PARIS — The 2024 Olympic Games came to a close Sunday, ending more than a fortnight of memorable performances and stunning accomplishments.
And that was true even before Snoop Dogg — who’d seemingly become the world’s favorite American since the cauldron was lit — appeared via satellite as part of the handoff ceremony with the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
But Snoop, a rapper and NBC roving correspondent who appeared in more athlete selfies here than the Olympic rings, wasn’t America’s only contribution to these Games.
The United States finished atop the medal table, winning 40 gold medals and 126 medals overall. China won 40 gold medals as well, but claimed far fewer silver or bronze spots.
Paris marked Team USA’s greatest medal haul in a nonboycotted Games, besting the previous high of 121 set in Rio in 2016.
“I am really proud of all the medals this team has won, but also the way everyone has gone about their competitions, their training, all the hard work they put in to get to today,” U.S. flag bearer Katie Ledecky, who won four swimming medals during these Games, said shortly before the closing ceremony.
Illinois athletes made a solid contribution to Team USA’s medal count, with half of the state’s three dozen athletes bringing home medals. That total doesn’t include the historic medal ceremony in which the 2022 U.S. figure skating team members — including Addison native Alexa Knierim — finally received the gold they’d won at the Beijing Games.
It marked one of the state’s best performances in years, with athletes winning medals in basketball, gymnastics, rowing, rugby, soccer, swimming, track, volleyball and wrestling.
Female athletes represent 49% of all competitors at these Games. Though that number fell just short of the International Olympic Committee’s goal of full gender parity, it’s the closest any Games, Winter or Summer, has come.
So it seemed particularly poignant that the U.S. women won a record-breaking 67 medals here. If American women had been their own country, they would have placed third among all nations in the medal tally for the fourth straight Games.
Illinois’ female athletes contributed to that medal haul, with five receiving medals on the athletic festival’s final day.
In the last competition of Paris 2024, Lincolnwood’s Jewell Loyd struck gold with the U.S. women’s basketball team. The American squad won a nail-biter over France to stand atop the podium for the eighth consecutive Summer Games.
Four local athletes claimed silver on the final day, including U.S. women’s volleyball players Laura Carlini of Aurora, Dana Rettke of Riverside and Bartlett native Kelsey Robinson Cook. Chicago’s Kennedy Blades finished second in women’s wrestling to cap off a stellar Olympic debut.
“Coming into this, we definitely weren’t the favorites,” said Cook, a three-time Olympian who has indicated this will be her last Summer Games. “To stand on the podium today was an incredible honor and a beautiful way to end my career with USA (Volleyball).”
Beyond medals, Illinois athletes shattered records, achieved improbable dreams and inspired others, including:
- Itasca native Zach Ziemek, who injured his knee but fought through the pain for eight subsequent events to become the first American man to complete three Olympic decathlons.
- Chicago’s Joe Rau, who came out of retirement at age 33 and made an improbable comeback to compete in wrestling at his first Summer Games.
- Rhythmic gymnast Evita Griskenas of Orland Park, who commuted between Chicago and New York for three years so she could become both a two-time Olympian and an Ivy League graduate.
- Tori Franklin of Chicago, who didn’t make the triple jump finals but found solace — and happiness — in her mental health advocacy efforts.
And then there was Chicago’s Shamier Little, a sprinter who wondered if she might never get the chance to compete in a Summer Games after failing to make the team on two previous attempts. After finishing fourth in the 400-meter hurdles at the Olympic trials in June, she was named to the U.S. relay team a few weeks before the competition.
Little, 29, seized the moment and left Paris with two medals, a gold and a silver. She also etched her name in the history books as she helped break a world record with the 4×400 mixed relay and set a North American record with the 4×400 women’s relay.
“It has been really amazing,” Little said after winning her first medal. “Everything that has happened hasn’t happened on my timing necessarily, but I’m just enjoying it now and taking it in.”
The Olympics didn’t happen on Carlini’s timetable, either. The last person cut from the U.S. women’s volleyball team for the Tokyo Games, she kept fighting and earned her spot on the Paris roster. She injured her back early in the tournament and missed several games, but returned for the knockout matches after several days of intense treatment.
After receiving her silver medal, she recalled a picture she drew when she was 9 years old. It was a doodle of herself, wearing the No. 7 jersey for Team USA, just like she does now.
Carlini, 29, said she thought about what that little girl would say about this Parisian journey. And she believes it would be something like this:
“You got there and you did it,” Carlini said, channeling her 9-year-old self. “You walked away with a silver medal. You gave your absolute passion and whole heart to it and it paid off in more ways than one.”
