So Olympics 2024 is finally over folks, the 33rd Olympiad held in France has been on our screens for over two weeks and we’ve seen some incredible achievements and dazzling entertainment.
From singer Celine Dion’s mesmerising performance at the opening ceremony in Paris, the French put on a typically classy show, full of panache and with plenty of drama, but there was rarely any doubt which nations would dominate as soon as the games began.
The United States and China won the most Gold Medals, at 40 each, while the Stars and Stripes won a total of 126 medals to China’s 91.
The Olympics 2024 betting odds would have predicted that outcome at any time in the competition. The Olympics are routinely dominated by the USA and China as two economic powerhouses who throw endless resources at their sports and have huge populations to call upon.
The result was inevitable but the split of medals is interesting. While the USA dominated on the track and in the swimming pool, winning 14 and eight Gold Medals respectively, China won eight gold medals in diving, and five in shooting, table tennis and weightlifting, while winning just one in athletics, none in cycling and none in any team sports. It is little surprise that the USA won the two basketball golds and picked up the Women’s football Gold.
Great Britain won the third mostmedals in total with 65, but the Brits finished seventh in the medals table as they picked up 14 gold medals, fewer than Japan (20), Australia (18) hosts France (16) and the Netherlands (15). Great Britain had a number of very near misses, not least in the swimming pool where both Adam Peaty and Duncan Scott missed out by two hundredths of a second. While in my SBOTOP preview of the games I gave a shout out to 800m runner Keely Hodgkinson, and the Manchester lass came through for gold.
Meanwhile the proud nations of Botswana, Dominica, Guatemala and Saint Lucia won their first ever Olympic Gold Medals while another Caribbean island, Grenada, was the most successful nation per capita of population, with two medals with a population of only 112,000. Take that USA and China!
And for the legion of footy fans out there, Spain won the men’s football gold medal to add to La Roja’s Euro 2024 triumph, beating hosts France, managed by Les Bleus legend Thierry Henry, by 5-3 in a thrilling final.
France hails King Leon
Every kid in France has a new hero and there’s a rush to the swimming pools across the nation, outdoor and in, as swimmers and hopefuls dream of emulating 22-year-old Leon Marchand, who had an incredible Olympics, winning four golds and five medals in total. That haul made him the most successful athlete of the Games and, while home support clearly helped, the boy from Toulouse was clearly untouchable. He won gold in each of his four individual events, and a bronze in the 4x100m medley.
Marchand won the 400m individual medley and then became the first swimmer to win both the 200m breaststroke and 200m butterfly golds on the same night, with new Olympic record times; and then he won his fourth gold in the 200m medley to become the first ever Frenchman to win four individual gold medals at an Olympics.
In other Olympics 2024 news USA swimmer Torri Huske, won three gold medals and two silver medals to be the top performing woman. The 21-year-old, based in Virginia started her campaign by winning the 100m butterfly, beating world record holder Gretchen Walsh and then she won a silver in the 100m freestyle. Huske followed that up with another silver medal in the 4x100m freestyle when she recorded the fastest split time which led her into gold medals in the 4x100m mixed medley and the 4x100m women’s medley.
And Paris 2024 was an historic event for the Philippines as the nation picked up two gold medals and two bronze medals to record its best ever performance, finishing in 37th place in the final medals table. It was also the first time the Philippines had picked up multiple golds and the hero was gymnast Carlos Yulo who picked up both gold medals in a sparkling campaign.
Bronze medals delivered by boxers Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas made the Philippines the best performing South East Asia country for the second games running, edging out Indonesia in 39th.
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