Paris Olympics: From Noah Lyles to B-girl Raygun, 24 of the most unforgettable moments of the 2024 Games (2024)

Sixteen days of spectacular performances, once-in-a-lifetime athletic accomplishments, epic battles on a global stage and, thankfully, a return to full-fledged Olympics hype. Fans filled the stands, millions traveled to France to witness it all. Paris was the perfect spot for an undeniably legendary Games.

It was the best Olympics since, what, London in 2012? Maybe even longer than that. For the United States, it was a massive success: 126 medals won, the most for Team USA since 1984. It's the eighth straight Summer Olympics wherein the United States beat all other nations for most medals. At 40 golds, the U.S. tied China atop that table.

With this glorious quadrennial sporting event now officially wrapped, it's time to take one big look back at what we just experienced, both the good and bad. Whittling this list was nearly as tough as trying to keep up with all the sports over the past two-plus weeks, but after heavy consideration, these are the 24 biggest and/or most notable moments from the 2024 Games.

1. Noah Lyles wins 100m 🥇 by slimmest of margins

Typically, the most anticipated event of every Olympics is the men's 100 meters. The race for the Fastest Man Alive title. Noah Lyles pulled off a closing push for the ages when he out-touched Jamaican Kishane Thompson by five-one hundredths of a second.

Positively ELECTRIC.

Lyles' bid for the double was halted after he contracted COVID, which led to him taking the bronze in the 200 meters four days later. Letsile Tebogo of Botswana took gold there, but Lyles even earning bronze in that race despite battling a major respiratory disease was pretty amazing.

Oh, and in an epic Olympics for sports photography, here was one of the five-or-so best images from the Games. It's a digital composite of the 100 at eight points over the less-than-10-seconds it took to run the race.

2. USA wins team 🥇 in women's gymnastics

This was without question one of the highlights of the first week of the Paris Games. Led by Simone Biles, the United States women's gymnastics team -- Biles, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee and Hezly Rivera -- earned vindication in winning all-around gold after taking silver in the Tokyo Games three years ago. The United States' oldest gymnastics team ever earned a 171.296 aggregate score to breeze past Italy and Brazil. It was a moment of national pride for the U.S. -- and its return to the apex of gymnastics. After all, in a sport as dangerous as this one, first place is never promised.

3. Biles' 2024 run puts her in elite tier of all-time greats

It was a massive Olympics for Biles, who added three gold medals (team all-around, individual all-around, balance beam) and a silver (floor exercise) to bring her lifetime total to 11. That's third-most by any gymnast in history. Rare is the Olympic gymnast who can take gold at multiple Games. Biles is now the only one to ever win two all-arounds eight years apart. Had she never competed in these Olympics, she still would've been regarded as the best in history. But by going one more time and by winning three more golds and by doing it how she did it, Biles transcended her sport and put her name alongside the greatest all-time athletes in sports. Additionally, these Games gave Biles the one thing her peerless career was lacking to that point:a redemption arc.

4. Katie Ledecky breaks women's swimming medal record

There has never been a female swimmer as dominant as Ledecky, who is now the owner of 14 medals, nine of them gold, which has her in a six-way tie for second most golds ever. (Michael Phelps has 23. Outlandish.) Ledecky, who was a Team USA flag bearer for the closing ceremony, leaves Paris is the most decorated female American Olympic athlete in history. Among Ledecky's litany of accomplishments, her greatest is the fact that she has won the 800-meter freestyle at four straight Olympics. No other swimmer in history has won four gold medals in the same event. Ledecky is one of one.

5. Steph Curry's dazzling 3-point barrage gets USA another 🥇

If we wanted to get detailed on what went down with Team USA's gold-winning run, we could've had separate entries for LeBron James winning MVP at 39 and the white-knuckle come-from-behind saga against Serbia in the semifinals. Both of those were huge. But they were buttressed by Curry, who made his Olympics debut and wound up providing highlight-reel material that will go alongside the best stuff he's ever done in his NBA career. Curry sank four 3s in the closing minutes of the gold medal game against France. Mesmerizing. The last 3 here could go down as his Mona Lisa.

