The Olympics are in full swing and for those who can’t catch everything, Here’s a list of my favorite thing/moments/situations from the 2024 Olympics. I’ll keep updating as we go, so make sure to check back!
this is what it’s all about
I couldn’t love this moment more. Brazil’s Rebecca Andrade would be the GOAT if she didn’t live in the time of Simone Biles. Andrade worked her way out of the Favelas, sometimes walking two hours each way to train. She came back from not one, not two, but THREE ACL tears in four years to win gold in the individual floor routine.
It’s difficult to put into words the admiration and respect other gymnasts have for her. Here we see American medalists Jordan Chiles and Simone Biles – notably the greatest to ever do it – bowing down in respect to Andrade.
THIS IS EVERYTHING.
You can be great without being arrogant. You can amplify the success of other women without diminishing your own. What a tribute by the Americans and what a visual message to sent to every girl and boy watching this all over the world. I can’t love this more, especially since it’s the first all-black gymnastics podium in olympic history. Andrade is a legend and deserved this beautiful moment. With this gold medal she becomes the most medaled Brazilian of all time.
when the world’s fastest woman is one of your own
Don’t think the Olympics matter? Here’s life footage of the people of St. Lucia freaking out as their countrywoman Julien Alfred blows the field away in the Women’s 100m final.
What a tremendous run from Alfred.
Duplantis Soars
After failing to break the world record twice, check out this vault by Sweden’s Armand Gustav “Mondo” Duplantis. There was nothing else going on in the arena at the time, so 70k eyes watched as Duplantis blew past the world record mark of 6.25 meters, breaking the olympic record that he had set only 20 minutes before.
Duplantis is an American Swede who vaults for Sweden as a tribute to his mother, who was born there.
How good is Duplantis? Take a look:
Here’s a chart that aired on Swedish television that quickly explains who Duplantis is in the world of pole vaulting.
Based on the way he cleared that bar, experts expect that he can likely hit 6.5 meters at some point. That will mean we’ll say au revoir to Renaud Lavillenie from this list.
oh, so we’re biting?
This adorable shot of China’s Zhou Yaqin, the silver medalist in Artistic Gymnastics Women’s Balance Beam. The guess is that photographers were shouting out suggestions to the medalists and Zhou didn’t understand the language, but either way, this is adorable.
The moment she realized
Kaylia Nemour wanted to represent France, but there was a whole thing with the French Gymnastics Federation. Mind-blowing that gymnasts are treated unfairly! You never hear about that outside of every single federation. In the end, Nemour decided to say the hell with it and represent her father’s country of Algeria.
I was watching Nemour place just outside the podium in other gymnastics events and she just seemed like an island. The other gymnasts didn’t seem to know her and it was strange since there’s so much good blood for fellow athletes at the top of the gymnasts hierarchy. But Nemour pulled off an uneven bars program that was just mental, featuring a difficulty of 5.7, and this is when she realized her score, and ultimately, that she’s become Africa’s first medalist in women’s gymnastics.
It was super refreshing to see the immediate hugs she got from China’s silver medalist Qiu Qiyuan and the United States’ bronze medalist Suni Lee.
(No female gymnast from France ended up on the podium this year.)
Here’s a shot of the uneven bar medalists in 2024.
canada’s hammer
Canada’s Ethan Katzberg annihilated the competition this year in the Hammer Toss. It wasn’t even remotely close. The world is digging his look.
the golds don’t lie
How good is South Korean Archer Kim Woo-Jin? Well, South Korea swept every archery gold medal at the Paris games and Kim Woo-Jin is their best archer.
In the final shootout, both competitors hit bullseyes with every shot. Kim ended up winning by 5 mm. That’s crazy accuracy.
Here’s the difference between gold and silver. Insane.
gender equity
Paris is the first Olympics to feature an actual balance of men to women. This is great news.
closing like this
Words cannot capture the magnificence of the way Dutch runner Femke Bol brought it home for The Netherlands in the final leg of the women’s 4×100 relay. Absolutely jaw dropping. How? How?
Incroiable! is right!
It’s even more ridiculous when you know that she did the exact same thing at the world championships less than a year ago. What a phenom.
