The Paris Olympics had it all -- glamour (cuing for Snoop Dogg here), humour (the inventive Internet producing memes after memes) and some controversy too -- Vinesh Phogat's disqualification and the Paris Games opening ceremony's own goal over the tasteless Last Supper skit.
India bagged six medals, two won by shooter Manu Bhaker, while there were also some near misses.
On the track, the closest and highest quality men's 100 metres race and a late-night pole vault world record lit up the first week, while Sifan Hassan's final-day marathon win to cap a barely believable hat-trick of medals was a fitting way to bring down the curtain.
Then there was the gender dispute of two women boxers Algerian Imane Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, with two weeks of headlines and social media debate over their eligibility.
With the athletes bidding goodbye to Paris after another exciting edition of the Olympics, Norma Astrid Godinho/Rediff.com shares interesting nuggets that made the Paris Olympics an event to remember!
The Olympics is the mother of all sporting competitions!
It makes sportspeople toil and sweat in pursuit of the coveted status of an Olympian, and then, win or lose, it makes athletes tear up in ecstasy or in agony.
The original Olympic motto is made up of three Latin words: Citius. Altius. Fortius.. Faster. Higher. Stronger.
And like we've witnessed in Paris, records were broken and new marks were set with athletes displaying these very attributes.
Our very own Neeraj Chopra recorded a season's best throw of 89.45m to win a silver behind Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem, who hurled the javelin to 92.97m, an Olympic record.
Three years ago at the Tokyo 2020 Games, Neeraj's best attempt of 87.58m in his second attempt was enough to win him the gold medal. Show how far the barrier has been pushed to be called an Olympic champion.
In 2021, the Olympic motto was tweaked to Citius. Altius. Fortius. Communiter. Faster. Higher. Stronger. Together, implying the importance of solidarity of the Olympics through sport.
And defining this unifying power of sport meant the Paris Games saw a number of vision-impaired athletes, queer athletes and athletes from war-torn countries of Palestine and Ukraine among others.
During the men's gymnastics pommel horse final, Stephen Nedoroscik stepped up to the apparatus minus his glasses, stuck the landing, feet squarely on the mat, capturing his second bronze medal of the Paris Games.
Irish swimmer Daniel Wiffen ditched his glasses before clinching the gold in the 800m freestyle, and Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade who won a silver in the individual all-around, did it without spectacles. CNN quoted her as stating that 'she cannot see the apparatus that she is hurtling toward at full speed'.
Spectators at the boxing events in Paris would not believe if told that the announcer of the bouts -- Nacer Zorgani -- uses a cane and the assistance of a volunteer guide to make his way around.
The 38-year-old Zorgani's Olympic profile extends to him being a fierce Para-judo competitor. He is now training for the Paralympic Games that run August 28-September 8.
Table tennis player Bruna Alexandre made history as the first Brazilian and only the third athlete to compete in the Olympic and Paralympic Games, following South African runner Oscar Pistorius and Polish table tennis player Natalia Partyka.
Pooled in a tough draw, Alexandre's journey was short, but the silver medallist at the Tokyo Paralympics hopes to do one better in Paris.
The modern world has seen wars and social atrocities, forcing people to flee their nations and seek refuge in other countries.
Considering the growing refugee crisis, in 2015, IOC President Thomas Bach announced the creation of the Refugee Olympic team during a United Nations General Assembly meeting to represent displaced people.
The Rio Games were the first to host a Refugee Olympic team that included 10 athletes, who originally hailed from Ethiopia, South Sudan, Syria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
At the 2020 Tokyo Games, the number of athletes in the contingent rose to 29, who competed across 12 different events.
Paris 2024 hosted 37 athletes from the Refugee Olympic Team, the biggest-ever delegation of refugees.
Boxer Cindy Ngamba became the first representative of the Refugee team to win a medal at the Olympics, winning bronze after defeat in the semi-final of the women's boxing 75kg category. <?
Born in Cameroon and first a refugee in France with her family, she discovered sport, football then boxing, in England, where she lived for 15 years, before seeking refugee status.
Still awaiting citizenship, she was arrested and faced the threat of deportation to West Africa, and has had to provide proof of her sexuality to immigration officials after coming out as gay and before securing refugee status.
The vital concoction of visualisation, perseverance and dedication gave us an Olympic champion in American Tara Davis-Woodhall.
The 25-year-old Davis-Woodhall soared to Olympic gold in the women's long jump, sealing victory with a gigantic fourth leap posting 7.10 metres.
The elated athlete then made a beeline for the trackside crowd, leaping into the arms of her husband and Paralympic sprinter Hunter Woodhall. Hunter Woodhall will compete at the Paris Paralympics, which start later this month.
A University of Texas jumper, Davis-Woodhall, who has the word 'sacrifice' tattooed on her body, said: 'I've dreamed of this moment my entire life, four years old when I started track and field. I've been telling myself all year: '8-0-8, that's the day we win the Olympics.'
On August 10, the legendary Michael Johnson had tweeted: 'Winning Olympic medals is hard. Even if you were favorite for gold and end up with silver or bronze it was hard. That's greatness. Maybe not greatest on the day, but that's greatness!'
And greatness unfolded in front of the world when distance runner Sifan Hassan's breath-taking final-day marathon win saw her take home a jaw-dropping hat-trick of medals in Paris, including bronze in the 5,000m and 10,000m.
