Olympics brought us so many viral moments – and many more questions

As with the Olympic opening ceremony, my three-generation family will be watching Sunday’s closing ceremony. Like millions of our fellow earthlings, we’ve been glued to our screens on all platforms for so much of the Summer Games in the past two weeks that I wouldn’t dream of missing the finale.

My family will remember the Paris Olympics for so many viral moments, including:

• The already most-decorated-gymnast Simone Biles, 27, winning four more medals for Team USA.
• How swimmer Katie Ledecky, 27, became the most decorated American female Olympian of all time with 14 medals.
• Jerome Brouillet’s photo of Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina, 30, and his board levitating above the ocean as he earned a near-perfect 10.
• French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati, 21, gaining followers because, as he posted on TikTok after his crotch knocked down the crossbar, “You create more buzz for your package than your performances.”
• Zeng Zhiying, a 58-year-old table tennis player who missed out on being selected to represent China in Los Angeles in 1984 but in Paris represented Chile. Her Olympic debut at our age was heavenly.

A much more down-to-earth feat, though, will be what sticks with me after the 2024 Summer Games. It’s also what brought a few questions to mind.

‘I don’t believe it. I’m scoring at least once.’ The Olympics table tennis moment we need to know more about.

On opening ceremony evening July 26, NBA international superstar Steph Curry swapped Olympic pins with as-yet-unknown Olympians like a giddy kid at summer camp. When he realized he had just met the U.S. women’s table tennis team, Curry brought the star-struck Asian Americans to where his mostly African American basketball teammates were hanging out and goaded Anthony Edwards, who prides himself on excelling in many sports, that these seemingly demure ladies could shut him up.

Friendly trash talk followed, with the 23-year-old Minnesota Timberwolves guard Edwards saying, “I don’t believe it. I’m scoring at least once,” and the 28-year-old Olympic veteran Lily Zhang smilingly responding, “There’s only one way to try it out.”

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I instantly followed @usabasketball and @usatabletennis_ on Instagram, but so far, there’s been no word of this match that so many on social media have demanded. This sparked the first of several questions I have for Olympians as well as Olympic organizers:

When can we see Ant play Ping-Pong with Lily? It’s heartwarming that Edwards showed up to cheer Zhang on as she advanced to the round of 16. And bravo that his team invited her squad to basketball practice, where they traded souvenirs and autographs. But the U.S. Major League Table Tennis could use the help of NBA gods to gain support. Take pity on us mere mortals and hold an exhibition.

Where’s Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva? In February 2022, during the Beijing Winter Games, I wrote a column saying, “I have never wanted a 15-year-old to fail so much in my life. But when (Valieva) executed her short program … that’s exactly what her team’s handling of her positive drug test had reduced me to – a spiteful fan who loved her during the pre-Olympics competitions but now feels betrayed. … Russia grabbed gold, the USA earned silver and Japan won bronze.”

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As USA TODAY Sports columnist Christine Brennan wrote this past week: “The Russian scandal … forced the original medal ceremony to be canceled and triggered an infuriating series of international delays and appeals, finally ending with a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruling less than two weeks ago.” On Wednesday, the 2022 U.S. Olympic figure skating team ‒ including “Rocketman” Nathan Chen ‒ finally got their gold medals and the Japanese skaters got their silver, all surrounded by their loved ones at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

But what about Valieva? Now two years older but still a teenager, did she watch the medal ceremony somewhere? What is she up to? Who does she blame for losing gold?

Olympics gender equality vs. gender-blind sports

How long before gender-parity Olympics lead to gender-neutral Games? Paris witnessed the first-ever Olympics to reach gender parity. In 2016, as the Summer Games wrapped up in Rio de Janeiro, I co-wrote an editorial advocating, “Let men and women compete head-to-head in shooting.“

Josh Rivera and I reasoned: “For decades, men and women shooters competed against each other in international events. At the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, American Margaret Thompson Murdock tied for first with teammate Lanny Bassham in the small-bore rifle competition. After the judges examined the targets, they awarded the gold medal to the man and the silver to the woman. To Bassham’s credit, he asked Murdock to share the top podium with him as the national anthem played.

“After that, the International Olympic Committee phased out mixed-gender shooting and created events just for women. Yet in the 21st century, shooting remains one of the few collegiate sports that’s gender blind ‒ and in which women are highly competitive. It’s time to take a fresh look at which sports lend themselves to head-to-head competition, regardless of gender.”

Equestrian remains the only Olympic sport that’s gender neutral. So our editorial question from eight years ago still stands: “If the horse doesn’t care who’s handling it, why should a gun?”

How will Los Angeles beat the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony? I can’t wait to see how Sunday’s closing ceremony will compare with the opening ceremony’s historic parade of nations on boats down the River Seine. But L.A. holds the next Summer Games. How do you top the Eiffel Tower? Traditionally, at a closing ceremony, the next Olympic host also puts on a show to tease coming attractions. There are rumors that Tom Cruise, who’s been prominently attending numerous Olympic events around Paris, will execute some wild stunt.

Hollywood, bring it.

Thuan Le Elston, a USA TODAY Opinion editor, is the author of “Rendezvous at the Altar: From Vietnam to Virginia.”