I loved this post using the “Our Friend Steve” sound to highlight Stephen Nedoroscik - such a good use of a popular audio that fit perfectly and really hit on the social trend of everyone absolutely loving Stephen! Made me laugh and is my favorite of the games so far.

Post: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-B4dBqsmkf/ 

Hands-down everything about the USA Women’s Rugby 7’s and Ilona Maher. 

Warby Parker did a meme series on Stephen Nedoroscik, which makes total sense for their brand as an glasses company! https://www.instagram.com/p/C-EAwkzOgNG/?img_index=1

The Clark Kentification of Stephen Nedoroscik is only matched by the market points Rubik’s Cube picked up as a result of his TikToks. My FYP is consumed by him and I watch every single one.

Trending topic for me has to be US Gymnastics and The Simone Biles experience! The memes, her social media digs, the GOLDs -- perfection. Medaling in living rent-free in my timeline and mind!

I always love how certain Olympians capture the public’s imagination and become iconic figures. Take, for example, McKayla Maroney's famous "not impressed" face from the 2012 Olympics. This year, it's Stephen Nedoroscik who stands out. He's an average guy in many respects—until he gets on the pommel horse.

Nedoroscik has seen his social media engagement skyrocket, with posts going from an average of 4K engagements to over 20K, 30K, and even 100K, depending on who tags him.

I'm excited to see how he handles this newfound fame. The opportunities are limitless: brand deals, influencer status—who knows what else the future holds for him?

(https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/tv/a61740707/stephen-nedoroscik-pommel-horse-memes/) photo credit

Librarians have been killing it:

The Gale Borden Public Library had a great Simone Biles meme: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/owyc5Yo1PsxT6SNG/

And Siouxland Libraries was inspired by artistic swimming https://www.facebook.com/share/r/AK7fCuZcGndMU6t7/ and Snoop Dog https://www.facebook.com/share/p/8eVpEiXSjZywW51h/. 

I’ve really enjoyed watching the athletes and their joyful celebrations, but my favorite trend so far is the 'Sad to announce I did not make the 2024 Paris Olympics' meme. It’s been hilarious seeing people attempt different sports with unexpectedly funny or epic fails. So many creators have jumped on this trend, and it’s been a blast watching all the hilarious attempts. I’ve had some good laughs!

Absolutely loving all of the USA gymnastics teams posts. I thought this one Suni posted was great, and I loved how you could hear them talking about making this TikTok right after they won on live TV, it was so cute! https://www.tiktok.com/@sunisalee_/video/7397516849514138926?lang=en

My favorite is the meme that says, “ Meetings? Girl, I’m watching the Olympics have some decency.” IYKYK.

Flavor Flav supporting the women’s water polo team and a track athlete.

Everything Snoop Dogg and Flava Flav. 

All social posts related to Simone Biles have been great to watch! Seeing how brands like Skims used the Olympics to come up with ‘team usa’ clothing campaign was great. 

There have been a lot of great social media viral moments in just the first week of the Paris Olympics, and I wish could share them all, but this is what comes to mind and tops my list. They’ve been social media gold (pardon the pun) on X/Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok - and great for other web content as well:

Gold medal : Turkish sharpshooter Yusuf Dikeç winning silver:
https://x.com/AminaaKausar/status/1818850223021809883

Another demonstration just how meme-able that moment was:
https://x.com/PaprikaGirl_JP/status/1819277960723227088

Silver medal : Snoop Dogg at the Olympics:
https://x.com/EmmanuelMacron/status/1818718931189985506

Bronze medal : Giorgia Villa (Italian gymnast sponsored by Parmesan cheese)

Dominos recreating the infamous Olympic village beds with pizza boxes was a clever way to join the conversation without risking IOC trademark violation. 

Who else had Flavor Flav and Snoop stealing the show on their Olympic bingo card?

All the memes involving Stephen Nedoroscik!

Ilona Maher’s content plus being in the Villaige] is hilarious! 

Easy to make a case that Simone Biles could be the gold medal and social media winner of these Olympics!

Someone already mentioned it, but the ‘Our Friend Steve’ videos with Mr. Pommel Horse are my favorite! My other favorite is ‘the S in USA stands for Simone and Suni’ :-)

For brands, I think Away is killing it with their Olympics content. Especially since they aren’t technically a sponsor so they have had to get creative with how they are phrasing and showing things. 

Otherwise, I have loved all the hilarious social media memes people on social have shared on X and LinkedIn. Especially the ones comparing the two shooting competitors- calling one paid social and the other organic. 

I’ve enjoyed a lot of takes on the Olympics, but may love @artbutmakeitsports the best. My runner up is probably the self-deprecating trends “sorry to say I didn’t make it to the Olympics...” and “if ____ was an Olympic sport”. They make it look so easy! 

Oh! And there was a tiktok with “all the questions my mom asked about the Olympics” which cracked me up, because, yes I asked all the same questions! Why is Australia gold and green?! 

Overall - I guess my favorite is how the clips and photos or funny. amazing, inspiring athletes/moments in time have been used to create a shared experience. Love it.

There have been so many good memes following these events! On a more serious side of coverage, I’ve enjoyed seeing the press resurface around this Simone Biles quote during a 2016 interview she did. 

"I'm not the next Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps. I'm the first Simone Biles." 

Athlete comparison happens a lot during the Olympics, and I applaud that she highlights her individuality. It’s important to appreciate the hard work and dedication one puts in to qualify for the Olympics. They should be able to celebrate their individual success without naming or comparing others. Simone Biles has made a name for herself on and off the gym floor. Her transparency and vocalization of the importance of mental health are inspirational and continues to remove the stigma and open doors to more conversations about mental health.

I work for a national early literacy nonprofit, so I love seeing all of the children’s book creators sharing content about engaging kids with reading through stories of trailblazing athletes and teamwork. Shelves of Color, We Need Diverse Books, and Here We Read have great posts. So many library accounts are also creating amazing Olympic content! 

I love the graphics that show how many books high Simone Biles can jump  I have seen a lot of libraries using this one

This 2023 throwback: