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After a total of 1,039 medals handed out across 329 events and 32 different sports in 16 days, the 2024 Olympics are now officially at an end with the torch passed to Los Angeles for 2028.
It was truly a Games to remember in Paris, with Team GB narrowly eclipsing their medal haul from Tokyo three years ago, albeit with eight fewer golds as they finished in their lowest position in the final table since Athens 2004.
New superstars were born and existing legends cemented their legacies across an unforgettable fortnight of thrills, spills and sporting drama of the highest quality.
Standard Sport reporters Matt Majendie and Malik Ouzia covered the Paris Olympics from start to finish and now review the best of the action as they saw it...
Highlight of the Games
Much like at London 2012, any time a home athlete was competing, the noise at the Paris venues was deafening. But it seemed to reach new heights as Joris Daudet led home countrymen Sylvain Andre and Romain Mahieu in a French 1-2-3 in the BMX racing watched by their President, Emmanuel Macron.
One of the trio chucked a bike across the track in celebration while another hurled their helmet into the crowd. It was pure, unadulterated chaos and thrilling. MM
Whenever Leon Marchand was in the pool, La Defense Arena was the place to be. I wasn’t there the night he won two gold medals in a session, but Paris that evening was incredible, with raucous celebrations in every bar and restaurant, and renditions of La Marseillaise drifting down every street.
I was, though, lucky enough to be there in person for his fourth and final gold medal and did not experience a better atmosphere all Games. MO
Best British moment
Alex Yee looked to have settled for silver when his former flatmate Hayden Wilde, of New Zealand, sprung clear on the run leg of the individual triathlon and held a handy advantage going towards the race finish.
But spurred on by a shout from two-time Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee, Yee decided to go for one final throw of the dice and suddenly started closing the gap quite dramatically, passing Wilde and then pulling well clear for the gold. MM
I’m not sure if it’s personal preference or a widely-held view, but nothing quite beats a gold medal on the track. Keely Hodgkinson came to Paris under immense pressure to win Britain’s first since Mo Farah in Rio eight years ago and delivered, as she always does.
The thoroughly deserved culmination of a silver-laden journey, and yet just the start for the country’s most talented athlete, who is still only 22. MO
Best venue
Not normally a difficult pick at past Olympic Games where often monstrosities have been created only to become major white elephants in the ensuing years. But in Paris there have been so many iconic venues, although perhaps none more so than the beach volleyball.
You will have seen the photo – day or night – from the top of the stands of the players on court and the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower complete with its facelift of the Olympic rings. MM
A competitive field, this, and mine is perhaps a controversial choice given it involves the will-they-won’t-they decision to hold swimming events in the Seine but the mixed triathlon relay was a triumph.
The backdrop was amazing, looking out from Pont Alexandre III across to the Eiffel Tower on a beautiful morning. Crucially, though, the course did so much to enhance the race: lots of laps, fast and furious stuff, with packed crowds all the way around. MO
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Biggest disappointment
On day seven, I set out on a quest to see Team GB win four golds in four sports in one day. In truth, the opening gold of the day was as much a banker as was imaginable as Imogen Grant and Emily Craig romped to rowing gold.
Golds followed at the trampolining and the team equestrian, with another banker in the BMX racing as Beth Shriever lined up for the final having won every race in the build-up. The favourite finished dead last. MM
Paris have got so much right that there really is no one stand-out grumble, so here are a few minor ones: Max Whitlock missing out on a medal; Molly Caudery’s pole vault flop; French coffee (had been warned on this one); our hotel bar closing at 11pm; the US somehow finishing top, again, in the pool; Tommy Fleetwood’s bogey on 17; being proven wrong when none of Timothee Chalamet, Kylian Mbappe or the chap from Lupin featured in the opening ceremony. MO
Biggest surprise
The men’s 1500m had long been billed as a straight head-to-head between Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen ever since Kerr got the better of the Norwegian at last summer’s World Championships.
The war of words between the pair grew and they lined up having openly said they felt they were No1 in the world. In the end, neither of them were, perhaps guilty of sizing each other up too much as Cole Hocker charged up the inside and beat them both. MM
As an 800-word match report’s rendez-vous with the delete button will attest, nothing came as more unexpected to me than Andy Murray and Dan Evans’s fightback from the brink in the opening round of the men’s doubles.
At a set and a break down, they were cooked; at 9-4 down in the first-to-ten tiebreak, they were charcoal. And yet, somehow, they triumphed over the Japanese pair of Kei Nishikori and Taro Daniel. MO
