The 2024 Paris Olympics have officially wrapped and Tom Cruise and Snoop Dogg are already shifting their sights toward LA 2028, but even as we catch up on sleep and cut down on screen time, we’re not quite ready to move on.

There was so much incredible track and field that took place over the last two weeks that it feels like years’ worth of stories got buried in the giant heap of medals. So before the dust fully settles on the purple track and the takes get swept away in the Seine, let’s take a moment to doll out some proverbial kudos to some of the most toast-worthy moments, performances, and athletes of the 2024 Games.

Congrats To The Stade De France

Call us crazy, but it sure seems like filling a stadium with 70,000 screaming fans is the ideal way to watch track. The French crowds showed up and showed out, offering plenty of support for all the biggest stars and deafening roars for their hometown heroes. Some of the week’s largest cheers weren’t for Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s world record or Faith Kipyegon’s threepeat; they were for scrappy French middle-distance runners using the “Paris push” to advance out of the repechage round and into the semifinals.

Fittingly, the biggest moment of l'athletisme for the French home crowd came on the final day of competition, when in one of the last finals of the whole Olympics, les Bleus finally got their first track and field medal of the Games via an incredible silver-medal run by hurdler Cyréna Samba-Mayela. Not only did the 23-year-old Samba-Mayela improve her personal best from 12.68 to 12.31 this year to become a contender at the perfect time, she also came back from a bout of COVID in June to navigate one of the deepest 100m hurdle fields in history and land on the podium.

The in-stadium DJ may have slightly overplayed “Freed From Desire” and “Sweet Caroline,” but hey – they had an in-stadium DJ who actually cared about getting the crowd pumped up. More of that, please! One of the most defining moments of the Games was the incredible laser-light show entrance, color coordinated with the finalists’ countries, that preceded the men’s 100-meter final. Unfortunately, the tightly-packed schedule for most of the evening sessions made it hard to replicate the Pink Floyd-esque display for other finals, even if the crowd loved it. Take notes, LA schedulers!

Congrats To Sha’Carri Richardson On Transcending Track & Field

Under the weight of intense expectations, Sha’Carri Richardson met the moment and turned in a couple of stellar performances in her debut Olympics. First, she nabbed silver in the 100m, despite getting out of the blocks a bit slowly, then she delivered a blistering anchor leg on the 4 x 100m, taking the U.S. squad from third, to first, and memorably staring down Germany’s Rebecca Haase and Great Britain’s Daryll Neita en route.

During the medal ceremony for the relay, Richardson was visibly emotional, and who can blame her? The past three-plus years have been a roller coaster for the Dallas native. And it’s hard to even fathom the release – and frankly, relief – she must have experienced when she felt the comforting heft of Olympic gold draped around her neck.

During the leadup to Paris, and certainly during the Games themselves, Richardson was among the most promoted members of Team USA, across all sports. NBC marketing spots featured her frequently and prominently. She was the star of commercials for brands like Powerade and Olay. It’s safe to say – whether you like it or not – that Richardson and Noah Lyles are the two most recognizable, actively competing American track athletes.

But the biggest sign that Richardson will remain in the limelight once the American sporting world moves on from the Olympics, (by like, the end of this week) is that she was prominently sitting courtside during the men’s basketball gold medal game between France and the United States. Wedged between the retired bucketeer Carmelo Anthony and late night talk show goon Jimmy Fallon, Richardson appeared right at home among the A-listers taking in the game from the see-and-be-seen section.

The sporting world, like many other fields, is subject to a 24-hour news cycle. The golden goose many top athletes will be chasing this week is staying in the headlines after August 11th – whether by booking a spot on Dancing With The Stars or landing the next big brand deal. You’ve gotta stay relevant during the offseason or else you cease to exist to the masses. This is why mid-tier NBA players post sweaty videos of themselves firing off jumpers every August: part of the job is reminding sports fans you exist or they’ll move on to the next shiny object. Chopping it up with Melo and sitting within arm’s reach of Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff is a promising sign that Sha’Carri understands the assignment.

