The Paris 2024 Olympics were officially opened on Friday, July 26. Over the next 16 days, 10,714 athletes from over 206 National Olympic Committees participated in 329 events across 32 sports. 92 NOCs received at least one medal (93 if you include AIN), with 64 winning at least one gold medal. Albania, Cape Verde, Dominica, Saint Lucia, and the Refugee Olympic Team won their first medals. Hosts France won 16 golds, 26 silvers, and 22 bronzes for a total of 64 medals, almost doubling their total of 33 medals (10 golds, 12 silvers, and 11 bronzes) from Tokyo.

I saw quite a few people requesting a cooldown thread to soothe the pain of their post-Olympics Withdrawal/Depression, so here it is! I figured it would be a centralized place to discuss everyone’s favourite memories of the past two and a half weeks and share photos/videos. I made a list of some superlatives that we can talk about:

  • Favourite overall memory
  • Favourite event to watch
  • Favourite events that you watched for the first time
  • Favourite moment from an athlete/team from your country
  • Favourite moment from an athlete/team not from your country
  • Favourite moment from a French athlete/team
  • Favourite upset or underdog story
  • Favourite performance from an athlete you were already rooting for coming into the Games
  • Favourite athlete(s) that you discovered through the Games
  • Funniest moment
  • Most wholesome/heartwarming moment
  • Favourite venue

###Important Reminder Many of you will already know this, but for those who don’t, there will also be daily threads for the Paralympics, starting on August 28 and ending on September 8. Come join us then for 11 more exciting days of sport – the party in Paris isn’t quite over yet!

For first time viewers new to the Paralympics, the mods strongly encourage you to try watching wheelchair rugby (AKA murderball). It’s possibly the single best event to introduce yourself to the Games.

###Links to Previous Megathreads

Day -2 | Day -1 | Opening Ceremony Part One and Part Deux | Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four | Day Five | Day Six | Day Seven | Day Eight | Day Nine Part One and Part Two | Day Ten | Day Eleven | Day Twelve | Day Thirteen | Day Fourteen Part One and Part Two | Day Fifteen Part One and Part Two | Day Sixteen | Closing Ceremony Part One and Part Deux

  • Fun_With_ForksOPB
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    2 months ago

    Going to take a stab at the questions myself, but since I’m chronically indecisive and watch too many sports (including outside of the Olympics, and I strongly encourage people to do the same), there’s going to be a looot of things listed. I hope this helps people who are looking for recommendations on events they missed!

    Favourite events to watch: athletics, swimming, artist gymnastics, archery, climbing, BMX freestyle, skateboarding

    Favourite events that I watched for the first time: handball (I didn’t pay much attention to it during previous Olympics and now I have so many regrets about that), breakdancing, kayak cross (so incredibly wild and chaotic)

    Favourite Team Canada moments: the Summer of Summer, Josh Liendo and Ilya Kharun medalling in the 100m butterfly, Katie Vincent wins gold by 0.01 seconds, the men’s 4x100m relay (featuring Andre DeGrasse peaking at the Olympics again), women’s rugby silver

    Favourite Team France moment: men’s rugby gold, Leon Marchand winning two golds in one session (and swimming in four different races that day), Teddy’s ippon to win individual gold, the mixed team judo comeback (the roar of the crowd as the Wheel of Golden Score landed on +90kg will live forever in my memory), Kauli Vaast’s gold, men’s volleyball gold

    Favourite upset/underdog story: Bryony Page finally wins gold at 33, Alice D’Amato survives the cursed beam to wins gold, Cole Hocker takes advantage of Ingebrigtsen destroying his own race

    Favourite performance from an athlete I was already rooting for (outside of Team Canada): Simone Biles and Rebeca Andrade cementing their status as gymnastics legends, Kaylia Nemour sticks it to the French gymnastics federation, Sifan Hassan’s insane triple results in three medals, Sydney McLaughlin smashes her own world record again, Sha’Carri Richardson, KJT is finally an Olympic medalist, Yaroslava Mahuchikh, Isaquias Queiroz, Saya Sakakibara wins gold after her terrible crash in Tokyo, Janja Garnbret

    Favourite athletes I discovered: Vinesh Phogat, Imane Khelif, the Lebrun brothers, Truls Moregardh, Kauli Vaast, Taisiia Onofriichuk and her amazing Thriller routine, a ton of skateboarders/BMX freestyles/breakdancers but especially Anthony Jeanjean, Augusto Akio, Sun Jiaqi, Deng Yawen, 671, Hiro10, and Shigekix

    Funniest moment: everyone’s saying Raygun which is totally fair so I’m going to answer all the celebrations inspired by Dikec

    Most wholesome/heartwarming moment: Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles bowing to Rebeca Andrade, all the sportsmanship at the women’s climbing final, the camaraderie of the skateboarding events, Mijain Lopez retiring with a gold and leaving his wrestling shoes on the mat

    Favourite venues: the Grand Palais, archery at the Invalides, equestrian events and modern pentathlon at Versailles

    My list of favourite moment by non-Canadian athletes got so long I had to split it into a separate section:
    • Sarah Sjoestrom’s double gold
    • Lilly King and Gretchen Walsh’s massive split times in the 4x100m medley relay
    • Kim Woojin defeats Brady Ellison by milimetres
    • Alex Yee’s crazy kick in the last 500m of the triathlon
    • Harrie Lavreysen’s hat trick in the velodrome
    • Lee Kiefer wins gold ridiculously quickly
    • Julien Alfred and Thea LaFond win their countries’ first medals on the same day
    • Tebogo wins Botswana’s first sprinting gold medal with a monster time
    • Arshad Nadeem breaks Pakistan’s medal drought with an insane throw
    • Femke Bol runs the anchor leg of a lifetime in the mixed 4x400m relay
    • Mondo clears 6.25m
    • The Fox sisters sweep the women’s canoe slalom events
    • Chang Yani claws back from last to bronze after her horrible first dive
    • Carlos Yulo double gold
    • The Sinkovic brothers’ surge at the end of the race
    • Zheng Qinwen wins singles gold, defeating favourite Iga Swiatek in the process

    • Kitchen_Body3215B
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      2 months ago

      The women’s and men’s tennis singles matches🔥. Both gold medalists performances were clutch. Novak’s reaction after winning the match touched my heart. I became a fan.

    • ElmoTeHAzNB
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      2 months ago

      What was your opinion on the BMX though? Did you feel it was just too short?

      • Fun_With_ForksOPB
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        2 months ago

        I definitely could’ve gone with more BMX freestyle in my life.

    • ACW1129B
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      2 months ago

      Slight quibble: Biles’s status as gymnastics legend was pretty much cemented. A case could be made for Rebeca as well.

      • Fun_With_ForksOPB
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        2 months ago

        That’s a fair point! I certainly agree that both had nothing more to prove coming into the 2024 Games, however I was thinking of all the idiots that continued to doubt or criticize Simone after what happened in Tokyo.

        • ACW1129B
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          2 months ago

          Idiots indeed 🤦🏼‍♂️

          Rebeca especially cemented her legacy as an all-time great.