Olympic Tunes
Are you digging the music played at the Olympics? Some kind soul made a playlist here.
And here’s another of the opening ceremonies. (I haven’t checked to see if there’s overlap.)
even when you’re a pro, winning hits differently
Tears of relief and joy from USA’s Scottie Sheffler in Golf and Serbia’s Novak Djokovik in Tennis when they take home gold. Joker is 37 and this was likely his final shot at gold. With his victory he completes the fabled Golden Slam, becoming one of a very few who have won a gold medal along with Wimbledon, The French Open, The US Open and the Australian Open.
Bhutan’s Boat
All of the teams came in in various boats on the Seine, but Bhutan used a Venetian Water Taxi and stole the show.
This Photo of Gabriel Medina
I had a hard time believing it was real, too. But here’s the video leading up to it.
Exhale from Suni Lee
Simone Biles appropriately gobbles up most of the gymnastics headlines, but Olympian Suni Lee fought through a nightmarish kidney situation to put herself in medal contention. She needed to have the floor exercise of her life to stay in the running and THEN SHE DID. This was my favorite moment, after, when she knew that she had given it her all and let out a HUGE sigh if relief.
Kevin Durant Is Money
The Slim Reaper off the bench after a month long injury and drains 8 in a row.
Haley Batten
Haley Batten pulls in USA’s best ever finish in mountain biking.
Muffin Love
Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen’s love affair with the chocolate muffins at the Olympic Village.
ah yes, the infamous snake shot
Sweden’s Truls Möregårdh did not win the gold, but he did something that takes guts to try in an Olympic final: pulls off a ‘snake shot’ in table tennis at the Olympics final. Truls put reverse spin on the ball so that his opponent can’t get a hit on it. Unreal.
Sex and the City Reunion
Not a single ugly Louis Vuitton bag in sight for Carrie and Louise.
US Women’s Rugby 7’s Snatch Victory From The Jaws Of Defeat
Probably my favorite sports moment of the games. Watched it in real time and was jumping around like a madman. The US had lost. Like, it was over. And then Spiff Sedrick decided it wasn’t.
Irish Swimmer Gets Choked Up
Daniel Wiffen snagged Ireland its first-ever medal in men’s swimming and it just happened to be a gold. Ho hum. Here’s him getting misty on the podium as his national anthem plays. I cried like a baby watching it.
His identical twin brother Nathan is also a swimmer.
Lines Are Drawn By Politicians, Not Human Beings
North and South Korean table tennis medalists taking a selfie together. (Selfies are allowed for the first time on the podiums using official-sponsor Samsung cameras provided by the IOC – personal cell phones still aren’t allowed.)
Water/photo bug
I have no idea how photographer Ben Thouard does it, but holy mackerel is he gifted. You can check out his other work here.
LBC 4EVA
This pair.
The Assassin’s Creed Gal/Guy
This “individual” looked like they were going to be a big part of the lighting of the fire, but then they just sort of vanished. Weird, but still a cool character.
too many amazing choices
Belgian cyclist Remco Evenepoel broke his collarbone 4 months ago, placed third in the Tour de France 2 weeks ago and then won gold. He’s won four of the last six world or European races (Road and Time Trial) and just needs to win Euro Road to complete the set.
Belgian champion: road and ITT
European champion: ITT
World champion: road and ITT
Olympic champion: road and ITT
That said, I saw the coolest phot of him and thought “If I was Remco, that would be my desktop background forever.”
That is, until I saw this picture.
And then this one. My goodness.
the celebration happens far from paris
Lots of people reposting this, but when Thea Lafond won Dominica’s first medal in the triple jump, it was huge news.
Then someone posted her brother finding out while he was at football practice at the US Naval Academy. Heartwarming stuff.
Biles Has The Last Laugh
Simone Biles is the greatest to ever do it. Full stop. I’m not a fan of negativity, but I do like consequence, so it’s nice to see the US Women’s Gymnastics Team take gold and make former member MyKayla Skinner (gymnastics version of Women’s soccer malcontent-with-a-platform-thanks-to-Fox Carli Lloyd) look foolish. Skinner claimed, before the Olympics, that the current team – excluding Biles, had a lack of talent and was lazy.
Thaaaaaat didn’t age very well.
