Paris 2024: All the most emotional Olympic moments in pictures
As the Olympic Games Paris 2024 come to a close, we're looking back on all the most emotional moments from the Games - from the tear-jerking losses, to the heart-warming wins, and every proposal, kiss and celebration in between.
Keep reading to relive every moment that struck a chord with fans around the world from Paris 2024.
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The selfie that bridged a contentious border
Standing together on the podium after the mixed doubles table tennis finals, silver medalists Ri Jong Sik and Kim Kum Yong of North Korea seemed a world apart from the bronze medallists from South Korea Shin Yu-bin and Lim Jong-hoon.
The two teams hailed from countries that share a border and a name, but their ways of life are so different and even now, their nations are still technically at war. (The Korean War ended in 1953, but no peace treaty has ever been signed.)
So when the athletes faced one another at the medal ceremony, no one expected what they'd do next...
READ MORE: Meet the Aussie Olympians who have exploded on social media during Paris 2024
... which was to whip out a phone and snap a selfie.
Athletes from North Korea and South Korea posed together for a rare moment of unity with the Table Tennis Mixed Doubles gold medallists from China, Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha.
Zhou Yaqin's medal bite
As 18-year-old Zhou Yaqin took to the podium after winning silver in the women's balance beam, she looked confused.
Italy's Alice D'Amato and Manila Esposito, who won gold and bronze, posed together with their medals between their teeth, biting down in a common photo tradition at sporting events that Zhou seemed unaware of until that very moment.
For a second she hesitated, eyes fixed on the Italians. What she did next went viral for all the right reasons...
... taking cues from her fellow medallists, Zhou raised her silver medal and put it in her mouth in a sweet moment that spread across the internet like wildfire.
Videos of the moment racked up hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok, where commenters likened Zhou to a little sister learning from her elder siblings at her first Olympic games.
Seconds later, Esposito whipped out her phone to capture a selfie with D'Amato and Zhou, cementing the Chinese Olympian's "little sister" status.
Arisa Trew makes Australian Olympic history
Australians around the world exploded with cheers when 14-year-old skateboarder Arisa Trew won the Women's Park Final at Paris 2024, making her the youngest Aussie to win a gold medal in Olympic history.
But cheers turned to tears when the camera panned to the crowd...
... where even Nine's Brooke Boney struggled to keep her composure as she interviewed Trew's overjoyed parents, Simon and Aiko.
Their tears of joy at seeing their little girl win gold were infectious and before long everyone was weeping with joy.
Everyone except Arisa herself, who was thrilled because her gold medal win meant her parents had to make good on their promise to buy her a pet duck if she placed first at the Olympics.
Australia's golden girls of the pool
What could be better than watching Mollie O'Callaghan, Lani Pallister, Brianna Throssell and Ariarne Titmus take to the podium and collect their gold medals after winning the Women's 4x200m Freestyle Relay Final with flying colours?
Most Aussies watching at home thought the moment couldn't be topped, only to have their expectations blown out of the water moments later...
... when standout star Mollie O'Callaghan was caught on camera placing her gold medal around heat swimmer Jamie Perkins' neck.
"The opportunity to swim alongside the girls ... to have these girls by me and have their support means the world - I've said that a lot," O'Callaghan told Nine reporters.
The touching moment won hearts and was hailed as a testament to the friendship and camaraderie between all the incredible women competing for Team Australia in Paris.
But there was one emotional moment by the pool still to come...
...after winning gold, Titmus and her fellow swimmers were embraced on the sidelines by none other than Queen Mary of Denmark.
Though she's a European monarch today, Mary was born and raised in Tasmania and showed the entire world that a part of her still calls Australia home when she embraced the Aussie swimmers and congratulated them on their incredible performance at Paris 2024.
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