Goodbye Paris

The 2024 Paris Olympics are officially over. 

TigerBlog is pretty sure he's never watched the Closing Ceremonies of any Olympic Games, and that didn't change with yesterday's event. In fact, for TB, these Games sort of crawled to the end, rather than peak in excitement.

Okay, in the interest of full disclosure, he did see the Tom Cruise part. That was cool. 

If he had to guess, TB would say that he watched "a lot" of these Games, though not as much as his brother-in-law Joe, whom he would have to guess was a one-man ratings booster. Apparently, he was so Olympics-obsessed that BrotherBlog actually left and went to Vancouver for a few days. 

BB and Joe live in Seattle. Apparently, it's not enough for Joe to get all of the NBC and Peacock coverage — he has to also get the Canadian television versions as well. 

The best part of these Games is that, while they were six hours ahead of the Eastern time zone, all of the events were available live. It's quite a big difference from the way it was when TB was a kid, when it was up to ABC and Jim McKay to decide what to put on an when, or the way it was even four years ago, when NBC tried to not present anything live to draw viewership to its primetime coverage.

There were parts of the Games that TB didn't like at all. For instance, the Breaking? Bad.  

For the most part, though, TB loves seeing the competitions that he won't see again for four years. Cycling. Canoeing and kayaking. Equestrian. So many others.

The first thing TB did when he woke up Saturday was to check the score of the bronze medal women' water polo match. That turned out to be brutal for the United States, who missed out on a medal when the Netherlands scored with one second left to win 11-10.

For Princeton, these Games had so many great storylines. TB would say it's hard to know where to start, but it's actually easy — with the three gold medalists.

Hannah Scott won gold with the Great Britain quad scullers in what was one of the most thrilling moments that Princeton has ever had in the Olympic Games. It was a 2,000-meter race. The British led for none of them, until the tip of their boat just edged out the Netherlands.

And who presented Scott with her gold medal? That would be Princess Anne. That's pretty special.

Maia Weintraub won gold with the United States women's team foil squad. When she comes back to school this fall as a sophomore, she'll be part of a very short list of Princeton athletes who came back to compete after winning a gold medal. 

Who else? Robert Garrett did in 1896. Bill Bradley did it in 1964. Ashleigh Johnson did so in 2017. Sarah Fillier did in 2022.

That's it.

Weintraub, by the way, is 21 years old and is already an NCAA individual champion and an Olympic gold medalist. That's impressive.

The other gold medal was also in rowing, this time by Nick Mead in the men's fours. What did that earn for him? The chance to carry the United States flag, along with legendary swimmer Katie Ledecky, in those Closing Ceremonies.

The fourth Princeton athlete to win a medal was Tom George, who won silver in the men's pair. That's two Olympic medals for George, who won bronze in Tokyo.

There were 26 Princetonians in all who competed in Paris. Some of the non-medalists were wildly impressive, like Lizzie Bird, who finished seventh in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, giving her two appearances in the Olympic final in the event. 

As TB wrote, Bird's time would have won gold once and silver three times.

Beth Yeager made her Olympic debut with the U.S. field hockey team and looked very comfortable on the highest stage for the sport. She'll be back at Princeton this year as well, as a junior.

Sondre Guttormsen finished eighth in the pole vault. His brother Simen, who did not reach the final, cheered him on from the stands, with his every reaction caught on TV.

TigerBlog spent much of the last two weeks watching his favorite obscure events and the Princeton athletes who were there. Now there's a two year wait for the 2026 Winter Games, which will be held in Milan and Cortina, Italy. 

The 2028 Summer Games will be in Los Angeles. How many Princetonians will be there? 

In the meantime, as someone who writes every day throughout the summer, the Olympics provide the perfect amount of content. Plus, they're just a lot of fun. 

TB will miss them.