Closing Out

TigerBlog read two different stories yesterday about the top moments from the Paris Games. One listed 25; the other listed 10. All but four of those were from either basketball, gymnastics, track and field, swimming or soccer. 

That just made TB roll his eyes. There's so much more to the Olympic Games than that.

Oh well. And maybe TigerBlog watched a little of the Olympic Closing Ceremonies the other day.

And by a little, he means about five minutes. As it turned out, those were the perfect five minutes.

He turned it on just in time to see Tom Cruise launch himself from the top of the stadium into the pit of athletes below. And then he saw Hannah Scott, the Princeton gold medal-winner in women's quad sculls, phone out, as Cruise walked by.

TB texted Scott and asked her if that in fact he was correct that he had seen her. This is what she sent him back:

 That's pretty cool, no? 

It's hard to say who is happier there. Is it the athletes to see one of the most famous movie stars ever, or is one of the most famous movie stars ever to see the athletes? 

They all seemed to be enjoying the party. Also, where else are you going to find someone of Cruise's stature who would fling himself off the top of a stadium? 

Before these Olympics fade away, it's also worth checking out another video from the Closing Ceremonies. 

This one also had a Princeton rowing connection, this time in the form of American Nick Mead. Another gold medalist, Mead was chosen along with swimmer Katie Ledecky to carry the U.S. flag for the Closing Ceremonies. 

FLAG BEARERS CHECKING IN 🇺🇸@katieledecky x @meadna17

📺: @NBCOlympics and @peacock#ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/L6tTey1PTY

— Team USA (@TeamUSA) August 11, 2024

Mead, by the way, became the first American rower ever selected to carry the flag at the Closing Ceremonies. 

Princeton had yet another flag bearer Sunday night, Uganda's Kathleen Noble, who was participating in her second straight Olympic Games. Noble was born in and raised in Uganda, where her Irish parents were missionaries. 

Also from the Olympics, here's a great picture:

That would be from the USA's 1-0 win over South Africa in the final game in Paris for both. That's Princeton's Beth Yeager, who assisted on the goal, and South Africa's Hannah Pearce in the photo.

If you're as dialed into field hockey like TB is, then you'd know that it's also a picture of the 2021 Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year (Yeager) and the 2021 Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year (Pearce, from Harvard).

Oh, and here's another Princeton-Harvard picture:

You better be able to recognize the woman on the right.

As TB said when the Games began, his friend Sue Byrne, who recently retired as Harvard's Associate AD for Marketing, was working in Paris as one of the 45,000 volunteers who were there. Her assignment was at the golf course.

The other woman in the picture is of course Mollie Marcoux Samaan, who was the Ford Family Director of Athletics before she left to become the commissioner of the LPGA. She was there for the women's golf event.

With the end of the Paris Games, TB was able to finally update the Princeton All-Time Olympians page on goprincetontigers.com, which you can see HERE.

The updated numbers now have Princeton with 153 athletes who have made a total of 222 Olympic appearances, winning 36 gold medals, 27 silver medals and 26 bronze medals. It's a tradition that dates to the first Modern Olympics, back in 1896 in Athens.

These past Games had 16 current or former Princeton athletes who made their first Olympic appearance, as well as nine others who were returning Olympians. 

And with that, TB will be moving on from writing about these Olympic Games. 

He hopes you've enjoyed the coverage.