Paris Olympics 2024: What you need to know right now
Reuters
August 12, 2024 08:45 MYT
August 12, 2024 08:45 MYT
General view during the closing ceremony, Paris 2024 Olympics - Ceremonies - Paris 2024 Closing Ceremony - Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France, August 11, 2024. - REUTERS
PARIS: Paris has passed the baton to Los Angeles after a successful Games for the French that helped reboot the Olympic brand.
The United States took the last gold of the Games in a women's basketball nail-biter against France, nudging them ahead of China to the top spot of the medal table.
Here is what you need to know about the Olympics on Sunday.
MARSEILLAISE SEGUES TO THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER
From Paris to LA with love. The closing ceremony began with France's hero of the games Leon Marchand and some quintessentially French performance art and ended with Hollywood stardust.
Tom Cruise rappelled into the stadium, leapt onto a motorbike before a film sequence showed him zooming back to Los Angeles, adding Olympic rings to the Hollywood sign and beginning a relay of the flag around the city up to a performance from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
DOWN TO THE WIRE
The United States won a 67-66 thriller over France in the women's basketball final, claiming an historic eighth consecutive Olympic crown while denying the hosts the golden finish to the Paris Games that had seemed within their grasp.
With LeBron James sitting courtside wearing the gold medal the U.S. men won by beating France on Saturday, the American women completed the golden hoops double and extended their winning streak on Olympic hardwood to a remarkable 61 games - a stretch of domination that goes all the way back to 1992.
US TOP MEDAL TABLE, JUST
The United States topped the medals table with 40 golds, finishing above China only by virtue of their 44 silvers.
China, who were the last team apart from the U.S. to top the standings, when they did it on home soil at the 2008 Beijing Games, also won 40 golds but managed only 27 silvers.
The U.S. and China each had double the number of golds than third-placed Japan, a far more dominant performance by the top two countries than in recent Games.
Host nation France met its target of finishing in the top five, reeling in the country's biggest medal haul since 1900.
DISTANCE STAR HASSAN
The Netherlands' Sifan Hassan became the first person since Czech running star Emil Zatopek in 1952 to medal in the marathon, 5000 metres and 10,000 metres in one Olympics.
She deployed her infamous late kick to run an Olympic record time for the marathon of two hours, 22 minutes and 55 seconds, just 36 hours after coming third in the 10,000 metres on the track.
At the other end of the field, Bhutan's Kinzang Lhamo finished 90 minutes after Hassan, receiving a standing ovation from spectators as she crossed the line in three hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds.
EGYPT'S OLYMPIC BID
Egypt will bid to host the 2036 and 2040 Summer Olympics, with the country's improving infrastructure and sports facilities key for a successful African bid, said the head of the African national Olympic committees association on Sunday.
The continent has never staged an Olympic Games. Cairo last made an unsuccessful bid for the 2008 Olympics.
CYCLING'S DUTCH SPRINT KING
Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen confirmed his status as the dominant force of men's sprinting as he won the Olympic keirin on Sunday to complete a remarkable hat-trick at the National Velodrome.
Lavreysen flew around the final corner to beat Australia's Matthew Richardson, who took the silver.
U.S. DOMINATE THE RELAYS
The United States won the men's and women's 4x400 metres relays late on Saturday, cementing a dominant performance on the track by the Americans at this Olympics.
The women won by more than four seconds, clocking the second-quickest time in history and stretching the country's victory streak in the event to eight in a row.
The men cut it a bit finer, just holding off Botswana on the finish line.
Jamaica's dominance in the women's sprinting came to an end in Paris.
U.S. SPOIL FRENCH DREAMS OF BASKETBALL FAIRYTALE
There was no "Miracle on the Seine" for France in the basketball as the United States ground out a 98-87 win to claim a fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal.
The American showmen crushed Gallic hearts, led by Stephen Curry and a fired up LeBron James.
TAIWAN'S LIN WINS BOXING GOLD
Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, 28, one of two boxers at the centre of a gender eligibility row, beat Poland's Julia Szeremeta to claim the women's featherweight title.
It is unclear whether boxing will feature at the next Olympics. The International Olympic Committee ran the event at Paris after it stripped the International Boxing Association of its status as the sport's global body over governance and finance issues.
Rival body World Boxing said national boxing federations needed to join its ranks to ensure the sport is included in the Los Angeles line up.
U.S. GYMNAST CHILES MAY LOSE MEDAL
American gymnast Jordan Chiles is set to lose her bronze medal in the women’s artistic gymnastics floor exercise competition after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in favour of an appeal by Romania's Ana Barbosu, who will move up to third place, it said on Saturday.
THE PRODUCT PLACEMENT GAMES
Winning athletes in Paris have received their medals on Louis Vuitton trays before being handed a Samsung flip phone to take a "victory selfie", heralding a new era of product placement at the Olympics which Los Angeles looks set to build upon.