Team USA to medal in a women’s individual event at the Olympics.
Team USA wins its first gold medal
The men’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay team, anchored by Caeleb Dressel, claimed gold for the USA on July 27—marking the nation’s first gold medal at the Paris Games. The team, also made up of Jack Alexy, Chris Guiliano, and Hunter Armstrong posted a combined time of 3:09.28, beating Australia by more than a second. Italy finished third.
Canada’s women’s soccer team is accused of espionage
Days after the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) suspended Bev Priestman, head coach of Canada’s women’s soccer team, for the remainder of the Games on July 25, the team was penalized with a six-point deduction from its group stage total—all but assuring that Canada would not remain in contention for a medal. Why? Because on July 22, it was discovered that a Canadian man with ties to the team “had effectively filmed the closed-door training of the New Zealand women’s team, with the help of a drone,” according to a statement. Much drama and intrigue ensued.
South Sudan’s basketball team goes viral
We are proud to land in Paris Olympics with South Soudan 🇸🇸basketball team, all custom made fits designed& Made by MOSHIONS. #MOSHIONSTOTHEWORLD. pic.twitter.com/d8G7FlEFRh
— Moshions (@Moshions) July 26, 2024
A day before South Sudan’s men’s basketball team celebrated its first-ever win at the Olympics—trouncing Puerto Rico 90-79 on July 28—the team went viral on X for their sharp suiting at the opening ceremony, created by Rwandan designer Moses Turahirwa.
An Italian high-jumper loses his wedding band in the Seine and is extremely cute about it
Gianmarco Tamberi, a flag bearer for Team Italy, took to Instagram on July 27 with a confession—and an apology—to his wife: The night before, he had watched his wedding ring bounce into the Seine during the opening ceremony. “I’m sorry, my love, I’m so sorry,” the high-jumper wrote in a caption in Italian. “I felt it slip away, I saw it fly…. I followed it with my gaze until I saw it bounce inside the boat. A tinkle of hope… But unfortunately the bounce was in the wrong direction.”
Yet Tamberi managed to give the whole ordeal a romantic spin. He continued, charmingly: “But if it really had to happen […] I couldn’t imagine a better place. It will remain forever in the riverbed of the city of love, flown away while I was trying to raise the Italian tricolor as high as possible during the opening ceremony of the most important sporting event in the world. If I had to invent an excuse I would never have been so imaginative. […] May it be a good omen to return home with an even bigger gold!!!”
The Games get off to a starry start
Leave it to Paris to fill its utterly iconic Olympic venues with all manner of celebrity onlookers. Among those in the stands on the Olympics’ first weekend were Dr. Jill Biden, Emma Chamberlain, Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Spike Lee, Mick Jagger, and Tom Cruise.
This article was originally published on Vogue.com.
