Best of Paris

OK, it's been a week.  Time for my overall Olympic review.  Aside from the two incredibly disappointing ceremonies, the Paris Games were simply spectacular.  Full of memorable moments, both good and bad.  But mostly good.  Which were the best though?  Well, that's a highly subjective question.  Here are 10 that I'll remember the most.  Well, I'll start with my three favorite non-American moments, then move on to my American Top 10.

Leon Marchand: During his speech at the Closing Ceremony, Tony Estanguet, the head of the organizing committee, said "We wanted to inspire.  We got Leon Marchand."  That says enough about the undisputed star of the Games.  Four gold medals, including two in one night, with the entire arena singing the French national anthem after each one.  And how much does Marchand get it?  In a postrace interview with NBC, he mentioned Michael Phelps and how he wished Phelps had been able to experience a home Olympics.  That's a man who knows the significance of what he did in Paris.

Novak Djokovic wins gold: Want to know how much Olympic gold meant to him?  The man who's won more Grand Slam titles than anyone else in history was literally weeping after he beat Carlos Alcaraz in the gold medal match.  Olympic gold was the only thing his resume was missing and he wanted it so much.  He withdrew from the French Open mid-tournament and had knee surgery just so he'd be ready for the Olympics.  I've never seen him more emotional after a match than he was after winning that gold medal.

Mijian Lopez makes history & goes out on top: Cuban wrestler Mijian Lopez is one of the greatest athletes you've probably never heard of.  With his gold medal in the Greco-Roman super heavyweight class, he became the first athlete ever to win the same individual event at five consecutive Olympics.  He then took his shoes off and left them on the mat, the symbol of retirement.

Could I make this entire post about international athletes?  I sure could.  But I won't.  Not when the U.S. won 126 medals, more than any other country in Paris and its most since the 1984 LA Games (a total that was greatly inflated because of the Soviet-led boycott).  Special shout out to the U.S. women, who accounted for more than half of those medals and would've finished third in the medal count all on their own.  With that in mind, I might as well start the countdown with the American women...

Simone is back: Michael Phelps returned for the Rio Olympics because he was disappointed with how his London Games went.  It was the same thing with Simone Biles here.  We all saw what happened in Tokyo.  What a difference three years makes!  Simone was her brilliant self once again, winning three gold medals and a silver.  And, more importantly, doing it with a smile on her face the entire time.

Super Syd: It was a tremendous Olympics for the entire U.S. track & field team.  Thirty-four medals, including 14 gold.  One performance stood out above the rest, though.  Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone defended her Olympic title in the 400 meter hurdles and once again lowered her own world record.  She then ran the second leg in the final of the 4x400 meter relay, and the race was already over when she passed the baton to Gabby Thomas.  Please set up the schedule so she can attempt the 400-400 hurdles double in LA!

Ledecky stands alone: Katie Ledecky did her thing again.  She won gold in the 800 freestyle for the fourth straight Olympics and her second straight gold in the 1500 freestyle, as well as silver in the 4x200 freestyle relay and bronze in the 400 freestyle.  Ledecky now has 14 career Olympic medals, more than any other American woman and more than anybody period except for some guy named Phelps.  She plans on sticking around at least until LA, too.

Kristen Faulkner: Kristen Faulkner wasn't even supposed to be in the Olympic road race.  She ended up becoming the first American to win gold in the event in 40 years!  The Alaska native who was a rower at Harvard and began cycling in Central Park then added another a week later on the track, helping the U.S. win the women's team pursuit for the first time ever.  Two different cycling disciplines, two gold medals.

Lee Kiefer: On Day 2 of the Games, there was an all-American final in women's foil fencing.  The gold went to defending champion Lee Kiefer.  She and silver medalist Lauren Scruggs then teamed up with Maia Weintraub and Jackie Dubrovich to win gold in the team event, making Kiefer the first American woman ever to earn two fencing gold medals at the same Olympics.

A thrilling finish: The U.S. made the rugby semifinals for the first time since the sport's reintroduction in Rio.  The women's team lost its semifinal to New Zealand, then played Australia for bronze.  In one of the most thrilling moments of the entire Olympic Games, Spiff Sedrick ran the length of the field on literally the final play of the game to tie the score, then the U.S. kicked the game-winning conversion for the bronze, its first Olympic rugby medal in a century.

Women's soccer's return to glory: A new coach and almost an entirely new team with little-to-no expectations after a disappointing round of 16 exit at the 2023 World Cup.  A team that hadn't won Olympic gold in 12 years.  Well, it turns out, this new version of the U.S. Women's National Team is young, exciting and fun to watch.  They played six games in France.  They won them all, including a 1-0 victory over Brazil for the gold medal that was watched by 9 million viewers on NBC.

Those basketball finals: They couldn't have asked for much more from either the men's or women's basketball gold medal game.  They were both USA vs. France.  And it was obvious who the home team was!  The Americans ended up winning both.  The women for the eighth consecutive time, the men for the fifth.  France made them work for it, though.  Two spectacular finishes to cap off the Olympic tournaments and, in the case of the women's game, to cap off the entire Olympics!

Redemption for Rai: There were several American men who came to Paris looking to make up for disappointment in Tokyo.  Noah Lyles got his gold (just not in his preferred event).  So did Grant Holloway.  And so did Rai Benjamin, whose silver medal in Tokyo was perhaps the most heartbreaking.  He ran the second-fastest 400-meter hurdles time ever...but Karsten Warholm set the world record.  This time, Benjamin's the one who ended up on the top of the podium.  His first global title was Olympic gold.  He then held off Botswana on the anchor leg to pick up a second gold medal in the 4x400 relay.

Pommel horse guy: I can only imagine what it must've been like for Stephen Nedoroscik.  He was on the Olympic team to do one thing.  The pommel horse.  Which happened to be the Americans' last rotation in the team final.  He literally sat around watching the entire competition before it was finally his turn to go, knowing that his performance could determine if the U.S. medaled or not.  Which it did.  And he delivered, making himself a cult hero in the process.  Nedoroscik's entire Olympics consisted of three pommel horse routines.  And he left Paris with two bronze medals.

That's just a snapshot of what happened during 16 truly exceptional days in Paris.  I could easily make a second list with another 10 memorable moments.  The Paris Olympics were unforgettable in so many ways.  These 13 highlights are just some of the reasons why.