Winners and losers of the 2024 Olympics: Big upsets, failures and joyful moments
PARIS — After two somewhat depressing Olympics conducted under strict COVID protocols in Tokyo and Beijing, the Games returned to form here in a big way. Crowds were immense. Television ratings skyrocketed. Safety and security were preserved. And Team USA dominated the medal table, tying China for an Olympic-high 40 golds, while adding the most silver (44) and bronze (42).
As we say goodbye to Paris 2024, here are the winners and losers of these Games:
Paris shines from beginning to end
They pulled it off. Though there were a couple minor hiccups along the way, as there are at any Olympics, it was mostly smooth sailing for Paris 2024 organizers. The city’s infrastructure held up. Security threats were handled both by invisible, multi-national intelligence cooperatives and a highly visible police presence on the streets. The stands were packed everywhere. Even the famously pessimistic French citizens flipped from having a negative opinion of the Games taking over their country to buying all the way in on national pride, according to public opinion polls. And they have a lot to be proud of: Paris absolutely shined from beginning to end, showing once again why it’s one of the most visited cities in the world.
NBC finally figures it out
Finally, they figured it out. Instead of narrowly presenting the Olympics as a primetime TV drama packaged for the suburban mom who isn’t a sports fan and making live content difficult to access, NBC got with the times. Of course the evening network windows had tape-delayed sports and schmaltz. But sports fans want to watch live sports as they happen. NBC made that available in various ways, and the “Gold Zone” feed took fans where the action was while making specific events relatively easy to find through streaming. We’ll see how the final ratings shake out, but the first couple weeks averaged more than 32 million viewers a day – a whopping 76 percent improvement from Tokyo.
The Golden Girls
You couldn’t ask for too much more from Simone Biles and crew. The Americans won the team final, Biles took gold in the women’s all-around and vault while adding silver in the floor exercise, while Suni Lee and Jade Carey added bronze medals in individual events. Jordan Chiles won bronze in the floor exercise but was told Sunday by the IOC she has to return the medal after Romania filed an appeal. Biles, 27, now has a mind-blowing 11 Olympic medals, seven of which are gold. She also won social media with a steady stream of cheeky content, including a Tweet making fun of former president Donald Trump’s comment about “black jobs.”
Noah Lyles golden in the 100
Despite ending the Games in some controversy around whether he should have run the 200 meters after being diagnosed with COVID, his primary job here was to win the 100. And he did it in memorable fashion, overcoming a slow start to win by five-thousands of a second with a lean into the finish line. Lyles is brash and sometimes thirsts for attention in an off-putting way, but he backed it up when it mattered.
Read our marathon coverage:Sifan Hassan's Olympic feat arguably greatest in history of Games
The Alpha Generation of USA Basketball
LeBron James is 39. Steph Curry is 36. Kevin Durant is 35. They should have handed the Olympic torch to the next generation by now. But thank goodness they didn’t, because it’s hard to imagine Team USA winning gold without them. James, in particular, has been indispensable because this roster was not constructed with enough playmakers. Curry has struggled to find his groove at times, but got hot at the right time with 36 in the semifinals against Serbia. And Durant has been on a social media tear, in addition to providing clutch buckets. Given how much Team USA has relied on these guys, the future is a little scary. But in these Olympics, their championship experience was the difference.
Check out more commentary:LeBron was the best player at the Olympics. Shame on the Lakers for wasting his brilliance.
Olympic tennis delivers at Roland Garros
Paris gave tennis its due in an opening ceremony that featured prime roles for Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal and Amelie Mauresmo, along with several national flag-bearers including Coco Gauff for Team USA. The ensuing tournament, played at Roland Garros, then delivered a boatload of memories from the Nadal-Carlos Alcaraz doubles pairing, the final match of Andy Murray’s career and Novak Djokovic winning the gold medal in men’s singles in an epic 7-6, 7-6 victory over Alcaraz. Djokovic has won everything else in tennis multiple times, and yet he called finally winning an elusive Olympic gold at age 37 his greatest accomplishment.