I couldn’t remember who Skinner was, but I remember really liking McKayla Maroney and I was like – did she get married and change her name and somehow become obnoxious? But No. Hard no. Different person altogether, and Maroney was quick to make sure people like me knew it.
“It doesn’t get more iconic than this,” Maroney, 28, wrote in the comment section of Simone Biles’ Instagram post about the 27 year old Skinner. “She f’d around n found out fr. Feels like I need to apologize just to redeem my first name.”
Side note: Most of us could have painted a picture of Skinner never having seen her before. The assholes are so often the same these days.
Ledecky Stands Alone
This moment, it goes without saying, is pretty spectacular.
I keep posting examples about how one athlete truly stands alone in their sport, but examples like this really drive the point home.
Guatemala’s Unbelievable Spirit
Little known Olympian Adriana Ruano was once in contention to be on Guatemala’s Olympic Gymnastics team, but had an unfortunate spinal injury that ended her career. So, like any of us would do, she took up trap shooting and won Guatemala’s very first medal in Olympic history – a gold medal – in that sport. Absolutely incredible.
how hard could it be? that target looks huge!
Yeahhhhhhh. About that. Have you watched the shooting and thought the target was gigantic? Here’s the actual size.
Versailles is Gorgeous
I was absolutely blown away by the fact that the Equestrian events were all on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles. It makes sense, surely, but it’s just so beautiful. There were a number of featurettes about the venue, but I went down a rabbit hole and found a video about horse fencing and now I want it to be an Olympic event.
Here’s one of the videos about the venue where the Equestrian events were held:
Equestrian events are dressage, which is basically showing off the control and excellence of the connection with your horse. It’s very formal and that’s when you see specific things like the gait of the horse and the ability to stop and start on a dime. Then there’s jumping and finally Cross Country. Of the three Cross Country is my favorite and features riders just fucking opening it the hell up on a nine minute course, jumping things and blasting across bridges and through water hazards. It’s amazing.
One thing I did not know: it’s the same horse and rider pairing for all events. So you can’t just be a specialist, you have to excel in every equestrian event which seems mind-blowingly difficult.
My Favorite Moment of The Opening Ceremonies
One moment that had me bursting into tears was during the opening ceremony when this crew of French athletes, including Paralympians who are often overlooked, passed the torch to 100 year old cyclist Charles Coste.
One second he wasn’t in frame and then he was and I was BLOWN AWAY. Here in the US we love to put our old folks out to pasture. We’re so youth-obsessed that we have almost no loyalty to the heroes of yesteryear. I was so moved by a country that not only didn’t forget their heroes, but featured them prominently in the most revered position.
Fencer Allison Pineau kneels to hand the torch to the 100 year old Coste, and then he lights the torches of sprinter Marie-José Pérec and judoka Teddy Riner, who finish the ceremony by lighting the brazier that rises into the sky on a hot air balloon to kick off the Olympics. Incredibly moving. I’m still getting chills just thinking about it. In America you have 30 year old actors getting botox to try to ‘stay young.’ It’s just a different outlook and I found it incredibly inspiring and refreshing.
karma is a bitch in reverse
Okay this one is a bit of a mouthful. Back in the Rio Olympics in 2016 a younger Carolina Marin of Spain was playing China’s Li Xuerui when Li suffered an injury mid-match. Marin was roundly condemned, especially in her home country, for claiming Li was faking injury to interrupt her flow. When Li bravely returned to the court, limping and doing the best she could, Marin celebrated every point thereafter with screams of joy.
Watch from the 53:00 mark onward to see the injury and subsequent event.
Needless to say, it did not paint the best picture of one Carolina Marin.
Fast forward 8 years and karma exacts payback as Carolina Marin is injured in her semifinal match against China. Unlike the questionable sportsmanship displayed by Marin, China’s He Bingjiao carries a Spanish Flag Badge onto the podium with her as a show of respect for the injured opponent.
Stay tuned for more great moments as they happen!
Winning is only part of the olympics
Sometimes, just showing up is what’s important. Case in point, the story of Afghan sprinter Kimia Yousofi. She finished last in her heat, but winning it was far less important than highlighting the struggles of Afghan women since their country was taken over by a theocracy.
