Branded as Paris 2024, The 2024 Summer Olympics unfolded in a panorama of pageantry. The US came home with 146 medals, (40 Gold, 44, Silver, and 42 Bronze). The ceremonial flag bearers were Lebron James and Coco Gauff, who was a 2-time gold medalist. The US competed in almost all sports except for handball, and were represented by more female athletes than male athletes. The US had special uniforms introduced for the games, the opening ceremony featured a navy blue jacket, light blue striped dress shirt, blue washed jeans, and beige suede shoes. And the closing ceremony featured a mainly white look with a moto style denim jacket, jeans, polo, hat, and the same belt and shoes as featured in the opening ceremony.
The women’s gymnastic team was announced on June 30th 2024. The top all around finisher Olympic and world champion gymnast, Simone Biles, was named to her 3rd Olympic team as the winner of the Trials in the all-around. Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, and Jade Carey who finished in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place, were named to their 2nd Olympic team. Also, 16 year old Hezly Rivera was the 5th person named to the team by the selection committee after finishing 5th in the all-around. She became the youngest athlete on the entire US Olympic delegation. The US Men’s basketball team was another sport that fans had their eyes on, with a stacked roster including Stephen Curry (making his Olympic debut), Jayson Tatum, Devin Booker, and Lebron James as the captain. The team was led by Curry’s head coach on the Golden State Warriors, Steve Kerr, and assistant coaches, Mark Few, Tyronn Lue, and Erik Spoelstra. The complete roster was announced on April 17th. This would be the 4th Olympic tournament for 2
time champ Kevin Durant and Lebron James. Kawhi Leonard took himself off the roster due to injuries and was replaced by Derrick White. The basketball team won gold against France in a 98-87 win against France. Stephen Curry put the nail in the coffin when he drained a three with less than a minute to go, he finished with 8 three pointers across the whole game.
In diving, the US divers secured 2 quota places each in the men’s synchronized springboard and women’s synchronized platform for Paris by getting a top 3 finish in the list of countries eligible for the olympics. The entire roster was selected during the trials in Knoxville, Tennessee. Carson Tyler became the 1st male diver to represent the US in the 3m springboard & 10m platform at the same Olympics since Mark Ruiz in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Sarah Bacon & Kassidy Cook won silver in the 3m synchronized springboard becoming the 1st American medalists at the games.
Breakdancing was an interesting thing added to the list of games, the US qualified 4, Victor Montalvo, Sunny Choi, Jeffery Louis, & Logan Elanna Edra. But after the games were over it was announced they would not return for the 2028 games in Los Angeles. Another interesting story that this year’s games produced from shooting, Turkish shooter Yusef Dikec won a silver medal while showing effortless charisma, it looked like he did this kind of thing in his sleep. His pose was later imitated by his fellow athletes. Yusef became Turkey’s first medal winner for his country in shooting the 10m air pistol, along with teammate Sevval Ilayda.
This year’s summer Olympics brought us very interesting headlines and moments. The games sare always something to look forward to, because you get to see the best athletes in the world go head to head to see who will win the gold. LA will be hosting the summer games in 2028, which will surely cause an increase in its already bustling traffic.