In a year of upheaval and crisis, the Paris Olympics offered glorious reprieve. Headlines declaring doom and destruction were interrupted to celebrate brilliance. There were glimmers of hope, flashes of gold and moments of pride. The nation was united.
A tiny teenager with wings on her sneakered feet flying high on a skateboard; a BMX star seeking gold for her injured brother and collapsing in tears in his arms; the world’s greatest paddler overcome with joy – not for her own victories, but for her sister’s gold-winning feat.
In 2023 it was the Matildas who elevated women’s sport to a new level of inspiration with their motto, “Never say die.” In 2024, our remarkable Olympic and Paralympic athletes raised the bar higher at the Paris Games, creating moments that burned into the nation’s psyche.
It was our female athletes who provided the lingering memories of these Games. It was Australia’s most successful Olympics, yielding 18 gold medals, 13 won by women from cycling, swimming, canoe/kayak, skateboarding and pole vault.
Then came the Paralympics with another medal haul of 18 golds, women winning eight and sharing in two other mixed events in swimming and rowing.
Barely a day went by without Australia’s national anthem blaring out from one of Paris’s iconic venues. And often it was one of our female athletes atop the dais.
Records toppled. Emma McKeon ended her swimming career as Australia’s most decorated Olympian, male or female, with 14 medals captured from three Games. Fellow Dolphin, Ariarne “Arnie” Titmus won the 400m freestyle “race of the century” and then joined Dawn Fraser as the only Australian woman to win successive golds in the same events at the Olympics.
This same feat was then matched by Kaylee McKeown who also became the first Australian Olympian to earn four individual gold medals and the first Australian to defend a double Olympic crown.
In fact, firsts became the norm: in a year where 14-year-old skateboarder Arisa Trew became the first female to land a 900, she then became our youngest-ever gold medallist. Pole-vaulter Nina Kennedy became the first Australian woman ever to win an Olympic field event, while canoeist Jessica Fox became the GOAT.
With her two golds in Paris – giving her six medals from four Olympic games – alongside her 10 individual world championships and her 12 World Cup championships, Fox is considered the greatest individual paddler of all time – male or female. Few will ever know the level of pressure she has handled during her career.
“The dream goal was obviously the double gold in Paris,” Jess explains. “There was a moment where I was reflecting before the Games even began, thinking if I don’t come back with one gold medal and at least two medals, but if they’re not two gold medals some will say this is a failure … there was so much pressure and expectation to win.”
Self-doubt. Challenges. Hurdles. Pressure. Risks. Resilience.
That’s the language athletes speak, that special breed of person who wills themselves on no matter how many obstacles life puts in their way.
For BMX racer Saya Sakakibara, the hurdles were many. In 2020 her older brother and fellow Olympic dreamer Kai crashed in competition, suffering a severe brain injury that forced him to retire from the sport.
At the same event in Tokyo, Saya also had a terrifying crash that left her grappling. But she overcame heartache to win for both herself and Kai. Looking back, even she was surprised at how easily years of struggle can be forgotten in that euphoric winning moment.
“When I look back at my Olympic experience, I think about how much I enjoyed it. I walked away with getting what I wanted, and the success that came with it,” she says.
“My mind tends to forget all the nerves and those stressful moments before the race. A few days before the race, I got Covid, and that was a challenge. There were moments
there that I doubted myself, but in the end I’m just very proud of myself that I was able to perform the best that I could when it mattered.”
Paralympic swimmer Alexa Leary redefined what inspiration means with her two gold medals in Paris.
“My parents were told I would never walk or talk again, let alone live,” Alexa says of her 2021 cycling accident. “My strong desire to live is the reason why I am here today and making the best out of my life. I’m so proud that I’m sharing my story about living with a traumatic brain injury [TBI], which I call Totally Brave Individual.
“I want people to know my story and the story of so many others living with a TBI … I want people to always feel grateful for their lives and their ability to move. I want to inspire people to move their bodies for those who can’t.” Leary’s success has already led to partnerships with big brands like Amazon to help realise this vision.
In the first ever gender-equal games, it was fitting that Australia’s first medal was won by road cyclist Grace Brown, and the last by pole vaulter Kennedy. It was Kennedy’s new-found confidence that led to her victory, tipping the scales into “the best ever” category for our Olympic team as a whole.
“I think if you’d asked me before the Tokyo Olympics, it was a very different story,” Nina says. “I didn’t want to talk to the media. I was so scared and influenced by people’s opinions and the media and what they were saying about me. I don’t know what changed, but I just stopped, like, giving a fuck. I’m sorry to swear, but I guess on this journey of being an athlete you really have to find yourself and know yourself.
“I think about the Theodore Roosevelt quote, you know, the Man in the Arena. It just speaks perfectly to how I was feeling.”
It is not the critic who counts; Not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, Whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood … Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, And who at the worst, if he fails, At least fails while daring greatly, So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls Who knew neither victory nor defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
For those in the arena in 2024, the best of the human spirit – pride, courage, dedication and perseverance – was certainly on display. And she never looked better.