The Paris 2024 Olympic Games were a spectacle of athletic prowess and international camaraderie. While every event offered its own unique thrill, some stood out as particularly popular among spectators and athletes alike. Here's a recap of some of the most incredible moments from the Games.
| Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  United States | 40 | 44 | 42 | 126 |
| 2 |  China | 40 | 27 | 24 | 91 |
| 3 |  Japan | 20 | 12 | 13 | 45 |
| 4 |  Australia | 18 | 19 | 16 | 53 |
| 5 |  France | 16 | 26 | 22 | 64 |
| 6 |  Netherlands | 15 | 7 | 12 | 34 |
| 7 |  Great Britain | 14 | 22 | 29 | 65 |
| 8 | South Korea | 13 | 9 | 10 | 32 |
| 9 |  Italy | 12 | 13 | 15 | 40 |
| 10 |  Germany | 12 | 13 | 8 | 33 |
| Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 1101 | 874 | 780 | 2755 |
| 2 |  Russia | 608 | 515 | 501 | 1624 |
| 3 | Germany | 450 | 470 | 499 | 1419 |
| 4 | China | 303 | 226 | 198 | 727 |
| 5 | Great Britain | 298 | 340 | 343 | 981 |
| 6 | France | 239 | 277 | 299 | 815 |
| 7 | Italy | 229 | 201 | 228 | 658 |
| 8 | Japan | 189 | 162 | 191 | 542 |
| 9 | Hungary | 187 | 161 | 182 | 530 |
| 10 | Australia | 182 | 192 | 226 | 600 |
Below are the medal winners at Paris 2024 for the sports covered on this site, namely:
soccer, rugby, golf, tennis, and basketball.
There is no baseball or squash at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, but they will both appear in LA 2028, along with flag football.
Here is a summary of statistics and results from the Summer Olympics over the course of history (last 128 years). The first table is the historical medal count for all Modern Summer Olympics prior to Paris 2024:
| Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 1061 | 830 | 738 | 2629 |
| 2 | Russia | 608 | 515 | 501 | 1624 |
| 3 | Germany | 438 | 457 | 491 | 1386 |
| 4 | Great Britain | 284 | 318 | 314 | 916 |
| 5 | China | 263 | 199 | 174 | 636 |
| 6 | France | 223 | 251 | 277 | 751 |
| 7 | Italy | 217 | 188 | 213 | 618 |
| 8 | Hungary | 181 | 154 | 176 | 511 |
| 9 | Japan | 169 | 150 | 178 | 497 |
| 10 | Australia | 164 | 173 | 210 | 547 |
This past Sunday, July 14th, 2024, has to go down as one of the most incredible single day achievements by a nation in modern sports history. Spanish sportsmen and sportswomen won four major titles that day across four different sports. In my previous article I wrote about the young Spanish tennis prodigy, Carol Alcaraz, winning Wimbledon for the second time. Little could he have known that after his victory in London, later that same day, his countrymen would go on to win the European Championship soccer tournament versus England, then the LIV Golf tournament in Spain later that afternoon. And then that evening, the Spanish sailing team won the San Francisco Grand Finale and thereby were crowned SailGP Champions for the season. A remarkable sequence of events.
Today Carlos Alcaraz dominated Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon Men's Singles final, winning 6-2, 6-2, 7-6. Alcaraz's powerful serve and improved net play overwhelmed Djokovic, who was limited by recent knee surgery. This victory marks Alcaraz's second Wimbledon title and his fourth Grand Slam overall. He joins an elite group of players to win both the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year. He is also the youngest ever to achieve the "Surface Slam" by winning Grand Slams on all three major court surfaces - clay, grass, and hard court. For Djokovic, this loss marks his first straight-sets defeat at Wimbledon since 2013.
Slovenian cycling prodigy Tadej Pogačar is currently leading the Tour de France. He has taken the sport of cycling by storm, winning the Tour de France in both 2020 and 2021, he achieved the incredible feat of claiming all three jerseys (yellow, polka-dot for mountains, and white for young rider) each time, a rarity not seen in decades.
The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, boasts a rich history dating back to 1892. Donated by Lord Stanley of Preston, the trophy was originally awarded to Canada's top amateur team. Over time, it transitioned to professional leagues, becoming the NHL's championship prize in 1926. Witnessing dramatic comebacks, heartbreaking defeats, and legendary performances, the Stanley Cup remains a coveted symbol of hockey excellence. The 2024 winners were decided this week.
The NBA professional basketball league in the US represents one of the most exciting and evenly balanced sporting competitions on earth. There is no way one can predict the winners at the start of a season. This league showcases sporting competition at its finest. In the last 12 years, 9 different teams have won the Championships. This week it was the turn of the Boston Celtics, but it is not their first time. They have, in fact, won more titles than any other team. Let's look at this win in the context of history shall we.
