The 'wow' stories of Paris 2024 - an Olympics of firsts

When you hear the word Olympics, what is the first thing you think of? If it’s anything apart from the athletes who compete, you are not thinking straight.

Yes, the facilities, the public transport, the attitude of the locals, the food, the hotels, the weather – all of that matters, sure. But let’s not forget that the Games have and always will be about the athletes – the thousands of men and women who will forever be known as Olympians and the performances they showcase. The Games have been and should always be just about the athletes.

Paris Olympics: News, schedule, medals tally and more

Though there will always be critics, but Paris did a lot of things right.

For now though, let’s focus on some of the absolutely incredible performances which went down in the history books as Olympic firsts, both for individuals and countries, at the Paris Games 2024.

Here are 10 such stories:

Refugee Olympic Team’s Cindy Ngamba won a bronze medal in boxing at Paris Olympics. AP

Cindy Ngamba (Boxer, IOC Refugee Olympic Team – Bronze in women’s 75kg category)

‘Someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Most likely, they cannot return home or are afraid to do so’ – that’s the definition of a refugee according to the United Nations Refugee Agency, the UNHCR.

According to the UNHCR, by the end of 2023, the number of people forcibly displaced from their countries stood at over 117.3 million. About 31.6 million of those people are under the mandate of the UNHCR.

At Paris 2024, 37 such people were chosen from 11 countries to compete in 12 sports as part of the IOC Refugee Olympic team, also known as the ROT (Refugee Olympic team). And on August 8, a female boxer called Cindy Ngamba won the first ever medal for this team, which made its Olympic debut at the Rio Games in 2016.

Ngamba, who is originally from Cameroon, won the bronze medal in the women’s 75kg weight category, after a semi-final loss to Panama’s Atheyna Bylon at the Stade Roland-Garros. It was in no way a cakewalk for Bylon, considering the bout was settled via a split-decision (4-1). Ngamba wasn’t entirely happy with the colour of her medal, but it was a historic first and an inspiration for all those who don’t have a country, but are itching to showcase their sporting prowess.

The 25-year-old Ngamba made headlines even before the Games in Paris got underway. She was not just the female flag-bearer for the ROT at the Opening ceremony, but was also considered to be a genuine medal contender, having trained with the Great Britain boxing team. She has been living in the UK since she was 11 and has spent fourteen years there. She is also a Refugee athlete scholarship (given out by the Olympic Refuge Foundation) holder.

She was sent to a detention camp and was almost deported, but Ngamba has been a fighter, both inside and outside the ring. In Paris, which was her Olympic debut, Ngamba beat the third seed in her weight category and then defeated local favourite Davina Michel enroute to the semi-final, where she eventually went down to the seventh seed.

Andy Macdonald (Skateboarder, Great Britain)

The sport of Skateboarding was added to the Olympic programme for the Tokyo Games in 2021 and kept its place for the Paris Games this time. If you have been reading about the sport, you will know that it has the maximum number of teenage participants, with the youngest in Paris being just 11 years old. Japan’s Cocona Hiraki won the silver medal in the women’s Park competition in Paris, aged 15. At the Tokyo Games too, a 12-year-old Hiraki had won silver in the same event, becoming Japan’s youngest ever Olympic medallist. There is literally no age restriction in this sport set by the IOC (International Olympic Committee).

Suffice to say, grown-ups might struggle, at least at this level. After all, bigger bodies will always find it more difficult to compete, especially while doing rotations, since younger and smaller bodies have a lower centre of gravity and less muscle mass, which helps.

Which is why British-American Andy MacDonald stood out (quite literally) amongst the participating crowd of skateboarders at the Paris Games. After all, Andy is 51 years old and when he turned up for Great Britain at the skateboarding competition in Paris he became the oldest skateboarding competitor ever at the Olympics. To put his age into perspective vis a vis the rest of the field – Andy began professional skateboarding over 14 years before his Great Britain team colleagues Sky Brown and Lola Tambling were born and is 35 years older than them.

