The Paris Games came to a close on Sunday with the Americans atop the medal count.
The two weeks in the French capital marked the first Summer Games unaffected by COVID since Rio 2016, and one of the most successful Olympics ever for Team USA, which tied China with 40 gold medals and 126 medals overall.
There was no shortage of memorable moments, but here are 10 that stuck in our mind.
Noah Lyles wins the 100-meter dash in a photo finish
Going into Paris, the last American male to win the 100-meter dash and hold the title of ‘Fastest Man in the World’ was Justin Gatlin in 2004.
Lyles, after struggling in the 2020 Tokyo Games, crossed the line just five-thousandths of a second ahead of Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson to stand atop the podium — a finish so close that Lyles didn’t realize he won until seconds after the fact.
Although he failed to complete the double, settling for a bronze medal in the 200 meters, his 9.784 in the 100 stands as one of the iconic moments of the Games.
Ledecky becomes most-decorated American woman in history
For Katie Ledecky, this Olympics was the Drive for Nine as she hoped to take GOAT status in women’s swimming.
That’s just what she did, with a pair of golds in the 800 and 1500-meter freestyle races to go with silver in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay and bronze in the 400-meter freestyle race.
Ledecky’s nine gold medals and 14 overall medals made her the most-decorated American woman and most-decorated female swimmer in history, while tying with former gymnast Larisa Latynina for the most gold medals of any woman in Olympic history.
Biles gets back on top
Simone Biles was widely considered the best gymnast ever going into these Olympics, but there was unfinished business at play after her Tokyo Games were derailed by a case of the “twisties.”
A trio of gold medals in the team all-around, individual all-around and vault, along with a silver in the floor exercise, set things right.
If this was the last go-round for Biles at the Olympic Games — she’ll be 31 in 2028 — it was a perfect way to close things out.
Hocker’s 1500-meter upset
The men’s 1500-meter race was billed as a continuation of the rivalry between Great Britain’s Josh Kerr and Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
But Cole Hocker, an Indianapolis native running in his first Olympics, crashed the party.
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As the two favorites vied for gold throughout the race, Hocker used an out-of-nowhere kick in the final 100 meters to pass them both, setting an Olympic record at 3:27.65, with Yared Nuguse — another American — nipping Ingebrigtsen for bronze.
Curry puts France to bed
This marked the closest men’s basketball competition at the Olympics in a long time, with the Americans being pushed to the limit in a semifinal comeback victory against Serbia and in their gold medal victory against France.
As good as the Serbia game was, though, the lasting image of these Games will be Stephen Curry’s three straight 3-pointers in the final minutes of the game against France, including a heave over two defenders that was immediately termed a “golden dagger” by NBC’s Noah Eagle.
It was Curry’s first ever Olympics, and it’s hard to imagine Team USA could have survived without him.
Team USA continues women’s basketball dominance
Just like on the men’s side, the women’s basketball team needed everything it had to get past France in the gold medal round.
It took a pair of free throws with just under four seconds to go — and a fair bit of luck with Gabby Williams putting her foot on the 3-point line as she heaved what would have been a game-tying shot — for the Americans to escape with a 61st-straight Olympic victory and their eighth straight gold, dating back to 1996.
The challenge made it all the more sweet.
The USWNT gets back on top
The pressure was on the women’s soccer program after a disastrous 2023 World Cup knocked it off the sport’s highest perch and plunged it into uncertainty.
But in Emma Hayes’ first tournament as head coach, the former Chelsea manager brought the joy back to a team that had turned the page on last summer, finding its taliswomen in Sophia Smith and Trinity Rodman while riding some fantastic goalkeeping from Alyssa Naeher to a gold medal victory over Brazil.
Team USA takes relay double
The men’s and women’s 4×400-meter relays were run back-to-back on the last night of track and field, and it was the Americans who took home a memorable pair of golds.
First, on the men’s side, Westchester native Rai Benjamin crossed the line a mere tenth of a second ahead of Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo on the anchor leg to take gold.
The women would have no such drama, as New Jersey native Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s astonishing second leg led the United States in blowing away the field and winning by over four seconds, coming 0.1 seconds short of the world record, set by the 1988 Russian team that was beset by doping.
Leon Marchand sets the French crowd alight
For a local angle to these Games, you couldn’t do any better than Marchand, who became an overnight sensation in Paris during the leadup to the Olympics.
The 22-year-old more than lived up to the hype once he got in the pool, taking four gold medals, including the 200-meter butterfly and 200-meter breaststroke on the same night.
He chased down Hungarian Kristof Milak in the last 50 meters of the butterfly to set an Olympic record.
Naturally, the atmosphere for each of Marchand’s swims was electric, with the French crowd even timing its chants with Marchand coming up for air.
Novak Djokovic completes the Golden Slam
There was one peak left for Novak Djokovic to climb in tennis history and he did so in Paris.
The Serb became just the fifth player ever to complete the Golden Slam, winning all four majors and an Olympics, when he beat Carlos Alcaraz in the final at Roland Garros.
The 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) victory was an instant classic, with the two best players on the planet leaving everything on the court and Djokovic coming out ahead in a pair of tiebreaks.
