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The guts and the glory — au revoir, Paris 2024, you certainly didn’t disappoint

The guts and the glory — au revoir, Paris 2024, you certainly didn’t disappoint
Akani Simbine in action during the 4x100m heats on 8 August 2024. (Photo: Anton Geyser / Gallo Images)
Yanga Sibembe, Craig Ray and Keanan Hemmonsbey
By Yanga Sibembe, Craig Ray and Keanan Hemmonsbey
11 Aug 2024
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The Paris 2024 Olympic Games delivered inspiring performances, heart-­wrenching setbacks and defeats, beau­­tiful humanity and dollops of controversy to create a wonderful spectacle. Here are just a few of those moments.

Simone Biles bounces back


Heading into Paris 2024, one of the stories of the tournament was the return of American gymnast Simone Biles. The 27-year-old pulled out of the Tokyo Games three years ago, citing “twisties” as the reason. This is a mental block that affects gymnasts, hampering their ability to perform their acrobatic routines with their usual nonchalance.

When she left Tokyo, it looked like the end of the road for Biles. But she bounced back and left Paris with four medals – three gold and one silver. This took her Olympic tally to 11 medals and made her the greatest American gymnast at the Games.

Now boasting 41 major medals overall, she has solidified her status as the most decorated gymnast of all time.

Olympic moments Biles Simone Biles of USA poses with her Paris 2024 Olympic medals. (Photo: Jamie Squire / Getty Images)


On-target


The fact that Sweden’s pole vault great Armand Duplantis mimicked Turkish Olympian Yusuf Dikeç’s viral shooting pose in celebration of breaking the men’s pole vault record with a 6.25m leap in the final at Paris 2024 is indicative of the influence that Dikeç has had on this year’s Olympics.

Dikeç – who garnered global attention for his nonchalance at the shooting range – and his compatriot Şevval İlayda Tarhan claimed silver in the 10m air pistol mixed team event at the Games. They finished behind Serbia and ahead of India. However, it was five-time Olympian Dikeç who hogged the headlines for his casual dress code and calm demeanour. This was in contrast to his rivals, who looked like characters out of a science fiction film. “He’s used to shooting with regular glasses and does not need extra gear. It’s a personal thing and he’s comfortable that way,” Tarhan told Reuters.

Olympic moments Dikeç Turkey’s Yusuf Dikeç competes in the 10m air pistol event. (Photo: Getty Images)


Tatjana bows out in style


Swimmer Tatjana Smith confirmed her retirement shortly after claiming silver in the women’s 200m breaststroke final, which came two days after winning a surprise gold in the 100m breaststroke final.

It marked the end of an illustrious Olympic career for the 27-year-old, in which she won two golds and two silvers (including those won at the Tokyo 2020 Games), making her South Africa’s most successful Olympian in history. At the time of writing, South Africa’s medal haul in Paris was four. In Tokyo, Team SA won just three medals. Smith has produced four, or 57%, of South Africa’s medals at the last two Olympics. Impressive.

Olympic moments Tatjana Tatjana Smith of South Africa celebrates after winning gold in the women’s 100m breaststroke final. (Photo: Clive Rose / Getty Images)


Djokovic fulfils dream


At the Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid in April, Novak Djokovic was asked if he needed to win an Olympic gold medal to seal his legacy. “The Olympics are the oldest and most prestigious in the history of sport so I hope to play my best tennis there,” was all he would say.

And boy did he play his best when it mattered. In a brilliant final against Carlos Alcaraz, Djokovic triumphed 7-6 7-6. There wasn’t a break of serve in the match, but in some key moments the great Serb lifted his game to edge the Spaniard. Djokovic’s outpouring of emotion, weeping with joy, revealed the answer to the question posed to him months before – he wanted and needed to win everything possible in the sport.

Olympic moments Djokovic Tennis gold ­medallist Novak Djokovic of Serbia. (Photo: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)


Boxing gender row


A gender row involving two boxers in the women’s category engulfed the sport in week one. A storm erupted over the participation of Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting at the Olympics after Khelif’s Italian opponent pulled out of their bout less than a minute into the fight after taking a barrage of punches.

The International Boxing Association (IBA) banned the two fighters from the 2023 world championships, claiming they had failed gender tests. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has been at loggerheads with the IBA, suspended the organisation in 2023. The IOC allowed Lin and Khelif to compete in the women’s category. The upshot has been a controversial event, opening the door on the debate over athletes with differences of sex development, which these boxers might be, participating in the women’s sport.

Olympic moments gender Imane Khelif of Algeria and Anna Luca Hamori of Hungary during the women’s 66kg quarterfinal. (Photo: Richard Pelham / Getty Images)


French flyer


Léon Marchand wrote his name in the Olympic swimming history books with one of the most incredible feats the Games has seen. Less than two hours apart, the 22-year-old Frenchman won gold in the men’s 200m butterfly before claiming another gold in the men’s 200m breaststroke. It was the first time in 50 years of Olympic history that a swimmer had won two individual gold medals on the same evening.

Not only did Marchand win the two events on the same night, he also unseated the reigning champions and broke their own Olympic records in both races. Outside of those two races, he also claimed gold medals in both individual medley races (400m and 200m), as well as a bronze in the 4x100m men’s medley relay.

Olympic moments Marchand Léon Marchand of France celebrates after winning gold in the men’s 200m individual medley. (Photo: Quinn Rooney / Getty Images)


Noah’s bark


US sprinter Noah Lyles’s bite lived up to his bark in winning the blue riband men’s 100m sprint. It was an event that many expected one of the Jamaican pair of Oblique Seville and Kishane Thompson to win after they set blistering race times this year.

Lyles was not one of those people. Over the past few years he had spoken about winning the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay at the Olympic Games – bold words from an athlete whose strongest event had been the 200m, in which he took bronze at Tokyo 2020. But the confident sprinter lived up to his self-created hype and came from behind, in a spectacularly tight 100m final, to claim a gold medal – the first in the event for the US in 20 years. 

Olympic moments Simbine Akani Simbine in action during the 4x100m heats on 8 August 2024. (Photo: Anton Geyser / Gallo Images)


Silver lining for Simbine


After years of coming close, South African sprinter Akani Simbine finally had his moment when he anchored the men’s 4x100m relay team to silver in the Olympic final. After finishing fourth in the men’s 100m final in a time of 9.82s, it seemed the great sprinter’s chance of a medal might have gone. Simbine came fifth and fourth in the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 finals, and at 30, he was running out of chances. But in the relay final with compatriots Bayanda Walaza, Shaun Maswanganyi and Bradley Nkoana, Simbine ran the leg of his life to take the team from sixth to second in an African record time of 37.57s. Simbine’s final leg was an astonishing 8.78s (with a flying start) to pull them ahead of Great Britain. Canada took gold. DM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw5xlvbiBPI

Read more: Olympic Games Paris 2024


This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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