But Andy, who began skateboarding at 12, has called skateboarding the ‘fountain of his youth’ and he was just enjoying his time in Paris, being an Olympian. He is a 23 times X-Games gold medallist in vert skating, which is a record and he made it to the Olympics after finding out that he can apply for a British passport (because his father was born in Luton) and try and get on the British team, which he successfully managed to do.

But his biggest challenge was to adapt to the ‘park’ format, which in layman’s terms is a smaller, more compact and faster version of the vert format that Andy is used to competing in.

In February this year, Andy was in Dubai for the second phase of the Olympic qualifications and told Olympics.com – “A vert ramp is 14 feet high and the deepest bowls in park skating in the Olympic Park series are nine feet high. So, it’s like taking everything I know from vert skating and trying to apply it to like, a much smaller, quicker, genre and that is like learning to do it all over again….I can do tricks on the very first try every try. And I go to the smaller bowl and it takes me ten, 15 tries to do it once. And it’s just maddening, but challenging at the same time.”

His love of skateboarding saw him take that challenge head on and make the Olympic cut with the GB team. The man who is credited for having come up with the ‘nollie heel flip’ trick, eventually finished 18th out of 22 competitors in the preliminary round and couldn’t make it to the final, but the man who picked up the nickname of ‘Rad-Dad’ and showed that age is just a number will not be forgotten in a hurry.

Andy just wanted to have a good time and he sure did and he summed up his experience nicely when he told reporters in Paris - “I definitely won the gold medal for most fun.”

Rebecca Andrade, Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles (First all-Black women’s podium in Olympic gymnastics – before Chiles was stripped of her bronze medal)

Silver medallist Simone Biles and bronze medallist Jordan Chiles, who would later lose her medal to Romania’s Ana Barbosu, bow to gold medallist Rebeca Andrade after the Brazilian won the women’s women’s artistic gymnastics individual floor finals at Bercy Arena. AP

Rebecca Andrade of Brazil, Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles of the USA – the gold, silver and bronze medallists in the women’s floor exercise gymnastics final at the Paris Games.

The first ever all-Black podium in the history of Olympic gymnastics.

However, in what was a big blow for Jordan Chiles and U.S.A. gymnastics, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that the USA inquiry that saw Chiles climb from fifth to third in the floor exercise was illegal, because it was made after the mandatory 1-minute time limit, as allowed by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG). Not surprisingly, the U.S.A. Olympic officials have said that they will be appealing against the ruling.
Whatever the eventual outcome might be, the image of these three athletes on the podium is already imprinted on the minds of countless little girls dreaming of becoming Olympic gymnasts.

It was a moment after all that made Michelle Obama say on social media – “I’m still not over this beautiful moment of sisterhood and sportsmanship! You can just feel the love shining through these ladies. Congrats Rebeca, Jordan and Simone!"

Andrade is Brazil’s most decorated Olympian of all time, with 6 Olympic medals (2 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze). She also has 9 World Championship medals, is one of the most respected international gymnasts and also the first athlete to beat Simone Biles in the floor exercise routine at a major, international tournament (according to the Associated Press). It wasn’t surprising then to see both Biles and Chiles bow to Andrade as she got on to the podium.

Biles, who so far has 11 Olympic medals told Olympics.com - “As soon as we were standing there, me and Jordan looked at each other…We were kind of all cherishing that together because we knew how special it would be, and we knew the impact that it would make on all the little girls around the world that are trying to do what we’re doing, just for them to know that it’s possible.”

Regardless of whether Chiles manages to keep her bronze medal or not, this could very well inspire countless youngsters of colour – both male and female - to take up gymnastics. In the US alone, according to data from the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), only about 8% of female gymnasts in the USA are black.

Julien Alfred (Sprinter, St. Lucia - Gold in women’s 100m sprint)

Julien Alfred created history for Saint Lucia by winning the women’s 100m race at the Paris Olympics. AP

St. Lucia is an island country in the Eastern Caribbean. Till before the Paris Games, the list of some of the more famous St. Lucians included the likes of poet, playwright and Nobel laureate, Sir Derek Walcott, poet Jane King, the first woman to represent St. Lucia at the Olympics - Michelle Baptiste and cricketer and former West Indies captain - Darren Sammy, among others.