The real jaw-dropping bit -- the Dutchwoman, who left her native Ethiopia at 15, bagged the Marathon gold less than 48 hours after bagging the bronze in the 10,000m race! Talk about determination and the true Olympic spirit!
Another story of determination from an uncharted part of the world. The name Karalo Maibuca may not ring a bell. The 25-year-old sprinter hails from the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu and was the flag-bearer in Paris. There was only one other athlete beside him in the Tuvalu 'contingent' -- a country with a population of 11,000.
Maibuca qualified for the games sans training on a training track or gym. He willed himself to the Paris Games by training on an airfield, a makeshift track surrounded by cargos and containers.
In Heat 1 of the 100ms, the finished 7th with a timing of 11.30, failing to make the final. It was still better than his performance at the Tokyo Games, shaving off .12 seconds he clocked in 2021 (11.42 seconds)
'Without access to high-performance facilities, the challenge is to get our athletes up to that level,' he told Associated Press in an interview ahead of the Games.
There were also many firsts in Paris.
Paris 2024 saw a start of a new ceremony -- tapping a wooden baton three times to signal the start of an event.
The Red Baton, also referred to as 'a brigadier', is a gesture taken from the French theatre to mark the opening of a performance and according to Olympic.com, a ritual started in France around the 17th century.
While there is no basis about the origin of the gesture, theories abound that this gesture signified a nod to the Holy Trinity -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- seeking blessings before a performance.
Another theory suggests that the three taps of the red baton pays homage to the actor's movement and positioning on stage -- facing the audience, stage left and stage right.
Paris also featured the debut of the repechage, giving runners a second chance to advance to semi-finals if they do not clinch automatic qualifying berths.
This repechage round was for all individual track events from 200m to 1500m, including the hurdles events.
At track and field events, gold medal winners would ring a victory bell located near the finish line at the Stade de France. The bell, engraved with Paris 2024 was part of the rebuilding of the Notre Dame cathedral, which suffered severe fire damage in 2019.
Now that the Games are over, the bell will be removed from the stadium and hung in one of the cathedral's bell towers.
And while USA gymnasts won a bagful of medals, one of their support staff won our hearts. Beacon the golden retriever was as much a crucial part of the USA gymnastics team as much as the physios and the other support staff.
While the gymnasts trained ahead of the Paris Games, they found a friend in four-year old Beacon, their official therapy dog.
Beacon, who helped Simon Biles and team deal with stress ahead of the Games, was a part of USA Gymnastics' long-overdue mental health programme.
The furry friend cheered on the gymnasts from afar and proved a lucky charm as USA gymnastics team returned home with a 10-medal haul.
Paris 2024 touched another milestone in Olympic history, by achieving numerical gender parity, ensuring equal representation of male and female athletes.
According to Olympics.com, 'The number of women competing at the Olympic Games has increased significantly -- from 34 per cent of the total at Atlanta 1996 to a new record of 48 per cent at Tokyo 2020, and a commitment to reach full gender equality for the Olympic Games Paris 2024.'
At Paris, the male to female ratio was 50:50 with more than 11,000 men and women competing at the Games -- Australia had its highest ever proportion of women (55%) -- showing that the Olympics has come a long way!
Players swapping jerseys after a match as a sign of sportsmanship is a tradition that goes far in time.
But at the Paris Games, rugby players Steve Tomasin of the United States and Rodrigo Isgro of Argentina decided to trade their shorts instead of their shirts after their rugby sevens match.
According to NBCOlympics.com, 'After the US lost, Tomasin wanted to honour the tradition of swapping but also wanted to keep his jersey as a memory of competing. So they swapped shorts instead.
The image of their respective underwear drew much female attention as well as from queer men and Tomasin's star spangled underwear certainly won him points for patriotism!
And then there were other episodes that brought uncalled for attention towards athletes at the Games.
French athlete Anthony Ammirati failed to cross the 5.70 height pole vault, failing to qualify for the final all thanks to his package!
He was disqualified after his private part clipped the cross bar during his attempt, the video of which went viral, making the 21 year old an Internet sensation.
Days later, a porn site offered a whopping $250,000 to Ammirati for displaying his manhood on camera!
French diver Jules Bouyer also created ripples but not in the pool.
The 22 year old had the Internet in a tizzy when a snapshot of him in his diving swimwear went viral -- many seemed distracted by his rather huge unmentionables under his trunks.
The French athlete, who is also interested in fashion, is signed with Ford Models in Paris -- and he landed his first editorial shoot with Athletica Magazine.
We all know what a star British diver Tom Daley is. More than his skills off the springboard, it's his crochet and knitting skills have garnered him 4 million followers on Instagram.
From posting videos of him knitting a sweater to crocheting a croissant bag and sightseeing with his family, Daley's Insta profile is a win!
A gay man with a huge following among the queer community, Daley announced his retirement after returning from the Paris Games, where he won silver in the men's synchronised 10-metre event together with Noah Williams.
Olympic rugby sevens star Ilona Maher is another Olympian who won followers on her social media handles thanks to her antics at the Games Village.
An athlete influencer with a bronze medal in Paris, her stock rose further while adding another 400,000 followers on the back of her team's heroics.
With more than seven million people between her Instagram and TikTok accounts, she posted video clips of her sashaying in her room in a bikini and speaking to the camera, poking fun at the popular reality show Love Island.
