As one of the sports with the most events, swimming left a lot of room for big, show-stopping moments.
The United States and Australia continued their fierce rivalry.
The USA finished in 1st place with 28 medals and Australia finished in 2nd place with 18 medals in the overall swim medal standings.
To start the competition, German Lukas Märtens won the first swim gold medal of the tournament in the Men’s 400m Freestyle.
American Katie Ledecky placed third to earn Team USA’s first medal in the Women’s 400m Freestyle medal.
Not long after, the Men’s 4×100 freestyle team, consisting of Jack Alexy, Chris Guiliano, Hunter Armstrong, and anchor Caeleb Dressel, won the USA’s first gold medal.
After missing out on the podium in Tokyo four years prior, USA’s Mixed 4x100m Medley Relay team (Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Gretchen Walsh, and Torri Huske) broke the world record at 3:37.43 with just .12 seconds between them and China.
China still proved itself, however, when Pan Zhanle won the Men’s 100m Freestyle and broke the world record with a time of 46.4.
After winning three gold medals at the age of 17, Canadian Summer McIntosh burst onto the scene, destroying two Olympic Records for the 200m Butterfly and Women’s 200m Individual Medley.
The ASU Sun Devils sent Léon Marchand to grab five medals in Paris, though he actually swam under the French Flag as he was born and raised in Toulouse, France.
Trained by Michael Phelps’s former coach, Marchand is now being dubbed the next Phelps due to his dominating nature.
To no surprise, Ledecky dominated and became the most decorated female US Olympian of all-time, only second of all-time to Michael Phelps.
In her specialty, the 1500m Freestyle, there was over a ten-second gap between Ledecky and the following second-place swimmer.
With the average difference between Gold & Silver being under a second, Ladecky’s dominance was clear.
In a disappointing ending, USA’s Alex Walsh placed third in the 200m Individual Medley before being disqualified after not properly completing the backstroke section of the race.
An hour later, Walsh’s sister, Gretchen, competed in the Women’s 4 x 100m Medley Relay alongside Regan Smith, Lilly King, and Torri Huske and beat the World Record with a 3:49.63.
This year was truly Team USA’s year.
From ending a 16-year men’s team drought to rounding out a fourth women’s team all-around gold medal, Team USA’s gymnastic program left Paris with ten total medals.
Most notably, Stephen Nedoroscik took the internet by storm with his iconic pommel horse routine, landing his team their first medal in over 16 years.
The 2021 Pommel Horse World Champion Nedoroscik competed only in pommel horse and landed an almost-perfect routine to cap his team’s score and lead them to the bronze medal.
Although Team USA took a lot of the thunder in the gymnastics portion, China annihilated the competition in the Men’s events and tied with the United States for the same amount of medals, earning 2 golds, 5 silvers, and 2 bronze medals.
They won both the Men’s Parallel Bars and Rings in addition to landing on the podium in Men’s Team, Men’s All-Around, and Men’s Horizontal Bar.
The Women’s all-around team, stacked with talents like Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee, reached the podium’s top step.
Both Biles and Lee landed on the podium individually in addition to their teammate, Jade Carey. Carey, Arizonans would be proud to know, is a bit of a local, having lived and trained in Florence for her whole life.
In the last gymnastics event of the tournament, a dispute about Jordan Chiles’s score left the American medal-less.
Upon wrapping up her routine, Chiles landed in fifth place with a score of 13.66.
Her coach inquired about her player’s score and the judges decided to add 0.1 points to her original score, therefore giving Chiles the bronze spot and knocking Romania’s Ana Barbosu off of the podium.
The Romanian team immediately counter-appealed, claiming that the US team didn’t submit an inquiry in the allotted 1-minute time frame they were given to ask for a re-examination.
This back and forth went on and off until it was made official that Chiles would have to give her medal back to Barbosu, causing outrage among the American audience.
Track and Field has been at the forefront of many Olympic broadcasts and Team USA has dominated this sport yet again.
The USA Track and field team is walking away with a staggering 34 medals, 14 of which are gold.
Team Kenya placed second with a medal count of 11, 4 being gold.
One standout athlete on the track has been USA’s Noah Lyles.
Lyles placed first in the Men’s 100m Finals with a last-second lean over the finish line, granting him the title of World’s Fastest Man.
Controversy has clouded his win; however, as many argue that the race was miscalled and the Jamaican runner, Kishane Thompson, actually won since Lyles only leaned to get over the finish line.
These critics are merely angry about the rules, however, as leaning over the lean is perfectly legal.
Lyles has also gotten popular coverage because of his 200m sprint.
Lyles had tested positive for Covid just 2 days before he ran his 200m, sparking debate about possible health concerns for Lyles and his fellow athletes.
Lyles ended up collapsing on the track after finishing third in the 200m finals and needed a wheelchair to get off the track.
Health officials say that by allowing Lyle to race, Team USA doctors risked possibly causing prolonged health concerns for the young star.
Another Team USA athlete who took the track by storm was Sha’Carri Richardson.
Richardson led Team USA to gold in the 4x100m Relay with an amazing comeback on the final leg of the race.
Richardson also placed second in the Women’s 100m finals, just getting beaten by Julian Alfred from Saint Lucia.
By winning the gold in the 100m, Alfred got her country’s first-ever Olympic medal.
In the Men’s 1500m, Team USA’s Cole Hocker set an Olympic record with his time of 3:27.65.
