The 2024 Paris Olympic Games have given the world a serve of surprises as the games have wrapped up after an exciting three weeks.
The USA has taken the top spot for this Olympics with 40 Gold medals, 44 Silver medals and 42 Bronze medals with a grand total of 126 medals.
This year's games weren’t without their great share of entertainment.
Providing the internet with many viral moments, from chocolate muffins to first medal wins, the Olympics has packed our news feed with endless content over the past three weeks as they prove sport connects us all.
Grinning in Gold for Australia.
These games have been historic for Australia, finishing 4th overall. We took home 18 Gold medals, 19 Silver medals and 16 Bronze medals making it our most successful campaign in Olympics history.
Gently eclipsing the result of Athens 2004 and Tokyo 2020’s result of 17 Gold medals.
Australia’s stellar start
Grace Brown, a cyclist from Victoria took home the first Gold for Australia in the women’s road individual time trial. The wet roads of Paris saw many mistakes from other competitors, slips and slides everywhere but not for the 32-year-old.
Brown controlled her cycle finishing with a solid time of 39:38:24, a rough minute and a half ahead of Silver medalist, British rider Anna Henderson.
“I had a plan to pace the race to win gold and I was able to execute my plan, like, pretty much to perfection, if not better” Brown told the Nine Network.
Overcoming the worst to bring out the best
If there is anything about the Olympics, it’s that the most incredible stories will come to light.
Saya Sakakibara came back from a crash in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to win Gold in the BMX racing at this year’s Olympics. Her win was cinematic.
Her brother, Kai, who suffered a life-changing brain injury after a crash at the BMX World Cup race in Bathurst, cheered her on as she crossed that race line.
Coming back for Olympic glory and taking home the Gold, making every Australian proud of her achievement.
Back-to-back
It was a shaky start for Australia in skating, with all skaters out of medal contention in the street events. However, Australia wasn’t done.
The park events for skateboarding occurred in the second week. Let’s just say, Australia crushed it.
In both the men’s and women’s park events, Australia took home the Gold.
14-year-old Arisa Trew took on the challenge with a promise of a pet duck from her parents if she won. Arisa is the youngest-ever medallist taken to the park, making Olympic history.
We can all figure out how much she wanted that duck, as she became the youngest Australian ever to become an Olympic Champion.
Starting her skating journey at the age of 3, Trew looked like a veteran out there as she put on a stellar performance. Garnering the attention of skating legends including Tony Hawk, who competed in the men’s event.
In the men’s event, 21-year-old Keegan Palmer displayed a masterclass as he produced a score of 93.11, 3 clear of the rest of the field.
The score was enough to secure the Gold. A back-to-back achievement for Keegan Palmer as he also took home the gold in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
He is the only one to win this event so far.
Australia makes waves in the pool
The 2024 games are Australia’s third most successful swimming campaign, adding 18 new hardware to the medal tally.
Ariane Titmus, or “Arnie” as the Aussies like to call her, defended her 2020 Tokyo title for the 400-metre freestyle with a time of 3:57:49, winning Gold. Canada’s Summer McIntosh took home Silver and the US swimming powerhouse, Katie Ledecky, is not far behind in Bronze.
Australia also claimed Gold in the 4x100 metre freestyle relay. The team, consisting of swimmers, Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Emma McKeon and Meg Harris maintained Australia’s Gold in the event, for the 4th consecutive time.
Brisbane native Mollie O’Callaghan had a successful campaign for her second Olympic games claiming Gold in the 200-metre freestyle beating Ariane Titmus who finished with Silver.
However, the pair joined together in the 4x200 metre relay, claiming Gold for Team Australia. O’Callaghan walked away from this Olympics with 3 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze.
Closing ceremony flag bearer, Kaylee McKeown won 2 golds for the 100-metre and 200-metre backstroke events. She walks home with 2 golds, 1 silver and 2 bronze after her participation in the mixed, women’s and individual medley relays and race.
It was yet again a successful Olympics for Australia in the pool.
Fox Domination
The Fox sisters dazzled in the Canoe Slalom adding three golds to Australia’s medal tally.
Jess Fox claimed her, elusive, first Gold this Olympics in her first event, the women’s kayak single.
After German world number 2, Ricarda Funk seemed to be right on Jess’ time she recorded a penalty, taking her chances of Olympic victory away.
Cementing the Australian’s first-ever Olympic Gold.
Jess also claimed Gold in the canoe single with a dominant 101.06 time making this her most successful Olympic campaign yet. After winning silver and bronze in previous games.
However, Jess’ dream of triple gold was over after she bowed out in the heat stage of a new canoe slalom event for the Olympics, the Kayak cross.
There was another Fox on the rise, and it wasn’t Jess. Instead, it was her sister, Noemie.
Noemie was dominant, remaining undefeated throughout the heat, quarter-final, and semi-final and eventually took home that sacred Gold.
The Fox sisters take home Gold for all women’s canoe slalom events.
