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

Best US individual performance …

Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone deserve every bit of attention they get. They’re GOATs, as are Vincent Hancock and Ryan Crouser. But the top performer overall was Torri Huske, who claimed gold in the 100m butterfly and anchored two relays that set world records. Honorable mentions to Huske’s fellow triple gold medalist Gabby Thomas and two-time champion Kristen Faulkner, who took a stunning gold in the cycling road race along with her more-expected triumph on the track. BD

Cole Hocker tearing up the script of a men’s 1500m that was exhaustively billed as a showdown between the two baddest milers in the world, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Josh Kerr, was the closest thing to a Kerri Strug moment for the United States at these Olympics. BAG

In a US swimming team studded with stars, 21-year-old Torri Huske strutted out of Paris with the flashiest hardware. Huske won five medals, including three golds. But she claimed to be most proud of her silver medal in a stacked 100m freestyle, where she was narrowly eclipsed by world-record holder Sarah Sjöström. MJ

With apologies to Biles – and Steph Curry too, I suppose – I’m still marveling at LeBron James’s crunch-time performance against Serbia in the basketball semis. 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 – and shut down a seemingly unstoppable Nikola Jokić stretch to lead the US to the final and remove any passing doubts about his clutch gene. AL

Best US team performance …

Can we give it to the track and field team that claimed 34 medals, including 14 gold? In sports with actual team play, women’s soccer deserves a shout for shaking off last year’s World Cup and ending an Olympic drought. But the men’s basketball team blended world-class talent with a never-say-die attitude to take a gold medal that was never a sure thing, especially in a classic final against a team inspired by a roaring home crowd. BD

The US women’s soccer team won the gold with Sophia Smith, Mallory Swanson, Trinity Rodman – the front line known as Triple Espresso – producing 10 of the team’s 12 goals. Not bad for a side who managed to find the back of the net just four times in last year’s World Cup washout. (Pantheon-level sports nickname, by the way.) BAG

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

USA track and field carried the federation again this cycle. Between Noah Lyles’s photo finish, Sha’Carri Richardson’s Roadrunner close-up in the sprint relays, McLaughlin-Levrone’s lonely hurdles win and Tara Davis-Woodhall’s golden triple jump celebration, US athletics produced so many stirring moments for the scrapbook. AL

Biggest US disappointment …

Anything that took place in a pool other than the women’s swimmers, the overachieving men’s water polo team and the moonwalking artistic swim team. The men’s swimmers had only one individual winner. The diving squad started with a silver medal, but only one diver even made a final in an individual event, and the other synchronized duos were nowhere near contending. The long-dominant women’s water polo team barely got to a semifinal and surrendered a 9-5 lead in the bronze-medal game. BD

Jordan Chiles having to give back her floor exercise bronze medal on a procedural technicality sure was something. On the performance side it must be the US men’s swimming team finishing the Olympics with one individual gold, their lowest total since the 1956 Melbourne Games. Woof. BAG

Elite athletes have off days too. But few like Caeleb Dressel’s nightmare individual performance. Not only did Dressel fail to defend his individual titles from Tokyo in the 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly, he didn’t even get a medal in those events. Seeing Dressel in tears after failing to defend his Olympic crowns was one of the most painful moments of the Games. MJ

The men’s 4×100 relay team. Dropped the baton again. I’m with Carl Lewis here. Blow the whole thing up. Maybe let him, an expert, take over. AL

Paris as a host city was …

Stunning. They brilliantly placed a lot of the action in or in front of historical buildings and landmarks. Indoor venues such as Bercy Arena were rocking. Attendance lagged at a lot of soccer games, and putting swimmers in the Seine was a problem. But Paris successfully presented itself as a thriving modern city with timeless places to see. BD

A dream backdrop for the world’s greatest sporting event. The decision to integrate venues into the existing structure of the sprawling French capital was a master stroke that made it visually the most spectacular Olympics in history. The hits just kept on coming, whether it was beach volleyball at the Eiffel Tower, the equestrian and modern pentathlon at Versailles Palace or fencing and taekwondo inside 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

