Few things are more exciting than a record-setting performance on the Olympic stage. A total solar eclipse might just be one of those things, but Monday’s astronomical anomaly hasn’t overshadowed any of the excitement ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Instead, it’s given us inspiration to take a close look at some of the records, marks and milestones that could be ‘eclipsed’ at the Paris Games this summer. Because who doesn’t love a good pun, especially of the celestial variety?
Recommended Videos
Katie Ledecky: Most decorated female swimmer ever?
Since bursting onto the Olympic stage as a 15-year-old at the 2012 London Games, gold has followed Katie Ledecky everywhere she’s gone. Now Ledecky enters her fourth Olympics, where Paris could see the crowning of a new undisputed queen of women’s swimming.
Ledecky already ranks second in gold medals won by a female swimmer at the Olympics with seven, just one behind fellow American Jenny Thompson’s record of eight. Given Ledecky’s decade-long dominance in the 800m and 1500m freestyle distance events, the 27-year-old appears destined to set a new all-time mark in Paris.
In addition, Ledecky, who also remains a medal contender in the 400m freestyle and as a member of the U.S. 4x200m freestyle relay team, could challenge the record for total Olympic medals won by a female swimmer which is currently shared by Thompson and Dara Torres at 12. Ledecky will enter the 2024 Games just two back of that tally. However, she’ll also have to contend with Australia’s Emma McKeon, who has a chance to build upon her career mark of 11 in Paris.
SEE MORE: Katie Ledecky recounts winning first Olympic gold at 15
Simone Biles: America’s GOAT?
While we’re on the topic of all-time greats, Simone Biles has more history to write in Paris, where a medal of any color would make her the most decorated American gymnast in the history of the Olympics.
Biles racked up a historic total of five medals (four gold) in her Olympic debut in 2016, and though an unfortunately-timed case of the “twisties” – a mental block common in gymnastics that disrupts a gymnast’s air awareness and can lead to serious injury – limited her in Tokyo, she still managed to add two more medals to her tally.
Following Tokyo, Biles took a step back from the sport to focus on her mental health. However, she returned to competition in 2023 and quickly found herself back on the top step of the podium at the 2023 World Gymnastics Championships – in four different events. If she can translate any of those performances into hardware in Paris, she’ll her current tie with Shannon Miller for most Olympic medals ever won by a U.S. gymnast.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen: Mile mark slayer?
The longest-standing individual men’s track world record could finally be in jeopardy of falling in Paris when Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen lines up for the 1500m final.
Last summer, Ingebrigtsen came agonizingly close – within 1.14 seconds – of eclipsing Hicham El Guerrouj’s all-time mark of 3:26.00 in the 1500m, the closest Olympic distance to one mile. El Guerrouj’s record has stood since July of 1998, more than two years before Ingebrigtsen was born.
Ingebrigtsen already got a taste of Olympic gold (and an Olympic record) in Tokyo when he won the 1500m in 3:28.32 at just 20 years old. In Paris, he and his competitors will be running on a state-of-the-art track specifically engineered to promote record-setting efforts. Now firmly in his prime at age 23, the Norwegian phenom will have the chance of a lifetime to down a decades-old world record on the Olympic stage.
Diana Taurasi: Team sport titan?
In the history of the Olympics, arguably no nation has dominated a single sport the way the United States has dominated basketball, especially on the women’s side. Team USA has won gold in nine of the 12 Olympic women’s basketball tournaments since the sport was added to the Games in 1976, including each of the last seven.
The most recent five U.S. women's basketball teams have all featured the legendary guard duo of Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird as pillars of the U.S. roster. Taurasi and Bird currently share the record for most Olympic gold medals in basketball with five. However, while Bird announced her retirement from the sport in 2022, Taurasi remains on track for a sixth Olympics this summer. Should Taurasi make the U.S. team and win a sixth gold in Paris, she not only would break her tie with Bird, but according to Olympics.com, she’d become the most decorated team sport athlete in Olympic history.
There's more hoops history on the line in Paris. An eighth-consecutive gold for the U.S. women would break a tie they currently share with their U.S. men’s basketball counterparts (1936 to 1968) for the longest consecutive gold medal streak in the same Olympic event by any team in any sport.
Mijain Lopez: Timeless wrestling wonder?
At the veteran age of 41, Mijain Lopez could contend for some serious history in Paris. The 6-foot-5 “Cuban Giant” is the four-time defending Olympic champion in the Greco-Roman wrestling super heavyweight division.
In locking up his fourth consecutive gold in Tokyo, Lopez entered a five-way tie with Michael Phelps, Carl Lewis, Al Oerter and Paul Elvstrom as the only Olympians to win the same individual event four times. None have ever made it five.
Though Lopez faces a difficult road just to qualify for the Paris Olympics, he’s already on record calling his shot, saying of the elusive fifth gold, “I actually see it [happening].”