Wow Moments from the Paris Summer Olympics

Pascal Guyot/AFP via Getty Images

PARIS — A team of NPR journalists spent over two weeks covering the Paris Summer Olympics. Here are some of our standout moments from the Games.

That little lump of red is a mascot?

I tend to be a grump when it comes to mascots.

When I arrived in Paris and saw the mascot for the Summer Olympics was a lump of red, I was baffled. Was it a pastry? A Pokémon creature? But over these two weeks “Phryge” — named after the Phrygian cap that’s a French symbol of freedom and republican self-government — grew on me.

The giant Phryges running around at sporting events are absurdly lovable. I like them even more, with their googly eyes, when tourists are wearing them on their heads.

I also like that the French went big with a sartorial mascot that is fundamentally uncool. Next time you see me hiking in the mountains I’ll have a red Phryge on my head.

— Brian Mann

The unforced error of the Olympics undoing the magic of this year’s best medal ceremony

This one should have been a “wow” moment in a good way. The floor exercise final ended with perhaps the most memorable medal ceremony of the whole Olympic Games, in which two U.S. gymnasts, Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles, who had won silver and bronze, bowed to Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, who had won gold.

But now, it’s a complete mess. Chiles had earned her bronze after a last-minute score inquiry boosted her score by a tenth of a point, which was enough for her to jump from fifth place to third place over a Romanian gymnast. Romania protested the result, saying Chiles’ challenge was filed too late. On Saturday, an independent arbitrator agreed, finding the inquiry had been filed four seconds too late. Olympic officials asked Chiles to return the medal. In a twist, the U.S. said late Sunday that it had video evidence “conclusively establishing” the inquiry was submitted in under a minute.

It’s too soon to know how this will all play out, but this is a disaster and a stain on gymnastic judging and the various arbitration and administration officials involved.

Why was there apparently no official timekeeping record? Why weren’t the gymnasts’ routines scored correctly in the first place? Why not allow the U.S. to submit evidence to the contrary before demanding the medal be returned? And why, oh why, would the Olympics have asked Chiles to return her medal, rather than accepting responsibility for the failure and allowing the gymnasts to share the medals as Romania asked?

— Becky Sullivan

The spirited, behind-the-scenes athleticism

The same night Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone successfully defended her gold in the 400-meter hurdles, shattering her own world record, most of the 80,000 spectators had filtered out of the Stade de France stadium when an after-show began. Volunteers in their teal uniforms began what looked like a choreographed production to clear the 10 lines of hurdles off of the track in unison. It wasn’t all work — they had fun too, later holding their own impromptu, 100-meter race on the purple track.