Somehow, despite being heavy favorites to win gold again, Team USA hoops actually felt compelling because the stakes seemed bigger here than they'd been in a long time in international play. Curry, who had 60 points and 17 made 3s in the semifinals and finals (laughable!), carried the United States to gold and wound up reinforcing his case as one of the 15 best players in history.

Here's another all-time pic.

6. Léon Marchand wins two individual 🥇 in under two hours

One of the most rewarding experiences for sports fans with each Olympics, without fail, is that we see multiple instances of athletes doing something that had never been accomplished theretofore at the Games. France's Léon Marchand emerged as the biggest sports star in his country, particularly because he was provided the home-pool advantage. Just 22 years old, Marchand made history when he won gold medals in the butterfly and the breaststroke on the same day (in less than two hours). His butterfly win was epic.

No one had ever won medals in those events, let alone golds, on the same day in Olympics history before Marchand pulled it off. And remember, those came just a few days after he won gold in the 400-meter individual medley. He exceeded all expectations in Paris, and so he'll almost certainly enter the 2028 Olympics as the most formidable men's swimmer in the world.

7. Sha'Carri's mid-sprint stare en route to 🥇

After months of hype in the lead-up to Paris, many thought Sha'Carri Richardson would win the 100 meters. Instead, a plot twist: Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia beat her easily and took home the first gold for that country EVER. (A big story unto itself.)

But Richardson got a gold -- and a moment/meme to herself anyway.

There are few things more badass you can do as an Olympian than look over at your opponent in the middle of a dead sprint and acknowledge your dominance as you approach the finish line before they do. That's what Richardson did after making up ground in the women's 4x100-meter relay. Richardson was the anchor leg on an all-star team of Melissa Jefferson, TeeTee Terry and Gabby Thomas. After winning silver in the women's 100, Richardson got the United States across the finish line to earn her first Olympic gold -- and claim a little redemption in the process.

8. Cole Hocker's shocking 🥇 in the 1500m

If you watched this live on NBC, here was the best part: This race represented the rare instance of an American-based broadcast company dedicating a lot of airtime to storytelling about two foreign athletes who are barely known here in the States. The 1500 was to be all about Norway's Jakob Ingebretsen and Great Britain's Josh Kerr and their boiling rivalry.

Then a crazy thing happened on the way to the finish line: Cole Hocker stunned the track world by out-running them both in the final 40 meters, becoming only the second American to win gold in this race since -- yowsa -- 1908! Teammate Yared Nuguse, who was BARELY beaten by Kerr, took bronze, and that marked the first time since 1912 that two Americans reached the podium in this event.

9. USA barely wins 🥇 in 4x100-meter mixed medley relay

There were so many insanely entertaining races at these Olympics, but if I was forced to choose my favorite, this one might narrowly be the pick. That's in part because I adore the terrific conceit. Men's and women's swimmers teaming up, two apiece, in all four swimming styles: backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle. The United States' four-pack of Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske swam a gold medal-winning, world record time of 3:37.43 to beat China by only .12 seconds. The gold happened thanks to Huske (who won five medals and became one of the breakout American stars in Paris) swimming 51.88 seconds in the anchor, one of the best of her career.

10. USA Rugby walk-off try for stunning 🥉

The 2024 Games had an embarrassment of noteworthy upsets, but in terms of unexpected finishes in the closing seconds, this here truly could be No. 1. The United States is a relative newbie when it comes to rugby sevens. It had never medaled in the Olympics in the sport. So 2024 became the breakout year. After Ilona Maher stiff-armed and steamrolled the competition early, it was the bronze medal game against powerhouse Australia that brought the U.S. a storybook ending. The Americans pulled off a ridiculous upset after Alex Sedrick broke free for a length-of-the-field try to tie the match as time expired. Her post-score kick settled the score at 14-12 for Team USA. I've watched this 20 times since it happened. Rugby sevens: legit!

11. Mondo Duplantis sets pole vault record

We're gonna go straight to the video here. As you watch, take note of the sound at Stade de France as Duplantis speeds toward the bar, pole in hand, and then listen to the pop of tens of thousands of people after he vaults himself higher than any human ever has: 6.25 meters (20 feet, 6 inches).

