Tom Pidcock's heroic recovery, Antoine Dupont's Will Smith moves and Thierry Henry's Benny Hill moment! Mail Sport's writers pick their highs and lows from the feelgood Games
- The Olympics are over after Paris staged an awesome two weeks of global sport
- Team GB celebrated medal success with some brilliant performances in France
- Mail Sport's experts at the Games give their honest review of the best moments
Team GB returned to London on Monday in the aftermath of another stunning Olympic Games that delivered plenty of talking points after epic performances and controversial moments.
The Games in Paris were celebrated with a stunning closing ceremony and attention now quickly turns to LA28 in four-years time with medal contentions aplenty for Team GB.
Mail Sport's expert team that covered all the Olympic action in Paris give their highs and lows from the feelgood Games.
The Games in Paris were celebrated with a stunning closing ceremony and attention now quickly turns to LA28
Oliver Holt
Magic moment: Andy Murray’s last stand. It was a privilege to be there on Centre Court in 2013 when he became the first British man for 77 years to win the men’s singles title. To be there on Court Suzanne Lenglen when it all came to an end was emotional.
Best performance: Antoine Dupont for France against Fiji, in the Rugby Sevens final. He came on at half-time and won gold for France by making one try and scoring two. A genius at work.
Who happily I’d go on holiday with: Andy Macdonald, the Team GB skateboarder. For a start, he’s 51 so he’s only a few years younger than me. He didn’t win in Paris, but he had the most joie de vivre of anyone. He’s a great example to old folks like me.
Andy Murray's final match in tennis was a touching moment to be a part of at Roland Garros
France rugby superstar Antoine Dupont starred as his nation's sevens team won gold
Who I’d least like to get stuck in a lift with: Jakob Ingebrigtsen. If there was a scramble to get out, he doesn’t strike me as a women-and-children-and-middle-aged-journalists-first type of guy. He’d spend a lot of time telling you why he will be remembered as the greatest of all time. Which he won’t be, by the way.
Laugh out loud moment: Visiting the Stade Yves-du-Manoir, venue for the 1924 Paris Olympics. I’m a stadium nerd and I love the history of the Games, so this was a perfect storm for me. Sitting in the old stadium and imagining Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell on the track was as good as it gets.
Ian Herbert
Magic moment: The British 4x200 metres freestyle relay team winning gold in the pool, for the obvious friendship and camaraderie between them.
And Duncan Scott, the brilliant, unassuming fourth-leg swimmer who’d brought it home, describing the individual merits of the others — ‘I’m proud of them’ — as if he’d played no part.
Best performance: Leon Marchand winning two swimming golds in the space of two hours. In the 200m butterfly, he disappeared beneath the water way behind Hungary’s Kristof Milak. When he reappeared, he was almost ahead. He stormed the 200m breaststroke, to the chant of ‘Allez’ every time his head surfaced.
Leon Marchand winning two swimming golds in the space of two hours was a stunning Olympic performance
Marchand was France's posterboy at the Olympic Games as he delivered four gold medals
Who happily I’d go on holiday with: Kerenza Bryson, Britain’s modern pentathlete. To find out how it feels to compete in the mad sport compressed into a few hours — riding, fencing, swimming, running 3,000m then hitting five targets from 10m — only to place ninth and find yourself home, starting the cycle again.
Who I’d least like to get stuck in a lift with: Please don’t let it malfunction if any of the English stadium MCs are inside. The inane drivel of the Parc des Princes announcer, intent on warming up a crowd that did not require motivating, left everyone in dire need of ear defenders.
Laugh out loud moment: Ahead of France’s final against Spain, Thierry Henry was describing his team’s madcap campaign, in French, when the words ‘Benny Hill’ came out. ‘I don’t know if you know Benny Hill — he goes faster and slower…?’ There were a lot of blank looks in the room.
Ahead of France’s final against Spain, Thierry Henry was describing his team’s madcap campaign, in French, when the words ‘Benny Hill’ came out
Riath Al-Samarrai
Magic moment: Keely Hodgkinson winning the 800m. She was under immense pressure and rose to the occasion and announced herself as a true star.
Best performance: Simone Biles in the all-around. She has delivered higher scores, but not under the weight of so much baggage, which has included the ‘twisties’ — a flippant term for a condition that terrifies gymnasts — and the fallout from the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal.
Who happily I’d go on holiday with: Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen. It would be fun to watch them squabbling over the sun loungers and their place in the omelette queue. They’d spend so long arguing you could do a Cole Hocker and sneak in ahead.
Team GB golden girl Keely Hodgkinson delivered when it mattered most in the 800m final
Simone Biles once again dominated gymnastic events with Team USA in Paris
Who I’d least like to get stuck in a lift with: Thomas Bach. That droning, sanctimonious, misguided, pompous fool has done so much to take the sheen off the greatest sporting show on earth. The gender row in boxing is just the latest act of absurdity. He’s the very definition of a fart in the lift.
Laugh out loud moment: Mohamed Aly, Egypt’s handball keeper. Against serial champions Denmark, this giant, bombastic man had an arena chanting his name. With every save, he’d beat his chest and scream in the face of an attacker.
