Duplantis, Biles and Marchand among the constellation of stars that illuminated Paris (+Photos)

The Paris 2024 Games were held in the spotlight of a constellation of sports stars who achieved historic results. These were some of them:

Duplantis, world record

Armand Duplantis has been competing against himself for a long time and every time he takes to the track, the question is how much he will win. On big stages like the Stade de France, the Swede comes out on top and that is what he did in Paris, where he won by thirty centimetres over second-placed American Sam Kendricks.

Duplantis also provided the nearly 80,000 spectators with a night of athletics that will be hard to forget. With victory more than assured, he sought a new world record and, after two failed attempts, on the third he took to the skies of Paris and cleared the bar with his pole vault at 6.25 metres.

Teddy Riner, the most beloved

Judoka Teddy Riner, one of the most beloved personalities by the French, added to his legend and his personal tally of Olympic medals. On the tatami of the Champ de Mars in Paris he won two golds, in the +100kg and mixed team competition, a competition in which he was crucial by winning the last fight against his Japanese opponent.

The 35-year-old Guadeloupe giant is already the most successful judoka in history: three golds (London 2012, Rio 2016 and Paris 2024), two bronzes (Beijing 2008 and Tokyo 2020) and two mixed team golds (Tokyo 2021 and Paris 2024). In total, he has seven Olympic medals, which he adds to his eleven world championships.

Simone Biles, immense in her return

Three years after suffering a mental breakdown at the Tokyo Games, Simone Biles strode onto the Paris Olympic stage like a prima donna: she led the United States team to gold, won the individual all-around and won the vault.

Simone Biles stood out in her return to gymnastics at the great universal event

Even in defeat she showed her greatness, prostrating herself against her main rival, the Brazilian Rebeca Andrade, who took the title from her on the ground. She has won eleven Olympic medals throughout her career, four of them in Paris.

Novak Djokovic, finally gold

Novak Djokovic has come full circle at the age of 37, in the most discreet year of his career, threatened by the emergence of the generation led by Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, and has achieved the Olympic gold he so longed for.

A record-breaker and winner of twenty-four Grand Slams, he ended that obsession by conquering Paris 2024 a month and a half after undergoing surgery on the meniscus in his right knee and in his fourth Olympic Games. In this way, he secured the Golden Slam – the four Grand Slams and the Olympic title – and joined Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams, after winning the final played on the Philippe Chatrier court against Alcaraz.

Mijaín López, five times the strongest

Cuban Greco-Roman wrestler Mijaín López has become the first athlete to win five consecutive Olympic gold medals in the same individual event, in his case in the 130-kilogram category.

Lopez, who will turn 42 on the 20th, has won gold in this competition uninterruptedly since Beijing 2008. He announced his retirement immediately after the championship match, with the traditional ceremony of taking off his shoes and leaving them on the mat.

Stephen Curry, eight triples in the final

Stephen Curry arrived in France in search of his first gold and worked hard to win: he was his team’s top scorer in the final, with 24 points, all from beyond the three-point line.

The US team won its fifth consecutive gold medal by defeating France in the final (87-98). Curry appeared when things were at their worst and shone in a team in which he once again coincided with coach Steve Kerry and Kevin Durant (fourth gold medal), with whom he had shared two NBA rings with the Golden State Warriors.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, record after record

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, defending the Olympic title she won in Tokyo 2020, once again made a grand entrance, this time at the Stade de France, where she gave a lesson in talent by winning the 400-meter hurdles in an exciting final with a world record of 50.37.

The American, who turned 25 during the Games, improved the mark of 50.65 that she had set on June 30 in Eugene, Oregon.

Léon Marchand, king of the pool

Frenchman Léon Marchand was crowned the undisputed king of the pool, with four golds in the 200m breaststroke, 200m butterfly and 200m and 400m medley, as well as a bronze in the 4x100m medley relay.

Léon Marchand was the sensation of French swimming at the Olympics

The Paris Games will be inextricably linked to the name of Marchand, a true social phenomenon. The swimming pool at La Défense was given over night after night to ‘Lionmania’.

Katie Ledecky, as Latinina

American Katie Ledecky has added to her legend and has become the swimmer with the most gold medals in the history of the Olympic Games, nine, which allowed her to equal Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina as the athlete with the most golds in Olympic history.

Her feat came in the 800 metres, her favourite distance, the event in which she became known to the world at just 15 years old in London 2012. She has four consecutive gold medals in this distance.

Diana Taurasi, six gold medals

Without playing a single minute in the final, American Diana Taurasi won her sixth gold in Paris. At 42, she became the first person with six Olympic basketball titles.

Taurasi and her teammates celebrated the United States’ tenth title since women’s basketball entered the calendar at the Montreal ’76 Games, and the eighth in a row. It was the last gold of the Paris Games and the one that gave the American team the victory in the final medal table, tied with China.

Paris / EFE