Sunset near the Eiffel Tower during the Closing Ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games (Image: EPA/MARTIN DIVISEK) CLOSING CEREMONY UNDERWAY Australia’s most successful Olympic Games is drawing to a spectacular end, with the closing ceremony in Paris currently in full flow. Finishing with a record 18 gold medals (plus 19 silver and 16 bronze, making a total of 53), the Australian team ended the 2024 games in 4th place overall. The United States topped the final table after finishing with 40 gold medals, the same number as China, but with a superior total medal count — 126 to 91.
Team USA’s final gold came in the last event of the entire Olympics, the women’s basketball, and came down to the final play in an unbelievably tight final against France. The Guardian recalls how the US won by a single point, 67-66, after France’s Gabby Williams’ buzzer-beating last shot of the game was judged to have been just inside the three-point line, denying the hosts the chance to take the final into overtime. Recapping the final day of competition, the ABC reports Day 16 saw Australia winning bronze in the women’s basketball, overcoming Belgium for the Opals’ first medal in 12 years, and in the velodrome where Matthew Richardson and Matthew Glaetzer won silver and bronze respectively in the men’s keirin.
A dramatic final lap saw three riders crash out meters from the finish line, with Glaetzer’s wife later confirming to Nine he had declared “I did a Bradbury” after claimi.