Ten big moments of the 2024 Olympics | The Express Tribune

PARIS:

The biggest sporting event of 2024 was without doubt the Parisian high-wire double-act of the Olympic Games followed by the Paralympics.

From a colourful, sometimes controversial and sodden opening ceremony to boxers caught up in a gender row to refugees on the podium, they served up many memorable moments.

AFP Sport looks at 10 of the best:

Organisers promised a spectacular opening ceremony and the rain-soaked boat parade on the River Seine ended up making global headlines but not for the expected reasons.

Church leaders and conservatives were left outraged by a scene involving drag queens and lesbian DJ Barbara Butch that appeared to parody Jesus’s Last Supper.

Artistic director Thomas Jolly denied any such intention but he and others involved ended up facing vicious online harassment.

If Paris luxuriated in the honour of hosting the Games, Toulouse took French bragging rights for the exploits of its athletes with local rugby star Antoine Dupont securing Sevens gold and Leon Marchand dominating in the pool.

The 22-year-old, urged on by the rhythmic chorus of “Leon, Leon” at the La Defense Arena, won five medals in total, four of them gold including a double in the space of two hours which sent the crowd into paroxysms of “joie”.

The downside of such instant celebrity? “I can’t go out to restaurants like I used to anymore,” he said when he got back to Toulouse. “I wear a cap and glasses. I try to hide a little.”

Simone Biles proved as popular a draw as the Eiffel Tower, the 1.42m (4ft 8ins) bundle of gymnastics brilliance standing tall on her return to the Olympics after the trauma of Tokyo in 2021.

In Japan she was forced to withdraw from most of the Games with a debilitating mental block known as the “twisties”. Three years on, watched by an enraptured full house at Bercy Arena including her husband, NFL player Jonathan Owens, Tom Cruise and Lady Gaga, Biles resumed the gold run she had begun at Rio 2016.

Biles pipped Rebeca Andrade for the coveted all-around crown on her last move on the floor. That was book-ended by titles with the US team and vault — where she executed her Yurchenko double pike, the Biles II, her sixth eponymous skill.

Stumbles on the final day as tiredness — both mentally and physically — set in left her with silver behind Andrade on the floor. In a mark of her class as a person she bowed to the Brazilian on the podium.

World champion Noah Lyles roared to victory in 9.79sec to claim gold in a dramatic men’s Olympic 100m final in the closest finish in modern history — just five thousandths of a second separated him from Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson.

“I’m the man amongst all of them. I’m the wolf amongst wolves,” said Lyles whose victory was only confirmed after a photo-finish.

At the age of 37, Novak Djokovic finally won an Olympic gold medal to go along with his 24 Grand Slam titles, describing the moment as his “greatest achievement”.

The Serb defeated Carlos Alcaraz, 16 years his junior, in a memorable final at Roland Garros where he has already been crowned French Open champion three times.

Djokovic achieved his dream the hard way — having to defeat career-long rival Rafael Nadal in the second round in the pair’s 60th and what proved to be their final meeting.

He then overcame aggravating a knee injury which had needed surgery in June during his quarter-final win over Stefanos Tsitsipas.

One of the iconic shapshots of the Games came when Tara Davis-Woodhall celebrated winning the women’s long jump by galloping over to kiss her husband Hunter Woodhall in the stands.