After practically three weeks and greater than 1,000 medals, the Paris Olympics have awarded their closing gold.
From the bold opening ceremony to the handoff to 2028 host Los Angeles, the Paris Video games delivered quite a few memorable moments. Acclaimed stars cemented their legacies and new faces turned Olympic fixtures.
However some stellar performances and viral memes stood above the remaining. To focus on and rejoice one of the best of the 2024 Video games, a bunch of 20 employees members of The Athletic voted and compiled this checklist of our “Olympic Superlative” winners. (It needs to be famous this isn’t a definitive checklist — however a enjoyable train.)
So with that, right here’s who stayed profitable in our eyes.
Most dominant efficiency
(Photograph: Elsa / Getty Photos)
Winner: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (5 votes)
This class was for the athlete (or workforce) who put collectively one of the best, most plain Olympic marketing campaign.
McLaughlin-Levrone, the American hurdler and sprinter, gained gold within the girls’s 400-meter hurdles, setting a world report at 50.37 seconds. On Saturday, she closed her Video games with one other gold within the girls’s 4×400 relay, pulling away from the sector in her leg, which was only a tenth of a second off the world report.
Runners-up: Simone Biles and Armand “Mondo” Duplantis (three votes every)
Biles, the American gymnast, gained three gymnastics golds — workforce, all-around and vault — and one silver (ground train) in her Olympic return. Duplantis, a Swedish pole vaulter, gained gold within the males’s occasion and set a brand new world report at 6.25 meters to interrupt his earlier report.
Additionally receiving votes:
- China’s diving workforce (two votes) — gained all eight Olympic diving gold medals
- Léon Marchand (two votes) — the French swimmer gained 4 golds and one bronze (extra on him under)
- USA Basketball (two votes) — prolonged its gold medal streak to 5 (for males) and eight (for ladies)
- Katie Ledecky (one vote) — the American swimmer gained two golds, a silver and a bronze in girls’s swimming, and set an Olympic report within the 1,500-meter freestyle
- Mijain Lopez (one vote) — the Cuban wrestler gained gold in males’s wrestling, a record-fifth straight Olympic gold in the identical particular person occasion
- South Korea’s archery workforce (one vote) — swept all 5 golds in archery (males’s and ladies’s)
Breakout star
(Photograph: Sarah Stier / Getty Photos)
Winner: Léon Marchand (eight votes)
This class was for the athlete who most ascended into standard consciousness, the one we couldn’t cease speaking about, and whose superstar dramatically elevated throughout these Olympics.
Marchand, the 22-year-old French swimming sensation, took the Paris Video games by storm. He gained 4 gold medals in a variety of occasions — the 200 breaststroke, the 200 butterfly, the 200 particular person medley and the 400 particular person medley. Oh yeah, and he set an Olympic report in every. Marchand additionally took a bronze within the males’s 4×100 medley. He proved throughout his Paris marketing campaign why he’s drawn comparisons to swimming legend Michael Phelps.
Runner-up: Stephen Nedoroscik (5 votes)
Nedoroscik is an American gymnast. Extra particularly, he’s a pommel horse professional who turned a family identify after clinching the bronze for the U.S. males’s gymnastics workforce, their first workforce medal since 2008. Nedoroscik appeared to please People along with his nerdiness, and he additionally gained a bronze within the — you guessed it — pommel horse occasion.
Additionally receiving votes:
- Summer season McIntosh (4 votes) — the Canadian swimmer gained three golds (200 butterfly, 200 IM and 400 IM) and one silver (400 free), setting Olympic information within the 200 butterfly and 200 IM
- Ilona Maher (two votes) — the American girls’s rugby sevens star helped the U.S. to its first Olympic medal, a bronze, within the occasion
- The Woodhalls (one vote) — Tara Davis-Woodhall gained lengthy soar gold for the U.S. and was cheered on by her Paralympian husband, Hunter
Greatest picture
(Photograph: Jerome Brouillet / AFP by way of Getty Photos)
Winner: Picture of Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina (10 votes)
This class was for the picture that the majority resonated with our voters and finest captured the spirit of the Paris Video games.
Photographer Jerome Brouillet captured a viral picture of Medina celebrating after the surfer earned the best single wave rating in Olympic historical past in a warmth in the course of the males’s competitors. Medina and his board seem like they’re floating above the water as Medina holds his proper arm within the air whereas making a No. 1 signal along with his hand.
Runner-up: The Biles/Chiles bow (eight votes)
Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade celebrated her ground train gold medal with props from American gymnasts Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles, who bowed to Andrade whereas on the rostrum with their medals.
(Photograph: Elsa / Getty Photos)
Additionally receiving votes:
- American sprinter Noah Lyles wins the lads’s 100-meter closing in a photograph end (one vote)
- Tara Davis-Woodhall celebrates profitable the ladies’s lengthy soar closing (one vote)
Greatest viral second
(Photograph: Yasin Akgul / AFP by way of Getty)
Winner: Yusuf Dikeç capturing (six votes)
This class was for the star of the Web Olympics — with a plethora of shareable clips and meme-worthy moments up for consideration.
