Esprit sportif: Top 30 moments of respect from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (Moments 21 to 30)
Excellence, friendship, and respect, the 3 foundations of Olympism were once again on display in Paris.
We’ve compiled the top 30 respect, leadership, and ‘esprit sportif’ (sportsmanship) moments from the 2024 Olympics Games that brought the world closer through the power of sport. #JeuxOlympiques
Here’s the final instalment of the series: Moments 21 to 30. Enjoy!
21. St Lucia celebrates!
The people of the Caribbean island nation of St Lucia experienced gold medal fever for the first time at the Paris Olympics and showed us all how much it means.
When Julian Alfred crossed the 100m finish line in a sizzling 10.72 seconds, she delivered on the hopes and dreams of a nation, and citizens across the island erupted in joy including the live site in the capital Castries, where the party went into overdrive.
St Lucia’s motto is ‘Live Slow’ but they now have the world’s fastest woman and the island of 180,000 people celebrated Alfred’s return with a parade across the island – which coincidentally is the only country in the world named after a woman.
A salute to Julian Alfred, the new Queen of Sprinting for reminding us that few things can evoke the emotion of a local hero achieving on the global stage, especially the Olympics.
Credit: @HazelEyez552
22. The power of family and sibling love
Australian Saya Sakakibara provided one of the beautiful moments in the Paris Olympics with her incredible gold in the BMX, keeping a promise she made to her brother Kai after he had to leave the sport due to a traumatic injury.
Saya won gold wearing her brother’s number 77, a tribute to her mentor and BMX legend sibling who suffered a brain injury after a crash while preparing for the Tokyo Games, leaving him in a coma for two months.
In Tokyo she crashed brutally herself and was stretchered off the course and considered retirement after she suffered more concussions and injuries in 2022, including lung bruising.
Saya came to Paris “on a mission” and despite contracting Covid19 three days before the race, she crushed the field, leading from start to finish to claim gold, a personal redemption for Saya and her brother and she was in tears when they hugged after the race.
“My family is here. Everything that I’ve been through in the last two to three years … this was what got me going. I can’t talk, I’m sorry,” she said fighting back tears.
“I’m just so grateful for all the hard experiences that I had ever since Tokyo, ever since Kai’s accident.”
Wonderful to see respect and love between siblings play out on the Olympic stage.
Credit: Facebook (Kai Sakakibara) & @swpix_cycling
23. Lakshya leads with respect
When India’s Lakshya Sen won his quarter final match of the Men’s Badminton at the Paris Olympics against China’s Chow Chien-Tin, he refused to celebrate and simply shook his opponent’s hand.
Sen had every right to be joyful considering the win meant he was in the semi-finals and a medal contender, the first Indian male Olympic badminton player to achieve the feat.
Instead, he showed wonderful respect for his opponent who is fighting colorectal cancer and was lucky to be in the Olympics having successfully recovered from surgery in 2023.
There are some things more important than sport and nice to see respect and empathy between competitors.
24. A humble glorious champion, exits respectfully
Cuba’s Mijaín ‘El Terrible’ López is one of the most dominant champions in world sport and has been the undisputed king of Greco-Roman wrestling since winning gold at Beijing in 2008.
With his gold medal at the Paris Olympics in the 130kg class he has now surpassed Michael Phelps, becoming the only athlete to win 5 consecutive golds in the same Olympic individual event.
Nicknamed ‘El Terrible’ for his dominance of the sport, López ended things in style in Paris, kissing the mat for the last time.
Then in respect to wrestling tradition, he officially retired by untying his boots, raising them to his lips and leaving them in the middle of the mat before walking off the Champ de Mars Arena as an Olympic immortal.
Mijaín was born into poverty in Western Cuba but maintained his humble demeanour throughout his glittering career who told Olympics.com: “Humility makes you stronger.”
“I felt a little sad,” López said about the moment he walked away from his boots.
“From a very early age, I was doing this sport. A sport that has made me known worldwide. I left a dream on the mat, but a dream that will inspire all young people.”
A salute to Mijaín López, one of the greatest and most humble Olympians of all time who showed great respect for the sport that has nurtured him.
Credit: NBC
25. “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one”
Incredible scenes from women’s beach volleyball gold medal match as tempers flared at the net between the Canadian and Brazilian players at the Eiffel Tower stadium.
In the third set tensions rose to breaking point as neither Brazil’s Ana Patricia Silva Ramos or Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes would back down from their heated exchange.
To calm things down, the DJ played John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’, the players looked at each other with a smile, the anger passed and the crowd starts singing along.
