Some of the memes from the 2024 Paris Olympics. Some of the memes from the 2024 Paris Olympics. (All photos via X/Twitter.)
OlympicsTwitterBy Andrew Bucholtz on

One of the most interesting things about the Olympics is how it’s not just about the biggest superstars heading into the Games, but also some lesser-known athletes who garner attention during the event. Sometimes, that’s for medal accomplishments, sometimes it’s for other things, and sometimes it’s a combination of both.

But it’s a rare sports event that sees incredible amounts of discussion of both a previously world-famous-figure like Simone Biles and a previously-unknown-to-the-wider-world one like Yusuf Dikec (the 51-year-old Turkish shooter whose hand-in-his-pocket pose en route to a team silver launched a million memes). And this Olympics has been particularly potent for memes. To start with, here are some of the many memes, jokes, and more around Dikec and the other shooters:

But the shooting events were far from the only thing producing memes.

But it’s not just the shooting events that drew memes. American men’s gymnast Stephen “Pommel Horse Guy” Nedoroscik got his share as well, both for the team event where he sat there waiting for his event and then helped the U.S. to bronze, and for the individual event where he won another bronze:

Over in women’s rugby, U.S. prop Ilona Maher has built up her social media presence for years, but got some extra notoriety around these Games for her messages on body positivity, her talk with Jason Kelce (who wound up wearing a shirt featuring images of her), her truck-stick hit, and then her post-medal celebration:

In women’s gymnastics, Biles certainly was well-known before these Olympics. But she boosted her profile further with three gold medals so far, and had some iconic social media moments, including a GOAT necklace, a shot at ex-teammate MyKayla Skinner, and a “Black job” reference:

Beyond that, there have been a ton of other athletes at these Games who have taken off for unusual things. Like Norwegian swimmer Henrik “Muffin Man” Christiansen:

Canadian swimmer Richard Funk:

And Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina, thanks to an incredible photo from AFP’s Jerome Brouillet:

That, of course, spawned some further memes:

And hey, at least that was more positive than the other surfer meme, on Germany’s Tim Elter losing his trunks:

But Elter took it well:

There have been lots of notable memes, images, and more from previous Olympics as well, of course. But the Paris Games do seem to be standing out a bit here. Some of that may be about NBC’s decision to finally show everything live in one place on Peacock, which has led to more people watching and commenting on events in real time (always important for the spread of memes).

The TV ratings have been strong as well, so we guess those millennials can’t be blamed this time. And the Paris to U.S. time shift also isn’t too dramatic, which probably also helps (unless you’re a boss complaining about lost daytime productivity). Whatever the reason, it’s been a fruitful harvest for Olympic memes so far. And there are probably more to come.

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

View all posts by Andrew Bucholtz