This year, more than 1,200 current, former and incoming NCAA athletes are competing in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games — and more than 840 are chasing gold for a country outside the United States.
Why it matters: College sports have been a key pipeline for Team USA talent throughout the decades of the Olympics — but American universities and their facilities have also evolved as training grounds for international competitors.
The U.S. women's basketball team erased a 10-point third quarter deficit to beat France 67-66 and claim their eighth straight Olympic gold medal at Paris' Bercy Arena on Sunday.
Why it matters: Arguably the most dominant team in Olympic sports, Team USA hasn't lost a single contest at the Games since 1992.
With all the noise made about Imane Khelif at the Paris Olympics, it's easy to imagine that gender controversy is a new thing. But, as author Michael Waters points out, battles over gender are as old as the modern Olympics themselves.
"You can actually draw a line from what we're seeing today all the way back to the early 20th century," says Waters, whose new book "The Other Olympians" explores some of the earliest gender bending and gender policing at the games.
U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles was stripped of the third-place spot that earned her a bronze medal for what amounts to four seconds of pause about the difficulty value of her floor routine, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) confirmed on Saturday.
Why it matters: The announcement follows a decision from the Court of Arbitration for Sport finding on Saturday that an inquiry the USA team raised Monday, bumping Chiles from fifth place behind two Romanians to third place, was filed 4 seconds after a one-minute cutoff.
Nikki Hiltz, who is the first openly transgender and nonbinary athlete to make an individual Olympic final, finished seventh on Saturday in the 1,500-meter race.
Why it matters: That's still the best-ever individual Olympic result for an athlete who identifies as transgender or nonbinary.
Over the last two weeks,the Paris Olympics served as a stage for epic comeback stories for athletes, the businesses that support them — and even the Games themselves.
Why it matters: Fans love feel-good victories so much (especially in an iconic setting), they're tuning into the Games at an unprecedented rate this year.