Congrats To Grant Fisher On Breaking Through

Heading into Paris, Team USA’s Grant Fisher was developing something of a reputation as the king of near misses – a tough racer with solid instincts and a good kick, but missing something in the toolkit to land inside the top-three. In the last few championships, Fisher had put together strong runs in 5000m and 10,000m finals, only to land just tenths (or hundredths) of a second on the wrong side of the podium. 

At the start of 2024, there were a lot of questions around how Fisher’s transition away from Bowerman Track Club and back to his high school coach would serve the 27-year-old. Is solo training really the best bet for a distance runner accustomed to world-class workout partners? With three American records under his belt with BTC, why was he leaving a clearly-successful setup? And would returning to a coach better known for producing Foot Locker finalists than Olympic medalists really pay off?

At seemingly every opportunity this year, Fisher proved that his big bet on himself was the right move. First, he broke the American indoor 2-mile record at the Millrose Games on Josh Kerr’s heels. Then, he soloed a 12:51 indoor 5000m PB. He clocked a sub-27 and sub-13 outdoors against strong competition, then even managed to pick up a 1500m PB in New York. In June, after only winning one national title with Bowerman, Fisher picked up wins in both the 10,000m and 5000m at the U.S. Olympic Trials. And while his strength remained world-caliber, promising signs of improved leg speed like his battle to the line with Dominic Lobalu in the London Diamond League 3000m were pointing to a new and improved medal-contending model.

And boy, oh boy, did Fisher back it up once he got to Paris. Against talented fields that included runners like world record holder Joshua Cheptegei, Olympic champion Selemon Barega, World champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen, and a large handful of 12:40/26:40 guys, Fisher picked up two bronze medals in the 5000m and 10,000m. For context, Americans picked up three medals total in those two events from 1968 to 2021. His ability to bounce back from the 10,000m into medal contention was particularly impressive, given that the first final of Paris required a 26:43.46 run to make the podium. Fisher deserves our heartiest congratulations not just for leveling up, but for doing it on his own terms to incredible results.

Congrats To Sifan Hassan, On Well… Everything

For the second Olympics in a row, Sifan Hassan did something truly goofy, something that probably no other athlete in the world would opt into. And for the second Olympics in a row, that goofy schedule panned out in a way it wouldn’t have for any other athlete in the world.

What do you do after you successfully medal in the 1500m-5000m-10,000m triple? You scrap the 1500m and replace it with the marathon for only your fourth go at the distance. (So what if it means you’re racing an additional 37.5 kilometers over the course of 10 days?)

This time around Hassan’s medal haul skewed a bit bronzer, thanks to third-place finishes in both the 5000m and 10,000m, but she capped off another legendary Olympic outing on a high note, winning the marathon in Olympic record-setting time. (Fun fact: her 2:22:55 mark is quicker than Emil Zátopek’s winning marathon time from his own 1952 5000m-10,000m-marathon triple. To be fair, Zátopek’s 5000m and 10,000m performances resulted in gold medals, and were run in faster times than Hassan.)

Hassan’s strategy in her two track races was simple, and at times amusing: sit in the very back for as long as tactically possible, then push toward the front when The Move is finally made. In the 5000m, she went from ninth at 4000m to third at the finish, closing her last kilometer in 2:35. In the 10,000m, she went from 12th at 9000m to third at the finish, closing her last kilometer in 2:42.

And in the marathon, while she did not sit in the very back – that would have left her about 90 minutes behind the leaders when it came time to kick, a distance too far even for Hassan – she did hide on the heels of the lead pack until the final 400 meters, when she unleashed a ferocious final burst of speed to run the legs out of marathon world record holder Tigst Assefa.

Where does Hassan go from here? If she’s still firing on all cylinders for LA28, does she attempt the quad and bring the 1500m back into the fold? Does she learn how to steeple? Does she even need to attempt another outlandish Olympic schedule in order to bolster her resume for the ongoing “GOAT” debate?