Today, Saturday May 25th, 2024, saw Leinster's woes continue as French side Toulouse emerged victorious in a thrilling extra-time battle in the 2023-24 Investec Champions Cup Finals. This 31-22 victory marks a record-extending sixth European title for the French giants, leaving their Irish counterparts heartbroken for the third year running.
Manchester, a city in the north of England, has a proud football (soccer) tradition. There are two professional teams based in the city. Manchester United Football Club is commonly referred to as Man United, or just United. United's nickname is the Red Devils and they were founded in 1878. In 1880, Manchester City Football Club was founded. They are referred to as Man City, or just City. I've written about these two teams before, for good reason. Last year Man City won the "continental treble" - the English Premier League, the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League final. The only other English team to have achieved that are their local rivals, Man United.
Livvy Dunne, a 21-year old gymnast from New Jersey, is now by far the highest paid female collegiate athlete in the US. She just signed a deal with Passes (www.passes.com), a small internet publishing company based in Miami and LA. This content creation company offers a platform that allows for creators to engage with their audiences via subscription, paid DMs, 1-1 calls, and livestream, etc. As recently as one month ago the company raised $40 million in a Series A funding round, enabling them to go after athletes like Dunne with multi-million-dollar deals.
A big weekend of global sports is upon us.
Singapore hosts the Rugby Sevens and LIV Golf. F1 comes to Miami. SailGP comes to Bermuda. There are NSL events in Rhode Island and Nashville. The Investec Champions Cup rugby semifinals happen in Ireland and in France. Finally, the Challenger Cup semifinals take place too on Saturday. This is the second division of European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR).
The EPCR Challenger Cup semis are both being contested in England. The matchups are the Sharks (Durban, South Africa) vs Clermont (Central France) and Gloucester (west of England) vs Benetton (outside Venice, Italy). After the finals are played on May 24th one of these four teams will emerge victorious and thereby qualify for the Investec Champions Cup next season, the "Champions League" of European rugby, and the strongest club rugby competition in the world.
But how does it all work, you may wonder?
If I told you there was a new professional sports league in the US where the teams were named the Tornadoes, the Colts, the Grizzlies, the Crushers, the Knights, and the Dragons, what sport would you think of? The US big four sports certainly come to mind. And the new LIV Golf tour has team names like that. Pickleball and Padel are growing fast, but they are not really fierce enough to warrant names like that, are they? So, what sport could it be, maybe they are rugby team names.
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| The view greeting you when you fly in to Bermuda |
The SailGP season is exciting and complicated. The most recent leg in Christchurch, New Zealand, saw the Black Foils (the home team) win and take the top spot on the leaderboard from Australia. The US team lies 6th after 9 events. There are only 4 more events this season, all 4 of which are in the North America region, so at least one is a drive or short flight from you if you are based in the US or Canada.
"Rise: A Siya Kolisi Story" is a powerful and inspiring documentary that chronicles the journey of Siya Kolisi, the first Black captain of the South African national rugby union team, the Springboks. The film delves into Kolisi's remarkable rise from poverty and adversity to become a national hero, leading the Springboks to a historic victory in the 2019 Rugby World Cup. He also led the team to victory in the subsequent Rugby World Cup last year in 2023. He is one of only two captains to have achieved this in the history of the sport of rugby.
The FA Cup, also known as the Emirates FA Cup due to sponsorship, is a storied knockout tournament in England. It's the oldest national football competition in the world, dating back to 1871.
The FA Cup is unique and distinct from the Premier League itself in that it involves professional teams from both the Premier League and English Football League, but also some semi-professional clubs. That means hundreds of teams vying for glory!
This Saturday is the fifth and final round of the 2024 Six Nations matches. The firm favorite to win this year are Ireland. They face Scotland at Dublin's Aviva Stadium. England face France in Lyon a few hours after the Dublin match. The Ireland-Scotland rugby match holds immense significance for the home team, with the entire Championship title on the line.
Lionel "Leo" Messi may be a global icon today, but once upon a time he was a young boy with big dreams in a small town in Argentina called Rosario. At that time Argentinian economy was not doing well and the people were suffering. In Rosario itself the unemployment rate around then was at least 20%. Messi was born in 1987, the third child out of four in his family. His parents both had blue collar jobs and they lived a humble life. Young Leo followed his brother and cousins to play football (soccer) every day. It was Messi's grandmother that eventually bought the young man his first football boots when he was 8 years old.
The FIFA World Cup is more than just a sports tournament, it's a global phenomenon. It is considered the most prestigious soccer compet...
