The book of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris is officially closed and once again, Team USA topped the medal table with 40 golds and 126 total medals overall.
Understandably, it was near impossible to keep track of every single one of those triumphs but we have compiled the top moments for Team USA at the 2024 Summer Games as we take a look back at 16 of the best sporting days of the year.
Top Team USA moments at the 2024 Summer Olympics
Queens native Lauren Scruggs takes home gold and silver medals in fencing
Ozone Park’s Lauren Scruggs battled her way into what became an All-American foil fencing final before falling to Lee Keifer in the gold-medal match to take silver. It was the first All-American final in the event in 16 years.
Scruggs got her gold just four days later on Aug. 1 when the four-woman American team took down Italy 45-39. It was Team USA’s first team gold medal in either men’s or women’s fencing ever and it was Scruggs who clinched the final points to claim the title.
Sleeper agent Stephen Nedoroscik pommel horses men’s gymnastics to first medal since ’08
Stephen Nedoroscik was on the American men’s gymnastics team to do one thing: excel at the pommel horse.
He did just that, scoring a 14.866 in the final event to secure Team USA men’s gymnastics’ first team medal since the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.
The unassuming bespectacled Nedoroscik catapulted to fame with the brilliant routine that came after he was seen with his eyes closed — it looked like he was napping — while his teammates competed in the other events. He then ditched the Clark Kent facade and nailed his routine.
Simone Biles’ redemption tour
After sitting out the 2020 Tokyo Games due to a bout with the twisties, Simone Biles proved yet again that she is one of the greatest Olympic gymnasts of all time.
The 27-year-old helped lead the US women’s team — nicknamed “The Golden Girls,” considering they held the oldest average age in the competition — to all-around gold after winning silver three years ago.
Biles followed it up with gold in the individual all-around with Suni Lee taking bronze.
On Aug. 5, while fighting through a calf injury and a fall earlier on the balance beam that saw her miss out on a medal, Biles rebounded to take silver in the floor exercise.
She now has 11 Olympic medals to her name, making her the most decorated US gymnast ever at the competition.
Women’s rugby wins bronze, first-ever Olympic medal
Rugby 7s continues to explode in popularity after the 2024 Summer Games and the American women’s squad had plenty to do with it.
While Ilona Maher is becoming a social-media icon (and one of the most punishing forces on the planet), it was Alex Sedrick who became an American hero on July 30 when she sprinted 92 yards as time expired for the game-tying try against Australia in the bronze medal match.
She then converted the two-point conversion to secure the United States’ first-ever medal in Olympic rugby.
Katie Ledecky dominates again
The most powerful women’s swimmer this generation has ever seen continued to dominate her field at the 2024 Games.
Ledecky first took gold in her signature event, the 1,500m freestyle, by a ridiculous 10-second margin over second place despite her time being 10 seconds off her own world record pace.
She then proceeded to take gold in the 800m freestyle, her fifth straight gold in that competition at the Olympics. It brought her career gold-medal total to nine, tying Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina
Men’s rowing wins first gold since 1960
Nick Mead (bow position), Justin Best, Michael Grady, and Liam Corrigan (stroke position), were the American foursome who recorded a time of 5:49:03, to win the 2,000-meter (2,781 yards) men’s four rowing race on Aug. 1 and break considerable droughts in the sport.
Team USA’s gold was the first medal of any kind in rowing since the 2012 Olympics in London. Even more remarkable was that this was the American men’s four’s first gold in 64 years, which came during the 1960 Games in Rome.
Kristen Faulkner carries women’s cycling to new heights
Like rugby, cycling is not a staple in many American homes — yet Kristen Faulkner became a household name in a flash during the Paris Games.
The Alaska native, who took up cycling just seven years ago in Central Park while living in New York, shocked the world with an unlikely gold medal in the women’s road race — the first American to win that event in 40 years — after she was subbed in because teammate Taylor Knibb was forced to drop out.
With just over two miles remaining in the 98-mile race, Faulkner turned on the jets to blow by the lead group of Marianne Vos of the Netherlands and Hungary’s Blanka Vas, who were so taken aback by the move that they simply resigned to battle for the silver.
Faulkner then took gold with Team USA in the women’s team pursuit event, which was what she originally went to Paris to compete in.
Alongside Jennifer Valente, Lily Williams, and former road time trial world champion Chloe Dygert, the US defeated New Zealand in the gold-medal match to take the top spot on the podium for the first time ever in the event at an Olympics.
