Bilesmania, gender row: Five viral moments that define Paris Olympics 2024

Hollywood actor Tom Cruise gave the 2024 Olympic Games a dramatic ending with a memorable action sequence that moved the attention from Paris to Los Angeles, the US city that will host the next edition of the games.

As the Olympic flag was passed on from one city to another, Paris wrapped up the show with a glittering display of fireworks that have come to define the closing of the games in recent editions.

While the ceremony itself grabbed the attention on the final day, the moments that will live long in the memory of fans came during the games’ action-packed two weeks.

Al Jazeera picks the top five viral moments and talking points from Paris 2024 that took the world by storm:

GOAT Simone lives up to pre-Olympic Bilesmania

In the weeks building up to Paris 2024, one athlete who dominated the headlines like no other was American gymnast Simone Biles.

Arguably the greatest gymnast of all time with 11 Olympic medals to her name, Biles made a return that garnered attention after she abruptly pulled out of competition at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.

From her starry leotard emblazoned with crystals to her jaw-dropping performances in the heats, she inspired Bilesmania that took over the games.

Fans eagerly awaited her return to the limelight, and the world’s most decorated gymnast did not disappoint. The 27-year-old’s nearly faultless routines in the women’s team all-around final on July 30 brought the biggest celebrities to Bercy Arena in Paris and helped Team USA bag the gold medal that they lost in Tokyo.

The self-proclaimed GOAT – Biles was seen wearing a necklace with a goat at its centre – went on to win gold in the individual all-around and vault finals. She bagged silver in floor exercises and failed to qualify for the uneven bars final.

The star capped off her stint in Tokyo by holding the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony as it was handed over from Paris to Los Angeles – where Biles may still turn up and steal the show once more.

11x Olympic medalist @Simone_Biles held the Olympic flag as it was handed over for @LA28 🇺🇸#ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/2vtlNld4ct

— Team USA (@TeamUSA) August 11, 2024

Hands-in-pockets Turkish shooter’s no-frills approach

It was hard to miss the aura of Turkey’s pistol shooter Yusuf Dikec. His hand-in-pocket shooting style not only brought him a team silver medal in the mixed team 10-metre (33-foot) air pistol final, it also shot the 51-year-old to instant fame on social media.

Viral images showed Dikec shooting in a T-shirt with one hand in his pocket, a seemingly standard pair of glasses and an impassive look on his face. He gave off guy-next-door vibes and social media was all for it.

The social media fame prompted Dikec to set up an account on X, where he invited the platform’s owner, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, to Istanbul to discuss the future of robots as shooters.

However, Dikec’s biggest and long-lasting impact was that on other athletes, who posed in his trademark shooting style after winning medals.

From record-breaking men’s pole vault gold medalist Armand Duplantis of Sweden to Australia’s women’s pole vault champion Nina Kennedy and many others, athletes far and wide performed the Dikec celebration during the final week.

Congratulations Duplantis 🇸🇪🇹🇷 pic.twitter.com/VgtsuBC43L

— Yusuf Dikec (@yusufdikec) August 5, 2024

Gender controversy hits women’s boxing

The second week of the games saw the women’s boxing competition embroiled in a controversy over the gender of two athletes – Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting.

It started with Italian boxer Angela Carini abandoning a match against Khelif, walking away from the contest to her corner – an extremely rare scene in Olympic boxing.

Debate then raged over the eligibility of Khelif and Lin, both of whom went on to win gold medals in their respective categories. Khelif smiled, danced and roared with delight as she became the first Algerian, Arab and African woman to win an Olympic boxing gold medal. The 25-year-old dominated the three-round welterweight fight and was announced the winner in a unanimous decision by the judges.

Khelif followed her win by filing a legal complaint against the social media platform X for harassment. The gold medal winner’s lawyer said that she filed the formal complaint in France.

“The boxer Imane Khelif has decided to begin a new fight, a fight for justice, dignity and honour,” Khelif’s lawyer Nabil Boudi said in a statement as he announced the complaint for “aggravated online harassment … [had been filed] to Paris prosecutors”.

“All that is being said about me on social media is immoral. I want to change the minds of people around the world,” Khelif said in the statement.

Individuals in the complaint were described as “important political figures” with wide followings on X. The posts targeting Khelif “exceeded 100 million views,” it added.

Chinese gymnast learns medal-biting celebration on the podium

China’s Zhou Yaqin won a silver medal in the women’s balance beam artistic gymnastics final, but became better known for her antics off the competition’s floor.

Standing beside Alice D’Amato and Manila Esposito – the gold and bronze medallists from Italy – on the podium, Zhou watched as the two gymnasts bit their medals. The 18-year-old’s amused expression changed to bewilderment before she decided to imitate her fellow medal winners.

Zhou’s innocence and emotive reaction endeared her to fans on social media and many termed it “the cutest moment of the Olympics”. While being interviewed on Chinese media, Zhou was asked to “recreate the moment” and she obliged by pretending to bite her silver medal.

Sifan Hassan receives marathon gold wearing hijab

The last track and field event to be decided at the games was the women’s marathon, where Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands had a stunning sprint finish.

The once-Ethiopian asylum seeker capped an incredible journey by winning three distance running medals, which also included bronze in 10,000 metres and 5,000 metres, in the space of six days. She ran a distance of 62.195km (38.6 miles) during the three races.

For many of her fans, though, the icing on the cake came when she climbed on the podium for the last medals presentation during the closing ceremony in Paris while wearing a hijab around her neck.

Social media posts pointed out how it aptly wrapped up an Olympic Games where the host country banned its female athletes from wearing the Muslim head covering.

How poetic and beautifully apt that the final person to take to the podium at the Closing Ceremony of the Paris Olympics is Sifan Hussan – in a hijab.

A powerful visual after French Olympic athletes were forbidden from wearing hijabs at the Games. pic.twitter.com/7jO0t4uwqD

— Sue Anstiss MBE (@sueanstiss) August 11, 2024

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