Arizona Athletes Shine at the 2024 Paris Olympics – Golds, Records and Memorable Moments – The Gila Herald

Arizona has an excellent record of producing some of the world’s greatest athletes, and the 2024 Olympics in Paris was yet another showcase of sporting talent connected to the Grand Canyon State. This year’s summer Olympic Games saw the USA climb to the top of the medal rankings with an impressive 40 golds and 126 overall medals, ahead of China’s 91 total.

Team USA was in excellent form, and athletes connected to Arizona won a total of ten medals. It’s a great time to be a sports fan in Arizona, not least because the state has now legalized sports betting. You can claim SportReview.com’s bonus for BetMGM if you want to bet on Arizona sports. Let’s take a look at the Grand Canyon State’s best performances in Paris 2024.

Basketball

Team USA has dominated Olympic basketball, with the men’s team winning 16 out of 19 gold medals and the women’s team winning 9 out of 11. Arizona is home to the Phoenix Suns, which last made the NBA finals in 2021. In addition, the Pheonix Mercury of the WNBA are three-time championship winners.

Kevin Durant

Current Pheonix Suns player is a two-time NBA champion and made his fourth Olympics this summer while playing for Team USA. Although he was suffering from a calf injury and mostly came off the bench, he still scored an average of 13.8 points per game and was the team’s third-highest scorer as they won a gold medal. Durant is also the record holder for the most points scored while playing for Team USA.

Devin Brooker

Joining Kevin Durant on Team USA was his Phoenix Suns teammate Devin Brooker. The reining second team all-NBA guard and Western Conference All-Star has played in Arizona for his entire professional career and has previously led the Suns to the NBA finals. He picked up the second gold medal of his career, averaging 11.7 points per game.

Brittney Griner

After serving time in a Russian penal colony, Griner is back in the WNBA playing for the Phoenix Mercury and formed part of the successful USA women’s basketball team that won gold this Olympics.

Diana Taurasi

Taurasi is a legend of the Pheonix Mercury, and although she didn’t play in Paris this summer, she picked up her sixth gold medal, which put her in an elite bracket of athletes. Less than 50 athletes in history have ever won six Olympic gold medals or more.

Skateboarding

Skateboarding is a relatively new addition to the Olympics but has become hugely popular thanks to its creative styles and a mix of old and young competitors. Team USA has already achieved great results in the sport, and this year, there were two Arizona athletes on the team.

Jagger Eaton

Eaton, a 23-year-old from Arizona, won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics and improved this summer with a silver medal. The former child skateboarding prodigy keeps getting better after first competing at the X Games at the age of eleven and will hope to win a gold in street skateboarding at the next Olympics.

Paige Heyn

Heyn didn’t manage to win a medal this time out but finished in an impressive sixth place in the women’s street skateboarding event. What makes the Arizona athlete’s achievement even more impressive is the fact that she’s only 16 years old.

Archery

Archery is one of the oldest sports of the modern Olympics, having made its debut at the games in 1900. South Korea typically dominates, but many athletes from the USA often win medals too.

Brady Elisson

Elisson formerly lived and trained out of Globe, Arizona, and was unlucky not to come away with a gold medal after an incredibly close final match that ended in a tiebreaker. Still, he won silver and now has an impressive five Olympic medals to his name.