The year 2024 was indeed something special. Not just one, but we got to see some of the best athletes coming out in prominence with their rollercoaster rides, resulting in a notable comeback. From the regular season matches to the highlighting of the Paris Olympics, the individual performances and dominance saw wins never seen before. While the young emerged and the established took to prominence, the sporting world has gained an excellent reputation in terms of the quality of performances put out by the athletes.

Tennis, sprinters, ski racers, gymnasts, and almost all the genres of sports categories have reflected notable comebacks by some of the prominent players through their achieved wins. Gymnastics legend Simone Biles and track and field legend Sha’Carri Richardson are among the top comebacks made this year.

Two leading women athletes are dominating the athletic world

Donning individual accolades in the gymnastics and track and field division, both Simone’s and Sha’Carri’s comeback performances of the 2024 season are ones to remember. A decorated gymnast of today with a total of eleven Olympic wins, Simone Biles, with her Paris Olympics appearance, showcased why she is one of the greatest athletes with one of the biggest comebacks made.

Simone Biles is now an inspiration to many. Struggling with mental illness and forced eviction resulting from the twisties suffered in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, it was a hardship journey of two years that led the gymnast to achieving the biggest setback of her professional career and her degrading growth among the audience.

The year 2024 was, however, her chance to re-emerge and give back the haters a big message with her performance in the Paris Olympics. And it did come true because of her hard work that helped Simone achieve an unexpected feat in her career. Representing Team USA, the gymnast’s comeback led her to gain the spotlight with four successful wins. Three gold medal wins came from her participation in the women’s artistic category of individual all-around, vault, and all-around team alongside teammates Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, Hezly Rivera, and Suni Lee. The fourth win, however, came in the floor exercise, but with a silver medal.

For Sha’Carri Richardson, the comeback was indeed another highlighting moment reflected by the track and field star. After being debarred from the track since her Tokyo Olympics suspension on a drug case, the sprinter has been in continuous progress to prove her worth for the past three years. Her Paris Olympics performance in the 100-meter event is what makes her comeback indeed praiseworthy.

Giving a promising start in the U.S. Trials with a time of 10.71, the fastest record to be made by a female athlete in 2024, the silver medal win in the 100m event women’s final after failing short to Julien Alfred was indeed a neck-to-neck match. But it was not all. The 4×100m relay, however, came as another rising opportunity to claim the top win. With a contribution of fourth position by USA teammates Gabby Thomas, Melissa Jefferson, and Twanisha Terry, Richardson took the final round, and it was her gold medal-winning performance that made her successful. The sprinter finally took home not just silver but also a gold medal win.

But it was not these legends alone who made a notable comeback. Joining the two female stars is a 40-year-old skier whose return will remain a big moment now etched in 2024 history.

Lindsey Vonn returns as a 40-year-old skier

For a three-time Olympic medalist, returning after almost six years was no joke. Led by reasons of injury, Lindsey Vonn is coming out recovered from her partial knee replacement surgery in April 2024. Finding her lost purpose as a skier comes in prominence now with a yet different self portrayed in a new rendition and built up in her World Cup comeback for Team USA.

Returning with her performance in St. Moritz, the Super G race, after qualifying in the FIS Cup-level races held in Copper Mountain. In the two-day event scheduled from 21-22 December, Vonn reflected not much but yet a satisfactory outcome. With just 1.18 seconds behind Cornelia Huetter of Austria, the Day-1 event saw Vonn taking the 14th position, performing the second-fastest time as a U.S. female athlete. But for the Day-2 event, the skier was left out with the chance to emerge more with her comeback due to the postponement of the race forced by bad weather conditions.

Announcing her retirement in the year 2019, nobody would have imagined her to make a comeback to skiing, let alone at the age of 40. Speaking on her World Cup performance, Vonn expresses the feeling of her comeback: “It was so nice to feel the nerves again. It feels incredible to have the butterflies and the adrenaline to push yourself. For me, it’s always just me against the mountain, and I love that feeling.”

While Vonn’s comeback of six years remains notable, joining the list of promising comebacks of 2024 is a male gymnast who is emerging from overcoming the challenges of his life after sustaining injuries.

At 16 years old, Brody Malone gives a comeback win

2023 was a year where Brody Malone could have seen the end of his career after suffering from a wide range of injuries from his participation in Germany’s World Cup event in March. Not just one but his torn meniscus, ACL, and PCL, cartilage damage, and a tibial plateau fracture in the right knee all reflected his lost hope to continue in the upcoming year.

Never in his mind would he imagine that 2024 would not be a disappointing year but the start of a great comeback showcased by him in the Paris Olympics. Claiming his third national title of all time, Malone, as a representative of Team USA, gave a solid performance against Fred Richard and Khoi Young. With a final score of 13.600 in the floor exercise and 14.000 in the pommel horse, the gymnast’s return to action makes him tough competition for others.

Having recovered a long time from rehabilitation and therapy, Malone’s comeback holds his dream to participate in the 2024 Olympics, which he outdid very successfully through his dominant performance. After his disappointing finish in Tokyo in the 4th position, the Paris win, however, comes across as quite a promising one. “It just feels amazing to be able to— with everything I’ve gone through—be able to come back and make a comeback like I have and be competitive enough to be on the top again.”

The 2024 season is filled with remarkable feats achieved by athletes of every sort. Quite surprisingly, the women athletes have set quite the benchmarks with their noteworthy performances that are giving tough competition to the male athletes in the sports world. With the 2025 season just starting, a year remains to reflect on whether this season will prove to be more promising than 2024 or not.