Jonathan McEvoy
Magic moment: Spectators were back and the spit tubes were gone. Tokyo was the lockdown Games. We had to walk out of our hotel only to come back in via a separate entrance for breakfast. Guards manned the lifts as we signed out to buy supplies.
Best performance: The collective brilliance of the men’s 100m. It took more than the winner to give athletics its mojo back after Usain Bolt’s personality departed. Noah Lyles, the victor, and Kishane Thompson, both on 9.784sec. A blanket finish, all under 10sec.
Noah Lyles won a first gold medal in the men's 100m final after recovering from a poor start
Lyles won by a matter of inches in what was a super competitive men's 100m final sprint
Who I’d least like to get stuck in a lift with: The buzzword of these Games has been ‘journey’. Every athlete seems to have travelled one, having learned on it, or survived it. Anyone who couldn’t give this gobbledygook a rest for a few storeys would be the last person I’d want to be stuck with.
Who happily I’d go on holiday with: Well, I know where, if not with whom. Paris. It has confounded those who said it would be an unfit host city. It has used its landmarks as venues more effectively than London, and, while I wouldn’t want a mouthful of l’eau Seine, it has reminded the world of its charms.
Laugh out loud moment: Early in the Games, I didn’t realise sessions started with Les trois coups, the banging of a stick to herald the curtain rising. So I wondered what on earth Billie Jean King was doing standing on Court Philippe Chatrier banging what I thought was her walking stick.
David Coverdale
Magic moment: The French Rugby Sevens team celebrating gold with a choreographed dance routine to Will Smith’s Miami. The Stade de France was already rocking after Dupont’s one-man show, but their moves sent the crowd crazy.
Best performance: Tom Pidcock in the men’s mountain bike race. He trailed France’s Victor Koretzky by 40 seconds after a puncture yet clawed his way back into it, then pulled off an incredible overtake towards the death.
Who happily I’d go on holiday with: Andy MacDonald. Who better to have as a companion than the man who declared he ‘won the gold medal for having the most fun’? You’d never be bored in his company as he has endless stories to share, such as the time he skateboarded through the White House.
Tom Pidcock recovered from a puncture to produce an epic performance and take gold in the men's cross-country mountain biking
IOC president Thomas Bach struggled to deal with controversial topics at the Olympics
Who I’d least like to get stuck in a lift with: Thomas Bach. Given the IOC president is seemingly allergic to answering questions, it would be difficult to kill time with a conversation.
Laugh out loud moment: When a middle-aged man with a slight paunch walked out at the La Defense Arena in floral trunks and dived in. It transpired he was one of the lifeguards and had to retrieve a lost swim cap.
Mike Keegan
Magic moment: Tom Pidcock’s incredible recovery from a puncture to win gold in the mountain biking stands out. The image of the fearless Leeds lad going the other way around a tree and overtaking his French rival should go in the Louvre.
Best performance: Ellie Aldridge’s late surge to snatch gold off her French rival in the kitesailing at a stunned Marseille marina. There can be few athletes who had to put on two stone to give themselves a chance.
Who happily I’d go on holiday with: Emma Hayes. The ex-Chelsea manager effed and blinded her way through a joyous post-match presser and brought pizza after leading the Yanks to gold 11 weeks after taking charge.
Emma Hayes guided Team USA women's football team to Olympic gold in emotional scenes
Who I’d least like to get stuck in a lift with: Umar Kremlev. The Russian president of boxing’s IBA, who booted eventual gold medalists Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting out of his World Championships after they allegedly failed gender tests last year, ranted and raved his way through the most shambolic press conference I’ve ever attended.
Laugh out loud moment: The sight of the world’s media trying to get to grips with bin-liners-turned-ponchos at the sodden Opening Ceremony — and the vision of many of them attempting to revive their laptops under hand dryers the next morning.
Nik Simon
Magic moment: Feeling the stands shake as I joined Hannah Scott’s parents to watch her win rowing gold. We met at their campsite at 7.30am and I saw their crippling nerves turn into a lifetime of pride. Afterwards, we raced down a one-way street in the back of a police car to meet her loved ones at the pub!
Best performance: France’s gold-medal victory over Fiji in the Rugby Sevens. I was sat next to Britain’s great Olympian Daley Thompson and he too could not believe what he was seeing.
Who happily I’d go on holiday with: Snoop Dogg has been the life and soul of the party in Paris. His NBC commentary has been brilliantly bonkers. Plus he’d get freebies at the best hotels.
Rapper Snoop Dogg was the life and soul of the party at the Paris Olympics
Who I’d least like to get stuck in a lift with: Charlotte Dujardin with a whip. But whatever floats your boat.
Laugh out loud moment: Watching Celine Dion belt out L’hymne a l’amour from the Eiffel Tower in the apocalyptic rain, while shivering under a leaky bin bag with a Serbian journalist who I’d just met. We were soaked to the bone and if we hadn’t have laughed, we’d have cried.
