Olympic Games (2024)

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      The Social Media Olympics

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      More lenient posting rules for Olympic athletes have helped spark a deluge of successful social media content. Some say that’s changing how we watch the Games.Just moments after the American wrestler Sarah Hildebrandt won a gold medal at the Paris Games, she let the whole world know what she was thinking:“Oh my gosh I just won the FREAKING OLYMPICS hahahahah DUUUUDE,” she wrote on social media from the event venue.The post may seem like something athletes always do. But at the Olympics, it’s part of a new twist — and one of the keys to returning to the sense of a shared national experience that defined the Games of yesteryear.For the last decade or more, it has seemed like the Olympics have struggled to capture relevance the way they did a generation ago. Blame was assigned to a fracturing media landscape and a long string of asterisks (pandemic restrictions in Tokyo, time zone issues in Beijing, a Zika outbreak in Rio de Janeiro, geopolitical tensions in Sochi).But the reason may have been simpler: The Olympics has largely been missing from social media. The closely guarded intellectual property of “the Olympic rings” meant video from the Games was posted only in limited ways, with broadcasters worried that they would run afoul of strict rules or anxious that they would cannibalize their own broadcasts.New, more lenient social media rules for athletes announced ahead of the Paris Games and a rethink among broadcasters — as well as the ability of social media companies to geofence certain content — appear to have changed virtually everything.And audiences are cheering.Athletes can now “create personalities just like any influencer would,” said Apolo Ohno, the eight-time Olympic medalist in short-track speedskating. “It’s unlike anything before.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Travis Scott Is Accused of Assaulting a Security Guard in Paris

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      The rapper, who was in France for the Olympics, was taken into police custody at the George V hotel, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.The star rapper Travis Scott was detained on Friday in Paris, where he was visiting for the Summer Olympics, after a conflict with a security guard at a luxury hotel, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.The prosecutor’s office said Mr. Scott, 33, whose real name is Jacques Bermon Webster II, had assaulted a security guard at the George V hotel, in the city’s Eighth Arrondissement.“The security guard had intervened to separate the rapper from his bodyguard,” the office said in a statement.There are no known charges against Mr. Scott. It was unclear later Friday whether he was still in custody. The Paris prosecutor’s office said it had referred the case to the judicial police.Representatives for Mr. Scott said in a statement, “We are in direct communication with the local Parisian authorities to swiftly resolve this matter and will provide updates when appropriate.”Mr. Scott, a multiplatinum artist in the United States with a string of No. 1 albums, was arrested this summer in Miami Beach, Fla., after what the police called a disturbance on a yacht. He was charged with trespassing and disorderly intoxication. His lawyer said at the time that he had been “briefly detained due to a misunderstanding.”On Thursday night, Mr. Scott had posted on Instagram from the crowd of the men’s basketball game between the United States and Serbia, snapping photos of the American stars LeBron James and Stephen Curry.In 2021, 10 fans died as a result of a crowd crush at Mr. Scott’s Astroworld festival in Houston, his hometown. A grand jury declined to indict Mr. Scott and others who oversaw the festival, and settlements have been reached in the lawsuits over the deaths.Aurelien Breeden More

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      The Paris Bridge of Olympic Joy and Its Violent Past

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      If the Olympic Games have made of Paris a midsummer night’s dream, perhaps the Pont du Carrousel has been its heart, a dimly lit bridge over glittering water, a merry-go-round of incarnations as the weeks have passed.The broad bridge spans the center of Paris, leading from the Quai Voltaire on the Left Bank of the Seine River to three vaulted openings into the Louvre courtyard on the Right Bank. It has always been a place for lovers to linger, joggers to pause, selfie seekers to snap and Paris wanderers to succumb to wonderment.There are few better places to drink in the city. The Grand Palais and Eiffel Tower rise to the west. To the east loom the domed Académie Française and, in the distance, the Notre-Dame Cathedral, now almost restored after the 2019 fire. The cleaned-up river is ever-changing, now churning after a downpour, now glassy still.France was in a somber mood through much of the summer. Then the Paris Olympics began two weeks ago, replacing social fracture with patriotic rapture, dissolving fences of division into bridges of understanding, none more unifying than the Pont du Carrousel, at least for now.Walking and cycling at the entrance to the Pont du Carrousel in Paris on Thursday.Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesThe bridge spans the Seine from Quai Voltaire on the Left Bank to a grand entrance into the Louvre courtyard on the Right Bank.Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Here Are the 2024 Olympic Moments We Won’t Forget

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      It doesn’t take a medal to make a lasting memory.Success and failure. Exhilaration and agony. Gold, silver and bronze.The Olympics will always turn on who won and who lost, how high and how fast and how far. But they linger in our minds long after they end for moments that might have little to do with the actual competitions.The QueenAbbie Parr/Associated PressJordan Chiles and Simone Biles came up with the plan. They had both wanted to be on the top step of the medal stand after the final event of the women’s gymnastics competition, the floor exercise. But Biles, the favorite, had made a few mistakes, and Chiles had made a few more, so they instead became bookends to the true headliner: Rebeca Andrade of Brazil. And so a plan was hatched.After Chiles accepted her bronze medal and Biles her silver, Andrade was introduced as the Olympic champion. As she approached the podium — completing the first all-Black podium in Olympic gymnastics history — Biles and Chiles turned to Andrade, dropped to one knee and bowed. Afterward, they called her a queen. — JULIET MACURMore CowbellMaddie Meyer/Getty ImagesAfter Bobby Finke won the 1,500-meter freestyle in world-record time — preserving American men’s 120-year streak of winning at least one individual swimming gold at the Olympic Games — the NBC cameras panned to a particularly excited fan. She screamed. She pumped her fists. She clanged her cowbell.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How Did Simone Biles Become the G.O.A.T.?

