After nearly three exciting weeks of competition and conversation, the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris have come to a close. And in keeping with Olympic tradition, this year’s Games gave tens of millions of viewers across the globe lots to celebrate, marvel at, and debate. We analyzed more than 5.8 million posts to get the final word on what really had audiences talking this year.
The following insights come from Meltwater data analyzing worldwide conversations in English and French on Instagram, X, Facebook, LinkedIn (publications reposted on X only), blogs, websites, media, forums, and reviews from July 26 through August 11, 2024. View our full data analysis on our Paris 2024 dashboard.
Basketball Dominated the Global Conversation
By share of voice, engagement actions, and reach, basketball was a clear winner in Olympics media coverage and online conversation. It emerged as the most talked about sport by mentions, generating nearly 194,000 mentions. Those posts also generated over 26 million engagement actions, more than any other individual sport.
The global Olympics basketball conversation primarily focused on the US men’s team star players LeBron James, Anthony Edwards, and Stephen Curry.
And though the basketball conversation was strong throughout the Olympics, mentions of the sport were highest from August 8 to August 11 thanks to two thrilling pushes to victory. The August 8 surge in basketball conversation was due to the men’s semi final game in which the US team staged a dramatic fourth-quarter comeback against Serbia. After recovering from a 17-point deficit to win that game, the team went on to get the gold. Meanwhile, the US women’s team helped boost the basketball conversation to its highest spike August 11 with its exciting win over France. The teams were neck and neck until the US secured the gold by a single point in overtime.
LGBTQI+ and Feminism were Leading Topics
After basketball, boxing was the second most talked about and engaging sport, with 58% of the conversation focusing on LGBTQI+ issues and 25% focusing on feminism. The conversation was largely driven by posts about boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan. Both women faced global harassment and scrutiny over their gender despite having proven their eligibility to compete in women’s sports at the Olympics.
As shown in the previous section, the global Olympics boxing conversation peaked on August 1, the day after Khelif beat Italian boxer Angela Carini, who abandoned the fight after 46 seconds. The incident sparked a firestorm of discussion about women’s sports, gender identity, sexism, and transphobia that pushed the women’s boxing event into the spotlight. Khelif and Yu-ting went on to win gold in their respective events on August 9 and 10.
Neeraj Chopra and Léon Marchand were the Standout Athletes
Of the 12 athletes to watch, as chosen by the Olympics website, Neeraj Chopra was the most discussed overall, with mentions in more than 87,000 posts. Those mentions spiked on August 8, the day he won silver in the men's javelin throw, becoming the first Indian track and field athlete to win medals at consecutive Olympics. Celebrated former cricket player Sachin Tendulkar praised Chopra in a post that generated more than 963,000 engagement actions and reached an estimated 7.39 million people.
Meanwhile, French swimmer Léon Marchand, the second most talked about athlete, generated the most engagement actions overall. This was likely due to his historic performance, winning four individual gold medals (including two in one day) and one bronze.
Snoop Dogg was a Breakout Star
Athletes always command the most attention at the Olympics, for obvious reasons, but Paris 2024 saw an interesting departure. Snoop Dogg emerged as one of the most talked about people at the Olympic Games.
Compared to our selected athletes, Snoop Dogg generated more engagement and reach than high-profile competitors like Novac Djokovic and Simone Biles. This was due to the fact that the rapper was a fixture throughout the Games. (So much so that speculation spread online about how much he was being paid to be there.) From carrying the torch to attending multiple events, the rapper helped boost viewership and online engagement.
After the opening ceremony, Snoop generated the most buzz on the final day of the Olympics when he performed at the closing ceremony from Los Angeles, his hometown. Audiences will likely see a reprise of his ambassador role when the Summer Olympics takes place there in 2028.
Nike was the Biggest Brand
Nike was by far the most visible sports brand at Paris 2024, generating more engagement actions and mentions than any other. Our analysis of 18 brands found that Nike generated nearly half of all mentions. Adidas was a distant second, despite racking up the highest estimated reach of 51 million. About a fifth of that reach was generated by just one publication, Vogue, which did a series of athlete interviews at the Adidas brand house.
Split by sports mentions, Nike was primarily discussed in conversations about basketball. As the sponsor of the gold-winning, men’s and women’s US basketball teams, the brand had a huge presence on the medal stands and the world stage. It parlayed those wins into celebratory social content, including an Instagram post highlighting the women’s team’s eight consecutive Olympic wins.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg of this year’s Olympics conversation. From further analysis of subtopics, highly engaged content, and geographic distribution, there are many more insights to explore. Check out our Paris 2024 dashboard and dive into the data.
