8 Athletes Who Could Make 2024 Paris Olympics Their Last
The Olympics are always the pinnacle of an athlete’s career, but the 2024 Paris Olympics hold extra weight for some competitors.
Heading into the Summer Olympics, select athletes have announced their intentions to retire after the games. Some are retiring just from the Olympics, while others are bowing out of their sport entirely after this last hurrah.
Here’s a roundup of athletes who will be retiring after the Paris Olympics, plus some who are believed to make Paris their last attempt at Olympic gold.
LeBron James
At 39, Lakers superstar LeBron James is the oldest player to compete for Team USA men’s basketball. He told Today‘s Craig Melvin on July 11 that he has no interest in playing in the 2028 Olympics, set to be held in his current hometown of Los Angeles.
“No, I won’t be there,” he said. “I’m getting the hell out of that city when the Olympics come to Los Angeles.”
“All right, I’ll live there all year,” he added with a laugh. “I will not be in Los Angeles in ‘28. I’m getting out of there.”
James is set to play at least two more years with the Lakers. He will be one of the USA flag-bearers in the opening ceremony alongside tennis star Coco Gauff, which would be a fitting tribute to the athlete should this be his last Olympics.
Andy Murray
Tennis pro Andy Murray (37) is the only man to have won win two Olympic tennis golds in singles. He announced on X (formerly called Twitter) on July 23 that the 2024 Paris Olympics will not only be his last Olympics, but his last tennis tournament ever.
“Arrived in Paris for my last ever tennis tournament @Olympics,” he wrote. “Competing for [Great Britain] have been by far the most memorable weeks of my career and I’m extremely proud to get do it one final time!”
Angelique Kerber
Three-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber (36) announced that the Paris Olympics is the “finish line” of her competitive tennis career in a lengthy Instagram post on July 25.
“The finish line. Before the @Olympics begin, I can already say that I will never forget #Paris2024, because it will be my last professional tournament as a tennis player,” she wrote. “And whereas this might actually be the right decision, it will never feel that way. Simply because I love the sport with all my heart and I’m thankful for the memories and opportunities it has given me.”
Kerber doesn’t have any Olympic medals, so this will be her last shot at the podium.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, two-time Olympic gold medallist and a five-time world champion in Track and Field from Jamaica, announced in February 2024 that this is her last Olympics, saying she owes it to her family to retire after years of success.
“My son needs me,” agw told Essence. “My husband (Jason) and I have been together since before I won in (Beijing) 2008. He has sacrificed for me. We’re a partnership, a team. And it’s because of that support that I’m able to do the things that I have been doing for all these years. And I think I now owe it to them to do something else.”
Perry Baker
Team USA rugby player Perry Baker (38) announced in March 2024 that the Paris Olympics will be his last tournament.
“I know I can still play this game at the highest level. My body feels great, my movement and technical abilities are all still there, but I feel like my time and attention requires to be put elsewhere,” he said, per NBC Olympics. “I have three boys, one just turned 20 years old, another is 13 and the other is still a baby boy, so I just feel like I need to be more involved in their lives and my wife’s life.”
He added: “For the past 10 years and before my wife and I started a family, I have always been traveling to play rugby, and I loved every single minute of it, but now as a father of three boys, my time needs to be put more on them than myself.”
Baker was an NFL player before he became a pro rugby star.
Mutaz Essa Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi
High-jumpers Mutaz Barshim (33, above left) and Gianmarco Tamberi (32, above right) opted to tie for the gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics (which took place in 2021 instead of 2020 due to the pandemic). The friendly rivals will compete once more in Paris, both of them having expressed their intentions for this Olympics to be their last.
Bashim wants to win gold again in Paris, he told Africanews. The player from Qatar wants to leave the Olympics having further cemented his “legacy.”
Tamberi hasn’t outright announced his retirement, but has reportedly indicated his intention to make this year his last Olympics. This duo’s face-off will be one to watch!
Simone Biles
At 27 years old, Simone Biles is the oldest woman to compete in Olympic gymnastics in 72 years. This year’s USA women’s gymnastics team are all women in their 20s except for one, in fact, a rarity in this sport.
Biles has not said that this is her last Olympics, but a comment made during the Olympic trials this year indicates that she’s thinking about life after the sport.
Speaking of critics who railed against her decision to drop out of the Tokyo Olympics, Biles said, per The Associated Press, “They want to see the downfall, which is really unfortunate because sports hasn’t seen athletes like we’ve seen before. So you really have to give them their flowers in the sport because once they’re gone, you’re going to miss them.”
Biles said that she wants to prove to herself that she’s back and better than before after the Tokyo dropout. Could this desire also be informed by the possibility that this could be her last Olympics? Whenever she walks away, she leaves as arguably the greatest gymnast of all time.
From TV Guide Magazine
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