The 2024 Paris Olympics has been quite the talk of the year. The event has given several unforgettable moments and excitement among fans, which has been in discussion even today. From the most successful to the first-timers, the 2024 Paris highlights moments to cherish forever.

Social media today is flooded with the Paris Olympics events with fans even now discussing various sports stars either in criticism or in support of their performance reflected in any match. Not just the experienced, but the young and emerging names have made much more prominent than the already existing ones.

Paris Olympics, a moment of remembrance

2024 Paris Olympics, a name that holds quite prominence, comprises some of the top highlighting and unexpected moments in such a prestigious event like this. Giving athletes a stage of recognition and fame worldwide, there were uncountable days showcasing the skills of players, the experience they carried, and the credibility of the performance set on the field.

From the most experienced tennis star Novak Djokovic to the golden couple duo of Tara-Davis and Hunter Woodhall to creating a first-time history for her native-like Saint Lucia from star Julien Alfred’s relevance made this year is enough to get her name etched in the track and field history. Besides stories of career recognitions, the 2024 Paris was also an event of love shared between athletes across different sports industries.

Love is in the air

For rower Justin Best, the Paris Olympics gold medal win was no less than a big history created. But topping that moment was his heartfelt proposal to his girlfriend, Lainey Duncan. With the Eiffel Tower in the backdrop and a bunch of yellow roses marking the significance of the no. of days spent together, the video went viral on social media, giving fans a reason to be excited. The moment was indeed special for Best with a yes coming from his girlfriend’s end.

Representing the USA Rowing Team alongside, Liam Corrigan, Michael Grady, and Nick Mead in the men’s four final 2,000-meter race. Justin, as part of the crew, celebrated the gold-medal win after charging against New Zealand. Finishing in fourth place in the Tokyo Olympics, the Team USA Paris win comes as a major spotlight moment after a long-awaited moment for the rowing industry.

Not just for Justin Best but for French sprinter Alice Finot, Paris was a lucky charm, but not for her professional career. Breaking the European steeplechase record in women’s 3,000-meter event, the 33-year-old track and field star failed to make it to the podium finishing fourth, but the event that followed shed away the loss. Not even finished with the day, Alice proposed to her boyfriend Bruno Martinez Bargiela, a Spain triathlete. Not a ring but a pin in hand that read “Love is in Paris,” Bruno accepted the proposal.

Besides Best and Finot, other loving moments of the Paris Olympics saw between Argentina’s handball player Pablo Simonet’s proposal to hockey player Maria Campoy. Huang Yaqiong, a badminton player winning her gold medal in the Olympics, also got proposed by her boyfriend Liu Yuchen. Women’s Skiff 49erFX bronze medalists Sarah Steyaert and Charline Picon representing France were also on the list of getting proposed to by their respective boyfriends after returning.

While love was in the air in Paris, the incredible history created by athletes in respective events saw a noteworthy performance. Long-distance runner Grant Fisher saw a highlighting appraisal by a sports analyst cum Olympian.

Kara Goucher creates history in men’s 10K

For Kara Goucher, the Paris Olympics wasn’t just a regular participating event but a moment which she herself wouldn’t have expected to come. Grant Fisher is now the first runner of the US and the fourth American to win a medal in the 10,000-meter race. The win, however, comes in highlight specifically since the 2012 London Olympics silver medal win by Galen Rupp.

Exclaiming his win, he stated, “I have always been on the outside looking in with the medals. I have seen 1-2-3 slip away, but today I managed to get it. To finally do it, it feels so good.”

Taking away the bronze medal win, the American runner stood on the podium in competition against silver medalist Berihu Aregawi and gold medalist Joshua Cheptegei. The 27-year-old long-distance runner after missing the chance to play for Team USA in the World Championship and getting challenged by injuries, came in highlight more with NBC Broadcaster and Olympian Kara Goucher praised him with her heartfelt emotions on the win.

In conversation beside Lee Diffey, Kara after failing to say anything for more than a minute finally says, “Lee, this is a huge moment for American distance running.” Such individual wins were also joined by sportsmanship between several athletes in the Paris Olympics.

Sportsmanship in badminton

A 17-Day event, the Paris Olympics was indeed filled with several highlighting moments and incredible sportsmanship seen among athletes. One such highlighting of sportsmanship was seen in a women’s singles match between badminton players, Spain’s Carolina Marin and China’s He Bing Jiao.

Taking up the lead in the second game by 10-8, Carolina, under forced circumstances, had to miss out on her chance to play in the semi-finals which played a beneficial factor for He advancing to the finals against An Se-Young of South Korea. Reasons of injury, however, forced her out to take a step back from the semi-finals and a chance to claim the bronze medal win.

Losing out of the match, He signed off giving a respectable goodbye to her semifinal opponent, Carolina. As a mark of respect, she held a pin of Marin’s Spanish Olympic Committee logo after taking her silver medal win at the podium. The heartfelt moment showcased by He was indeed a true spirit of sportsmanship. Besides the sportsman spirit, for golfer Scottie Scheffler, the Paris Olympics win was a challenging one.

Scottie Scheffler is living the moment

Adding another major achievement to his two Masters Green Jackets, golfer Scotty Scheffler is now laid back in comfort, having lived the moment on the golf field. The gold medal win at men’s stroke play on August 4th, 2024, at Le Golf National, indeed came into a major highlight of his professional career with a one-stroke win.

