2024 Olympics Review

By: Garrett Arch '26

With the Olympics finishing about a month ago, there is much to look back on. Although the Olympics took place in Paris, France, it seemed like the American athletes were well prepared for their next summer Olympics right here in Los Angeles. The US took home the most medals with 126, and tied for the most gold medals with 40. A whopping 22 of those medals came from Californians with 7 of those medals being gold. Although with so much Olympic talent coming from the US this year, it’s fair to ask the question, will that talent be up to the same caliber in 4 years? The statistics say yes. The past two times the Olympics were in sunny Los Angeles was 88 years ago and 40 years ago. The first of these times, the US team showed out with 110 medals, 44 of them being gold. The most recent time in 1984, the US won 174 medals with 83 of those being gold. Additionally, the US hasn't had an Olympics with less than 90 medals since Rome 64 years ago!

A lot of SOCES students and teachers were enthralled with this year’s Olympics and inspired by what these athletes are capable of. SOCES student’s favorite surfer/World History teacher, Mr. Prinn, commented on the Olympic surfing in Tahiti in which the US won one of their gold medals. “The Tahiti wave is a wave that’s only function is to get into a deep barrel… but I don’t find that wave to be that interesting beyond that…”, Mr. Prinn noted when asked his thoughts on the size of this year’s competition. When Mr. Prinn was asked how he thought the competition in 4 years would compare to this year, he added to his comments by stating, “The venue will be in lower trestles… the best wave in Southern California… You can do a lot on the wave, it’s a long wave…You have to be exceptional (to surf that wave), but maybe one of these days I’ll paddle board out just to watch because that’s how good those guys are.” Based on these comments, we can assume that we will be seeing Mr. Prinn competing in the upcoming 2028 Olympics.

Ms. Sisco, a new English teacher, joined SOCES faculty this year. Everyone was very interested to hear about her hobby of rock climbing. She too enjoyed watching the Olympics this year, with Sam Watson taking home the bronze in Men’s speed. But more importantly to Ms. Sisco, she was able to watch Brooke Rabouto win silver in the Women’s combined. When asked about how she thinks the competition will change when the Olympics return to Los Angeles, Ms. Sisco stated, “This year in women’s climbing, the second place medalist was the first American woman to medal for rock climbing… so ideally (in the next four years) we’ll have more Americans competing in general and placing.” Ms. Sisco seemed excited for her favorite Olympic sport to be right in her backyard, telling us “I already have sent my email for them to let me know… I want to try to watch the climbing for sure”.

As enthusiasm is building for the 2028 Olympics, both students and faculty at SOCES are excited about the chance to see the action up close. Whether watching some of the world’s best talents in surfing, or cheering on American athletes in one of the newest Olympic sports, it is safe to say that everyone is very excited.