Chia-Soh successfully defend men’s doubles bronze, Malaysian badminton team excels
Starting with the most recent, which was last night’s gut-wrenching match between Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and Denmark’s Rasmussen-Astrup pairing. The boys made a comeback after losing the first game to grab the bronze medal, as well as the nation’s first medal at the Paris games. Their excellent defense, especially in the final rally was some of the most exciting plays we’ve ever seen, and we think the win was well-deserved (though we’re definitely biased).
Another Olympics highlight from Team Malaysia, Lee Zii Jia brings home another bronze medal with his win against India’s Lakhsya Sen. This makes him the third Malaysian men’s singles player medallist, after Rashid Sidek and Lee Chong Wei. He too staged an incredible comeback in the match, trailing behind his opponent for the first game and much through the second, before rising back to quickly capture a lead right to the bronze win.
Malaysia’s women’s doubles team of Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan, who made their Olympic debut in Paris, became Malaysia’s first-ever women’s doubles team to make it to the Olympics semi-finals stage. Though they lost to the world No.1 Jia-Chen pair from China, the duo etched their way into the history books. It was a great debut performance, and we’re sure there’s more to show once the next Olympic games come around.
Simone Biles is officially the most decorated US Olympic gymnast in history
After bowing out of Tokyo 2021, Simone Biles returns this year better than ever and ready to win it all over again, and she did! After clinching the individual all-around gold medal (Biles’ sixth Olympic gold) in Paris on 3 August, Biles became the most decorated American Olympic gymnast ever, with a total of six gold medals. She broke a 120-year-old record with this feat and maintains her streak of never losing an all-around competition since her debut in 2013. In the next two days, she took home another gold in the Women’s Vault and one silver in the Women’s Floor Exercise category, bringing her all-time total Olympics medal count to seven gold, two silver and two bronze.
She also made history by perfectly landing her signature move, dubbed the Biles II, for the first time at the Olympics, guaranteeing her spot in the semi-finals. As expected, Biles was one of the biggest Olympic highlights coming out of Paris this year.
China’s Pan Zhanle breaks the men’s 100m freestyle world record
It’s not every day that you break a world record, and for Pan Zhanle, he’s only gone and done it twice this year. The 19-year-old first-time Olympian sent waves through the competitive swimming world by breaking the 100m freestyle world record, setting a time of 46.40 seconds. He smashed through the previous record of 46.80 seconds, which he set earlier this year at the Swimming World Championships. The second-place winner, Australia’s Kyle Chalmers, came in a full second later which is a margin that’s rarely seen in the highly competitive sport.
Pan Zhanle and the Chinese team also took home gold in the 4x100m medley relay event, where he once again set a record-breaking split time for his relay run in the freestyle swim. Though it is another Olympics highlight by the swimmer, the time recorded does not officially count as starting conditions are not as strict as that of the 100m freestyle event.
Novak Djokovic finally achieved the ‘Golden Slam’ with his first Olympic gold
In his fifth participation in the Olympics, Novak Djokovic finally won an Olympic gold in tennis. Djokovic came close but lost in the semi-finals in three separate Olympic games prior, and his growing desire to win the gold only got bigger with every defeat. In this year’s games, which many speculate to be his last at the age of 37, Djokovic finally secured the medal after beating Spain’s Carlos Alcaroz in straight sets.
This isn’t just an Olympics highlight, it’s a career-high for Djokovic too as he tearfully celebrated after the winning point. As one of tennis’ most decorated players, this Paris 2024 gold medal will complete his trophy case and induct him in the ‘golden slam’ (winning all four Grand Slam titles plus an Olympic gold medal) list along with other greats like Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, and Andre Agassi.
Carlos Yulo brings home the Philippines’ first Olympic gold in gymnastics, twice
The Southeast Asian nation only just recently achieved its first-ever Olympic gold in the Tokyo 2020 games with Haidilyn Diaz’s iconic weightlifting win. And just one game later, the promising World Champion Carlos Yulo makes a stunning Olympic comeback to bring home the country’s first artistic gymnastics gold in two events, the floor exercise and vault. In just two days, Yulo tripled his nation’s all-time gold tally and reclaimed his champion reputation.
Turkiye’s Yusuf Dikeç wins Olympic silver, and the Internet’s heart
Quickly turning into a viral overnight sensation, 51-year-old Yusuf Dikeç took centre-focus with his casual demeanour and lack of professional equipment at the 10m air pistol mixed team event. Dressed simply in team Turkiye’s jersey, with just a pair of standard glasses instead of specialised eye covers, shooting with both eyes open, and iconically with his hand in his pocket, Dikeç looked nothing like the other competitors – and it was this particular screenshot look that took the web by storm and turned him into one of the most fun Olympics highlight in this list.
The Olympic #shootingsport stars we didn’t know we needed.
🇰🇷 Kim Yeji 🤝 Yusuf Dikeç 🇹🇷 pic.twitter.com/gfkyGjFg4I
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) August 1, 2024
He then wowed the internet when he won the silver medal with teammate Seval Ilayda Tarhan despite the lack of equipment, prompting hundreds of memes and speculations, with netizens jokingly calling him an undercover hitman and Turkiye’s John Wick.
Far from that, Dikeç is a five-time Olympics participant, Turkish national champion, seven-time European champion, and two-time World Championship winner. The Paris 2024 silver medal is his first Olympic win and one which also makes him Turkiye’s oldest Olympic medallist.
Double win for China’s mixed double shuttler Huang Yaqiong: a gold medal and a diamond ring
This is a highlight that’s befitting of the City of Love when China’s badminton mixed doubles player Huang Yaqiong received a surprise proposal on the podium. Right after winning the gold medal with her doubles partner, her boyfriend, and fellow Chinese men’s doubles player Liu Yuchen, got down on one knee and surprised her with another ‘win’.
They added the engagement ring count to Olympics medals table on Xiaohongshu, China’s social media platform 😄😄😄 https://t.co/g81Y6iZdM7 pic.twitter.com/WxUim7n9i0
— Carl Zha (@CarlZha) August 2, 2024
Right after the proposal, Chinese social network XiaoHongShu added a new column to the Olympic Games scoreboard, that of a diamond ring. Looks like China’s leading the medal tally in this category too!
Catch up on more stories from the Paris 2024 Olympics here.