Team USA’s Paris 2024 Olympic highlights: Huske’s haul to LeBron in the clutch

Best individual performance in the US…

Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone deserve all the attention they get. They are GOATs, just like Vincent Hancock and Ryan Crouser. But the best performance overall was Torri Huskewho won gold in the 100m butterfly and led two world record-setting relays. Honorable mentions to Huske’s fellow three-time gold medalist Gabby Thomas and two-time champion Kristen Faulkner, who won a stunning gold medal in the road race, along with her more anticipated triumph on the track. BD

Cole Hocker Tearing up the script of the men’s 1500 meters, which was heavily billed as a showdown between the world’s top two milers, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Josh Kerr, was the closest the United States has come to a Kerri Strug moment at this Olympics. BAG

On an all-star American swim team, 21-year-old Torri Huske walked out of Paris with the flashiest hardware. Huske won five medals, including three gold. But she claimed to be most proud of her silver medal in the stacked 100m freestyle, where she was narrowly eclipsed by world record holder Sarah Sjöström. MJ

With apologies to Biles – and Steph Curry too, I think – I’m still amazed LeBron James’s Crucial Performance against Serbia in the basketball semifinals. Not only did he have six points, six rebounds, six assists and a steal in the fourth quarter, he did what Joel Embiid couldn’t – stop a seemingly unstoppable Nikola Jokic streak to lead the U.S. to the final and erase any doubts about his clutch gene. ALL

Best performance by an American team…

Can we give it to the track and field team that claimed 34 medals, 14 of which are gold? In sports with true team play, women’s soccer deserves credit for shaking off last year’s World Cup and ending an Olympic drought. But the men basketball team combined world-class talent with tenacity to claim a gold medal, which was never certain, especially in a classic final against a team inspired by a roaring home crowd. BD

The American women’s soccer team won the gold with Sophia Smith, Mallory Swanson, Trinity Rodman – the front line known as Triple espresso – 10 of the team’s 12 goals. Not bad for a team that only found the net four times in last year’s World Cup away game. (A Pantheon-level sports nickname, by the way.) BAG

After a 12-year drought, the US national team stood atop the podium once again. The gold medal performance, capped by a goal from Swanson, felt like redemption for a lackluster World Cup. But it also felt like a fresh start under new head coach Emma Hayes. Special shout-out to Alyssa Naeher for not conceding a goal during the knockout rounds. MJ

Athletics in the US carried the federation again this cycle. Between Noah Lyles’ photo finish, Sha’Carri Richardson’s Roadrunner close-up in the sprint relays, McLaughlin-Levrone’s lone hurdles victory and Tara Davis-Woodhall’s golden hop-step-jump celebrationAmerican track and field provided so many touching moments for the scrapbook. ALL

Biggest disappointment in the US…

Everything that has happened in a swimming pool except for the women’s swimmers, the overachieving men’s water polo team, and the moonwalking artistic swimming team. The men’s swimmers had only one individual winner. The diving team started with a silver medal, but only one diver even made it to the final in an individual event, and the other synchro duos never came close to contention. The long-dominant women’s water polo team barely made it to the semifinals, surrendering a 9-5 lead in the bronze medal match. BD

Jordan Chiles having to give up her bronze medal on the floor exercise due to a procedural formality was certainly something. Performance-wise, it has to be the American Men’s Swimming Team ending the Olympics with one individual gold medal, their lowest total since the 1956 Melbourne Games. Woof. BAG

Even elite athletes have off days. But few enjoy The nightmare of Caeleb Dressel’s individual performance. Dressel not only failed to defend his individual Tokyo titles in the 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly, he didn’t even medal in those events. Seeing Dressel in tears after he failed to defend his Olympic titles was one of the most painful moments of the Games. MJ

The men’s 4×100 meter relay team. Dropping the stick again. I agree with Carl Lewis here. Blow the whole thing up. Let him, an expert, take over maybe. ALL

Paris was the host city…

Amazing. They brilliantly placed much of the action in or in front of historic buildings and landmarks. Indoor venues like Bercy Arena were great. Attendances for many football matches were low and getting swimmers into the Seine was a problem. But Paris successfully presented itself as a thriving modern city with timeless places to see. BD