Leon Marchand = national hero
How do you say “national hero” in French? Marchand’s presence at these Games brought some of the biggest and rowdiest crowds to an Olympic swimming venue that anyone has ever seen. And while some French athletes didn’t handle that pressure particularly well, Marchand won gold in the 200 breaststroke, the 200 butterfly and both the 200 and 400 individual medley while setting Olympic records in all of them.
Athletes from war-torn countries
Israeli athletes won a best-ever seven medals, including Tom Reuveny’s gold in men’s iQFoil sailing, despite some antisemitic protests at events where Israelis competed. Ukraine won 11 medals including golds in fencing (women’s team saber), track (Yaroslava Mahuchikh in the women’s high jump) and boxing (Oleksandr Khyzhniak in men’s middleweight).
Cole Hocker's big upset in 1,500
Hocker’s stunning win in the men’s 1,500 was the upset of track and field at the 2024 Games. Using a blistering final kick, Hocker ran down world champion Josh Kerr of Great Britain and Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the defending gold medalist, setting a new Olympic record.
Scottie Scheffler's emotional win
Trailing by four shots entering the final round, the world’s No. 1 golfer finished with a 62 and then cried on the podium as the American national anthem played. For a guy who is pretty nonchalant about everything, winning an Olympic gold clearly meant more to him than he would have ever imagined. Golfers are all about majors — and Scheffler has two Masters titles — but this one is going to have a prominent spot in his trophy case.
Mondo Duplantis, Louisiana native also the pride of Sweden
The Louisiana-born pole vaulter who competes for Sweden due to his mother’s nationality (and some unique commercial opportunities), is basically already the GOAT of his sport at age 24. Not only did he break his own world record by clearing 6.25 meters to win a second gold medal, he showed up on Swedish TV the next morning for an interview in his second language despite what seemed to be a massive hangover. What a champion.
USWNT's masterful turnaround
After such a long run of dominance on the international stage, the sun finally set on the last generation of U.S. women's soccer greats. Their bronze medal in Tokyo and earliest-ever exit in the World Cup last year (round of 16) signaled both that the world had caught up to the U.S. and that it was time for changes within the program. Enter Emma Hayes as the new coach, hired in May and given just a few months to turn this thing around. And somehow, they did it, going 7-0 at the Olympics and winning three consecutive 1-0 games in the knockout round to win a fifth gold medal for the USWNT. They're back.
Viral memes
For a few days, 51-year old shooter Yusuf Dikec became one of the stars of the Olympics for competing in a standard-issue T-shirt and regular “dad glasses” while winning a silver medal. Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen became famous for TikToks about chocolate muffins. American pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik had sort of a Clark Kent/Superman thing going on with his rectangular glasses and breathing routine before competing. The breaking routine of Australia’s Raygun was a “choose your own adventure” joke that will live on the Internet in perpetuity. But none of them came close to French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati failing to clear the bar because his “equipment” got in the way.
LOSERS
Anyone outraged by the women’s boxing “controversy”
Imane Khelif of Algeria became an international flashpoint in a tiresome culture war after her first opponent, Italian Angela Carini, surrendered after 46 seconds and taking one heavy punch to the face. The video sparked a controversy over Khelif’s gender, with the International Boxing Association claiming that Khelif and Taiwanese fighter Lin Yu-Ting had failed “sex tests” at their world championships a year ago. But the outrage was mostly based on misinformation. Neither boxer is transgender. Both were eligible to compete under the IOC’s rules. And the IBA’s credibility completely imploded when it failed to provide any evidence of its tests at a clownish news conference this week. The Russian-backed IBA, which had been cast out of the Olympics years ago, was trying to sow chaos at a Games where Russian athletes were banned. They succeeded in one respect, but they didn’t stop Khelif from winning gold.
