The 2024 Paris Olympic Games saw 1,039 medals handed out over 329 events in 32 different sports. Over 10,000 athletes from 184 countries participated over the course of 19 days. Across these many nations and athletes, Paris saw a historic number of new world, national, and Olympic records as well as historic levels of controversy and media commentary, particularly pertaining to swimming, boxing, gymnastics, and pole vaulting.
Katie Ledecky became the most decorated female American athlete of all time with 14 total medals, nine of which are gold. Her nine gold medals tie a 60-year-old record held by Larisa Latynina for the most gold medals of any female Olympian ever. In Paris, Ledecky won the 800-meter freestyle for the fourth consecutive Olympics as well as the 1500-meter freestyle with a new Olympic record time of 15:30.02. In celebration of her historic dominance in the pool, she was selected to serve as Team USA’s closing flag bearer alongside rower Nick Mead. Ledecky credits her many accolades to her love of swimming and commitment to the sport.
“I just love the feeling of being in the water and going to practice every day and working as hard as I can,” said Ledecky.
Her hard work, accomplishments, and utter domination serve as an inspiration to athletes everywhere.
“I found it really inspiring how she won with such a large gap,” said ninth grader Sara Gavrilovic. “She’s inspired a lot of young swimmers, especially girls, and she’s done a lot for women’s swimming.”
In more swimming news, French swimmer Leon Marchand won four individual gold medals on home soil. He became only the fourth person to ever accomplish this, joining Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz, and Kristin Otto. Marchand, who trains at Arizona State University, set Olympic records in all four events, the 200-meter IM, 400-meter IM, 200-meter breaststroke, and 200-meter butterfly.
“I had goosebumps on the podium. I felt really proud to be myself, and to be French,” said Marchand after his historic performance.
Despite a century of swimming bans in Paris’s Seine River due to sanitation issues, five open-water swimming events were slated to take place in the famous waterway this summer. However, water quality tests leading up to the games resulted in precariously high levels of E. coli and other bacteria. Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, swam in the river on July 17 to convince people of the river’s safety for swimming. Despite attempts to win over the public, the river continually failed water quality testing and was deemed unsafe for swimming on July 26, the day of the opening ceremonies. The controversial decision led to practice cancellations, race delays, a loss of $1.5 billion in clean up, and a slew of statements from athletes about the less-than-ideal conditions
“The Seine has been dirty for 100 years, so they can’t say the safety of the athletes was a priority,” said Belgian triathlete Jolien Vermeylen.
Also sparking controversy at this year’s Olympics was the participation of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif in the women’s 66 kg (welterweight) event. Previously at the 2023 world championships, Khelif and another female boxer were disqualified from competition by the Russian-backed International Boxing Association after failing an unspecified gender eligibility test, despite the biological female sex of both competitors. Just last year, however, the Olympics officially withdrew recognition of the IBA due to concerns about corruption, finance, and governance within the association, and it reaffirmed Khelif’s eligibility.
This year, the conversation around supposed biological advantages in women’s sports restarted when Italian boxer Angela Carini forfeited her bout with Khelif just 46 seconds in.
“My face and nose were hurting; I couldn’t breathe anymore. I thought about my family,” said Carini. “I’ve never been hit with such a powerful punch.”
After their match, Carini did not shake her opponent’s hand and instead cried in the ring after sinking to her knees. Khelif would go on to win gold. Carini would later apologize for her role in the controversy.
On the more positive side, the fan-favorite USA women’s gymnastics team, nicknamed the “Golden Girls,” won their fourth ever all-around team medal. Led by veteran Simone Biles, the team beat second-place Italy by over six points. Biles secured the all-around gold as well as the gold for the vault exercise and silver for the floor exercise, a notable comeback from the Tokyo Olympics where she had to withdraw due to mental health concerns. The other four “golden girls,” Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera, also contributed greatly to the team’s success and beloved public image.
Lee won gold in the individual all-around in Tokyo before being diagnosed with a rare, incurable kidney condition, which sidelined her for much of 2023 and caused an early retirement from her NCAA career. In spite of her struggles, she resumed a modified training plan in 2024 and went on to earn bronze in the individual all-around and uneven bars events as well as the aforementioned gold.
Carey, a two-time Olympian, earned bronze in the vault, while Rivera, the youngest member of the entire United States delegation at only 16 years old, competed on uneven bars and balance beam in the qualifying rounds.
Much like many other sports in this year’s games, the gymnastics competitions were not without controversy. Chiles won bronze in the individual floor exercise, but her medal was controversially stripped away and given to Romanian Ana Barbosu after the event concluded. The Romanian Olympic Committee challenged Chiles’s score on the basis that she entered four seconds too late for the appeal that gave her the extra points toward bronze. The incident outraged fans and prompted a large social media response.
In yet another historical feat, Swedish pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis officially solidified his spot as the greatest pole vaulter of all time. Duplantis vaulted 6.25 meters to break his own world record for the ninth time, earning his second Olympic gold. Prior to his record-breaking attempt, Duplantis had already secured the gold by vaulting 6.1 meters. Sam Kendricks of the United States secured the silver with a vault of 6 meters, a full quarter meter less than Duplantis’s vault.
Given the never-before-seen herculean efforts in every area of the Olympic Games, it comes as no surprise that over three billion people watched this year’s Olympics. Showcasing the world’s greatest and most inspirational athletes, the Olympics inspire people of all ages around the world and form a melting pot of languages, traditions, and customs as the ultimate show of national pride and identity. The Olympics are not just a sporting event but a source of global identity and inspiration for all, and Paris 2024 was no exception.
Edited by Elyse LaPorta