Chills. What a moment. He did it on his third attempt, by the way, after already sealing the gold. It was the ninth world record Duplantis set in the past four years, too. And despite growing up in Lafayette, Louisiana, Duplantis opted to compete on behalf of Sweden -- his mother's home country.

12. Jordan Chiles wins 🥉 ... for now?

Despite the Olympics being over, this story isn't. More than a week after Chiles rightfully earned bronze for her eye-catching floor routine, an entity known as the Court of Arbitration for Sport determined Chiles should be stripped of the medal because of a ridiculous rule. The protocol in question is about how much time Chiles' coaches spent before challenging the judges over the difficulty score of Chiles' floor routine. Allegedly, they were four seconds too late. Chiles has already left Paris with her bronze. The decision is causing an uproar -- and now USA Gymnastics is claiming they have video evidence that goes against what the CAS ruled.

13. Quincy Hall's 400m 🥇 straight out of a movie

As inspirational a run as you'll ever see. Hall exhibited all the pain and glory that goes with one of the most physically taxing endeavors an athlete can ever opt into: sprinting 400 meters. If you need any motivation to do anything in your life, just have this video on immediate standby. An unforgettable run by Hall, an incredible call by Leigh Diffey, an indelible Olympic racing moment.

14. Alyssa Naeher's right paw secures USWNT 🥇 with late-game save

Team USA women's soccer is back where it belongs: On top of the world. A bronze in Tokyo (then a stunning upset in the World Cup in 2023) lit a fire underneath the program after prolonged disappointments in international play. But that drought ended in Paris, thanks to Naeher, who made a tremendous save late in Team USA's gold medal match against Brazil. The USWNT didn't lose a match, holding off three straight opponents by a 1-0 margin to get the gold. It's the first gold for this outfit since London 2012.

15. Team USA women's hoops wins eighth straight 🥇

It had been a generation, if not two, since the United States women's team faced a truly competitive and close final margin in Olympic competition. On the final day of the Games, they got it against France: 67-66. And had France's Gabby Williams' foot not been a few inches over the 3-point line, the game would have gone into overtime. On a team with greatness such as A'ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, Alyssa Thomas, Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner, it was Kahleah Copper who came up the biggest in the gold medal game.

16. Sydney McLaughlin-Levronedusts the field in 400m hurdles

50.37 seconds. That's how long it took McLaughlin-Levrone to run around the track one time (while also clearing 10 hurdles) en route to a world record. She is a phenomenal athlete, by far the best women's hurdler -- and given her domination, maybe the best we've ever seen. In winning the 400-meter hurdles in back-to-back Olympics, McLaughlin-Levrone became the first woman to ever win two gold medals in the event. She has no competition, what with having not been beaten in the 400 hurdles since 2019. We eagerly await to see what events she add to her itinerary for Los Angeles, where she may well be the most hyped-up track athlete heading into those Games four years from now.

17. USA men falter in the 4x100m relay yet again

For all of the great stories to come out of USA Track and Field at the Paris Games, there remains a negative narrative that just won't die. And now it will live on for at least four more years. The men's 4x100-meter relay team has not won gold since 2000, and not even medaled since 2004, despite having some of the best top-end speed in the world. Yet again, a botched baton exchange (between Christian Coleman and Kenny Bednarek) had them well behind before they got tagged with outright disqualification for the infraction. It got so bad, none other than Carl Lewis called for a coaching total teardown on the men's side. The pressure for 2028 in L.A. -- where Lewis had a legendary showing in 1984 -- is going to be immense.

18. Bobby Finke saves U.S. men's swimming's 120-year streak

No nation in any Olympic sport has a longer streak than the United States men winning at least one gold in one individual swimming event at every Olympics since 1904. With one race to go -- the men's 1,500-meter freestyle -- the U.S. men had zero golds at these Games. And then Bobby Finke set a world record and saved the States' streak with an epic 14:30.67 swim, a race in which he never trailed. As clutch as it gets, and maybe the most under-discussed meaningful gold medal of any won in 2024 for the United States.

