The cycling leg of the women’s triathlon at the Paris Olympics descended into a flury of bicycle crashes on Wednesday as competitors slipped across wet cobblestone. 

The conditions for the event featured rainstorms, heat and humidity. It resulted in several competitors being unable to control their bicycles around various turns on the cobblestone roads of Paris, as several athletes crashed and fell onto the ground. 

Guam’s Manami Iijima was the first athlete to crash, and her tumble was soon followed by Brazil’s Vittoria Lopes, Germany’s Lisa Tertsch and Belgium’s Jolien Vermeylen.

“I don’t really have any words for the last two hours that we just experienced,” Australian triathlete Sophie Linn told reporters, via the Sydney Morning Herald. “That was every single possible adverse weather condition, you know, a high current, rain, heat, humidity like it was just everything and the crowds.”

Some athletes even withdrew from the competition due to the constant crashing, including Norwegian athlete Lotte Miller, who withdrew from the event after crashing and falling off her bicycle twice.

For the competitors who stayed in to finish the event, the constant crashing had an inevitable impact on the final results. 

MEET THE 2024 US OLYMPIC MEDALISTS: PHOTOS

Germany’s Laura Lindemann fell off her bike with three laps remaining after being part of the 10-rider leading group. After the crash, she never regained her pace. 

Colombia’s Maria Carolina Velasquez Soto falls on the ground as she competes in the cycling race during the women’s individual triathlon at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in central Paris on July 31, 2024. (Ben STANSALL / AFP)

Meanwhile, Great Britain’s Beth Potter and Georgia Taylor-Brown were a few of the lucky athletes who avoided crashing, and thus, entered the run in the leading group. Potter eventually won bronze. France’s Cassandre Beaugrand won gold while Switzerland’s Julie Derron won silver. 

Prior to the event, the bigger concern about the safety of the triathlon was whether the River Seine would be clean enough for swimming. The event was even postponed a day due to concerns over water pollution. Paris spent $1.4 billion to clean the river in preparation for the event, but the pollution levels were badly impacted by the heavy rains.

“It was like it was a really weird video game I just played,” Linn added. “I think we got more dirty on the bike [than in the water], to be honest, from all the water coming up off the road. I tried to really ensure that the position within the pack was always near the front to avoid any crashes.”

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The Americans’ stunning bronze-medal win in women’s rugby sevens Tuesday was so big even Ilona Maher didn’t know what to say.

And given that she’s the rugby player with the largest social-media following in the world, for Maher to be saying little says a lot.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” Maher said after the U.S. overcame a five-point deficit to Australia in the closing seconds to win on Alex “Spiff” Sedrick’s nearly 100-yard dash to a try, followed by her two-point conversion kick after time had expired. “I’m so tired but I’m so excited.”

Maher, a two-time Olympian who chased Sedrick across the goal line, has attracted a massive social-media following with viral videos that champion body positivity, women’s empowerment and offer humorous takes on her life as a world-class athlete.

Since March, she has more than doubled her audience on TikTok and Instagram to a nearly combined 4 million followers, which has put a spotlight on a sport that has struggled to find a foothold in the U.S. Those figures are continuing to climb now that she’s the most recognized player on the third-best team in the world. Late Tuesday night, Instagram posts of Maher and Sedrick celebrating and waving a U.S.A. Olympic banner each got more than 220,000 likes.

“It’s been enlightening just to try to break down the barriers to what people view athletes as,” Maher said. “We put athletes on a pedestal, think of them as indestructible and very strong. But also, athletes are human.

“For me, it’s just showing how human we are. I do that not only through talking about mental health and the sad days, but also being authentic in the other emotions we feel. Whether it’s the awkwardness, being weird or the fun times, the down times, I think just being really authentic, people really resonate with it.”

Social media can be a double-edged sword for athletes. It gives them a chance to promote themselves, their teams and their sports, but it also opens them up to criticism, personal attacks, hate and even racism. As a result, many avoid what Maher has embraced.

“I took a big break from social media and I stopped posting as much just because it was just stressing me out more than it was helping me,” said Nevin Harrison, a gold medalist in women’s canoe sprint three years ago in Tokyo. “But seeing someone like Ilona posting on Instagram, I’m sure a lot of girls see her and they say ‘wow, she’s really strong too and she looks gorgeous. She’s still feminine and sexy but she’s still got big muscles.’

“They see that they can become strong and they can become buff and still be gorgeous.”

United States’ Ilona Maher celebrates after winning their women’s quarterfinal rugby sevens match between Great Britain and the United States at the 2024 Summer Olympics, in the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis, France, on Monday.

(Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi / Associated Press)

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Maher, 27, first drew widespread attention on social media during the Tokyo Olympics, when the coronavirus pandemic emptied stadiums and arenas and limited interaction between the athletes, media and fans. Her videos of life in the Olympic Village broke through those barriers, showing her and teammates testing out the cardboard beds, explaining the difficulties of flirting with other Olympians and trying the deep-fried cheese in the cafeteria.

Many of the posts also have a serious side, however, and her unique, impassioned takes on mental health and other topics won Maher, who is a nurse in San Diego when she’s not playing rugby, a TED Talk platform.

She expanded her repertoire in Paris, mixing videos of her practicing her run onto the field and struggling to get out of a bean-bag chair with others featuring guest appearances by tennis star Coco Gauff, one of the U.S. flag-bearers in the opening ceremony, and former NFL player Jason Kelce.

They’re sometimes goofy, sometimes witty and sometimes heartfelt. But they’re never boring.

And if the videos have succeeded in pulling the curtain back to show what the life of a world-class athlete is like, they have also introduced a U.S. audience to rugby — especially the seven-on-seven game played in the Olympics, which is faster and shorter than rugby union, the more common version of the sport.

“The sport has a lot of stereotypes around it. It’s something that I’ve tried to debunk, if that’s the right word,” said Maher, who played field hockey, basketball and softball before switching to rugby at age 17. “Rugby’s a very physical game. But I also think you don’t have to sacrifice your femininity or your beauty playing it. That’s a little bit why I wear the lipstick when I play.

“As women, a lot of times our body has been this object to be looked at and to be objectified and I hate that there’s girls out there that feel like they don’t have a purpose for their body and so they want to change it constantly. To get into sports and a sport like rugby, a sport like canoe and track and field gives your body a purpose, shows what it can do and what it’s capable of. It’s not just something that is for others to judge.”

Ilona Maher, center, celebrates on the podium after the U.S. women’s rugby sevens team won bronze at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday.

(Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi / Associated Press)

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But Tuesday’s upset over one of the pre-Olympic favorites, which gave the U.S. its first-ever medal in rugby sevens, not only expanded Maher’s platform, it also gave the sport at least one powerful and deep-pocketed supporter. Less than two hours after the final game at a sold-out Stade de France, USA Rugby sent out a photo of Maher, bronze medal hanging from her neck, with Michele Kang, a businesswoman and investor who owns women’s soccer teams in England, France and the U.S.

Kang, the release said, had agreed to donate $4 million to the women’s team to fund its preparations for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

“I hope it means we get more games in stadiums like this, that we get more money and funding for the women’s game,” Maher said. “We deserve it. We need more girls in the U.S. trying rugby and seeing what it can do for them.”

Think of the Summer Olympics moments that stayed with you the most. Maybe it’s Jason Lezak running down France’s Alain Bernard in the final lap of the 4×100 swimming free relay in Beijing in 2008 to save Michael Phelps’ bid for eight gold medals. Perhaps Usain Bolt crossing the finish line in the men’s 4×100-meter relay in Rio to take his ninth gold medal in as many Olympic tries. Or simply pick any of the four gold medals won by Simone Biles.

If you are a diehard Olympic viewer living in the United States, the likelihood is you watched those events via NBC’s prime-time coverage. But the times are always a-changing in sports media, and for many Olympic viewers, memories from Paris will be served up via Peacock’s “Gold Zone,” an “NFL RedZone”-inspired whip-around show that streams daily from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Peacock.

For those who have watched it, there is only word for it: addictive. It is an uber-modern way to watch the Games. (Note: You need a subscription to Peacock to watch “Gold Zone” or you can use your cable login credentials via NBC’s website or through the NBC Sports App. It will not be shown on any NBC linear channels during the Olympics.) .)

If you tuned into “Gold Zone” on Monday at 1:33 p.m. ET, as I did, here is what you would have witnessed: A quad box on screen that showed the men’s team gymnastics final (where the U.S. ultimately won bronze); a handball match between France and Norway; Spain tennis ace and World No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz against Dutch tennis player Tallon Griekspoor; and Netherlands-China in women’s water polo.

There can be up to 40 events happening simultaneously during these Olympics and “Gold Zone” pledges to bring you coverage anytime a medal is on the line. For instance: As the women’s 200-meter freestyle gold medal in swimming was being conducted on Monday — featuring the popular Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus — “Gold Zone” had a double box that gave equal treatment to France’s Manon Apithy-Brunet defeating countrywoman Sara Balzer in women’s individual sabre.

NBC said since its launch on Saturday, “Gold Zone” has ranked in the top-5 most-watched Olympics titles on Peacock and had a 55 percent jump in the number of accounts that watched between Saturday and Sunday.

