Paris 2024 winners and losers: From Kevin Durant to women’s rugby, these were an Olympics to cherish
We may remember the 2024 Summer Olympics for the river parade of athletic legends that were presented to us at the start of the Games: Zinedine Zidane, for starters, followed by such superstars as Amelie Mauresmo, Tony Parker, Serena Williams, Nadia Comaneci and the king of Paris, Rafael Nadal.
More likely, we will remember the series of legends launched or accelerated during the 16 days of official competition: Leon Marchand, Summer McIntosh, Simone Biles, Gabby Thomas, Katie Ledecky, Sydney McLaughlin.
MORE: Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky climb among all-time US Olympians
We will remember the Games for their sublime location, for the vocal fan support in nearly every venue, for the absence of severe consequence and the ability of nearly everyone involved to focus on what mattered: joy, community, sport.
The Olympics are the best thing we do as one planet. The United Nations is more important, but there are days when politics are prioritized over the problems to be solved. The World Cup is awesome, and most everyone has the opportunity to become engaged, but not everyone truly is involved once the event reaches a single stage.
In all, 206 nations were represented at Paris 2024. Not every one produced a medal winner, but all of them produced at least one Olympian.
No one ever would contend the Olympics are perfect, not with cheating drones, leftover debt loads and manufactured controversies. Without the Games, though, this world would be much poorer.
We’re all winners because they’ve been around since 1896.
But there were some who became losers in France, and not just in competition.
Winner
Paris
Yeah, this is a little like saying the 1985 Bears were great. Paris has always been the place I’ve insisted everyone with the opportunity should visit at least once in their lives.
And yet, from the moment early in the Olympic opening ceremony when the Austerlitz Bridge was transformed through a smoke effect into a replica of the France national flag, it was obvious that show was going to be extraordinary.
It was all of that, from the can-can dancers to the acrobat troupes to the music of Bizet, John Lennon and Lady Gaga emanating from in and around the river, with the parade of boats rolling through carrying the participating athletes. There was hardly a moment that did not steal one’s breath.
And when that was over, there was the constant presence throughout the Games of the Eiffel Tower, especially when sparkling through the Paris night. Los Angeles is a terrific city with lots of very cool neighborhoods. But how does anyone top this?
Loser
American men’s swimming
It’s not like this is the only country with water. Australia literally is surrounded by it. But the U.S. once was really good at this. They could send out Mark Spitz or Matt Biondi or, of course, Michael Phelps on their own and expect more than they got from the crew that sank in Paris.
The U.S. won just two gold medals. It’s the first time since 1956 they claimed only a single individual gold medal. They’ve won 143 golds since the Modern Games were begun in 1896, which means they won an average of nearly five per year in the first 29 Olympics, and just two in a time when there are 17 different pool events. When Johnny Weissmuller won three golds 100 years ago in Paris, there were six races available.
What in the name of Michael Phelps happened here? Did they decide to throw a pool party instead of, you know, practicing?
Winner
United States women’s rugby
Surely there were many among the Americans who watched the U.S. women’s bronze medal match against Australia in the Rugby 7s competition who were bewildered at the rules of the game.
I was. For instance, I had no idea that extra-point kicks were to be taken from the position on the field where the player crossed the goal line. Then I saw Australia take the lead with 30 seconds left and miss a difficult kick from the far right sideline.
But I did know that when the United States’ Alex Sedrick fought off a tackle and burst into the clear with time expiring that something amazing was happening, something like hitting a Hail Mary touchdown pass to win an NFL game.
A FINISH YOU HAVE TO SEE TO BELIEVE! 😱
ALEX SEDRICK LEADS TEAM USA TO THE FIRST-EVER OLYMPIC RUGBY SEVENS MEDAL FOR THE UNITED STATES ON THE FINAL PLAY OF THE GAME! 🥉 #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/1FMu9SWxDo
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 30, 2024
And, from what I’d seen just a few seconds earlier, I understood Sedrick was heading straight for the goalposts to assure the subsequent kick would be, for want of a better term, a layup.
It ranked with the most dramatic finishes at these Olympics, up there with Noah Lyles’ 100-meter sprint victory, the men’s 1,500-meter run or the 100-meter women’s butterfly won by American Torri Huske over teammate Gretchen Walsh by .04 seconds.
Loser
Leigh Diffey, NBC track announcer
From my living room couch, I thought Noah Lyles had beaten Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson to the tape in the 100-meter dash. But Diffey, NBC’s play-by-play announcer for track and field, exclaimed at that moment, “Jamaica’s gonna do it! Kishane Thompson is a gold medalist!”
The telecast immediately focused on Thompson in the aftermath of his race.
Not long after, it became obvious it was even closer than Diffey suggested. A photo finish was necessary. And at least the camera was on Lyles as the result was posted inside Stade de France. Lyles tore his nameplate off his chest and held it aloft.
That became his moment.
Diffey discussed his error on Twitter, but it was no apology. “I genuinely thought he won,” Diffey wrote. His explanation might have been weaker than his call.
Winner
Cole Hocker, U.S. gold medalist
There was a time when an American middle-distance runner could become a household name. Sports fans around the country knew Jim Ryun and Marty Liquori, and they knew Dave Wottle after he kicked his way to victory in the 800 meters at Munich 1972 wearing a golf cap.
Hocker has twice won the 1500 meters at the United States Olympic Trials, and yet he barely was mentioned by race commentators as the Olympic final continued and he stayed consistently on the heels of the lead trio. (British play-by-play voice Rob Walker, on the Peacock telecast, called him “Hoke-er” even as he crossed the finish line ahead of favorites Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen).