Magnifique. From the opening ceremony on the Seine to visuals of the Eiffel Tower, Champs-Élysées and all the other gorgeous Parisian landmarks, the beauty of the city and sport were intertwined. It all felt so lively and authentic as opposed to the lackluster energy of the Covid-stained Tokyo Games. No other city provides the same intoxicating optics. MJ

Like one of those giant multi-colored lollipops – looks good in photos, but has no flavor. The firsthand reviews I heard trashed the food (sacré bleu!) and the vibe – too cool for school compared with London and Rio, apparently. Also: you can’t call yourself a great host city if most of your locals leave town. On top of that, there were reports of worms in the food at the Village, tainted river water and Covid spread among athletes. Had these Olympics been hosted by a developing nation, those headlines would have stopped the presses. AL

The US’s overall performance was …

They won 126 medals, pending the outcome of a fight over Jordan Chiles’ bronze that won’t go away quickly. That’s the most since Los Angeles 1984, when their strongest opposition stayed home. That’s 35 more than any other country. For every disappointment, there was a surprise. And how can anyone take for granted another successful Games 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 has to be said that a lot of athletes who beat the Americans, including Léon Marchand, Armand Duplantis and Julien Alfred, went to US universities and often train in the USA. The USA even made glasses and men’s gymnastics cool – thank you, Stephen Nedoroscik. They did just fine. BD

As good as you could reasonably hope for, even if it took the women’s basketball team’s one-point win in the final event of the whole thing for them to finish atop the gold medal table.The total medal count of 126 is the most ever for a US team in a non-boycotted Games outside the US, topping the previous high of 121 from Rio in 2016. Bearing in mind that Russia’s absence impacted every country’s total and left certain competitions wanting for drama (women’s gymnastics, anyone?), Team USA set the target high once again and hit it. BAG

Fine. Decent. Pulling ahead of China in the gold medal count would have been ideal but it’s not as if the US took a significant step backwards. There were clear disappointments like Richardson’s loss in the 100m, the US men’s swim team, not to mention Biles and Suni Lee’s tumbles off the balance beam. And there were plenty of dominant performances like McLaughlin-Levrone breaking the world record for the sixth time and Hancock winning his fourth gold medal in skeet. But somehow it felt like the US didn’t produce as many breakout stars as in previous Olympics. MJ

Just OK. The overall medal count is a given; it’s gold that matters. And without Michael Phelps fueling dominance in the pool, you have to tip your cap to the Chinese position in the overall table. They contend for medals in every sport, not just the ones they’re already good at. AL

The biggest theme around LA 2028 will be …

Unity. Nationalism is threatening to undermine the norms that brought about peace and prosperity in the US from the end of the Cold War through the 2010s, and these Olympics provided a wonderful respite from the conflict. A lot of sports – particularly gymnastics and trendier sports like skateboarding – are havens of mutual respect, with athletes cheering for each other no matter what horrors their governments perpetuate. Refugees were welcomed on their own team, and Russia and Belarus weren’t missed. The Paris Olympics showed what’s possible when the world comes together, and Los Angeles can build on that. BD

Public transport? Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass has been doing the rounds in Paris this week touting the 2028 Olympics as the “no-car Games”, fending off concerns about the city’s notorious traffic by claiming public transportation will be the only way to access the venues around town. They will borrow up to 3,000 buses from other cities and ask businesses to allow their employees to work from home during the Games. Ambitious! BAG

If the presidential election breaks a certain way, the LA Games could serve as a centerpiece for healing and unity. On a local level, there will be extensive reporting on efforts to relocate the extensive unhoused population. But LA will mostly showcase its celebrity population (I hear Snoop’s 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 saw too much of him during this quadrennial, just wait until NBC has him on lowriding into the dressage competition with Martha Stewart and a bunch of cowboys from Compton. AL