Now, the name Julien Alfred has been added to that list. That after the 23-year-old athlete stunned the world and her fellow competitors by winning the gold medal in the women’s 100m sprint at the Paris Games.

Alfred, a three-time NCAA champion upset pre-race favourite Sha’Carri Richardson of the U.S.A. to clinch the gold, clocking a time of 10.72 seconds. The gap between the two runners was .15 seconds – the biggest margin in the women’s 100m Olympics race since the Beijing edition of 2008. Richardson had her own critics, but not too many people expected Alfred to claim top spot. That changed after she ran a blistering race in her heat as well, before bagging the gold in the final. The result also meant that St. Lucia had won their first ever Olympic medal.

The tiny island nation erupted with joy and the celebrations will continue for a while.

After the final, Alfred was asked who she would like to dedicate the win to and was quoted as saying – “Most importantly, God, my coach, and lastly, my dad, who believed that I could do it. He passed away in 2013, and now he couldn’t get to see me on the biggest stage of my career. But he’ll always be so boastful of his daughter being an Olympian.”

There was another first in this race – U.S.A.’s Melissa Jefferson came in third, clocking a time of 10.92 seconds to complete an America 2-3. This was the first time two American runners were on the podium in this event since the Atlanta edition of 1996.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (Sprinter, U.S.A. – Gold in women’s 400m hurdles)

USA’s Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone smashed the world record in the women’s 400-metre hurdles event at the Paris Olympics. Reuters

Another track superstar who left an indelible impression on the Paris Games was Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. The 400m hurdler was in imperious form in the final of the event, breaking her own world record by clocking a time of 50.37 seconds. Incredibly, this was the sixth time she broke the world record in this event.

Race day was also a day after the American’s 25th birthday and she celebrated it in style, by not just clinching the gold, but also by rewriting the history books as the first woman ever to win two Olympic 400m hurdles titles. McLaughlin-Levrone was also the defending champion, so technically she is also the first woman to successfully defend the title.

Her big aim now is to try and become the first woman to clock a sub-50 second time in the 400m hurdles.

Carlos Yulo (Gymnast, Philippines – Gold in men’s floor exercise and vault routines)

Carlos Edriel Yulo, of the Philippines, celebrates after winning the gold medal during the men’s artistic gymnastics individual vault finals at the Paris Olympics. AP

Gymnast Carlos Yulo of the Philippines was quite the trailblazer and history maker in Paris this time. The 24-year-old won the gold medal in the men’s floor exercise to become only the second athlete from his country to win an Olympic gold medal, after weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, who won the women’s 55 kg title at the Tokyo Games last time. Yulo also became the first ever male athlete from the Philippines to win an Olympic gold medal.

A day later he picked up the top prize in the men’s vault event to become his country’s first ever double Olympic champion.

His feats, which saw him beat Israel’s former floor exercise champion Artem Dolgopyat and Armenia’s Artur Davtyan and Great Britain’s Harry Hepworth in the vault event turned him into an overnight sensation in his country, with Yulo achieving iconic status.

It’s quite something to think that Yulo had failed to qualify for the floor exercise finals at the Tokyo Games in 2021.

According to reports, a property group in the Philippines gave Yulo a fully-furnished house worth $104,000 to recognise and celebrate his incredible achievements that have seen him being mentioned in the same breath as other sporting icons from the Philippines, like professional boxer and former senator Manny Pacquiao and one of the best NBA coaches of all time, Erik Jon Spoelstra, whose mother is from the Philippines.

Yulo’s feats are particularly impressive once seen through the lens of Philippines’ sporting infrastructure. The scarcity of sports resources in the country is no secret, with sports being largely seen as an ‘indulgence’.

According to some Yulo’s wins have also shattered long-held beliefs that Asian men are not as strong and ‘masculine’ as those from other cultures.