Hocker’s surge on the inside of lane one past everyone to the finish line rivaled the spectacle of Noah Lyles’ victory in the 100 meters.
WOW. 😱
A STUNNING upset in the men’s 1500m as AMERICAN COLE HOCKER takes gold! #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/wlq81lbvSO
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 6, 2024
Loser
The Smoking Brit
Golf insists its a serious sport, but then you have fools like Charley Hull of Great Britain smoking cigarettes — when they can – during the course of play. Good on the Paris Olympics for refusing to allow Hull to light up as she competed.
She didn’t exactly light up the course, either.
Hull shot 84 and stood 58th after the first round.
Hey, I knew smoking could kill you when I was 9 years old.
Do you know how long it’s been since I was 9?
Winner
Kevin Durant, U.S. men’s basketball
The person singularly most responsible for the current run of five consecutive USA Basketball gold medals in the men’s Olympic competition is sometimes forgotten. If he did not agree to participate in the Tokyo Games, something many other American stars declined, there’s a very good chance the winning streak would have ended there. And it would have been hard to win this one without him, as well.
His unselfish devotion to American basketball should be acknowledged more — especially by the Twitter trolls who took shots at him following the narrow semifinal victory over Serbia.
Loser
3×3 basketball
When Fran Fraschilla told The Sporting News the concept of 3×3 basketball is to become something similar to beach volleyball, that made great sense. But for that to happen, you need to have the best 3×3 players at the Olympics, like we do in beach.
What we saw in Paris, on both the men’s and women’s sides, was far from this.
There can be appeal to the 3×3 game, but it needs to involve more gifted athletes and far better officials. The whole idea of this sport is to create something similar to playground or street ball. Well, in those venues, players call their own fouls — and they’d never let go the obvious contact that was evident all throughout 3×3.
And one more things about this, USA Basketball. There is “basketball” and there is “3×3”. There’s no way this country’s governing body should call what Steph Curry, LeBron James, A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart play “5×5”. That’s an offense to the sport’s glorious 133-year history.
Winner
The Seine
The planet’s most romantic river was the scene of the most spectacular opening ceremony we’ve ever seen.
Loser
The Seine
The men’s triathlon had to be postponed a day because of concerns about the cleanliness of the river water. The mixed triathlon relay team from Belgium had to withdraw from competition after one of its athletes became ill swimming in the Seine. Switzerland had to make two changes to its lineup for that competition, for the same reason.
Winner
Alyssa Naeher, U.S. women’s soccer
Late in the semifinal game between the United States and Germany, which was played 270 miles from Paris at Stade de Lyon in sunny 81 degree weather, German striker Nicole Anyomi fell to the turf suffering from a severe cramp in her right leg.
Who helped her work it out?
Naeher, the World Cup champion from Bridgeport, Connecticut by way of Penn State and now the Chicago Red Stars of the NWSL. She showed remarkable sportsmanship by helping Anyomi stretch out her leg while waiting for the medical team from the Germany to dash onto the field to address the issue.
So maybe it was karma that Naeher become one of the USWNT’s two sporting heroes in the game. It was Sophia Smith who scored the game-winning goal in extra time, but Naeher who preserved that 1-0 lead with a brilliant kick-save that not only kept the ball out of the goal but also cleared it into a position to deny Germany a chance to continue the attack.
Loser
Field events
Appealing two-time discus champion Valarie Allman got less airtime as she won a second consecutive gold medal for the United States, than Tom Cruise did just sitting in the stands at gymnastics.
NBC coverage always has treated what they call “Athletics” in the UK as TRACK and field.
With the exception of the men’s pole vault – and even that was because Mondo Duplantis was chasing the world record after all the races were done — NBC viewed the Paris field events as some sort of annoyance. It’s been that way as long as they’ve been in charge.
The introduction of the Peacock streaming service gave the network a convenient place to stash them all. But in the Roone Arledge days at ABC, long before the avalanche of technical advances available to NBC now, we were introduced to Dick Fosbury, Bob Beamon, Mac Wilkins and Al Joyner.
Now, instead of proper attention being paid to gold medal field events, we get every single heat of every single race.
Winner
Celine Dion, international superstar
If you watched the interview special Dion joined with NBC’s Hota Kotb, you know Dion has suffered terribly with a neurological disorder. She hasn’t performed in concert since the 2020 pandemic.
It was astonishing she could summon the ability to sing “Hymne A L’Amour” from a balcony on the Eiffel Tower with her customary power and tone. After all the spectacle delivered by the Paris 2024 opening ceremony, Dion managed to equal the moment presented to her. She had to crush it, and she soared.
Loser
The IBA
There’s a good chance you didn’t even know the International Boxing Associated existed before everyone gathered in Paris for the 2024 Games. Now, you can only wish you didn’t.
For years, the federation that governed boxing at the Olympics was known as AIBA, the acronym for its French name (Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur). It’s been the IBA since 2007. And it’s been in trouble with the Olympic movement almost continuously since.
But not because of the name change.
Simply put, the International Olympic Committee does not trust the IBA and its Russian leader, Umar Kremlev – and removed the organization from governance of the boxing competition in Paris. And then things got really chaotic.
Every element of the campaign against Algeria boxer Imane Khelif felt synthetic, starting with the fact there could not possibly have been many who knew she’d been singled out by the IBA and disqualified from its World Championship tournament – only after she’d competed in four fights and defeated a previously unbeaten Russian boxer – and just as few who’d paid attention to her initial bout at the Games.
After the IOC proclaimed its full support for Khelif and Lin Yu-ting of Chinese Tapei, the IBA held a joke of a news conference that revealed exactly no new news. If we see boxing at the LA Games in 2028, we’ll have another acronym to memorize.
