Paris 2024’s best moments: From Biles to Rutter via Snoop Dogg’s dressage gear
A look at 10 of the best moments from the Olympic Games.
Paris 2024 has produced many memorable moments, from home favourite Teddy Riner’s double gold to Noah Lyles being crowned the fastest man in the world.
The competition has also produced its fair share of emotion as Andy Murray bid farewell to tennis, while a binned note stirred up emotions for gold-medal winning rower Lola Anderson.
Here the PA news agency takes a look at some of the most memorable moments from this year’s Games.
Dupont starts French gold rush
Olympic poster boy Antoine Dupont led France to their first gold medal of the games in rugby sevens. The 27-year-old attracted attention earlier this year after opting to skip the Six Nations and focus on the Olympics with the sevens side.
His gamble paid off as he put in a match-winning performance in the final against Fiji, fighting back from an early deficit to win 28-7.
Dupont lead the charge in the second half, setting up a try to put France ahead before scoring twice himself to secure France’s first gold medal of the Games and inflict Fiji’s first defeat in Olympic competition.
Biles returns
Simone Biles capped off her Olympic return in style by leaving Paris with three golds and a silver medal.
It was a redemptive return to the Olympics for the American gymnast who suffered with the “twisties” at Tokyo three years ago.
She made her mark in Paris with a hat-trick of golds in the team final and individual success in the all-round and vault events before rounding it off with silver on the floor.
Teddy Bear’s picnic for Riner
One of the biggest draws of the Games saw home favourite Teddy Riner draw in huge crowds at the Champ de Mars Arena. The 6ft 6in judoka star had a huge part to play for France throughout the entire Games, starting at the opening ceremony where he joined triple Olympic champion Marie-Jose Perec in lighting the cauldron.
His time to shine on the mat came one week later, where he beat Kim Min-jong of South Korea in the men’s +100kg final.
Riner collected his fifth Olympic gold medal the next day, spearheading France to victory in the mixed team final.
Murray’s farewell
Andy Murray finished his tennis career with a defeat alongside Dan Evans in the quarter-finals of the Olympic men’s doubles.
The Scot had announced at the start of the Games that the event would be his last competition and 21 years after his first professional match, Murray’s hopes of a medal-winning swansong evaporated in a 6-2 6-4 loss to American third seeds Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul.
The Team GB duo entertained Olympic crowds with two dramatic matches at Roland Garros and Murray expressed his gratitude at being able to finish his career on his terms.
Fine margins for Lyles
Noah Lyles stormed to Olympic gold by the barest of margins following a photo finish in the men’s 100m final.
Racing in front of the 80,000-seat Stade de France, the runners burst over the line but faced a lengthy wait to discover where they finished.
Eventually 27-year-old Lyles was crowned victorious, after the American pipped Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson to gold by just five thousandths of a second.
Drizzles of celebrity shizzle
Snoop Dogg provided the celebrity shizzle throughout the Paris Games after being spotted at various venues soaking up the atmosphere. The American rapper was working as a special correspondent for American network NBC throughout the Games and carried the Olympic flame on final day of the torch relay.
He was seen amongst a plethora of celebrities who came to watch Simone Biles at the gymnastics, including Tom Cruise, Ariana Grande and Anna Wintour.
However, Snoop Dogg’s most memorable outing at the Games came at the equestrian, where he arrived donned in breeches, a dressage tailcoat and hard hat as he took a trip around the Chateau de Versailles venue.
Binned dreams become a reality
After winning gold for Team GB’s women’s quadruple sculls team, Lola Anderson reflected on a treasured diary entry her late father returned to her outlining the dream to win Olympic rowing gold one day. At London 2012, a teenage Anderson had been inspired by Helen Glover and Heather Stanning’s rowing triumph in the women’s pairs and scribbled a short entry in her diary.
Anderson would later throw the note in the bin, only for dad Don to return the entry to her seven years later, two months before his death from cancer in 2019.
“I threw that away because I didn’t believe,” Anderson said afterwards, choking back the tears after winning gold with teammates Georgina Brayshaw, Lauren Henry and Hannah Scott.
“My dad saw it before I did. He saw the potential I had, but my potential wouldn’t have been unlocked without the girls that crossed the line with me today.”
Rutter’s redemption
Three years after missing the Tokyo Games due to a positive Covid test, and just over three months after giving birth to her baby son Tommy, Amber Rutter settled for a silver medal in the women’s skeet final.
Her story of Olympic redemption was overshadowed by controversy in a sudden-death shoot-off, where the final concluded after she missed her sixth extra shot, although television replays appeared to show her clipping the target.
Despite the controversy, Rutter was surprised by the appearance of her husband James and son moments after the final.
Bol’s heroics
Femke Bol spearheaded a sensational comeback for the Netherlands to claim gold in the 4×400 metres mixed relay team.
The Dutch were lagging behind in fourth by the time Bol received the baton and she burst ahead.
She said: “I just went for it. We just wanted a medal this time, we didn’t think it would be gold, just a medal. Well, we got gold and are the Olympic champions. It is absolutely crazy for a small country like ours.”
One thousand up for Team GB
Paris 2024 saw Team GB earn their 1,000th medal across the summer and winter Games, according to the statistician Bill Mallon. The feat was achieved by Ethan Hayter, Daniel Bigham, Charlie Tanfield and Ethan Vernon, who took silver in the men’s cycling team pursuit.
The British riders narrowly missed out on gold in the final against Australia and their hopes were effectively over when Hayter slipped from his saddle on the final lap.
Bigham said: “It’s nice to win a medal, it’s nice to win a silver medal, it’s nice for it to be the thousandth GB medal. It’s nice to ride in an Olympic gold medal final with these guys.”
