OLYMPICS
We ’ ll Always Have Paris !
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games once again highlighted that athletics is the heartbeat of the Olympic movement , with a hugely successful and unforgettably brilliant 11 days of action that brought countless records , brilliant performances and too many highlights to mention . – BY SIMON TURNBULL for WORLD ATHLETICS
Athletics has always been the cornerstone of the Olympic Games , both in ancient times and at the modern Olympics since 1986 , and Paris 2024 has further demonstrated the global reach of the sport , with a new record for the most countries winning gold medals in athletics in a single Games having been set . A total of 27 countries won athletics golds , two more than the previous record figure .
Furthermore , these Games saw several new names added to the list of countries with athletics champions : Dominica , Pakistan , Saint Lucia and Botswana all featuring on the top step of the podium and having their national anthem played in the athletics Olympic arena for the first time . While Thea LaFond ( women ’ s triple jump , Dominica ), Arshad Nadeem ( men ’ s javelin , Pakistan ) and Julien Alfred ( women ’ s 100m , Saint Lucia ) all gained historic athletics golds for their countries , Letsile Tebogo of Botswana made even more history in the men ’ s 200m , winning his country ’ s first ever Olympic title in any sport .
Botswana thus becomes the 105th country in the history of the modern Olympics to have won an Olympic athletics medal . Meanwhile , the tally of 43 countries on the medal table in Paris matches Tokyo 2021 as the biggest in athletics for more than 20 years , while 75 countries finished in the top eight positions across all the athletics events , showcasing the depth of talent in the sport . Speaking of which , 16-year-old Quincy Wilson became the youngest ever men ’ s Olympic gold medallist in athletics , following his run for the US men ’ s 4x400m team in the heats .
A total of 26 athletes won multiple medals in Paris , including Femke Bol ( mixed 4x400m gold , women ’ s
4x400m silver , women ’ s 400m hurdles bronze ), while her Dutch teammate Sifan Hassan ( women ’ s marathon gold , 5000m and 10,000m bronze ) also finished the Games with three medals . However , the standout performer here was the USA ’ s Gabby Thomas , who won three gold medals , in the women ’ s 200m , 4x100m and 4x400m .
Paris 2024 was also the highest quality Olympic Games in history , according to competition performance rankings , which adds up all the points earned by all athletes according to the World Athletics performance table , clearly showing that these were the best athletics Games ever on an overall performance level :
• Paris 2024 198,320
• Tokyo 2020 197,115
• Rio 2016 195,953
• London 2012 192,456
• Beijing 2008 191,749
• Athens 2004 190,871
Contributing to this rich return of high-scoring performance points were a whole list of record : 3 World Records 13 Olympic Records 2 Olympic Decathlon Best Performances 21 Area ( Continental ) Records 99 National Records 311 Personal Bests
The Games also proved a huge success in terms of spectating , with packed stadiums for every day of the athletics programme , and more than one million tickets sold to athletics events – the highest number ever for the sport at an Olympic Games . The road events ( marathon and race-walking ) also attracted huge crowds of spectators , lining the whole route and cheering every athlete on .
At the closing of the Games , World Athletics President Sebastian Coe thanked the Paris 2024 organising committee for providing the stage on which the sport and its stars could shine . “ Paris 2024 has been an absolutely spectacular Olympic Games for athletics ,” he said . “ We are a sport where numbers matter on and off the field of play . Over the course of the last 11 days , our athletes have dazzled audiences in Paris and across the globe with some performances for the ages . We had three World Records , 13 Olympic Records and countless national and area records – the performances were nothing short of outstanding .”
“ Our sport is the gift that keeps on giving . This is not a one-off ,” added Coe . “ We saw similar scenes at the World Championships in Budapest last year – and we are already seeing tickets fly off the shelves for the Tokyo 2025 World Championships .”
With Thanks to World Athletics
This is an edited version of an article written by Simon Turnbull for World Athletics , and was made available to registered world athletics media platforms . Most of the photos published with this feature are also supplied by World Athletics , who had three dedicated photographers shooting in Paris : Mattia Ozbot , Christel Saneh and Dan Vernon .
Images : Mattia Ozbot , Christel Saneh , Dan Vernon – All for World Athletics
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