Carrying out the performance dominantly since the start, the golfer took a total of six birdies out of nine holes. In all Scottie’s 72-hole of 19-under 265, in competition against Tommy Fleetwood of Great Britain and Hideki Matsuyama of Japan comes promising. Stating his victory post-match to the journalists, Scottie expressed his overwhelming journey to success. “It’s been a long week, a challenging week, and I’m just happy to have played some great golf today.” Another overcoming journey of the Paris Olympics came for Team USA rugby player Ilona Maher.

Ilona Maher overcomes with emotions

The women’s rugby team finished off with a bang. The Americans have shocked the Australian players. Making history at Paris 2024, Team USA first ever Olympic medal against the Australian team in women’s rugby sevens tournament saw Ilona Maher in major highlight.

Stating on her excitement and the surreal moment of the win, Ilona shares on her difficult journey and years of hard work spent by the team for the Paris Olympics. “I hasn’t sunk in yet. I’m so tired but I’m so excited. I don’t think it will sink in until we get up with those medals. We worked really hard. We wanted this medal, not for ourselves but for our families. It was such a hard few years, but we did it.”

A 2-time Olympian with 2 Olympic Championship appearances, the rugby seven star led the team with confidence. Ilona’s efforts to win after a disappointing Tokyo Olympics appearance in 2020 came as one of the defining moments of her professional career. Adding to this was another defining moment, not just by an individual but this time by a powerful duo of the track and field industry.

Tara-Davis and Hunter Woodhall, the golden couple

Who would have thought that the duo of Tara-Davis and Hunter Woodhall would be a powerful one to witness in the Paris Olympics? As part of Team USA, Tara participating in the women’s long jump category took the spotlight with her final fourth jump of 7.10m. Finishing off with a bang, the win comes as her first Olympic medal in long jump.

While Tara did her part, it was now Hunter’s Paralympic performance in the 400m T62 racing. The Paralympic runner crossed the finishing line first with a timing of 46.36. Following him was Germany runner Johannes Floors with the silver medal and Netherlands runner Olivier Hendricks taking the bronze medal.

For Tara, Hunter’s support meant the world to her. “To have a partner in the same sport, it means everything.” While for Hunter, the Paris Olympics was one of the best experiences among his other Olympic appearances. “This is my third Paralympic Games and by far it was my favourite experience.” With both representing Team USA, the individual win and performances, however, took over with their highlighting victory moment shared by the two on that day as the golden couple. With both coming as gold medalists, for our 37-year-old tennis star, the Paris Olympics gave him his first Olympic win of his career.

Novak Djokovic plays the match of his life

It was indeed a historic victory at Roland Garros for tennis star Novak Djokovic. Donning 24 single Grand Slam titles, Djokovic defeated Spain player Carlos Alcaraz to win his first-ever Olympic gold medal participating in men’s singles final match. The set of 7-6, 7-6 against Carlos made him the fifth tennis player to compete in the Golden Slam besides Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams.

Novak’s unexpected and a first-ever win came with a shock. “I don’t know what to say. I’m still in shock, honestly. I put my heart, my soul, my body, my family, my everything on the line to win Olympic gold at age 37. I finally did it.” The win against a player of 21-year-old comes notable and promising. Talking about another notable win was our Saint Lucia star Julien Alfred, who created history on the field in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Julien Alfred takes big win for Saint Lucia

History has been made. After Novak, Julien Alfred is another athlete who took away the first-ever Olympic win for Saint Lucia. Her participation in women’s 100m race defeating Sha’Carri Richardson made her a promising star. The win, however, gave her a new national record of 10.72s in 100m. Besides gold she also took home a silver medal in the 200-meter sprint event.

Having made a historic win, for Julien, the success was not just for herself but for her family and to represent Saint Lucia at an international stage. “I think it would be a proud moment for not just for me, my family, but my country and I think that for them seeing the flag of Saint Lucia flying high around that time, I think it would be a proud moment for my country. They would take a lot of pride in that, I know that for sure.”

Emma Hayes is in love with America

For the U.S. women’s soccer team coach Emma Hayes, America has gifted her a win, which she will always narrate as it goes down in history. After 12 years, it was 2024 that gave women’s national U.S. soccer team to take their first gold medal against Brazil by 1-0. Since winning their first Olympic gold back in 2012 London, the long-awaited moment has now come true for Hayes and her team.

Talking with NBC Sports’ Mike Tirico post-victory, Hayes expresses on her thankfulness to the country representing on giving her such a big win of her 12-year career. “I come from a place of wanting players to enjoy themselves and I’ve been at a club for 12 years where I’ve had huge success. But I was desperate to do well for this country. And I’m so emotional because it’s not every day you win a gold medal. I love America. It made me. And I always say that. It definitely made me.” Such a win coming after such a long duration was also an incident shared by the U.S. Skating Team..

U.S. figure skating team are Olympic champions after two years

For the USA skating team, the two-year of waiting period now comes to an end with the 2024 Paris Olympics. Finishing second in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, against the first comers Russia, the U.S. were left without a medal ceremony due to Russian team member Kamia Valiyeva having Covid-19. With Russia disqualified, the U.S. team was left with hope.

It was possible now after two years, that the U.S. team of nine skaters including Evan Bates, Karen Chen, Nathan Chen, Madison Chock, Zachary Donohue, Brandon Frazier, Madison Hubbell, Alexa Knierim, Vincent Zhou received their share of recognition as Paris Olympics skating champions.

In respect to these spotlight moments coming into reality for the participating athletes, the 2024 Paris Olympics was indeed a stage of emergence for the young athletes and a scope of establishment for the already experienced ones. This year saw big challenges between the upcoming and known faces.