A dream setting for the world’s largest sporting event. The decision to integrate venues into the existing fabric of the sprawling French capital was a masterstroke that made it the most visually spectacular Olympic Games in history. The hits just kept coming, whether it was beach volleyball by the Eiffel Tower, equestrian and modern pentathlon at the Palace of Versailles or fencing and taekwondo at the Grand Palais. But it didn’t just look great on television; the experience on the ground was one that all future Olympics will aspire to. BAG

Beautiful. From the opening ceremony on the Seine to images of the Eiffel Tower, Champs-Élysées and all the other beautiful Parisian sights, the beauty of the city and sport were intertwined. It all felt so alive and authentic in contrast to the lackluster energy of the Covid-infested Tokyo Games. No other city offers the same intoxicating visuals. MJ

Like one of those giant, multi-colored lollipops – looks good in pictures but has no taste. The reviews I heard first hand were bad about the food (holy blue!) and the atmosphere – too cool for school compared to London and Rio, apparently. And: you can’t call yourself a great host city when most of the population leaves. Plus, there were reports of worms in the food in the Village, polluted river water and Covid spreading among athletes. If these Olympics had been hosted by a developing country, those headlines would have stopped the presses. ALL

The overall performance of the US was…

They won 126 medals, depending on the outcome of a fight against Jordan Chiles bronze that won’t go away anytime soon. That’s the most since Los Angeles 1984, when their toughest opponents stayed home. That’s 35 more than any other country. For every disappointment there was a surprise. And how can anyone expect the Games to be successful again for the likes of Biles, Ledecky, Hancock, Crouser, McLaughlin-Levrone, Bobby Finke, Valarie Allman, Jennifer Valente, Lee Kiefer and the women’s basketball team (barely)? And it must be said that many of the athletes who defeated the Americans, including Léon Marchand, Armand Duplantis and Julien Alfred, went to American universities and often train in the US. The US even made goggles and men’s gymnastics cool – thanks, Stephen Nedoroscik. They did great. BD

As good as you could reasonably hopealthough it was the women’s basketball team’s one-point victory in the tournament’s final round that propelled them to the top of the gold medal standings. The 126 medals total is the most ever for a U.S. team in a non-boycotted Games outside the U.S., surpassing the previous record of 121 set by Rio in 2016. Considering that Russia’s absence impacted all nations’ totals and certain competitions were a disaster (women’s gymnastics, anyone?), Team USA once again set the bar high and achieved it. BAG

Fine. Reasonable. Leading China in the gold medal count would have been ideal, but it’s not like the U.S. has taken a significant step backward. There were obvious disappointments, like Richardson’s loss in the 100m, the U.S. men’s swimming team, not to mention Biles and Suni Lee’s falls on the balance beam. And there were plenty of dominant performances, like McLaughlin-Levrone setting the world record for the sixth times and Hancock winning his fourth gold medal in skeet. But somehow it felt like the U.S. hadn’t produced as many stars as it had in previous Olympics. MJ

Just okay. The total number of medals is a given; it’s the gold that counts. And without Michael Phelps to fuel the dominance in the pool, you have to take your hat off to China’s position in the overall table. They’re competing for medals in every sport, not just the ones they’re already good at. ALL

The biggest theme surrounding LA 2028 will be…

Unit. Nationalism threatens to undermine the norms that brought peace and prosperity to the United States from the end of the Cold War through the 2010s, and these Olympics offered a beautiful respite from the conflict. Many sports—particularly gymnastics and trendy sports like skateboarding—are havens of mutual respect, with athletes cheering each other on no matter what horrors their governments perpetuate. Refugees were welcomed onto their own teams, and Russia and Belarus were not left out. The Paris Olympics showed what is possible when the world comes together, and Los Angeles can build on that. BD

Public transport? Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass this week touted the 2028 Olympics in Paris as the “no-car Games,” allaying concerns about the city’s notorious traffic by claiming that public transportation will be the only way to reach venues in the city. They’ll borrow up to 3,000 buses from other cities and ask companies to let their employees work from home during the Games. Ambitious! BAG

If the presidential election goes a certain way, the LA Games could serve as a focal point for healing and unity. Locally, there will be extensive coverage of the efforts to relocate the vast homeless population. But LA will mainly put its celebrity population in the spotlight (I hear Snoop is available!) and local landmarks like the Hollywood sign and the Walk of Fame. The visuals will be glitzy, but lack the intimacy of Paris. MJ

Snoop Dogg? If you thought you’d seen too much of him at this quadrennial competition, just wait until NBC has him lowriding in the dressage competition with Martha Stewart and a bunch of cowboys from Compton. ALL