Thea LaFond (Triple Jumper, Dominica – Gold in women’s triple jump)

Thea Lafond, of Dominica, celebrates after winning the women’s triple jump final at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. AP

Along with St. Lucia, another island nation in the Caribbean, Dominica, had a historic first to celebrate this time, on the very same day.

Imagine this – Dominica (a different country to the Dominican Republic) sent only one female athlete for track and field events to the Paris Games. It was a triple jumper called Thea LaFond – and she won the gold medal in her event.

This marked the first time that Dominica had won an Olympic medal. The golden history that LaFond managed to write was a new golden chapter for Dominica, which saw almost all their property damaged by Hurricane Maris in 2017.

At the World indoor athletics Championships in Glasgow, in March this year, LaFond was Dominica’s only representative and she clinched the gold medal there too.

LaFond left Dominica when she was 5 years old and moved to Maryland, USA. with her family, but she competes under the Dominican flag.

She was quoted as saying by the Associated Press - “We are about roughly 70,000 people. Not 7 million. Not 70 million. Seventy thousand. And it is a gorgeous, gorgeous gem in the Caribbean near to Martinique and Guadeloupe….Our neighbours also include St. Lucia, Barbados and, further south, Trinidad and Tobago. Our primary language is English. And now they have a gold medal.”

LaFond was training to become a classical dancer, but at the age of 13 shifted her focus to track and field. The person who changed her sporting career was her coach and later her husband, Aaron Gadson, who told her she needs to jump off her left leg and not her right, which is what she was previously used to. It was a massive change to make.

In Paris, Gadson had more solid advice for his wife, warning her about an oncoming downpour that would make conditions very difficult for jumpers and asking her to put in her best attempt soon. The 5 feet 8-inch tall LaFond had cleared 14.32 metres in her first attempt and the advice fired her up to clear 15.02 metres (a new national record) in her second attempt, which was enough to win the gold. The rain came soon after and the other jumpers found it very difficult to chase LaFond’s clearance mark.

With one big goal ticked off her list, the 30-year-old LaFond is hoping she can do the same for another one of her cherished dreams – to build a track facility in Dominica.

She was quoted as saying - “The biggest issue has been getting the land allocation for this track. Give us the land and there will be a track,” LaFond said. “I’m really hoping this medal kind of lights a fire under all government officials to get that done. I want a place where the next generation doesn’t necessarily have to go overseas.”

Novak Djokovic (Tennis player, Serbia – Gold in men’s singles)

Novak Djokovic completed a career Golden Slam by winning the Paris Olympics gold medal. AP

This is a first that needs to be mentioned because it really completes this phenomenal athlete’s trophy cabinet.

Novak Djokovic completed a career Golden Slam in Paris this time by beating Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz on the clay courts of Stade Roland Garros in straight sets in the final. The 7-6, 7-6 win in the summit clash saw Djokovic finally getting his hands on the Olympic gold medal and joining the likes of Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams in the elite club of tennis players who have won all four of the Grand Slams and an Olympic singles gold medal.

The 37-year-old Djokovic also became the first Serbian tennis player to win the Olympic men’s singles gold medal.

This was the only prize missing from his trophy cabinet, that also includes as many as 24 singles Grand Slam titles (the most ever in the men’s game) and in Paris, Djokovic ended what had been a 16 year wait for the top prize. This incredibly was his fifth shot at trying to win the gold and the 5th time was the charm. At 37, he was also the oldest player ever to reach the men’s singles gold medal match and he played some vintage tennis, saving his best for the last, as he clinched the gold medal, without dropping a set in his entire campaign.

And to think that he beat a man (Alcaraz, who was also the youngest man ever to reach the men’s singles gold medal match), who had beaten him in straight sets in the Wimbledon final, just three weeks before this.

This was Djokovic’s second Olympic medal, after his singles bronze, which he had won in his debut Games in Beijing in 2008.

His tears after the match said it all.

