Our top moments for women at the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics

Plus activities and guidance inspired by the Games

21 August 2024

Originally published August 2024. Updated: 18 September 2024

The 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics might be over, but we’re still thinking about the achievements of all the amazing women and girls who competed.

In 1900, women took part in the Olympics for the first time, with just 22 women competing out of 997 athletes. But the Games have come a very long way since then. This year was the first in Olympic history with even numbers of men and women competing, while the 2024 Paralympics featured a record number of medal events and athlete slots for women. That means in 2024, women had more opportunities than ever before to smash records and win medals – and they did!

Here are some of our favourite moments that showed women and girls can do anything at the Games this year.

  • Out of this year’s top 3 Olympic medal winners, 2 are women: swimmers Torri Huske from the USA (3 golds and 2 silvers) and Mollie O’Callaghan from Australia (3 golds, 1 silver and 1 bronze).
  • Britain’s most decorated Paralympian Dame Sarah Storey claimed her 19th gold medal at this year’s Paralympics. After her victory, she spoke out on the need for greater accessibility in UK society, saying: “If you give every disabled person the chance to thrive, they will.” Like Dame Sarah, you can draw attention to the causes you’re passionate about with the speaking out badge.
  • There were 31 world records broken at the Olympics this year, 39% of them in cycling events. Sophie Capewell, Emma Finucane and Katy Marchant of Team Great Britain were 3 of those record breakers, as they cycled their way to gold in the women’s team sprint. Cycling is a great way to discover the great outdoors and have fun with your unit, even if you’re not breaking any world records!
  • Team India achieved its best-ever performance at the Paralympics, largely thanks to 9 women athletes winning 10 medals. These include 17-year-old Sheetal Devi, the first international para-archery woman champion without arms, who started in archery only 2 years ago. Avani Lekhar became the first Indian woman with 2 Paralympic gold medals, winning in the women’s 10m air rifle shooting event. Have fun improving your aim by trying archery or shooting with your unit.
  • 17-year-old swimmer Eva Okaro made history in the freestyle relay. She’s the first-ever Black woman to represent Team Great Britain in the pool at the Olympics. If you enjoyed watching the swimming events this year, you could try swimming in purpose-built pools as a unit activity.
  • The women of Team USA won a total of 67 medals at the Olympics – an all-time record for women from any country.
  • Women blazed a trail in wheelchair rugby at this year’s Paralympics. The mixed-gender sport has traditionally been dominated by men, but in 2023 there were more women competing than ever before: a total of 8 across all teams – double the number of women who competed at the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021.
  • Simone Biles continued her career as the world’s most decorated gymnast, winning 4 medals in Paris for Team USA at the Olympics. Alongside her amazing talent in gymnastics, she’s also an advocate for mental health and wellbeing awareness in sports. She pulled out of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to focus on her wellbeing, showing the importance of self-care and taking a break when you need to. Read our mental health and guiding page for guidance on how we can apply these lessons to guiding activities.
  • Archer Jodie Grinham of Team Great Britain won an individual bronze and a gold in the mixed team final at the Paralympics. When she first tried to join an archery club, she was turned away due to her disability, as archers weren’t allowed to compete with the bow attached to them. To overcome this, she worked with her dad to develop a new bow design that she could grip. Think about how you could develop something new with the inventing badge.
  • Dutch runner Sifan Hassan won bronze in both the 5000m and 10,000m races at the Olympics. She then won gold in the marathon, completing the challenging course in a record-breaking 2 hours, 22 minutes and 55 seconds. She’s the first woman in Olympic history to win medals in all 3 distance events in the same year. If you’re inspired by her, keep an eye on our challenge events page for opportunities to support Girlguiding by running, trekking or skydiving.
  • The Refugee Olympic Team was created in 2016 to give athletes who are refugees the opportunity to compete. This year, boxer Cindy Ngamba won the team’s first-ever Olympic medal, and Zakia Khudadadi won the first medal for the Refugee Paralympic Team in para-taekwondo. These wins represent hope for displaced people all over the world. Like sports, guiding can have great value to people who are refugees or seeking asylum.
  • The youngest Olympian this year was skateboarder Zheng Haohao from China, who competed at the age of 11 years and 11 months – the same age as many of our Guides!
  • Egypt’s Nada Hafez competed in the women’s saber individual competition while 7 months pregnant! Another pregnant athlete in the Games this year was Yaylagul Ramazanova of Azerbaijan, who competed in archery. She says she felt her baby kick just before hitting a bullseye, achieving the maximum 10 points.
  • Katie Ledecky from the USA became the most decorated woman Olympic swimmer of all time, winning her 9th gold medal and her 14th Olympic medal overall. Her achievements seem even more impressive since she revealed this year that she is living with POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), a condition of the nervous system.

Activities to carry on the Olympic spirit

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