Olympics 2024: Highlights, Heroes, and Unforgettable Moments

This summer, the Olympics were held in Paris for the 3rd time. With nearly 200 participating nations and 10,000 competing athletes, the 2024 Summer Olympics were unforgettable. Competitions took place in a range of 32 different sport categories. This year, breaking - or breakdancing - made its debut as an Olympic sport. Other changes were made this summer as well, such as the inclusion of men in synchronized swimming and a new weight class in women’s boxing.

The United States, the country sending the highest number of athletes this season, also left with the most medals. Team USA amassed a total of 126 medals throughout the games, far above China’s second place of 91 total medals. However, the United States and China tied for number of gold medals: both countries came out with 40 awarded golds. Trailing behind them was Japan with 20 gold medals.

There were many memorable performances at the Olympics this year. 20 records were broken across a wide variety of sports, including archery, track, and swimming. Notable highlights include Simone Biles becoming the most decorated American gymnast and Katie Ledecky, a swimmer, becoming the most decorated female American athlete ever.

Among the headlines this year was American Kristen Faulkner when she shocked the world with her performance in cycling events. She beat out many favorites to win gold in the women’s road race and then, only a few days later, helped propel team USA to win its first ever gold medal in women’s team pursuit. Having only started cycling full time in 2021, she is going to be an athlete to keep our eyes on!

The United States also saw cycling medals in women’s BMX freestyle, women’s Mountain Biking, and women’s Omnium. Clearly, USA women’s cycling is a team to watch! Other countries that made history in cycling this Olympics include Portugal.

Team Rui Oliveira and Luri Leita won the country’s first ever gold in track cycling during the men’s madison. Great Britain, however, won the most number of cycling medals, heading home with 11 in that discipline. A variety of world records were broken in cycling as well. Among these are Lea Freidrich of Germany who won the 200m sprint in 10.029 seconds, Great Britian’s women in the team sprint, and the Dutch men, who broke the team sprint record twice(both in the prelims and finals). They lowered the record to 40.949 seconds; their final race was the first time in history the 750m track was completed in under 41 seconds.

The Paralympics, which began on August 28th, also had notable moments. The first gold medal of the entire games was given out to a Dutch cyclist - Caroline Groot - who won the women’s 500m time trial in class C4-5. Paralympic cycling is a very complex and intricate sport. It has many of the same events as the regular Olympics but with five different classes dispersed amongst hand cycling, tricycling, and bicycling. Which class athletes are placed in is based on their disability. Great Britain’s most successful paralympian is cyclist Sarah Storey who competed in her ninth Paralympics at Paris. Great Britain is the most successful country, overall, when it comes to paracycling. In Paris, they won 14 medals in Para Track Cycling - significantly more than any other country. Cycling was not the only exciting sport at the Paralympics, though! New records were set in events like long jump and the 100 meter athletic sprint, amongst others.

Both the Olympics and the Paralympics were a success at Paris 2024! We are already looking forward to the next summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.