The year 2024 will have been rich in events, particularly with the Paris Olympic Games. In the French capital, many of them shone. The American Simone Biles returned to being the great gymnast she was and the Swede Armand Duplantis jumped even more at the Stade de France.
Return to the top for gymnast Simone Biles
Three years after the trauma of the Tokyo Olympics, the queen of gymnastics Simone Biles shone in Paris, where, with three gold medals, she once again imbued the Games with her dazzling supremacy. The American made her comeback on the Olympic scene after having to interrupt her Games in Tokyo to preserve her mental health. After a long break, intense reconstruction work and therapy, Biles, adorned with leotards, each more sparkling than the last, returned to her highest level in an Arena Bercy which was never empty. After the four titles at Rio 2016, she left the French capital with three new gold medals, in the team event, all-around and vault, but above all with a newfound love of her sport. In total, the 27-year-old American now holds eleven Olympic medals, including seven gold. Legendary.
Monumental Sifan Hassan
In August, under the Parisian sun, the Dutch Sifan Hassan achieved the colossal feat of winning the Olympic marathon after having already been a bronze medalist in the 5,000m and 10,000m in Paris. At the Stade de France, Hassan (31 years old) competed in Paris against the legendary hat-trick of the Czech Emil Zatopek, signed at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki: she finished this crazy sequence with three medals. Since Zatopek, gold medalist over all three distances, no one has achieved such a performance. However, nothing was won two kilometers from the finish of the marathon, when there were still five contenders for victory. But the versatile Dutchwoman had the legs and no one, not even the world record holder, Ethiopian Tigst Assefa, could keep up with her.
Rodri, a Ballon d’Or for the master of the game
A decade after the end of its period of absolute domination (winner of the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2008 and 2012), Spain was back. Supervised by a little-known but effective coach, Luis de la Fuente, and captain Álvaro Morata, a generation confirmed the hopes born in recent years by winning the Euro without losing a match, after having dominated France in the half and the England in the final, each time 2 to 1. The discreet midfielder of Manchester City, Rodrisplashed the competition with his technical and tactical mastery. He was rewarded in October with the Ballon d’Or, awarded to a midfielder for only the second time since the dominance of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo began.
Armand Duplantis in the air at the Stade de France
By clearing 6.25 m and beating his own pole vault world record, the Swede Armand Duplantis lit up the Paris 2024 Olympic evening on August 5 at the Stade de France. Assured early on of retaining his Olympic title by being the only one to cross the six-meter barrier, Duplantis then attacked the Olympic record (6.10 m, easily erased) before tackling his mission of the day: the record of the world. At 6.25 m, Mondo Duplantis, however, stumbled in his first two attempts and the 80,000 spectators began to say to themselves that it might not be this time. But from the end of the jump, he lets the public push him, sets off for his final attempt and achieves what everyone hoped for: clearing 6.25 m, his ninth world record, which he will improve a tenth time (6 .26 m) a few weeks later.
Olympic gold in rugby sevens for
Away from the French XV for almost a year to devote himself to his Olympic dream, French rugby superstar Antoine Dupont has once again pushed his limits. Adapting almost immediately to the specificities of rugby sevens, the scrum half became an essential link in the French team, with a world title in June in Madrid and above all an Olympic title in Paris, for the first time. gold medal for the French delegation at the 2024 Olympic Games. Already crowned with his club Toulouse in the Top 14 and the Champions Cup, Dupont concluded this extraordinary 2024 season with the title of best sevens player in the world, awarded in November in Monaco. Three years after winning this XV title, he is the first male player to achieve such a double.
Alan Hatherly lets South Africa’s colors shine on mountain bike
Alan Hatherly, 28, bronze medalist in mountain biking at Paris 2024 entered the history of his sport. With this third step on the podium, behind the British Tom Pidcock, and the French Victor Koretzkythe South African rider became the first representative from the African continent to be an Olympic medalist in mountain biking. Hatherly also signed the second medal for the rainbow nation in Paris, after that obtained in rugby sevens (bronze). Alan Hatherly represented South Africa at the Rio Olympics in 2016 finishing in 26th place, then in Tokyo in 2021 where he placed eighth. In addition to his Bronze medal in Paris, he obtained the world champion title a month later and finished the season at the top of the World Cup.
Tadej Pogačar, an incredible season in road cycling
While Tadej Pogacar believes it will be difficult for him to repeat his exceptional 2024 season, the cycling world expects him to continue his outrageous dominance and solidify his candidacy for the title of greatest rider of all time. As of 2024, he has achieved 25 victories in total. The Slovenian notably completed the Tour of Italy double-Tour de Francea feat that dates back to 1998 with the Italian Marco Pantani. He crushed the World Championship in Zurich by attacking 100 kilometers from the finish to achieve an unprecedented feat for 37 years. Tadej Pogačar already has seven Monuments to his name (four tours of Lombardy, 1 Tour of Flanders, 2 Liège-Bastogne-Liège), which brings him closer to the podium of the most successful riders in these great classics, two lengths from the Irishman Sean Kelly and Italian Fausto Coppi. Winning all five Monuments is a challenge for Tadej Pogačar. He still has to win Milan-Sanremo, where he gets closer year by year to a victory. And Paris-Roubaix, which he has never raced before.
Léon Marchand, exceptional swimmer
At the Paris Olympics, Leon Marchand22 years old, has risen to the top of the gods. On his table, four gold medals including a double snatched in less than two hours apart. Trained for two and a half years by the same coach as Michael Phelps, the Toulouse swimmer and his “torpedo physique” joined the American in the category of exceptional swimmers. Voted best swimmer of the year by the International Swimming Federation, Léon Marchand will leave for Australia in January for “two to three months” during which he plans to train with a new coach. “ I’m going to try to see another culture, train with a new coach, and then I’ll join Bob Bowman in Austin later this year. », explained the star of the pools.
Biniam Girmay, against all odds
Biniam Girmay challenged and tamed Jasper Philipsen, Arnaud De Lie and Mads Pedersen. Names that were expected to win the green jersey in this 111th edition of the Tour de France. The outsider, dressed in his green tunic, climbed onto the final podium in Nice on Sunday July 21. The Eritrean will remain one of the big names of this Grande Boucle after having written a new piece of cycling history by becoming the first black African rider to win a stage (three in total) and winning a distinctive jersey on the Tour. “Bini”, 24, joined his Belgian team in 2021, after a season and a half spent in France. For almost his first race on the cobbles, in 2022, he won Ghent-Wevelgem, signing in the process the first victory of a rider from a sub-Saharan African country in a Flandrian classic. A month and a half later, on the Tour of Italy, he became the first black African rider to win on a Grand Tour.
The madness around the Lebrun brothers
The Lebrun brothers became the phenomena of world table tenniswith their bronze medals at the Paris Olympic Games. They also finished the year in first place in the world in doubles, a first for French people. In Paris, in front of his audience, Félix achieved a superb singles performance, beating the Brazilian Hugo Calderano for the bronze medal, at 17 years old. This is the first French table tennis medal since Jean-Philippe Gatien in 1992 in Barcelona. Five days later, the two brothers went for bronze as a team with Simon Gauzy, beating the Japanese in the small final 3 games to 2. A close three-hour encounter, during which Félix saved three match points against Tomokazu Harimoto.