Hocker was an underdog going into the race with no one predicting him to come close to first, let alone set an Olympic record.
Another impressive record set was Team Sweden’s pole vaulter Armand Duplantis with a pole vault of 6.25 meters.
This is even more impressive when factored in that Duplantis has broken the world record for pole vault 9 times in a row, each time breaking his last record by only 0.01 meter.
After the humiliating loss in the 2023 FIBA Cup to Germany, USA Basketball advisors ensured that next year, no country could stop the dominant force of USA Basketball.
Coach Steve Kerr assembled a team that, on paper, is the most talented basketball roster ever created.
Dubbed “The Avengers” by Basketball Legend Lebron James, eleven of the twelve have been named All Stars in the NBA as well as four being named MVP.
For instance, Basketball legend Stephen Curry, who participated in this year’s Olympics for the first and possibly last time, had an excellent performance in the Men’s Semi-Final versus Serbia with 36 points and in the Final against France with 24 points.
The 3-headed star dragons: Lebron James, Kevin Durant, and Steph Curry have at this point played in the NBA for almost half of their lives and are now descending into the twilights of their NBA careers.
The average age at which an NBA player retires is from 34-37 years old.
While Durant, James, and Curry are not your average players, the unstoppable march of time can not take a timeout.
However, these three have continued to show their consistent dominance as leaders of their team on and off the court.
Along with the big three, newcomers to the league have shown USA basketball’s inevitable bright future in the next contending years.
Two-Time All-Star Anthony Edwards, who last year led his team to the Western Conference finals, showed determination to reach the top step of the Olympic podium.
The gold medal game was broadcast on MSNBC on August 10 where celebrities and basketball legends gathered in Paris to observe USA vs.. France.
Spearheaded by defensive titan Victor Wembenyama and 3-time Defensive Player Of The Year winner Rudy Gobert, France created arguably the greatest defensive-oriented frontcourt of all time; but, it fell futile to the efforts of Team USA with a score of 98-87.
Similarly to the Men’s US Basketball, The Women’s FIBA team lost in the final round and looked to build a roster to dominate the Olympics.
Led by WNBA Legend Diana Tarusi, the women’s FIBA team assembled their dream team, consisting of MVP candidate A’ja Wilson, and the towering 6 ‘8 Brittney Griner.
At the age of 42, Tarusi is the oldest player in the WNBA but continues to lead one of the most impressive careers in WNBA history and show her unmatched longevity leading her team to the gold medal.
In the final against France, it was anyone’s game and it truly was until the last second.
Kahleah Copper shot two clutch free throws before, at the last minute, France’s Gabby Williams sunk a supposed three-pointer although it was determined her foot was over the line, causing Team USA to barely scrape by a victory, winning by one point with a score of 67-66.
This win marked their 8th consecutive gold medal for Women’s 5×5 and 61 back-to-back wins since 1992 — a feat the Men’s team is unable to claim.
- The USA Women’s Rugby team won their first-ever medal, upsetting Australia with a last-minute try, ending the game 14-12.
- Spain defeated France 5-3 in the Men’s Soccer Final while the United States Women’s team triumphed over Brazil 1-0 to win the Gold.
- 3x time Olympic Medalist Nada Hafez announced that she was 7 months pregnant while competing in fencing for the Egyptian team before being knocked out by Jeon Hayoung of South Korea.
- Fellow Arizonan Jagger Eaton placed 2nd in the Men’s Street final and had the honor of being one of the three Olympians to hold the Olympic flag during the L.A. Handover.
- Four days before the official Olympic festivities started, it was reported that the Women’s Canadian soccer team was cheating via drones. The head and assistant coach were both removed from the tournament as well as Joseph Lombardi, a staff member of Canada Soccer where the drone was traced back. The team was also penalized six points which led to extreme difficulties in reaching the knockout round.
- After a 64-year drought, the Men’s rowing team (Liam Corrigan, Michael Grady, Justin Best, and Nick Mead) narrowly defeated New Zealand with a mere 0.85-second difference. This was the U.S.’s first rowing gold medal in 64 years.
- At 51 years old, Yusuf Dikeç went viral for finishing 2nd in the Mixed 10m Air Pistol. What made this so special is that he achieved this with no assistance gear. Usually, sharpshooters are decked out in special eyewear that focuses on their target; Dikeç competed with his reading glasses and one hand in his pocket. When asked about this phenomenon, he said, “I did not need special equipment. I’m a natural, a natural shooter.”
- Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz had a rematch of their last match in Roland Garros only a month and a half ago, this time with a different ending. With this win, Djokovic becomes one of the five players to complete the Golden Slam of all four majors plus Olympic gold.
- Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem won the Men’s Javelin gold, giving his country their first individual gold while also breaking the Olympic record with a staggering 92.97m.
- Big controversy surrounded Algerian boxer Imane Khelif after she was accused of having a disproportionate amount of testosterone and should acually be classified as a man as well as be stripped of her gold medal. She previously was disqualified from the Women’s World Championships last year for the same reason. It is now claimed that she suffers from differences in sex development or DSD. During the quarterfinals versus Italian Angela Carini, Khelif landed her first punch and the match swiftly ended. Carini forfeited the match only 46 seconds later, claiming she “never felt a punch like this.” Khelif went on to win the title, but not without an immense amount of online criticism. She has now filed a legal complaint regarding the hate and bullying she’s receiving on the internet.