Paris 2024 Summer Olympics Post-Event Discussion and Celebration Thread

Fun_With_Forks · 2 months ago

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

Fun_With_Forks · 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.

Fun_With_Forks · 2 months ago

I’m so glad you were able to Paris and see the women’s football final! That must be an incredible and unforgettable memory.

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.

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.

Fun_With_Forks · 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