Bobby Finke sets 1,500m world record for back-to-back golds
American swimmer Bobby Finke won his second consecutive gold medal in the men’s 1,500m freestyle and set a new world record in the process.
Posting a time of 14 minutes, 30.67 seconds over the 30-lap race, he narrowly eclipsed China’s Sun Yang’s 12-year-old world record of 14:31.02
Finke became the first Olympic swimmer to win back-to-back 1,500m golds since Australia’s Grant Hackett in 2000 and 2004. No American had pulled off such a feat since Mike Burton in 1968 and 1972.
Women’s swimming sets 4×100 medley world record
Not only did the four-woman team of Regan Smith, Lilly King, Gretchen Walsh, and Torri Huske set a new world record with a 3:49.63 swim, but they won American swimming’s eighth gold medal of the 2024 Games which narrowly edged its fiercest rivals in the pool, Australia.
The record-breaking swim saw the USA defeat Australia, who took silver, by more than three seconds. It was the third time in the last four Olympics that the American women have taken gold in the 4×100 medley. Since the event’s introduction at the Summer Games in 1960, the women have never finished lower than second place.
For Smith and Huske, it was the final master stroke of a brilliant Olympic showing that included five medals for each star swimmer.
Noah Lyles becomes world’s fastest man
After boisterously claiming that the 100m crown would be his, Noah Lyles backed his talk up by snagging gold in one of the most exciting sprints we have ever seen.
The Florida native eclipsed Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson by five-one-thousandths (0.005) of a second, overcoming a slow start to just eke out the first American gold medal in the men’s 100m since Justin Gatlin in 2004. His official time of 9.784 seconds was a personal best while Thompson’s debut at a major competition yielded a time of 9.789 seconds.
Sydney McLaughlin-Lavrone smashes 400m hurdles world record
The crown that Sydney McLaughlin-Lavrone wore following her gold-medal win in the women’s 400m hurdles was especially fitting considering the kind of performance she had just put forth.
The American continued to up her own seemingly untouchable bar, breaking her old world record with a run of 50.37 seconds to take the top spot. It was the sixth time she had broken the world record, which she had previously set in June with a time of 50.65 seconds.
The New Brunswick, NJ native now has four Olympic gold medals in her career as she has won the 400m hurdles and 4×400 relay in each of the last two Summer Games.
Women’s soccer wins first gold in 12 years
Fueled by the “Triple Espresso” attacking trio of Mallory Swanson, Trinity Rodman, and Sophia Smith, the US women’s national soccer team (USWNT) won its first gold medal since London 2012 with a 1-0 victory over Brazil.
It was Swanson’s goal that fittingly provided the difference in the gold-medal match — her fourth of the Olympics. Rodman and Smith also scored three goals each as the trio combined to score 10 of the United States’ 12 goals at the tournament.
While the USWNT regained its perch as the world’s best, it was in no way easy following the group stage. They needed extra time in the quarterfinals and the semifinals to get past Japan and Germany, which they had defeated 4-1 during group-stage action.
Men’s basketball squeaks out 5th straight gold
Steph Curry played the hero and Team USA men’s basketball won gold for a fifth-straight Olympics after downing the hosts France and San Antonio Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama, 98-87.
Curry, the Golden State Warriors legend, hit four three-pointers in a two-minute stretch in the fourth quarter to secure gold for Team USA on a night in which he scored 24 points.
Had it not been for the star guard, the Americans might not have even seen the gold-medal game after falling into a 17-point hole against Serbia in the semifinals. But Curry was a man possessed, leading the way with 36 points to help Team USA pull out a thrilling victory.
LeBron James was named Olympics MVP, averaging 14.2 points, 6.8 rebounds, 8.5 assists, and 1.3 assists across six games. He posted 14 points, 10 assists, two steals, and six boards in the gold-medal match.
Women’s basketball’s reign continues
There are dynasties and then there is whatever you want to call the US women’s basketball team at the Olympics.
It was anything but easy in the gold-medal match against France, but the Americans squeaked out a 67-66 victory over the hosts while overcoming a 10-point third-quarter deficit and avoiding overtime by half-a-foot when Gabby Willliams’ long-range shot at the buzzer came from just inside the three-point line.
A’ja Wilson was remarkable with a 21-point, 13-rebound, and four-block performance in the gold-medal game while Kahleah Cooper scored 10 of her 12 points in the final 10 minutes to help keep the Americans narrowly ahead of the host country.
USA women’s basketball has now won eight straight gold medals and are on a 61-game Olympic winning streak.
