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
I just got back from visiting the Games in person. The highlight was absolutely the women’s football gold medal match. Being present and watching from the 12th row to see my country win gold and Marta’s last match for Brazil? Priceless.
Least favorite thing? The USOC charging $350 a head for their hospitality house when many other countries’ were far more reasonably priced or even free. Team Japan’s house, for example, was free to enter, had a nice retrospective exhibit about Tokyo 2020, and had volunteers teaching visitors how to make origami Eiffel Towers. Casa Brasil was one big party, as was Casa Mexico.
The silver lining was that thanks to the USOC’s price gouging, a lot of displaced Americans (my wife and I included) ended up having a great time hanging with Team Canada.
I’m so glad you were able to Paris and see the women’s football final! That must be an incredible and unforgettable memory.
Since the Games ended I’ve actually been watching videos from the various national houses (they’re one of my favourite things about the Olympics) and was shocked when I found out how expensive the US’s was (I think GB was the only other expensive one starting at £150 per day for various hospitality package levels), especially as the Olympics organizers made a concerted effort to make the Games more price accessible (e.g. many sports had free admission, the outdoors Opening Ceremony).
Club France’s fan zone being only €5 must’ve been a great way for people who couldn’t get or afford event tickets to experience a great atmosphere. I really hope the USOC doesn’t do the same thing for LA as it would be horrible for American fans to be priced out of a fan zone at their own home Olympics.
I think part of it was to discourage any stupid political stunts - nobody’s going to spend that kind of money just for the opportunity to run around Team USA’s headquarters yelling “free Palestine,” after all.