CNN’s Amy Woodyatt, Patrick Sung, Gul Tuysuz, Jessie Yeung, Saskya Vandoorne, Ben Church, George Ramsay, Scottie Andrew, Chris Liakos, Simone McCarthy, Andrew McNicol and Kara Fox contributed to this report.
Paris, CNN — Well, that first week just flew by, didn’t it?
The 2024 Summer Olympics are heading into their second weekend, and it’s truly been one for the history books. From Simone Biles’ incredible comeback story to Léon Marchand’s week for the ages in the pool to that blue guy in the opening ceremony, the Paris Olympics have already produced some indelible images that will live on long after they’re over.
Here are the 10 top storylines from the first week of these Olympic Games:
Simone Biles is all the way back
The 27-year-old American gymnast was already the most decorated athlete to ever take part in her sport. Now she can comfortably call herself the greatest of all time – and she’s got the GOAT necklace to prove it.
Anchoring Team USA to the team gold medal and then following it up with a stirring comeback in the all-around competition two days later, Biles put up legendary, clutch performances that seemed tailor-made for her to shine.
After the depths of her withdrawal from the team competition in Tokyo, her triumphs this week have brought her back to the mountaintop. It’s an incredible story of self-care, self-preservation and mental toughness that Biles has been open and honest about throughout her time in Paris.
Léon Marchand becomes a French legend
Four gold medals have turned the 22-year-old swimmer Léon Marchand from a promising star to a French legend in the span of days.
La Défense Arena just outside Paris has practically vibrated with the sound of Marchand’s countrymen and women singing his name this week as he’s become the face of the home nation’s athletes during these Olympics. Taking his fourth gold medal on Friday, Marchand seemed to be pushed through the water by the boisterous support in what might be the loudest arena at the Games.
Marchand said he’s been feeding off the cries of “Allez!” and the chant of “Lé-on!” that has been echoing around the pool most nights.
“I’m using all the energy from the stadium in this,” he said, “so I swim as fast as possible in every race.”
The Blue Man becomes the center of controversy
It was one of the more memorable moments of arguably the most unique opening ceremony in history, but one that has sparked controversy around the world. The scene in question has been described by some critics as a parody of “The Last Supper,” which featured drag artists and multiple dancers.
The performance and scene in question also included Philippe Katerine, a French entertainer who featured as the Greek god of wine Dionysus and quickly became known as the “semi-naked blue guy.” In the scene, Katerine sang a song while lying on a table, seemingly without clothes and covered head-to-toe in glittery blue paint.
Olympic organizers apologized for the scene after it was criticized by the Catholic church and Christian groups. The French Catholic Church said the festivities “included scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity.” Katerine too apologized if his appearance shocked people, calling it a misunderstanding.
The River Seine holds the triathlon after big worries over water quality
After more than a billion dollars in investment, two days of canceled training and a postponed men’s race, the Olympic triathlon went ahead on Wednesday. And the athletes swam in the River Seine, allowing city leadership to say they had won their bet on the race.
Heavy rains battered Paris over the weekend, drenching Friday’s opening ceremony and raising concerns about water quality in the river, which usually declines after rainfall. The decision to hold some swimming events in the famous river that splits Paris raised eyebrows when it was first announced. Swimming in the Seine has been illegal for a century, but, in their desire to put the host city on full display, organizers worked up a plan to clean up the river so the world’s best athletes could use it during Paris 2024.
But the race went off and had drama to boot – France’s Cassandre Beaugrand eventually was crowned women’s triathlon Olympic champion on home soil, roared across the finish line by a boisterous French crowd that broke out into a rendition “La Marseillaise.”
Great Britain’s Alex Yee produced a sensational finish to take the lead of the men’s triathlon on the final bend and snatch the gold medal away from New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde. Wilde had opened up a 15-second lead during the run, the third and final portion of the race, but Yee hunted him down spectacularly over the last 1.5 kilometers.
Novak Djokovic’s quest for the golden slam
The Serb tennis great is into the men’s singles tennis finals, looking to win one more match to gain the only honor he has not held in his sport: an Olympic gold medal.