Brazil prevailed for the gold medal and an unofficial gold to the DJ for creating a magical moment, with both teams later giggling, hugging & dancing together at the victory ceremony.
“We’re pretty amped up, partners are coming in, refs are coming in. So it was a bit of a mess,’” Wilkerson said.
“But after the game, it’s all love and respect, and even right when they came to shake our hands, still on the court, there was an immediate hug.”
The Olympic spirit of unity powered by music.
Credit: NBC
26. Silina and Lucia – “We are athletes”
When Silina Pha Aphay of Team Lao People’s Democratic Republic finished her 100m sprinting heat at the Paris Olympics, she heard screams of pain from behind her on the track.
She sprinted back down the track to check on South Sudan’s Lucia Moris, who had been unable to finish the race, collapsing on the ground in agony and clutching at her injured right leg.
Silina stayed with Lucia and comforted her until the paramedics arrived, two women from very different cultures and languages, bound together in shared humanity.
Silina had finished sixth in her heat with a time of 12.45 seconds, but her empathy for her competitor override her disappointment.
“I can only share her pain,” Silina said after the race.
“We are athletes. We are 100 metres – the same. All 100 metres athletes have to know how being hurt feels,”
“It’s a big dream to come here. But you get hurt here. So everybody knows the feeling.”
A salute for Silina for her empathy and shared humanity with her competitor.
Credit: Channel Nine
27. Karalis, Duplantis – Competitors and friends
Pole vaulting has a long history of camaraderie and respect between its athletes and the friendship between Olympic gold medallist Swede Mondo Duplantis and Greek bronze medallist Emmanouil Karalis is a thing of beauty.
From tending each other’s injuries, helping each other stretch and sharing jokes in the heat of competitive battle, it was a beautiful thing to watch play out at the Stade de France.
They first started competing together in 2015 and their ten years of friendship was on show for the world.
Mondo said after his gold medal performance: “It’s great to have Emmanouil with me because I feel he played a very important role in my early years on the international stage.”
“We’ve been fighting together since we were 14-15 years old and I’m at the Olympics, competing with my heart and I’m living it all with good friends by my side.”
After the Olympic Games finished, Emmanouil organised a Greek holiday for his friend Mondo.
The Olympic spirit in full bloom.
28. She ain’t heavy, she’s my sister
Magical scenes at the handball Quarter final match between Brazil and Angola when Angolan captain Albertina Kassoma suffered a shocking knee injury and was carried from the court by her Brazilian opponent Tamires Araujo Frossard.
The two are rivals in the Romanian handball league but when Frossard saw Kassoma unable to lift herself off the ground she scooped her up and carried her to the sidelines.
Frossard later said: “When I saw her on the ground, I thought she wouldn’t be able to get back up, because it’s very rare that you fall and don’t get up.”
“There was no way I wouldn’t help her.”
Great to see the sisterhood of fair play and empathy in action.
29. Hashimoto embodies the Olympic Spirit
Japanese Gymnast Daiki Hashimoto was all class as he hushed the crowd cheering him to allow his competitor and friend, Chinese gymnast Zhang Boheng, the appropriate silence to complete his final routine at the Bercy Arena.
Hashimoto understands that a true athlete wants to pit his best against his opponents best and that is the true spirit of competition – may the best person win.
Great to see respect in action.
30. Dancing with the Stars – Paris 2024 style
One of the great innovations of the Paris Olympics was the Parc des Champs or Champions Park at Trocadero Gardens at the base of the Eiffel Tower.
Every evening the medal winners from all the countries would come together to celebrate their victories with each other and the fans.
A perfect example is the joyous dancing between Japanese gymnast Takaaki Sugino and Great Britain rower Hannah Scott.
In 2021 the Olympics updated their motto ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’ to include the word ‘Together’, beautifully encapsulated by this pair.
Simply Magnifique!
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Also by Patrick Skene:
12 of the Best from the ‘Respect’ Olympics in Japan 2021
Patrick is a founder of Cultural Pulse, a leading multicultural marketing and engagement agency that has worked for the past 15 years on sports participation and fan engagement programs for over 100 communities. He is an author and both of his books ‘The Big O, The Life & Times of Olsen Filipaina‘ and ‘Celestial Footy – The Story of Chinese Aussie Rules‘ have gone into reprint. As a storyteller, his stories on the intersection of sport, history and culture have been published by The Guardian Australia, The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and The Australian Financial Review. He is passionate about celebrating the role of match officials in sport and is currently the proud coach of the Rockdale Raiders Under 6 Intermediate mixed football team.