The Olympics is the biggest sports ‘mela’ held every four years in the world. Sports fans like me were lucky to witness some great stars in the Paris Olympics 2024. Young Neeraj Chopra is the GOAT Indian track and field star, but he does not make it to the list of the cream of sportspersons we witnessed at the Paris Olympics. Here is my list of the inspirational stars.

Simone Biles

Her 11 Olympic medals and 30 World Championship medals make her the most decorated gymnast in history, and she is widely considered as one of the greatest gymnasts of all time.

In 2019, Biles broke the record for most World Championship medals in gymnastics; she won her 24th and 25th medals at the event, surpassing Scherbo’s 23 World medals.

She holds the record for World all round titles (6).

In 2022 she was awarded the Presidential Medal for Freedom.

Biles has won the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year thrice (2017, 2019, 2020). 

Her birth mother, Shanon Biles, was unable to care for Simone or her other children. All four went in and out of foster care.

In 2000, Biles’ maternal grandfather began caring for her after learning his grandchildren were in foster care and adopted Simone and her younger sister.

After the 2016 Rio Games, Biles co-wrote an autobiography with journalist Michelle Burford, Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, A Life in Balance, which reads: “I want people to reach for their dreams and there are so many people who have inspired me with their love and encouragement along the way and I want to pass on that inspiration to readers. The book hit number one on The New York Times best sellers Young Adult list the week of January 8, 2017, and was turned into a lifetime biopic.

Biles competed on Season 24 of Dancing with the Stars. Paired with professional dancer Sasha Farber, she was favored to win but was eliminated on May 15, 2017, one week before the finals, finishing in fourth place.

Ahead of the Paris Olympics, she submitted a new skill for the code of points for the uneven bars, which would make her the only female gymnast to have a skill named after them on every apparatus.

In 2016 Biles publicly spoke against Doctor Nassar for his abuse, something akin to our Vinesh taking a stand against criminal MP Brij Bhushan.

Mijaín López

Widely considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, López is a five-time Olympic gold medalist, five-time World Champion, and five-time Pan American Games champion. He is the first and only athlete in modern Olympics history to win five consecutive gold medals in the same individual event.

Armand Gustav “Mondo” Duplantis

Duplantis, a Swedish-American pole vaulter is widely considered the greatest of all time. He is the world outdoor and indoor holder (6.25 m or 20 feet 6 inches, and 6.22 m or 20 feet 5 inches, respectively), two-time Olympic (2020  and 2024) champion, two-time World outdoor (2022 and 2023) and indoor champion, and current European champion.

Duplantis is one of the only eleven athletes (including Usain Bolt) to win world championships at the youth, junior, and senior level of an athletic event. At the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Duplantis won his first Olympic Gold Medal. For his 2022 season, which saw him break world records three times, becoming World outdoor and indoor champion, European and Diamond League champion, and clearing six-m-plus 22 times, Duplantis was crowned both European and World Male Athlete of the Year. He was the 2022 World Indoor Championship and 2021 European Indoor Championship gold medalist. Duplantis is a three-time Diamond League champion.

As of February 2023, he had cleared six meters or higher 60 times, the most of any athlete in history. Duplantis has cleared the nine highest heights of all time.

His American father, Greg, is a former pole vaulter with a personal best of 5.80 m, while his Swedish mother Helena is a former Heptathlete and Volleyball player.

Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky

Ledecky has won nine Olympic gold medals and 21 world championship gold medals, the most in history for a female swimmer. With 14 medals and 9 gold medals, she is the most decorated American woman, most decorated female swimmer, the female with the most gold medals (tied with Latynina) and fifth-most decorated athlete in Olympic history. She has won a record 16 individual gold medals at the World Aquatics Championship. Ledecky’s eight individual medals at the Olympics and 26 overall medals at the World Aquatics Championships are records in women’s swimming. Ledecky is the world record holder in the women’s 800- and 1500-meter freestyle (both long course and short course), as well as the former world record holder in the women’s 400-meter freestyle (long course). She also holds the fastest-ever times in the women’s 500, 1000, and 1650-yard freestyle events. She is widely regarded as the greatest female swimmer of all time and one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Léon Marchand

He is the world record holder in the long course 400 meters individual medley; the Olympic record holder in the 200 meters butterfly, the 200 meters breaststroke and the 200 meters individual medley.

At the 2024 Olympics, he won gold medals in the 200 m medley, 200 m breaststroke, 200 m butterfly, and 400 m medley. He became the sixth swimmer in Olympic history to win four individual gold medals at a single Games.

Sifan Hassan

Sifan is most recognized for her versatility in running championship and world-leading performances in widely disparate distances. She completed an unprecedented triple at the 2020 Olympics, winning gold medals in both the 5000 and 10000 m and a bronze medal for the 1500 m.

Hassan is the only athlete in Olympic history to win medals across a middle-distance event and both long-distance races in a single Games. She is only the second of three women to complete an Olympic distance double. At the Paris Olympics, Hassan secured a bronze medal in both the women’s 5,000 m and 10,000 m events and gold in the women’s marathon, becoming the only woman to win the Olympic gold medal in the 5000 m, 10000 m and the Marathon races.

At the World Athletics Championships, Hassan took 1,500 m and 10,000 m titles in 2019, becoming the only athlete (male or female) in history to win the 3 events at a single World Championships or Olympic Games.

By: Col. MM Nehru