Viral moments
The Olympics weren’t without viral moments this time around.
It all started with the opening ceremony, where all the countries came out on boats on the famous river Seine, instead of the usual athlete parade in a stadium, being the first to do so in Olympic history.
This provided many viral moments, one being Lebron James, and the team USA being compared to the classic painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware River.
Italian high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi the one responsible for the “two gold” moment at the 2020 Olympics lost his wedding ring during the opening ceremony antics.
Tamberi took to Instagram and poetically apologised to his wife, saying that the ring will “remain forever in the riverbed of the city of love”.
The rise of TikTok since the last Olympics has allowed a lot more athletes to document their Olympic experience with some of them getting creative.
Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen is responsible for a chocolate muffin frenzy in the athlete’s village. After taking to TikTok to review his meals in the village, giving each one an average of seven out of ten or five out of ten. One item of the food he tried received a glowing review.
The chocolate muffin.
Christiansen gave it a stunning eleven out of ten.
Since then, he has produced over a dozen videos about the muffin, coining the nickname “the muffin man”.
He has multiple videos with tens of millions of views, taking the world by storm.
The hashtag “muffin man” has garnered over 75 thousand posts, with spectators watching him in the games compete in swimming events.
It’s incredible how one chocolate muffin can unite so many.
While some athletes had perfected their craft over many years, resulting in a tense and serious performance, one athlete had another idea.
Turkish shooter Yusef Dikec showed up with no special equipment or hearing protection Just a t-shirt and one hand in his pocket. His pose sparked freezy in the media.
Dikec looked unphased and nonchalant while competing, an unusual approach to the event.
The best thing? He went on to win Silver in the 10m air pistol mixed team event, making his casual approach to the sport cemented as one of the most popular moments to come out of the games.
Many athletes were dazzled with their talent across many disciplines; however, none went quite so viral as Stephen Nedoroscik.
Coined as the “Pommel Horse Guy”, Nedoroscik was brought onto the US men’s artistic gymnastics team for one job only.
The pommel horse.
His routine pushed the US team to Bronze, their first medal for men’s gymnastics in 16 years.
Since then, he has been compared to Clark Kent and Superman, as he takes off those glasses to perform on the pommel horse with expertise.
Nedoroscik went on to achieve bronze in the men’s individual event after Kazakhstan’s Nariman Kurbanov took Silver, leaving Ireland’s Rhys McClenaghan to take home the Gold.
Records broken
Of course, it wouldn’t be an Olympic Games without previous records being broken.
One in particular took the world by storm.
In the men’s pole vault, Armand Duplantis finished at the top of the table with Gold and a new world record.
Duplantis who competed for Sweden, despite being born and raised in the United States, broke his own world record in the event, despite having already claimed Gold.
The crowd of 75,000 had stayed at State De France to watch Duplantis soar to over 6.25 metres, beating his previous record of 6.24 metres.
His celebration looks very familiar, with the casual hand in his pocket, his hand as a gun, making audiences remember the viral picture of the Turkish shooter Yusef Dickec
Duplantis was one of the 17 World records to be broken at this Olympics.
The New Addition sparks an Online frenzy
It wouldn’t be a modern Olympics without a new sport added to the mix.
Alongside surfing, skateboarding and climbing, breaking or breakdancing is the newest Olympic sport to join the games. Peaking curiosities around the globe as to what this new event would look like.
Well, we all got a glimpse of an Australian taking all the heat when the sport debuted for the first time. Rachel Gunn, otherwise known as B-girl Raygun, took the world by storm with her routine.
Gunn, a 36-year-old lecturer at Sydney’s Macquarie University left audiences puzzled by her unorthodox dance moves. Her signature? The kangaroo move. It has gone viral with many trying out the routine on their own.
Despite an online frenzy about her performance at the games, many are taking to social media to show their support for the Australian, some even calling her performance “camp”.
“As an Aussie, I’m proud of her. Iconic queen.” Said one online user.
Gunn received no points from the judges, however, won the hearts of many. Japan’s Ami Yuasa won the first-ever Gold in the event.
For the men, Australia sent 16-year-old Jeff Dunne aka J Attack. J Attack redeemed Australia showing off his impressive moves, however, was no match for Canada’s Philip Kim, Frenchman Danny Dan and Ukrainian Kuzya.
Philp Kim went on to win the Gold in the men’s event.
As the 2024 Paris Olympic Games comes to a close, you can’t help but reflect on the spirit that the Olympics brings each time around.
Seeing the world come behind these incredible athletes and giving them their relentless support is truly a beautiful thing.
In a time where tensions between countries build and division is increased, the Olympic games are one of the only places left where that is put away.
Even if it is only for a couple of weeks.
It’s a testament to how sport brings everyone together, how it can unite us all, through a shared pride.
The next Olympic games should be no different. Expected to be held in Los Angeles in 2028 where the indomitable Olympic spirit should return once again.
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