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      To end the Olympics she once thought would never happen for her, Simone Biles began her floor exercise routine on Monday and did what she was made to do: flip and twist and thrill an arena filled with people there to watch her.Every time Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history, landed one of her wildly difficult tumbling passes, the crowd seemed to shout, “Wow!” all at once. And when she was done, standing alone on the floor in her sparkly leotard, the spectators rose to honor her — perhaps as much for her entire career as for a brilliant but flawed floor routine.Biles stepped out of bounds twice during the routine, which was by far the most difficult that any of the finalists attempted. As a result, she did not win, as expected. Instead, she received the silver medal, while Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, her rival, won the gold by just over three one hundredths of a point. The American Jordan Chiles, one of Biles’s closest friends, won the bronze.When Chiles’s bronze medal was announced, she cried — and Biles smiled and laughed while hugging her.Three years earlier, Biles withdrew from nearly all of her events at the Tokyo Games after becoming disoriented in the air, a moment that prompted her to consider quitting the sport. On Monday, she finished the Paris Games with three gold medals and one silver. (Earlier in the day, she finished fifth on the balance beam after losing points because of a fall.)Her imperfect final performances did little to dull her luster at these Games. On each day she competed, celebrities dotted the stands, making gymnastics — already a marquee sport of the Olympics — seem like the hippest club in Paris. There were Lady Gaga, Tom Cruise and Ariana Grande, and sports legends like Serena Williams, Michael Phelps and Stephen Curry. After a day at the water polo venue, Flavor Flav, the rapper, said how much he admired Biles and wanted “to meet her, shake her hand and give her a hug and tell her how proud I am of her.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Belgian Triathlon Team Drops Out After Athlete Falls Sick

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      The athlete, Claire Michel, who swam in the Seine River during the women’s triathlon last week, was taken to a clinic in the Olympic Village on Sunday for treatment.Belgium’s triathlon mixed relay team has withdrawn from Monday’s event after one of its athletes who swam in the Seine River on Wednesday became ill, the team said Sunday.The athlete, Claire Michel, competed in the women’s triathlon on Wednesday, finishing in 38th place. The team, known as the Belgian Hammers, said in a statement released by the country’s Olympic committee and triathlon federation that Michel, 35, was taken to a clinic in the Olympic Village in Paris on Sunday for treatment and had returned to her room by Sunday evening.The team did not say whether Michel was sickened by pollution in the Seine, site of the triathlon’s 1,500-meter swim. But in the days leading up to her race, the men’s individual event was postponed and practices were canceled because water quality testing showed the Seine was unsafe to swim in.“The BOIC and Belgian Triathlon hope that lessons will be learned for future triathlon competitions,” the statement said. “We are thinking of training days that can be guaranteed, competition days and formats that are clear in advance and circumstances that do not cause uncertainty among athletes, entourage and fans.”De Standaard, a daily newspaper in Belgium, reported that Michel had contracted E. coli. A spokesman for Belgium’s Olympic team declined to answer questions about Michel’s condition on Sunday.Concerns about the water quality of the Seine have clouded the Olympics. Leading up to the games, more than $1.5 billion was spent to make the river safe for athletes to compete in.But Paris has been hit with rain since the opening weekend of the Games, when the city received about a month’s worth of rainfall over 36 hours, the authorities said. The rain led to a spike in dangerous bacteria in the river, where bacteria can take one to three days to dissipate.Water quality tests are being conducted daily, according to officials. Last week, training was canceled for two consecutive days and the men’s triathlon was delayed by a day because of the high bacteria levels, authorities said.On Saturday, Switzerland’s Olympic team announced it was making changes to its triathlon mixed relay lineup after one of its athletes also had to drop out of Monday’s race because of an illness. The athlete, Adrien Briffod, who competed in the men’s individual triathlon on Wednesday, had a gastrointestinal infection, but it was “not possible” to say if it was linked to the Seine’s water quality, the Swiss Olympic team said in the statement.There were no reports of stomach issues among athletes from other countries who participated in Wednesday’s events, Hanspeter Betschart, the Swiss team’s doctor, said in the statement.John Yoon More

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      A Doping Scandal

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      How the Olympic drug testing system is supposed to function — and why it may not be working.When you sit down to watch the Olympics, you expect that you’re seeing the world’s best athletes competing on a level playing field.The organization that runs the Olympics prides itself on that promise, and it presents the Games as being tougher on dopers than any other sporting competition. It claims to have the most rigorous drug testing. Those who test positive face serious punishments, including multiyear bans. And an independent entity — known as the World Anti-Doping Agency — has global authority to enforce a strict antidoping code.But that system’s shortcomings have been on display at the Paris Games.Over the past few months, my Times colleagues and I have uncovered a troubling pattern of positive doping tests in the Chinese swimming program. Twelve members of the Chinese Olympic team tested positive in recent years for powerful performance-enhancing drugs but were cleared to keep competing. Until our stories, none of the positive tests had been publicly disclosed, as required by the rules.Concerns have spilled over to the pool deck in Paris, where some swimmers said the antidoping authorities had failed to ensure that these Games were fair. “I don’t really think they’ve given us enough evidence to support them with how this case was handled,” said Caeleb Dressel, one of the senior leaders on the U.S. team.In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain how the Olympic drug testing system is supposed to function, and why, in some of the most high-profile cases, like this one involving the Chinese swimmers, it may not be working. And now the Justice Department and F.B.I. are investigating.How it’s supposed to workEach country is in charge of policing its own athletes. That means that the United States Anti-Doping Agency takes the lead in testing and investigating American athletes, the China Anti-Doping Agency does the same in its country, and so on.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More