They are the world’s fastest, strongest, and fiercest. And in Paris, they comprise a full 50% of the numbers, making the Olympics 2024 squad the most gender-balanced one to date. But beneath the day-in-and-day-out grind of elite sport, they’re also just girls, supremely confident in their pink, gloss, shine, and bling. Coming off a season of fuchsia-drenched Barbie resurgence and straight into Charli XCX’s slime-green summer, girlhood has made a surprise appearance at the most competitive sporting event in the world and is here to stay beyond its pop culture relevance and marketability. No matter what the scoreboard says, it’s heartening to watch these female athletes revel in their softness while making and breaking records.
Ahead, we recount our top girlhood moments at the ongoing Paris Olympics: The season’s fangirl award goes to New Zealand’s Michaela Blyde. The rugby sevens athlete was giddy with joy upon getting an Instagram follow and comment from her childhood idol Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. Her teammates rallied around her with the best reply suggestions, already making it a core memory for the 28-year-old. But Fraser-Pryce is royalty, so when she chose to drop by and say “hi” after New Zealand’s game vs China, Blyde sped down barefoot (yes, barefoot) to greet and hug the Jamaican track and field athlete like her long-lost friend, giving us one of the Games’ most wholesome moments. One of Blyde’s teammates had the foresight to record this exchange and ever since the rugby player posted it to her Instagram, she has been flooded with comments dubbing her “an honorary Jamaican”.
Simone Biles, Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera aren’t just America’s Olympic gold-medal-winning gymnasts, they’re also real thick as a girl gang. And that means getting down to full-on discussions on post-medal content. Was it going to be the medal bite or the “I guess we’ll never know” trend? All this on live TV no less, and executed in record time. The entertainment followed right into the official press conference later, as the girls shed some light on their NSFW nickname: FAAFO (f*ck around and find out) Five.
Manu Bhaker and PV Sindhu are thus far India’s only female athletes to have won more than one Olympic medal. Bhaker, a longtime Sindhu fan, once created a fake account to defend the badminton star when she was being trolled. In a heartwarming congratulatory post on Instagram, Sindhu referred to the shooter as “this sweet young girl”, welcoming her to the 2 Olympic Medal Club. Unlike Sindhu and Bhaker, who perhaps find it easier to exchange pleasantries since they aren’t vying for the same medals, Rebeca Andrade and Biles have gone head-to-head in several matchups, and still have only the warmest feelings for each other. In fact, even before the Olympics, Biles encouraged the Brazilian gymnast to not give up on her dreams when she found herself lacking in confidence, knowing fully well that she might one day face her on the bar. After winning the all-around gold, Biles jokingly said, “I don’t want to compete with Rebeca no more. I’m tired. Like, she’s way too close. I’ve never had an athlete that close.” Rebeca responded in kind: “Simone is the best, and she brings out the best of me.”
The internet has voted South Korea’s pistol shooter Kim Yeji as the “coolest” athlete of the Games, and it’s plain to see why. The 31-year-old brings to the range some serious main character energy, exuding a cyberpunk-y vibe in a white baseball cap and black trackpants. The futuristic glasses and poker face upon shooting world record scores definitely add to the silver medalist’s sci-fi badassery. Ice cold she may be on the outside, but you can tell Yeji is a softie, carrying a token of her two-year-old—a small elephant plush toy hanging from her non-shooting hand—to the Olympics.
Speaking of Olympic fashion, having your dental jewelry (grills) match your medal is a serious flex. While showing off her medal and doing the iconic bite pose, US gymnast Jordan Chiles didn’t miss showing off her extra bling, which, along with her graphic eyeliner, only added to the 23-year-old’s already 10/10 personality. Ilona Maher has taken the rugby world and social media by storm for her witty quips on body shamers with her I-refuse-to-budge lipstick and mascara look intact, both on and off the field. The American rugby union player’s what-you-see-is-what-you-get approach has seen her Instagram following climb from 628K before Paris to 2.1M during it. When the 27-year-old is playing, she hands over her phone to her sisters Olivia and Adrienna, who deck up in custom matchday gear with Maher’s face plastered all over it. Olivia, by the way, coined the term “girl dinner” on TikTok. Nothing to not love about the Maher sisters.
