Ranking our top 10 moments and stories from the U.S. in the 2024 Paris Olympics

PARIS — These were the Olympics of Katie Ledecky and Leon Marchand, of Simone Biles and Rebeca Andrade, of Noah Lyles’ microscopic victory in the 100-meter dash and Stephen Nedoroscik’s telescopic lenses in his glasses. And these were the Olympics of a provocative Opening Ceremony, of chromosomal controversies in women’s boxing, and of the United States’ continuing dominance in basketball — provided it’s the five-on-five kind, not the three-on-three kind.

Over 20 days here, you get to cover and witness some remarkable things. There were events or storylines or scenarios that promised to consume the world’s attention. Some of them actually did. Some faded in a day’s time. Some never developed at all. And there are always little moments that aren’t little at all, subtle sights that stay with you. Just Saturday, after losing a men’s quarterfinal match at 65 kilograms, Armenian wrestler Vazgen Tevanyan remained on his hands and knees, rocking slowly, unable to get to his feet for several seconds. Standing up would be an acknowledgment that the tournament was finished for him, that his Olympic dream was dead, so he stayed down on the mat as long as he could.

That was just one moment, one story, of the Paris Games. Here were 10 more that stood out:

Lyles was poised to be the star of these Olympics for the United States, and he knew it. In a news conference here on July 29, he practically guaranteed that he would win the 100 and 200 meters: “If I lose this time, it’s not going to be because I beat myself. It’s going to be that they had to be that much better. But to be honest, when Noah Lyles is being Noah Lyles, there is nobody …”

Charismatic and brash, open about his mental-health struggles, Lyles had a chance to thrust track and field back into the spotlight of American sports. It didn’t quite work out that way. He did win the 100, by five-thousandths of a second over Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson. But the closeness of the race and the immediate uncertainty over who had actually crossed the finish line first dulled the mystique of Lyles’ victory. He had talked like someone who would dominate the event, and he didn’t. Then, he finished third in the 200, his signature event, after reportedly testing positive for COVID-19 two days earlier.

Sometimes covering a memorable Olympic event is nothing more than a matter of good fortune and timing. I happened to be at Stade de France for the women’s rugby sevens bronze-medal match, thinking that I would write a quick story about the two Philadelphia-area players on the U.S. team. Instead, the Americans upset Australia, 14-12, on Alex Sedrick’s 80-meter sprint to the try zone with no time left on the clock. As Sedrick broke into the clear, I looked at my friend Matthew Futterman, a writer for The Athletic/New York Times, and we knew we had stumbled onto something magical.

“It’s kind of unreal,” the United States’ Ariana Ramsey, a Bridgeport native and Upper Merion High School alumna, told me after the match. “Coming from Upper Merion to the Olympics, I put us on the map. I put King of Prussia on the map — Philadelphia in general. I feel like I’m making history.”

» READ MORE: The U.S. women’s rugby sevens shocked the world, and an Upper Merion alum lent a key hand

Hey, a little exaggeration was understandable.

Far be it from me to suggest that these two games represented a day of hoops as good or better than any Palestra doubleheader, but … wow. France rallied from an early 10-point deficit, and by the time its 73-69 victory was over, Bercy Arena was so loud and joyful that it felt as if France had won the gold medal. The U.S., down 13 heading into the fourth quarter, topped that comeback with a better, later one. Playing with all the pressure of the heaviest of favorites, the Americans hit 10 straight shots from the field during one stretch. It was as good as sports and drama get.

» READ MORE: Joel Embiid was his best when Team USA needed him most. He can carry the Sixers in the same way.

The consummate combination of excellence and grace. Ledecky medaled four times here, including another gold in the 800-meter freestyle. But the 1,500 was her tour de force. She won it by more than 10 seconds.

For future reference, we now know that it costs more than $1.5 billion to clean the Seine River enough to make it safe for swimming. How do we know this? Because that’s what Paris paid to prepare the river for the Games’ open-water swimming events, and the men’s triathlon still had to be postponed a day.

» READ MORE: From Episcopal Academy to the Paris Olympics, here are the nine remarkable stories of swimmer Ivan Puskovitch

At least the events were able to go off. At least Episcopal Academy alum Ivan Puskovitch was able to complete the men’s marathon; he swam the 10-kilometer course in 1 hour, 57 minutes, and 52.5 seconds, finishing 19th. And at least there have been no reports of any athletes who, after swimming the Seine, suddenly began to glow in the dark.

Simone Biles, of course, will go down in all likelihood as one of the greatest female gymnasts of all time, if not the greatest. But, if anything, her legend was enhanced by the presence and performance of her first genuine rival, Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, who won gold in the floor exercise and medaled three other times. This was Ali-Frazier-level stuff, and it was wonderful.

» READ MORE: Simone Biles pulled off two great comebacks in the all-around: One to win gold, one to step back from the brink.

The Summer Games used to be a king-making event in boxing: Cassius Clay, Joe Frazier, Sugar Ray Leonard, Evander Holyfield, and more. That era is long gone. The most telling fact about the state of the sport, in the Olympics and in the United States, is that it took a culture-war battle over the physiology and eligibility of Algeria’s Imane Khelif to generate any interest in men’s or women’s boxing.

“There are actually people involved in the boxing industry today who are thankful for all the attention being paid to Khelif,” Mike Silver, a boxing historian and the author of The Arc of Boxing: The Rise and Decline of the Sweet Science, told me. “The reason is that general interest in boxing is at such a low point — certainly in comparison to past Olympics — that the attitude is ‘Any publicity is better than no publicity.’”

On the morning of the women’s team foil event in fencing, I met Jason Weintraub and Elizabeth Surin — the parents of U.S. team member and Philly native Maia Weintraub — near the Grand Palais. We got coffee and wandered around the city for a while, and for a mother and father whose daughter was about to compete in the Olympics, they were quite relaxed and composed.

» READ MORE: Philly fencer Maia Weintraub was clutch for Team USA. Her ‘Tiger Mom’ and dad can now savor her road to Olympic gold.

It was fascinating to see. I have two sons myself, and if either of them was about to perform or compete on the stage that Maia was that day, I’d be an open nerve ending. But Jason and Elizabeth carried themselves with a calm reassurance. This is where our daughter is supposed to be. No matter what happens today, we will be proud of her.

Then, she gave them every reason to be proud, when she helped the U.S. win its first team gold medal in fencing.

The guy made the pommel horse popular for a hot minute and traded tweets with Elmo. The only way he could have had a better Olympics is if it had been Kermit the Frog.

» READ MORE: Penn State’s Stephen Nedoroscik, Rubik’s Cuber extraordinaire, solved the puzzle of Olympic stardom

After the USWNT beat Brazil, 1-0, on Saturday in the gold-medal game, midfielder Sam Coffey, a Penn State alumna, ran to the bleachers to find her big brother, Sean, and her big sister, Alex, The Inquirer’s terrific Phillies beat writer. And, well, if you can watch this video without welling up, you’re nothing but an emotionless piece of scrap metal and I don’t want to know you.