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Olympians are known for achieving dazzling feats and there’s been no shortage of epic moments at Paris 2024. Witness Noah Lyles eking out the 100 meter dash in a photo finish, a legendary and meme-generating pommel horse routine from Stephen Nedorosick, and Simone Biles landing the Yurchenko double pike (ahem, the Biles II).
Yet as tried-and-true yogic appreciators, we’ve observed some more moments of balance, flexibility, and focus that have been no less captivating to us. You see, intentionally or not, athletes consistently find themselves in yoga (or yoga-inspired) poses as they navigate the demands of their areas of expertise. In other words, our yoga radar has been going off like crazy in recent days. Following are some of our favorite postures from Paris.
10 Athletes Practicing Yoga At The Paris Olympics
It’s one thing to stand on your head and do a split (Parivrttaikapada Sirsasana). It is quite another to glide through the air as you nail it. But it’s Simone Bile’s world and we just gawk in it.
A surfer rocking a casual Cobra Pose in the Pacific Ocean. Does that make this surfer a water snake? Strengthening the lower back with this posture might prove useful when facing the compressive power of a 25-foot wave.
A little Goddess Pose in midair during the men’s skateboarding competition! Yas, Nyjah Huston!
Speaking of midair, the rarely seen double Seated Forward Bend at about 35 feet. France’s Jade Gillet and Emily Hallifax briefly defied gravity before shifting into about a dozen other poses on their way to the water. Maximal body control, minimal splash.
Here we witness French fencer Yannick Borel inside the famed Opera Garnier working on his Warrior 2. We appreciate the piercing intensity of his stature—even more so if he could please stack those shoulders over the hips and ground that back foot.
Nam Suhyeon of South Korea engages in a Standing Archer’s Pose during competition. Isn’t it nice when the names of poses are so literal? The elbow drawn back, the focus, the posture flexed and tense with potential energy…we give it a bullseye.
Here we see France’s Marine Boyer engaged in Staff Pose in the lead-up to the Olympics. Except unlike most Staff Poses, in which the lower body maintains full contact with the ground, she balances entirely on her hands on a four-inch beam that’s suspended several feet above the earth. It’s no surprise, really, that Olympians hold such little regard for gravity.
The ferocity. The bared teeth. The primal exhalation. Yep, you guessed it—this one screams Lion Pose, or at least Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz’s tongueless interpretation of it in the aftermath of a semifinal victory.
A High Lunge with an added degree of difficulty. As in, 135 pounds of difficulty. We see you, Anais Michel.
Ah. And here we have a couple of competitors—Great Britain’s Alex Yee and New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde—exhausted and gleeful following their triathlon. Technically, there’s no name for this pose by the medalists. It’s a simple reminder that in both the Olympics and in yoga, expanding the limits of what the body can do also tends to expand the limits of what the heart can do. So whether you’re at the starting line or on your mat starting your morning routine, remember to open those chakras and let yourself flow. Whether or not you make the podium, what follows is gold.