19. French judo legend wins another 🥇 in epic tiebreaker

If you're wondering why this one's included, you were not only NOT dialed into the absurdly entertaining judo matches, you also underestimate just how popular Teddy Riner is in his home country. Marchand was basically 1a to Riner's 1b in terms of French celebrity power at these Games. Riner -- who lit the cauldron at the opening ceremony -- is basically the Michael Jordan of judo, only he's 6-8 and 330 pounds. He won his fourth gold medal in absolutely insane fashion. When things have to go to a tiebreak in judo, they spin a "Dial of Destiny" to determine who fights. It landed on +90 kilograms -- Riner's weight class. He went up against his Japanese opponent within SECONDS of the Dial landing, and then it was a first-point-wins scenario in the mixed team competition. You have to click the link above and watch it play out.

Also: Honorable mention here to Cuban heavyweight wrestler Mijain Lopez, who won a fifth gold medal and set an Olympics record in the process. No one's ever won gold at five straight Olympics in an individual event. He punctuated making history by leaving his shoes on the mat, a signal of his retirement.

20. Men's gymnastics wins 🥉 thanks to Stephen Nedoroscik

The breakout American gymnastics star of the 2024 Games was a 25-year-old glasses-wearing, Rubik's Cube-solving, pommel horse-owning game-changer. Nedoroscik's specialty is the pommel horse; it's his only discipline. His tremendous routine in the team all-around competition secured a bronze for Team USA men, giving the group its first medal since 2008. Then, in the individual pommel horse portion days later, Nedoroscik came through again in a tight environment and took the bronze. As feel-good a story as we saw on the USA side at these Games. Nedoroscik isn't walking away. He said he plans on competing for gold in 2028.

21. Gabby Thomas, Rai Benjamin, Grant Holloway all sprint for 🥇

Paris was the best run on the track at an Olympics in individual competition for Team USA in 36 years. The U.S. men and women won seven individual golds in track, matching 1988's showing. Not only that, the United States took first place in every sprint in either men's or women's competition. As a refresher, the sprint races are: the 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters, the 400-meter hurdles, the women's 100-meter hurdles and the men's 110-meter hurdles. Holloway won the 110 hurdles, Thomas was the runaway 200 champion and Benjamin wound up winning the 400 hurdles and anchoring the men's 4x400m relay team to a gold medal; no one had EVER done that.

It all added up to 14 total track and field golds for the United States. This was a huge Olympics for breakout names in track. Los Angeles is going to be star-studded and FAST.

22. Algerian female boxer wins 🥇 despite misinformation campaign against her

Imane Khelif won gold in women's boxing, but it came at a cruel and unnecessary personal cost. Khelif became the top target for bigots -- not to mention the widely discredited International Boxing Association -- after she induced a concession from an Italian opponent early during the Games. That result sparked a wildfire of misinformation against Khelif. Despite a smear campaign against her sex (Khelif is a woman) over misinterpretations of a gender test she had to take in 2023, Khelif continued to box her way to the top and became the second Algerian to win gold in boxing. As a result, Khelif has filed a legal complaintdue to the relentless wave of online persecution she's faced amid what should have been the most fulfilling time of her career.

23. Breaking gets its viral moment -- for all the wrong reasons

You get a Turkish handgun expert who goes viral for looking like a hitman in dad clothing, I get it. That's fun meme material and part of the decorations of every Olympics experience. But when you've got a so-called sport making its Olympics debut with barely any fan worldwide following, you're going to have skeptics. And the last thing you need is someone who unintentionally makes a mockery of the whole production.

Which brings us to B-girl Raygun, a stage name I won't even attempt to understand. The performance in breaking nearly broke social media. Maybe it almost broke the Olympics. Maybe this is proof we're living in a simulation. The memes birthed from her performance practically served as a separate closing ceremony to an otherwise elite Olympics. Breaking, I must note, is not on the docket for the 2028 Games in L.A.

24. The greatest Olympics venue of all time

I had a lot of really good nominees for last billing here -- Scottie Scheffler and Novak Djokovic were at the top of the list of great moments -- but we're closing out with the best thing we got each day at the Olympics.

Beach volleyball under the Eiffel Tower.

The best view of a sporting venue we've seen ... ever? What a stroke of brilliance. Every future Summer Games is going to attempt something as close to this kind of vibe or appeal, but it's fair to say they're all going to be going for the silver in this category moving forward. Nothing is ever beating this view.