Lavish opening and closing ceremonies, photo finishes, and gold medal drama are all things we've come to expect during the Olympic Games.
But if you've wondered why two famous faces have been missing this time, you're not alone.
You might even be one of the 300,000 people who saw Lee Cocker's post on twitter about them.
Mario and Sonic.
Since the Beijing Olympics, the former video game rivals have collaborated on a series of tie-in titles starring characters from both franchises.
The mascots have sprinted, jumped and thrown their way through a collection of summer and winter Olympic events every four years, and their most recent outing took them to their home country, Japan.
But the world's favourite plumber and Earth's fastest hedgehog haven't visited Paris in 2024.
Lee Cocker, an executive producer on the series for 17 years who worked on every game from the 2008 edition to the Tokyo version, spoke to the BBC about why there wasn’t a 2024 edition.
He told Newsbeat the idea of Mario and Sonic starring in a game together would have been unthinkable once upon a time.
But by the early 2000s, the relationship between once-bitter enemies, Nintendo and Sega, had softened.
Lee says he presented a prototype of the game to the bosses of both companies and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and they were all impressed.
The first game was a huge success, selling about 26 million copies, he says
"It was two of the most iconic video game characters coming together at the Olympics,"
"And it was on the Wii."
At the time, the Nintendo console with motion-control capabilities was a sensation, outselling rivals PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
It was also incredibly popular with families. So, a game everyone could gather around the TV was an easy sell.
"It was a perfect storm," says Lee.
While the sequels never matched the first game's sales, they remained popular.
The response was huge when Lee posted on X to confirm that there would be no Paris version.
For the people that are asking there will be no @MarioSonicGames for @Paris2024 the franchise finished with #MarioAndSonic at the #OlympicGames @Tokyo2020 I know because I worked on all the games in the franchise. #Olympics #PARIS2024 #videogames #gaming #esports #Nintendo #Sega pic.twitter.com/o5OPEksF5G
— Lee Cocker (@leecocker) July 25, 2024
"My Twitter blew up, my social media blew up, my emails blew up," he says.
"Loads of people messaging me, saying: 'We love that game. We grew up on that game."
Despite this, Lee says the licence wasn't renewed for 2024, and the understanding was that the IOC wanted to work with a new partner.
"Think of it as a cake," he says.
"Everyone has to get a piece - the IOC, Nintendo, Sega - so if they're doing it with another company, they get a bigger percentage."
All hope might not be lost. When BBC Newsbeat asked the IOC for an explanation as to why there was no Paris version of Mario and Sonic, it blamed "tight timelines after the postponed Olympic Games Tokyo 2020".
"However, the Tokyo edition is available and very popular. Watch this space for the future," they added.
Lee is less optimistic about the characters qualifying for another Olympics but says the big thing for him is the legacy of the games he did get to make.
"These two videogame characters coming together for the Olympics, that's what happens, it's that Olympic spirit," he says.
"It was very, very iconic, and I'm glad that people shared that. It means a lot to them and was a big part of their childhood."
Hopefully, we see a comeback for the LA Games in 2028.