Should he go all the way at these Olympics, the 37-year-old would join Rafael Nadal and Andre Agassi as the third man to win all four grand slams and a gold medal in singles. It’s a feat, sometimes described as a career golden slam, only achieved by Steffi Graf and Serena Williams in the women’s game.
Wearing strapping over a surgically repaired knee, Djokovic defeated longtime rival Nadal in their highly anticipated second-round matchup. He was tested but cruised through the rest of the week and faces Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in the final, a rematch of the Wimbledon final last month.
Ilona Maher and the US women’s rugby sevens team burst onto the scene
Her stardom started on TikTok, but when she took the field for Team USA, Ilona Maher showed she was far more than just a creative social media presence.
Maher helped the US women’s rugby sevens team to a bronze-medal finish in their tournament, the country’s highest finish in this competition to date. They ended it on a spectacular try as time ran out against Australia, shocking the Aussies in the final seconds and then converting the ensuing kick to win the game, 14-12.
Maher had already gained a following before the Games with her presence on TikTok. She’s reliably candid and silly on the app, and, though she’s clearly having the time of her life with her women’s rugby teammates, she also routinely uses TikTok to refute cruel comments about her body. Her social media presence and the team’s performance could be a catalyst for a surge in popularity for the sport ahead of the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
Andy Murray calls it a career
When Andy Murray announced he would retire from professional tennis after the Paris Olympics, the script seemed to be set. The three-time grand slam could bow out of his incredible career with yet another Olympic gold, in a tournament that has meant so much to him throughout the years.
But, as it turned out, medals were not necessary for Murray to say the perfect goodbye. After losing in straight sets to American’s Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul on Thursday, Murray and his British teammate Dan Evans shared an emotional embrace on court.
Despite not winning a medal, the pair had written one of the best stories of this year’s Games, twice producing logic-defying comebacks to even make it to the quarterfinal of the men’s doubles tournament. Even though they eventually lost, the pair had momentarily threatened yet another great escape against the American duo who seemed almost apologetic for finally beating their opponents.
Shooters go viral
Two sides of the same coin, Olympic shooters from South Korea and Turkey have become the meme of the Olympics thus far.
Kim Yeji, the 31-year-old South Korean sharpshooter, looked impossibly cool with her cap and futuristic glasses, which – while stylish – were functional accoutrements in the world of competitive shooting. Still, they wouldn’t look out of place on a street style-inspired runway.
On the other hand, there’s Yusuf Dikeç of Turkey. The Turkish sharpshooter helped claim his country’s first medal in the sport wearing what appeared to be his normal glasses and putting his hand in his pocket. While Kim looked fierce when being photographed during competition, Dikeç almost looked bored.
Boxer’s victory starts social media firestorm
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif found herself at the center of a bitter controversy over her eligibility to take part in the Olympics after an opponent quit a fight in just 46 seconds.
Khelif, a 25-year-old light welterweight, landed a heavy first punch in Thursday’s bout with Angela Carini from Italy, dislodging her chinstrap. Subsequent blows pushed Carini back to her corner before she dropped to her knees. The match raised questions about Khelif’s participation. In 2023, a now-discredited boxing regulator ruled her ineligible for a women’s tournament after she apparently failed what has been described as a gender eligibility test.
But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) strongly supports her participation in the 2024 Games, with IOC spokesperson Mark Adams saying she was “born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport.”
Khelif has become a flashpoint for an often-misinformed debate about how women are allowed to compete in sports.
Chinese swimmers in the spotlight over alleged doping scandal
The Chinese swimming team is at the center of a controversy that’s roiled international sport following revelations that nearly half the group Beijing sent to the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 had months earlier tested positive for a banned performance-enhancing substance.
The swimmers had been cleared by China’s Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) shortly before the Tokyo Games, after it ruled that the positive tests for banned heart drug trimetazidine – believed to aid endurance and recovery time – were the result of contamination, likely from a hotel restaurant. The global sports doping watchdog World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accepted the assessment without an appeal.
Concern only deepened Tuesday, after WADA acknowledged a separate 2022 case in which two Chinese swimmers tested positive for “trace amounts of a prohibited substance metandienone,” a banned anabolic steroid. They were provisionally suspended but later cleared of a violation by CHINADA – again citing contamination linked to food, WADA said.