Amy Rosenfeld, NBC’s Senior vice president of Olympics and Paralympics production and the point person for “Gold Zone,” described the control room housing the “Gold Zone” monitor wall as “something that looks like NASA with all of the different feeds coming in.” She said there are 30 people working on “Gold Zone” at the NBC Sports headquarters in Stamford, Conn., and they were chosen because they have the personality for this kind of high-wire act. “Gold Zone” uses two lead producers per shift. One producer is talking to the on-air talent and the other serves as a traffic cop.

“The orchestration of this is not for the faint of heart,” Rosenfeld said. “This show is so hard and so exhausting for the producers and directors because there’s something frantically happening in every minute.”

“Gold Zone” has four hosts working throughout the day in shifts. Matt Iseman and Jac Collinsworth clock in from 7 to 11 a.m. ET, followed by Andrew Siciliano (11 a.m.-2 p.m. ET) and Scott Hanson (2 p.m. to the conclusion of the day.) Hanson and Siciliano, of course, are well known for their respective work as Sunday guides of NFL coverage. Hanson has served as the host of “NFL RedZone” since its inaugural season in 2009. He is also an NFL Network host. Siciliano was the host of the “RedZone Channel” on DIRECTV from 2005 to 2023.

Rosenfeld said the core of the show is the researchers, which makes sense given the breadth of the coverage. The producers of “Gold Zone” approach each day with a loose format, but the reality is you cannot plan for the Olympics because, well, things happen. On “Gold Zone” you might see a researcher hand a host a note on camera — or check something on-air in real time — because the audience needs to be informed.

“We said to our talent that they are not expected to be an expert in every single element in every sport and it’s okay to pull the curtain back,” Rosenfeld said. “People think it is kind of cool to see the behind the scenes.”

One of the people watching is George Privateer, who works in marketing and communications in Findlay, Ohio. Privateer volunteered to answer some questions from The Athletic about his “Gold Zone” experience. He said he and his family watched about 10 hours of “Gold Zone” coverage on Saturday and Sunday.

“I’m a big fan of ‘NFL RedZone,’ so when I heard they were trying the concept with the Olympics, I was really excited,” Privateer said. “One of the challenges with streaming something like the Olympics is knowing what sport to turn on and when. There are so many options, I’d typically default to an event featuring Team USA athletes. I know the sports that get the big draw will get the prime-time coverage but there’s drama and stories all over the Olympics, and as fans, we miss a lot of it. ‘Gold Zone’ fixes much of that.”

Privateer said he watched South Korea-China in women’s team archery on “Gold Zone” on Sunday and loved it. He said he would have never encountered that event without “Gold Zone.”

“‘Gold Zone’ took me there during that last round because gold was on the line and I was totally invested,” Privateer said. “Would South Korea win a 10th straight gold? Could China pull the upset? The announcers did a great job of setting up why this was important (South Korea’s never lost the gold, but China beat them earlier in the year) and building the drama. My wife, Christine, is much more of a casual Olympics fan than I am, but she found herself getting sucked into canoe slalom because of ‘Gold Zone.’ She would have never watched that on her own.”

Sean Burke, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sport Management at Florida State University, also responded to our query. He said he has kept the Olympics on “Gold Zone” from the moment the whip-around coverage came on.

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Olympic opening ceremony has total audience of 28.6 million viewers

“I chose to watch ‘Gold Zone’ because of its resemblance to the ‘NFL RedZone,’” Burke said. “It has made it easier to keep up with every single Olympic sport. Moreover, my affection for watching ‘Gold Zone’ and having a second screen has prepared me for college football this fall. It’s also made adjusting my sleep schedule much easier. I can get up in the morning and watch wall-to-wall coverage from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. and then work on assignments at night for my PhD studies.”

NBC Olympics officials have been planning “Gold Zone” for more than a year and Rosenfeld recalled Molly Solomon, the executive producer and president of NBC Olympics production, telling her years ago how much she wanted to do this kind of production. You probably have not heard of Rosenfeld but she was instrumental in building ESPN as a soccer destination. She served as the lead producer for all of ESPN’s men’s and women’s World Cup productions from 1999 to 2014 and joined NBC Sports in June 2022.

Rosenfeld said she is always thinking about how many boxes on screen is too much and how such choices impact the viewer. She prefers fewer boxes when a major medal is being contested. She said she has seen quality feedback on social media, including suggestions that Peacock reduce the “Gold Zone” logo and increase the box size when a quad box appears. (They listened to the audience.) Privateer said if he had one request for “Gold Zone” producers it would be to have Siciliano and Hanson co-host one three-hour block together.

“Our mission is to have you be super-served everything,” Rosenfeld said. “If we’re doing our job right, you can be there with your popcorn and get delivered every important Olympic moment. You don’t have to touch your remote or be on your computer trying to figure out what’s happening next because we are here.”

(Photo of Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, playing Olympic doubles together: Getty Images)