Congrats To 4 Of 5 U.S. Relay Squads

In the pouring rain, the U.S. women snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, overtaking Great Britain and Germany thanks to a brilliant Sha’Carri Richardson anchor leg. (They wouldn’t have even been in the running without a 9.98 second leg by TeeTee Terry, though!) Their exchanges weren’t always the cleanest, but at the end of the day, this squad possessed enough firepower to pull it off just by not completely whiffing the handoffs. And it certainly didn’t hurt that Jamaica’s Olympics-long nosedive left them without any of the four legs that delivered 4 x 100m gold in Tokyo.

You could have been in a coma during the entire Olympic track and field program and accurately guessed the outcomes of the men’s and women’s 4 x 400m relays. The women have won every Olympic 4 x 400m since Atlanta in 1996, and the men have won six of eight in that same timeframe. In the shorter history of the mixed-gender 4x400m relay, Team USA hasn’t been quite as successful, but this year the squad still set the world record in the prelims and it took a superhuman 47.9 split from Femke Bol to relegate the U.S. to silver. These relays are solely about firepower. And that’s something the U.S. has plenty of in the one-lap distance. 

The women – Shamier Little, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabby Thomas, and Alexis Holmes – all pitched in sub-50 splits. McLaughlin-Levrone went a step further and provided a 47.71(!), which was a big reason this team established a new American record. A huge shoutout to Little in particular, whose audacious 400m/400H double at the U.S. Trials didn’t land her in any individual events but served as great preparation for her four rounds of relay racing across the mixed and women’s 4 x 400 (her results: splits of 49.32, 49.39, 49.22, and 49.48). The men were operating without 400m champ Quincy Hall – who apparently ran so hard in the final he injured his hamstring – but no matter. With the help of a 43.26 second leg from Vernon Norwood and a 43.18 close from Rai Benjamin, the men were able to hold off a charge from Letsile Tebogo and his Botswana team, and also set a new Olympic record.

But then there’s the men’s 4 x 100m. Again, no shortage of firepower there. Even with Noah Lyles out of the roster, the U.S. can still field a team of world-beaters: Christian Coleman, Kenny Bednarek, Kyree King, and Fred Kerley. On paper, that’s at worst a gold medal this year, and at absolute best a potential American record. But if history is any indicator, at this point we’ve come to expect a DQ or DNF and hope to be proven wrong. The last time the U.S. men medaled in this event at the Olympics was at Athens in 2004.

It’s almost funny if it weren’t also pretty sad. There’s no lack of desire – none of the athletes on the start line for the final have Olympic gold on their shelves, and surely that’s the worthiest carrot of all to dangle – and finger-pointing at the athletes seems misguided given that we keep changing up the roster and getting the same results. We’re not certain what the solution is (Longer relay camps? Different coaches? More transparency in selection? All good places to start…), but how many Olympics have to go by before we finally start to rebuild this system from the ground up?

Congrats To Cole Hocker On Inheriting An Asterisk

Last summer, when Yared Nuguse ran 3:29.02 at the Bislett Games, it presented track nerds with an interesting quandary: had he just broken the American record? 

The answer depends on who you ask. According to World Athletics, yes: Nuguse’s performance in Oslo established a new national record. However, in the eyes of USATF, he came about a second and a half short of the real American record, 3:27.40, belonging to Bernard Lagat. (Kyle wrote more about the unusual circumstances around this disparity in recordkeeping last summer – you can read about it here.)

Regardless of whether you ascribe to USATF’s or WA’s interpretation of the True American Record, one weirdly similar, but different accolade is not up for debate: the men’s NACAC area record in the 1500m. Since WA and WA alone maintains the area record database, for the past year-plus, despite only maybe being the American record holder in the event, Yared Nuguse was unambiguously the North American record holder.

That is, until last Tuesday night, when Cole Hocker obliterated it, winning the damn Olympics in 3:27.65. So congrats to Hocker on his Olympic record, area record, and depending on where you draw the line, American record.

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