Although the United States again dominated the overall medal count, the deep American squad ended tied with China for the most gold medals (40) won at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games held in Paris, France.
But, for someone who has passionately watched every Olympiad since 1968, the obvious highs of this year’s games also were matched by some lows.
In the swimming pool the first week, Katie Ledecky won her record-tying 8th gold when she broke her own world record in the 1,500m freestyle, but finished a disappointing 2nd in the 800m. Clearwater’s Bobby Finke defended his 2021 Olympic title in Tokyo with a new world record in the men’s 1,500m. The U.S. women’s 4x100m Medley Relay team also set a new world record in winning the gold. And, Caeleb Dressel won his eighth career Olympic gold with the men’s 4x100m free relay, but finished a disappointing sixth in the 50m free and failed to qualify for the 100m butterfly final, as hometown French hero Leon Marchand grabbed the headlines in men’s swimming with four golds and five medals overall, even the U.S. haul of eight golds and 28 total medals led the world.
On the women’s side, American Torri Huske won gold in the women’s 400m fly, in the mixed 4x100m medley relay and the women’s 4x100m medley relay and led the U.S. squad by winning five medals overall at age 21.
In gymnastics, the great Simone Biles took home the gold in the women’s vault and both the team and individual all-around competition, but lost the gold in the floor exercise to Rebeca Andrade of Brazil and didn’t make it to the podium in the balance beam or uneven parallel bars. Even so, her eleven Olympic medals are the most won by any U.S. gymnast in history. There were other great performances by the U.S. men (who won the bronze as a team in the all-around) and women in gymnastics, but no other golds.
On the track, the U.S. men’s and women’s teams dominated both the total and gold medal count, with seven golds each and 34 total medals between them, but there were still some disappointments. Sprinter Noah Lyles came back to win the 100m in a photo finish but finished third in the 200m after reportedly contracting Covid between the two events. But, favored Sha’Carri Richardson took only silver in the women’s 100m when she was beaten by Julien Alfred of St. Lucia, the first-ever Olympic medal for that country.
Meanwhile, Harvard grad Gabby Thomas dominated the women’s 200m and also won gold in the women’s 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams, while the men’s 4x400m relay team set a new Olympic record in winning gold. The favored U.S. men’s 4x100m relay team, which ran without Lyles, was disqualified due to a botched baton handoff. The still-dominant Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone broke her own world record in the women’s 400m hurdles to defend that title and also was part of the 4×400 relay squad that won gold.
Other U.S. winners included Masai Russell in the women’s 100m hurdles, Rai Benjamin (who led off the winning 4×400 relay team) in the men’s 400m hurdles, Grant Holloway in the men’s 110m hurdles, Quincy Hall in the men’s 400m, Tara Davis-Woodhall in the women’s long jump, Valarie Allman (who defended her Olympic gold) in the women’s discus, the dominant Ryan Crouser, who became the first-ever three-time Olympic gold medal winner in the shot put (with teammate Joseph Kovacs taking the silver) and the incredible surprise, come-from behind win by Cole Hocker in the men’s 1,500m. Also notable was Kenneth Rooks, who came out of nowhere to fall just short of the gold in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase.
Among the disappointments in athletics was the U.S. mixed 4x400m relay team, which set a new world record in qualifying, but finished 2nd to Norway in the final. Alexis Holmes anchored the gold-winning 4x400m women’s relay team but didn’t reach the podium in the individual 400m, finishing 6th. And, if high jumper Shelby McEwen had agreed to split the gold medal with New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr, instead of losing the jump-off between the two, the U.S. would have broken the tie for overall golds to go with our 126 total medals (to 90 for China).
Meanwhile, China won all 8 diving golds (the U.S. had just one silver medal) and every table tennis gold to achieve the gold medal tie.
But, while both the men’s and women’s basketball teams won gold (the women’s was a record-setting 8th straight Olympic win), both in thrilling finals over the host nation, and the women’s soccer team redeemed a disappointing performance in Tokyo to claim the gold 1-0 over Brazil, there were other U.S. athletes who fell short.
None of our favored indoor and beach volleyball teams finished first, nor did our men’s or women’s water polo squads. We did earn one rowing gold — in the men’s fours — but earned zero boxing golds and only one bronze medal.
What I didn’t understand was why we didn’t see any of the boxing matches (see below) or rowing finals live. The most controversial thing at these games was the boxing gold won by Imane Khelif of Algeria, who had previously been banned from competing because she had both men’s and women’s chromosomes, a rare condition — even though she had been born and lived her whole life as a female — but we never saw her fight.
NBC-TV and its Peacock streaming service, in my opinion, did just an OK job overall, and fell short of showing all of the events of these Olympics, despite having multiple channels to show them.
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