Dikeç — the Turkish shooter who gained silver in a relaxed vogue — got here out on high. His chill stance, along with his pistol pointed in a single hand and his different hand in his pocket, was emulated by varied athletes throughout the Video games. “I’m a pure, a pure shooter,” he advised Turkish newspaper Habertürk.
The celebration that retains on giving 👀#Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/KBX8WJBMKS
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) August 7, 2024
Runner-up: Pommel king (4 votes)
Or, Stephen Nedoroscik whipping off his glasses and profitable bronze:
Obsessive about this man on the US males’s gymnastics workforce who’s solely job is pommel horse, so he simply sits there till he is activated like a sleeper agent, whips off his glasses like Clark Kent and does a pommel horse routine that helps ship the workforce its first medal in 16 years. pic.twitter.com/0D1ZqJjFa1
— Megan 📚 (@MegWritesBooks) July 29, 2024
Additionally receiving votes:
- Appendage accident — when French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati’s crotch received in the best way (three votes)
- Raygun’s breaking routine — the Australian breakdancer who confounded us all (three votes)
- Kim Yeji — the South Korean shooter who captivated the web along with her sci-fi swagger (three votes)
- Eire’s Emily Lane and Erin King’s unbelievable catch in a rugby match towards Nice Britain (one vote)
Largest upset
(Photograph: Patrick Smith / Getty Photos)
Winner: Cole Hocker stunning the favorites within the males’s 1,500-meter to win gold (eight votes)
There’s nothing higher than an underdog victory or a shock win. This class was for the athlete or workforce who finest surprised the sector and pulled off gold regardless of lengthy odds.
The boys’s 1,500 was anticipated to be a two-way battle between Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Josh Kerr, however Hocker outran Ingebrigtsen and outkicked Kerr to run off with the gold.
Runners-up: It was a three-way tie, with every receiving three votes:
Additionally receiving votes:
- Kristen Faulkner profitable gold within the girls’s biking street race to finish a 40-year American drought (two votes)
- Nice Britain’s Toby Roberts’ climbing win in males’s boulder and lead closing after the favourite, Japan’s Sorato Anraku, fell (one vote)
Largest broadcast win
Winner: “GoldZone” (seven votes)
This class was for what most enhanced our at-home viewing expertise.
The NBC/Peacock Olympic whip-around present, modeled after “NFL RedZone,” allowed viewers to concurrently observe gold medal finishes throughout a number of occasions.
Runner-up: Snoop Dogg’s commentary
The rapper was a significant a part of NBC’s protection of the Video games, and excellent news for followers, it seems this won’t be his final.
Additionally receiving votes:
- Laurie Hernandez speaking gymnastics (4 votes)
- Discovery Plus (one vote)
- English broadcaster Clare Balding paying an emotional tribute to Andy Murray after his closing match on the Olympics (one vote)
Greatest venue
(Photograph: Elsa / Getty Photos)
Winner: Seaside volleyball below the Eiffel Tower (14 votes)
Iconic landmarks and picturesque views outlined the 2024 Video games. Our voters preferred the seashore volleyball setting finest.
Runner-up: Browsing in Tahiti (three votes)
Additionally receiving votes:
- Fencing on the Grand Palais (one vote)
- Biking street race routes round Paris (one vote)
Greatest closing farewell
(Photograph: Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Photos)
Winner: Simone Biles (10 votes)
It was the final or the potential final Video games for a lot of Olympic legends. Although some haven’t confirmed whether or not they’ll attempt to come again for Los Angeles, we voted on who amongst them had one of the best sendoff in the event that they don’t return.
Biles is probably the most embellished U.S. gymnast in historical past and, at 27, she is the oldest all-around Olympic champion in additional than 70 years. Even when she doesn’t return for L.A., which might mark her fourth Olympics, Biles is already thought-about the GOAT within the sport.
Runner-up: LeBron James (5 votes)
Making his fourth Olympic look, James was named MVP of the match because the U.S. males’s workforce gained its fifth straight Olympic gold. James, 39, is the NBA’s all-time main scorer and a four-time NBA champion. Now, he’s a three-time Olympic gold medalist, too.
Additionally receiving votes:
- Andy Murray — British tennis participant in his fifth Olympics (4 votes)
- Rafael Nadal — Spanish tennis participant in his fourth Olympics (one vote)
Greatest feel-good story
(Photograph: Richard Pelham / Getty Photos)
Winner: Cindy Ngamba changing into the first-ever medalist for the Olympic refugee workforce (eight votes)
There was no scarcity of controversy in the course of the Paris Video games, together with considerations in regards to the Seine’s water high quality and a media firestorm in girls’s boxing, however there have been many optimistic moments as properly. We voted on what most made our hearts soften.
Ngamba, who was born in Cameroon and lives in the UK, reached the semifinal of the ladies’s 75-kilogram (165 kilos) competitors, which earned her a bronze medal.
Runner-up: Chinese language gymnast Zhou Yaqin biting her medal on the rostrum after noticing the Italian gymnasts doing it (5 votes)
Additionally receiving votes:
(Photographs of Léon Marchand, Simone Biles and Cindy Ngamba by Quinn Rooney/Getty Photos; Tom Weller/VOIGT/GettyImages; Richard Pelham/Getty Photos)