Athlete comfort
There were a handful of days here, especially during the first week, when it was hot. It wasn’t the kind of heat and humidity we’re used to in most corners of America during the summer, and it certainly wasn’t even close to the hottest Olympics we’ve ever seen. But temperatures in the high 80s and 90s are not typical for Paris and not compatible with some of the eco-friendly initiatives Paris 2024 tried to implement. While some of the more prominent teams brought their own air conditioning units, others didn’t have the resources. Athletes preparing for the biggest competition of their lives should not have to sleep in rooms without A/C, and complaints about living conditions — including the infamous cardboard beds — were numerous and legitimate. Tennis players complained about not having cold water to drink during changeovers because there was no refrigeration near their chair like they have at most tournaments. Sustainability is important, but making some compromises for the athletes’ comfort would have been a smart move.
Russia
Just 15 Russian athletes competed here under a neutral flag, seven of which were tennis players. Russians could compete as neutral athletes in some cases depending on the international federation for their sport, provided they had not shown any support for the Ukraine war, but many chose not to go through that vetting process out of principle. Were they missed? Nah.
Jamaican women’s track
It was a brutal Olympics for a group of sprinters that typically shows up big when it matters. Of course, we knew Elaine Thompson-Herah wouldn’t be at the Olympics to go for a three-peat in the 100m and 200m after sustaining an Achilles injury this summer. But Jamaica didn’t win a medal in the 100 for the first time since 1998, in the 200 for the first time since 1976 or the 4x100 relay for the first time since 2008. Shericka Jackson ended up not running in any of those three events, and 37-year old legend Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price ended up withdrawing from the Olympics after reports that she got held up trying to enter the venue and missed her warmup for the 100 semifinal.
Canadian men’s basketball
Canada produces more talent than any country in the world besides the U.S., but they have nothing to show for it in the Olympics since a silver medal in 1936. After qualifying tournament disasters that kept them out of the Olympics in 2016 and 2020, this year was supposed to be different. But despite a rotation made up exclusively of NBA players, Canada bowed out meekly with an 82-73 quarterfinal loss to France. At minimum, this team should have won a silver medal.
U.S. men’s swimming
Maybe it was a fluke, but winning just one gold medal in 14 men’s individual races is something that will stick in the craw of USA Swimming for the next four years. Had Bobby Finke not come through in the 1,500 freestyle, it would have been the first 0-fer for American men since 1900. Sure, there were some silver and bronze medals, but Caeleb Dressel being unable to reproduce the magic from Tokyo was a big disappointment.
French gymnastics federation
Kaylia Nemour was set to be a French star at these Olympics, but a conflict between her family and the federation over coaching and training sites caused a split. As a result, Nemour decided to represent Algeria, where she and her father have dual citizenship. She won the gold medal in uneven bars, earning the first Olympic medal for an African gymnast. Meanwhile, the French women were completely shut out of the podium in gymnastics.
U.S. women’s water polo
The most dominant team in the world is leaving Paris without a medal. The Americans had won three consecutive golds coming into the 2024 Games but were knocked out by Australia in the semifinals before falling to the Netherlands in the bronze medal game. Flavor Flav does not approve.
U.S. 3x3 basketball
The current approach just isn’t working. After failing to qualify for the Olympics in Tokyo, the men’s team went 2-5 with several embarrassing performances. The women’s team, which won gold three years ago, settled for bronze this time. Though the nature of 3x3 makes it more high-variance than 5x5 basketball, the men’s team wasn’t constructed well, relying on 35-year old Jimmer Fredette (who got injured) and some fringe pros that few fans ever heard of. USA Basketball needs to figure out a way to get more high-level players interested and qualified through various international tournaments if they want us to take this effort seriously.
Breaking
Is this really a sport? Meh. Is it an art form? Kinda. Does it belong in the Olympics? Heck no. Hopefully this event was a Paris Games one-and-done.