#parisolympics2024highlights: Part 1

I loved going to the Barcelona (1992) and Atlanta (1996) Olympics with my mom and brother Jeff in my youth: I remember brimming with a sense of national pride of being an American and cheering on our great American Olympians.

The opportunity to create those kind of memories with our children, in one of our favorite cities, with some of our absolutely favorite friends, made going to #paris2024 an obvious choice.

Here were my top highlights per event of our Paris Olympics 2024 experience:

(1) Equestrian

There really is no more exquisite backdrop for an equestrian event in the world than Versailles.
Period, full stop.

And while most veteran Olympic rider on Team USA did not deliver her best that day, her teammates carried them to a medal. #teamworkisthedreamwork

(2) Tennis

A couple of our favorite American men’s singles tennis players, Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz, impressively grabbed the bronze, with their sheer force and power as individual players. The veteran men’s doubles team in Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek really showed us what best in class
doubles is all about…. teamwork more broadly-: leaning on each other’s strengths, supporting each other at high stakes moments and constant,
direct communication. Their Aussie rivals barely won the match in the tiebreak. The sting of that loss was seared on Ram’s face during the medal ceremony, pain and a competitive spirit with which I both admired and empathized.

American Men Winning Silver and Bronze, Paris Olympics, August 2024

(3) Swimming

It is really awesome to cheer on your country into a gold medal, let alone a world or Olympic record. Bobby Finke simply left the competition in the dust with his gold medal 1500 m performance. The men’s 4x 100 m relay team performed exquisitely into silver medal, which many have said would have been gold if anti doping standards were upheld for various competitors who had tested positive before Tokyo. Regardless, the mixed men’s/women’s 4x 100 m relay was so fun to cheer into gold, and to me, represents the greatest joy of seeing some of the world’s finest male and female athletes join forces for a win. The best of sport.