10 Inspiring Stories From the Olympics 2024
The Olympics is the pinnacle of any athlete’s career. From all time champions to those who have beaten all odds to be there, these are the most inspiring athletes of Paris 2024.
The road to greatness is paved with suffering, dedication, and bucketloads of sweat. Nowhere is this more evident than the Olympics, the absolute pinnacle of sporting competition.
Taking place between July 26 and August 11, this year’s Paris Summer Olympics is already shaping up to be a historic event, with boxing mothers, all-time champions and multi-sport Paralympians gearing up to give it their all once again.
These are their stories.
Eva Okaro, Swimming, GB
At just 17 years of age, Okaro will become the first black woman to represent Team GB in the pool. Previously, Alice Dearing had represented Team GB in open water at the Tokyo Games, and Okaro hopes to continue her legacy.
She has every chance to make it happen: Okaro and her sister were setting new British swimming records at the age of 14.
"Safety and fun — that's where it all began for me,” she says. “Swimming's a key life skill you have to learn. It saves lives and everyone should learn it.”
Dana Mathewson, Wheelchair Tennis, USA
The 33 year-old from Tucson, Arizona native is ranked number one in the world, with a Grand Slam win and a doubles title at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships making her the first American woman to win a Major wheelchair tennis title.
Diagnosed with transverse myelitis at 11-years-old, Mathewson has lived her life paralyzed from the waist down ever since. It was her mother who – after a lot of encouragement – got her into tennis when she was 13.
From there, Mathewson bagged a scholarship at the University of Arizona before competing in the Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games.
With her powers arguably at their peak, Paris 2024 may well see Mathewson confirm her brilliance in gold.
Nikola Karabatic, Handball, France
Karabatic’s Olympic story is so inspiring because, put simply, he’s the very best at what he does.
A centre-back for Paris Saint-Germain's handball team, he’s also a three-time Olympic champion, with his hometown Olympics potentially providing his fourth gold – a potentially historic achievement that would really demonstrate the pinnacle of performance.
It’s especially nail-biting as, at 40, Karabatic has already announced he will retire after the Olympics…
Penny Healey, Archery, GB
It’s a career that feels straight out of a Disney film, and it kind of is. At 19, Healey will be Team GB's youngest archer in Paris – and it’s all thanks to the fantasy film Brave, which inspired her to pick up a bow aged 9.
And did we mention she used to shoot arrows from the back of a horse? "When I was about eight or nine, I was doing horse riding and thought it would be cool to do archery on the back of a horse,” she says. “Then I had to stop horse riding, because it was too expensive. So, I got into archery instead. It was love at first sight."
With two gold medals at the 2023 European Games in Kraków, Poland, Healey’s story – and age – are inspiring enough. But it doesn’t end there; she says archery helped her through the anxiety she suffered during the Covid lockdown.
Aurelie Rivard, Paralympic Swimmer, Canada
Born in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Canada, the 28 year-old swimmer already has three Paralympics gold medals, a silver Paralympic medal, two World Records and a Paralympic Record to her name. On top of all of that, she was Canada's flag-bearer for the closing ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Then, in Tokyo, she bagged two more golds in 50m and 100m freestyle.
But success was far from guaranteed. Rivard was born with an impairment in her left hand, and didn’t take up competitive swimming until she was 12 years-old. She quickly made up time, being named Swimming Canada’s Female Para-Swimmer of the Year six years later in 2014. At 19, she became the most decorated female athlete of Parapan Am history, after winning seven medals, six of which were gold at the 2015 Parapan American Games in Toronto.
Proof that force of mind really is powerful.
Simone Biles, Gymnast, USA
Biles made headlines, and kicked off a mental health revolution, when she pulled out of competition at the 2020 Tokyo Games after experiencing "the twisties” – a mental block unique to gymnastics which causes a disconnect between the brain and body.
Having grown up in foster care, Biles said she felt like she needed time to work on her mental health. It was an admirable step.
"Sometimes, you have to take that power back," Biles says in a new Netflix documentary where she reveals it was only the support of her family and friends that stopped her quitting her sport entirely.
Now 27, Biles recently won a record ninth all-around U.S. championship and will make her triumphant Olympic return in Paris.
Charley Davison, Boxing, GB
Being a woman in sport is difficult for a variety of reasons, least of all because of the pressure to have children.
For Davidson, being known as ‘The Boxing Mum’ gives her drive. “That's what I think about all the time – my kids and boxing,” she says. “Before I get into that ring all I think about is them three children.”
Now 30, Davidson has boxed since primary school, but took a seven-year break at 19 to start a family. After returning, she was fast-tracked to Tokyo.
Following the 2023 European Games in Poland, where she clinched bronze in the women's 54kg event, Davidson’s Paris spot is secured.
It will be her last shot at an Olympic medal before she leaves to turn professional.
Justin Phongsavanh, Javelin, USA
From his earliest years, the odds have been stacked against Justin Phongsavanh. With his parents sent to prison when he was two years-old, he entered the foster system in Iowa before being shot in a McDonald’s car park in 2015. The bullet broke into five pieces, one of which lodged in his spine, paralysing him.
Now 26, he’s defeated the odds – helped by his service dog, Morgan. Phongsavanh isn’t just doing this for himself, but for differently-abled people everywhere, using his social media platform to educate people about disabilities.
Ma Long, Table Tennis, China
Ma Long’s story is inspiring not because of hardships overcome, but because of the sheer excellence on display. At 35, he’s regarded as the greatest table tennis player in history.
He’s already the sport’s most decorated Olympian, with five consecutive gold medals to his name.
Paris is rumoured to be his last Olympics – could it also be the scene of his sixth consecutive win?
Oksana Masters, Paralympic Rowing, Skiing, and Cycling, USA
Born in Ukraine, Masters was exposed to in-utero radiation poisoning resulting from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown. As a result, she was born with webbed fingers, no thumbs, and a lack of weight-bearing bones in her lower legs. Orphanages and abuse followed, until she was brought to the US aged seven.
Now 35, Masters has undergone leg amputations and reconstructive surgeries on her hands.
In spite of it all, she discovered a passion for rowing, representing her country in the London Paralympic Games and winning bronze. In 2014, she entered the Paralympics in Sochi on the US cross-country ski team and the biathlon, picking up a bronze and a silver medal.
Not content with meddling in two sports, she took up cycling to help with a back injury, and will be representing her adopted home country in the sport in Paris.
“That’s the cool thing, which I think a lot of people don’t realise, about Paralympians, myself or my teammates or any Paralympian in the world,” she told the Guardian, “we’re constantly adapting to our environment, because the world was never created for us.”
Words: Tom Ward
