Perhaps more than any other sports competition, the 2024 Paris Olympics had real staying power in the popular consciousness, thanks to its viral media spread. While chatter around the 2024 Paris Olympics has centered around a few breakout stars, including a Clark Kent-esque pommel horse savant, a nonchalant sharpshooter, and an inspiring St. Lucien track runner, I would like to talk about the surprising underdogs of the social media hype train, the dominant veterans of the Olympics, and why I believe they’re truly special.
When thinking of Olympic veterans at this year’s Games, one of the first names that comes to mind is Katie Ledecky. The American swimmer has transformed the sport for more than a decade, setting multiple world records and capturing the hearts of people everywhere. Ledecky made her Olympic debut in 2012, and ever since then, she has dominated the sport, collecting so many gold medals that many believe she is about to surpass the gold medal count of legendary gymnast Larisa Latynina, who has earned nine of them. This August, the world watched in anticipation as Ledecky warmed up before her 800 and 1500-meter freestyle events after securing the bronze medal in the 400-meter race. Unsurprisingly, she sailed through to win two golds with a gap of 7.52 and 10 seconds respectively. If Ledecky continues her reign, by the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, there is little doubt that Ledecky will become the woman with the most Olympic medals won in history.
We see other athletes on the US team following the same path. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, a track and field sensation since her debut in 2016, cemented her place as a global force, clinching gold with record times in both the 400-meter hurdles and 4×400-meter relay, having smashed her own world record five times in the former event. On the gymnastics side, Olympic icon Simone Biles returned to the arena and took home the highly coveted individual all-around gold, during which she showcased moves so difficult to achieve that they are named after her. This is just to mention two out of the many other exceptional performances, both within and outside of the United States.
Biles, in addition to her prowess as a gymnast, is known for making widespread the conversation surrounding the pressure that these athletes deal with when she dropped out of the Tokyo Olympics due to overstress. Being expected to perform at an inhuman level is one of the many reasons why athletes just as promising as Ledecky, McLaughlin-Levrone, and Biles have trouble sustaining their success. The pressure of appeasing fans and representing an entire country is enough for athletes to develop unhealthy habits and create a highly negative view of themselves. An analysis in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that around 24% of Olympic and Paralympic athletes went under high psychological stress. This includes Olympian Michael Phelps, who has opened up about his substance abuse as a coping mechanism to deal with depression, making him one of 20% of elite athletes who struggle with alcoholism. Tennis player Serena Williams, too, has mentioned her struggles dealing with postpartum depression while training. There are even consequences to taking the healthy route and stepping back, as Biles did during the previous Games, in the form of massive viewer backlash.
Another complicating factor is that athleticism is expected to decline as people get older. The peak athletic performance range is around 20-30 years of age. In a study compiling track and field performance rates dating back to 1996 showed that after the age of 27, the chances of athletes reaching their “peak” was at 44% and declining. In another study published by the National Library of Medicine, Olympic swimmers on average peak around the age of 24 before plateauing at the age of 26. Thus, sustaining athletic performance as you get older becomes significantly harder to achieve, especially as younger and younger athletes enter the scene as competitors. Part of this is that wounds and injuries take longer to heal as you age; an injury that used to heal in a matter of days could end up taking a month. The other part has to do with endurance. As you age, muscle mass, heart rate, and blood volume decrease, which can affect the skills an athlete can achieve as well as for how long they can endure periods of high-intensity training and performance. That being said, it’s not impossible to retain athleticism as you age. Oscar Swan of Sweden received the silver medal in shooting at the age of 72, and gymnast Oksana Chusovitina of Russia qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics at the age of 46, marking it her 8th Olympics. Despite these outliers, the stigma around age is such that, once an athlete starts approaching 30, worries of athletic decline start to seep in, which only add to the stress of performing well.
Despite these struggles, stars like Ledecky, McLaughlin-Levrone, and Biles are born all of the time. What’s great about the Olympics is that it gives us a venue through which we can see these new faces emerge in live action alongside our favorite athletes. Somewhere down the line, we might even expect to find these new faces to become the next dominant veterans for the next generation to grow up with.
As the world eagerly awaits the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, there are many questions abound. Can Ledecky continue her legacy by breaking the all-time women’s Olympic gold medal record? How will the new generation of athletes challenge the status quo?
