The Paris Olympics

Another Summer Olympiad has come and gone. I have some thoughts.

Did we win or tie? The United States won the most medals overall, with 126. China came in second, with 91. Great Britain, host nation France, and Australia rounded out the top five.

However, the United States is one of the few countries that prefers to tally national Olympics performance by overall medals; the rest of the world seems to prefer a "gold first" tallying system. Under that method, the United States and China are tied as the most successful National Olympic Committees in the XXXIII Olympiad, with 40 medals apiece. 

But even that method has a tie-breaker: the number of silver medals awarded. In that case, the United States still comes out ahead because its athletes won 44 silvers, to China's 27.

Italy had the most "aluminum metals," i.e. fourth-place finishes, with 26. I'd make fun, except that the United States came in second in that category, with 22. I've always felt bad for athletes who just miss the podium. It must almost feel better to come in 5th or 6th, rather than 4th.

Welcome to the medals club! Albania, Cape Verde, Dominica and St. Lucia all won their first-ever medals at these Olympics, the latter two winning golds. The Refugee Olympic Team, which has been competing since 2016, won its first medal as well. 

Botswana and Guatemala have previously medaled but won their first-ever golds in Paris.

Medals per capita. The aforementioned Dominica and St. Lucia leave Paris as the world leaders in the production of gold medals per capita, with one gold medal per 67,400 and 184,100 residents, respectively. For comparison's sake, the United States won one gold for every 8,397,000 residents, while China won one gold for every 35,242,000 residents. 

The most productive nation in overall medals is Grenada, with one medal per 56,300 residents. On the other end of the spectrum is India, which didn't win any gold medals and whose athletes only produced one medal per 235,152,000 residents. There are many reasons as to why the world's most populous nation underperforms in the Olympics.  

They weren't missed. Russia might be a traditional Olympics heavyweight, but that country (and neighboring Belorussia) were completely absent from the 2024 Olympics, both having been banned due to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. 

Given that Russia's "ban" from the 2020 summer games (as well as the 2022 winter games) following a massive doping scandal was a complete joke, I can't say I was upset at the country's complete absence from this year's games. The IOC should continue to ban Russia from all Olympic contests until at least Vladimir Putin dies.

A handful of Russian and Belorussian athletes were able to compete in Paris as part of an "Individual Neutral Athletes" team.

Want to see how your favorite college performed in the Olympics? There's a table for that. It ranks the number of medals produced per NCAA-participating institution, regardless of whether the student-athletes of a given university competed for the United States or some other nation. Stanford is the clear winner with 39 medals, with Cal and Texas a distant second and third, respectively. 

The University of Houston accounted for two medals, both in the men's 4x100 relay. South Africa's Shaun Maswanganyi, who won silver, and Great Britain's Louie Hinchliffe, who won bronze, both compete on the Cougar track and field team under coach (and Olympic legend) Carl Lewis.

They just keep getting faster. Speaking of Carl Lewis, 40 years ago he won gold in the Men's 100 meter sprint with a time of 9.99 seconds. That wouldn't have even been fast enough to qualify for the final round of the 2024 race. American Noah Lyles broke a 20-year American drought in the event by winning gold with a time of 9.784 - just five one-thousandths of a second ahead of Jamaica's Kishane Thompson - in a finish that even had the announcer fooled.

Unlikely up-and-comer? The South American nation winning the most medals was Brazil, with 20 (and who thought that country would become a gymnastics powerhouse?). The South American country with the second-highest number of medals was... Ecuador. 

Four years ago I joked about Ecuador becoming an Olympic powerhouse after they won three medals in Tokyo. Obviously they've got a ways to go before they reach that level, but the five medals the Ecuadorians won in Paris matches the total number of medals the county has won in all previous Olympics combined. 

An Urban Olympad. I really enjoyed the city-focused format of these games. From the Opening Ceremony featuring a parade of nations along the Seine, to the Olympic flame being located adjacent to the Louvre (rather than in a stadium), to the beach volleyball court located in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, to the bicycle races being held in the city streets, the games' organizers did a great job making all of Paris the backdrop, rather than the fancy, specially-built venues designed to be the centerpieces of previous Olympics. Most of the event venues used for these Olympics were either previously existing or were temporary.

A word on NBC's coverage. If you've read this blog for any length of time you know that I love to trash NBC's Olympics coverage. However, I really don't have a lot to complain about this time around.

For those able to watch it, NBC's daytime coverage was - dare I say it? - actually pretty good. They switched between events as they occurred and provided live look-ins on events being shown on other channels or streaming platforms (and told you where to find them if you wanted to continue watching). Since it was all live there was little in the way of maudlin "human interest" stories and other pointless tidbits that detract from the overall coverage of the games. Sometimes they even covered sports that did not feature American athletes! 

NBC's primetime coverage, on the other hand, was their typical formulaic, over-edited digest that we all love to hate. But even then they finally seems to be getting away from the fiction that their prime-time coverage - which is happening in the wee hours of the morning in Paris - is somehow "live." In an age of streaming services, push notifications and social media, NBC appears to have accepted that the days when a single network can gate keep the entire Olympics are now long gone.

I still think that replacing Bob Costas with Mike Tirico was one of biggest improvements NBC has ever made in regards to their Olympics coverage.  Tirico just needs to brush up on his vexillology before his next Olympics broadcast.

Time lists the twelve most memorable things of the 2024 Olympics, while Yahoo Sports breaks down the biggest events of the games by each day of competition.