The Olympic Games are one of the biggest events in the world, with longstanding history and tradition. However, it also acts as a cultural event that unites millions around the globe without fail. This year, the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad took place, following the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to settle in Paris. After the dust has settled and we’ve eased out of the collective excitement surrounding the event, let’s take a step back and reflect on it:
The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics took place from July 26 to August 11 in Paris, France, with some additional events taking place in other cities across France. With the 2024 Olympics, Paris became only the second city to host the Olympics three times, with London being the first. Paris was also the site of a few firsts, most notably the debut of breaking as an Olympic sport, and the first Olympics in history to reach a 50/50 even split of female and male athletes.
Two hundred six countries participated this year, and at the conclusion of the Olympics, the United States topped the medal count with 40 gold medals, 44 silver medals and 42 bronze medals. This comes out to a total of 126 medals. China tied the United States with gold but only had 27 and 24 silver and bronze, respectively — a total of 91. The host nation, France, came in fourth for total medal count, with 64 medals. Meanwhile, Japan came in third for gold medal count, with 20 gold medals.
The Olympic opening ceremony took place on the Seine River on July 26, with the countries represented being paraded down the river in boats. Notably, a few controversies occurred during the ceremony, such as South Korea being attributed as North Korea and the Olympic flag being raised upside down. However, the Ceremony was still a lively and beautiful show. Musicians such as Lady Gaga, Celine Dion and Gojira were featured, while twelve artistic acts centered around French culture and history were put on.
Paris hosted a total of 329 events in 32 sports. While, breaking made its debut, others like sport climbing, skateboarding, and surfing returned after debuting in 2020 Tokyo. There were a few minor changes to some disciplines, notably the replacement of a few events in canoeing and the drop of four events in weightlifting.
Multiple world records,as well as Olympic records, were broken, including the United States women’s and mixed teams setting the world record for swimming the 4 x 100-meter medley relay, as well as records broken by the United States in the 4 x 400 meters relay and 400 meters hurdle. A total of eight world records were broken across the discipline of track cycling as well, the most world records broken across one discipline.
The Olympics created many fun and iconic cultural moments. Some of these moments include the shooters Yeji Kim from South Korea and Yusuf Dikec from Turkey, the latter of whom went viral for freehanding the shots without any supporting equipment. Additional moments include Chinese gymnast Zhou Yaqin’s medal bite, viral breakdancer Rachael Gunn from Australia, Team USA’s pommel horse hero Stephen Nedoroscik , and Italian gymnast Giorgia Villia’s picture with a giant block of cheese.
The 2024 Summer Olympics provided a memorable experience, uniting the world over the course of two exciting weeks. As the spotlight now shifts to Los Angeles in 2028 and the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina 2026, the 2024 Paris Games will be remembered for the moments that captivated audiences worldwide.
