The Olympic moments that made Paris 2024 special

Paris: Here’s how the Sunday panned out for Kinzang Lhamo at the Paris Olympics.
Egged on by hundreds of spectators walking and running along the streets of Paris on a sunny morning, she completed the marathon last among the finishers, 90 minutes after the winner. Cheered on by thousands of spectators seated inside the Stade de France on a windy evening, she fervently waved the Bhutan flag as her country’s flag-bearer at the closing ceremony.
Quite a day, isn’t it?
Days that you can only get at the Olympics. Days that go beyond victories and defeats. Days that override medals and results.
Days that gushed the Paris Olympics with a flood of joy, despair, tension, drama and all the concoctions of emotions that make the Olympics the spectacle that it is.
The first post-pandemic Olympics called it a day in front of 80,000 people standing up for the Dutch national anthem after marathon woman — literally and figuratively — Sifan Hassan received the last gold medal of the 2024 Games at the closing ceremony.
The start wasn’t quite the brightest, a rain-soaked opening ceremony by River Seine capping off a day an arson attack that disrupted train services made headlines. Once it all began, though, the athletes took over.
And so did the Trademark Olympic Moments.
Like Mondo doing Mondo things. But when Mondo was doing Mondo things, Kendricks was at it too, right behind him. With the men’s pole vault final done as a contest — Mondo Duplantis, of course, had won gold, Sam Kendricks silver and Emmanouil Karalis bronze — the Swedish-American superstar decided to have some fun.
Raising that pink-lit bar to 6.25m, Duplantis went for the world record. And Kendricks lived every moment of it standing a few metres away from where the record holder would begin his quest three times over. The American orchestrated the crowd claps as a classic conductor while Duplantis waited on the runway. He jumped in anticipation the moment Duplantis leapt across the bar. He shared the sighs as Duplantis disturbed the bar. He lofted both his arms in pure ecstasy as Duplantis reworked the history books. This guy was second best to Duplantis on the night, yet was his best cheerleader.
“He’s a fan of sport,” Kendricks said of Duplantis. “And he’s got God’s hand on his back.”
Trademark Olympic Moment.
Like the DJ breaking some tension through a singalong. Eiffel Tower oozes love — on a sidenote, the Paris Games had the most marriage proposals for athletes at an Olympics — and beach volleyball, with by far the most picturesque venue right by its foot, was feeling the romance.
Except this once when things got too heated for comfort. There was a gold medal to play for and the two-member women’s team of Brazil and Canada engaged in an animated exchange, standing across the net and pointing fingers towards each other. It kept going, forcing the umpire to step in. And then the DJ, who soon turned peacemaker beyond the call of duty. He played John Lennon’s “Imagine”, an apt tune for seeking peace. It also signalled a singalong from the crowd, building a calming atmosphere that simply cut through the tension.
Trademark Olympic Moment.
Like that photo finish in a ridiculously close men’s 100m final living up to its hype. Noah Lyles, the brash, loud American showman, and Kishane Thompson, the humble Jamaican, were so inseparable on the finish line that it needed a wait of more than the race itself to determine the winner.
Both stood next to each other, staring away at the screen above with their golden goals down to technological assessment of microseconds. Lyles (and his torso) had done more, it said, by 0.005 seconds. Arms around Thompson’s shoulders, the new face of world athletics had thought otherwise.
“I went up to him when we were waiting and I said, ‘I think you got that one big dog’,” Lyles said.
Trademark Olympic Moment.
Like that insane sea of people that had descended to Roland Garros on a weekday afternoon. Second-round singles matches are not too out of the ordinary but the two men playing it on the day were. Rafael Nadal versus Novak Djokovic was to take centre stage, and everyone wanted a piece of it. You see that in Grand Slams (never so in the second round, though) but this had a nationalistic touch.
Spanish fans painted themselves red, draped in their flag. Serbians were few and far between yet equally loud enough. The French, the supposed “neutrals”, were clearly learning towards one of the two. No seat was empty. The periphery of the centre court was stacked. Journalists had to reserve tickets in advance for the high demand event, where once you stepped out you couldn’t step back in without furnishing visual proof that you were inside. Because there were as many waiting outside in a queue that needed security officials to handle.
Trademark Olympic Moment.
Like Simone Biles being back and how. Like Leon Marchand and his home nation going wow. Like Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec, left hand tucked in pocket and right arm taking aim, and his nonchalance inspiring other athletes’ celebratory pose. Like Lhamo, who ran, walked, struggled, pushed to ensure all she could to finish the marathon as the 80th and last. And so did every person walking and running along the streets to make it happen.
Moments that make the Olympics. Moments that define this sporting pinnacle. Moments that are bound to arrive again in Los Angeles in four years’ time.
Until next time. Au revoir, Paris.