Mijain Lopez Nunez (Greco-Roman wrestler, Cuba – Gold in men’s 130kg)

Mijain Lopez celebrates his gold medal during the Paris 2024 Olympics. Reuters/USA Today Sports

This was hands down one of the best athlete stories that came out of the Paris Games this time.

Imagine a 41-year-old wrestler – just a couple of weeks away from his 42nd birthday winning the gold medal in his event – the men’s 130 kg Greco-Roman. But that’s not just what Mijain Lopez Nunez will be remembered for. After all, he has set a record which might just stand the test of time. By virtue of his gold medal win he became the first wrestler ever to win five Olympic golds and more importantly, the first Olympic athlete ever to win five straight gold medals in the same individual event.

This is something that no athlete before – not Carl Lewis, not Kristin Otto, not Michael Jordan, not Nadia Comaneci, not Usain Bolt, not Michael Phelps, not Mark Spitz, not Allyson Felix, not Simone Biles – no one has ever done before. Imagine the magnitude of this record.

Lopez, who is also a five-time World champion and five-time Pan American Games champion, beat Chile’s Yasmani Acosta Fernandez 6-0 in a one-sided final. Interestingly, Fernandez is also a Cuban born wrestler and left his country to represent Chile, because he felt he wouldn’t be able to make the Olympics cut in this weight category, with Lopez still around!

Before the final Lopez had stunned the reigning World Champion, Iran’s Amin Mirzazadeh in the quarter-finals. Lopez’s first Olympic appearance was in the Athens Games of 2004, where he finished 5th. Post that he has won the gold in all the editions from 2008 to 2024.

Lopez, who is of course one of the all-time greats of men’s wrestling in the Greco-Roman style (where athletes can’t use their legs to attack or defend, and no holds are allowed below the waist), promptly retired after his gold medal winning feat in Paris, leaving his shoes on the mat to signal his retirement.

Talk about leaving on a high!

Arshad Nadeem (Javelin thrower, Pakistan – Gold in men’s javelin)

Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem raises his arms in celebration after smashing the Olympic record during the men’s javelin final in the Paris Olympics. Reuters

This is a story that every Indian and Pakistan sports fan knows rather well now. It’s in many ways Pakistan’s Abhinav Bindra and Neeraj Chopra moment rolled into one. If you hadn’t heard of javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem before this, you will now never forget his name.

The Pakistani javelin thrower didn’t just beat defending champion Neeraj Chopra in the men’s javelin final rather comfortably, but also became Pakistan’s first ever individual Olympic medallist in athletics, their first ever individual gold medallist and just the second overall individual medallist from the country after boxer Hussain Shah (bronze at the 1988 Seoul Games).

This is also Pakistan’s first Olympic medal since their men’s hockey team won the bronze at the 1992 Games in Barcelona. In other words, Nadeem’s historic gold is Pakistan’s first Olympic medal of the 21st century. This was also, overall, Pakistan’s first Olympic gold medal in 40 years - since their men’s hockey team won the top prize at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

Nadeem, who had finished fifth at the Tokyo Games in 2021, with a best throw of 84.62 metres, absolutely obliterated the field in Paris with a monstrous throw of 92.97 metres, which also marked a new Olympic record, breaking the previous record which had stood for 16 years (Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen threw 90.57 metres in the 2008 Games) and won him the gold, almost immediately. Incredibly, he registered yet another 90m plus throw – a 91.97 metre throw off his last attempt.

This saw Nadeem notch up yet another Olympic first – he became the first Olympic athlete to register two 90 metre (plus) throws in a javelin final. Only Johannes Vetter of Germany and Anderson Peters of Grenada have breached the 90 metre mark twice in a final, but never at the Olympics.

Thousands showed up at the Lahore airport to greet Pakistan’s only medallist from the Paris Games when he went back home.

Not surprisingly, Nadeem, who shares a good rapport with Neeraj Chopra (and finished second behind Neeraj at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest) has become a national hero and icon and the world of men’s javelin now has a new poster boy.

Akaash is a former Sports Editor and primetime sports news anchor. He is also a features writer, a VO artist and a stage actor see more