Alan Taylor

ESA / Hubble & NASA, L. Kelsey
Day 3 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: The Hubble Space Telescope brings us this nearly edge-on view of the lenticular galaxy NGC 4753. Lenticular galaxies have an elliptical shape and ill-defined spiral arms. NGC 4753 sits about 60 million light-years from Earth, and is believed to have merged with a nearby dwarf galaxy about 1.3 billion years ago, creating the distinctive wavy dust lanes around its nucleus.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, K. Pontoppidan, J. Green
Day 2 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: This image shows the center of the Serpens Nebula, as captured by the James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-InfraRed Camera. The Serpens Nebula, located 1,300 light-years from Earth, is home to a particularly dense cluster of newly forming stars, some of which will eventually grow to the mass of our sun.

Christophe Ena / AP
The teams of France and Argentina compete during the blind-football gold-medal match in Paris on the last day of the 2024 Paralympic Games. After reaching a 1–1 draw in regular time, France went on to win the game and the medal in a penalty shootout.

David Ramos / Getty
Gold-medalist Mauricio Valencia of Team Colombia poses for a photo during the medal ceremony for the men’s shot put F34 final on day 10 of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games. Valencia had his canine teeth modified to look like fangs in order to break down any stereotypes people may have about Paralympic athletes. He says, “I didn’t want to have the same smile as the rest of the world. I’ve always said that Paralympic sport has to be a spectacle.

Ezra Shaw / Getty
From left: Silver medalist Johannes Floors of Team Germany, gold medalist Hunter Woodhall of Team USA, and bronze medalist Olivier Hendriks of Team Netherlands pose for a photo after the men’s para-athletics 400m T62 final race, on day nine of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games.

Michael Steele / Getty
Oksana Masters of Team USA celebrates winning the Women’s H5 Road Race on day eight of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games, on September 5, 2024. This win is Masters’ second gold medal of the 2024 Paralympic Games, after she placed first in the Para Cycling Road Women’s H4-5 Individual Time Trial the day before.

Emilio Morenatti / AP
Diego Meneses, of Colombia, competes in the Men’s Javelin Throw F34 Final at the Stade de France stadium during the 2024 Paralympics, on September 4, 2024. Meneses won the bronze medal in the event.

Steph Chambers / Getty
Kinga Dróżdż of Team Poland competes against Xufeng Zou of Team China during the Women’s Sabre Category A fencing quarterfinals on day six of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games at the Grand Palais. In wheelchair fencing matches, competitors are seated in opposing wheelchairs that are fixed to a platform, ensuring close-combat tactics and limiting their ability to dodge attacks. In the sabre and épée categories, hits above the waist are counted.

Steph Chambers / Getty
Hicham Lamlas of Team Morocco collides with Maximiliano Espinillo of Team Argentina during a men’s preliminary group B blind football match on day four of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games at Eiffel Tower Stadium. Blind football is played between two teams of five, made up of four vision-impaired outfield players wearing blindfolds and a goalkeeper who is sighted or partially sighted.

Franck Fife / AFP / Getty
Gold medalist Nicholas Bennett of Team Canada celebrates during the victory ceremony for the men’s SB14 100-meter breaststroke final event at the Paris La Defense Arena in Nanterre, France, on September 2, 2024. The SB14 classification is for swimmers with an intellectual impairment. Bennett, who is autistic, won his second medal of the games, and Team Canada’s first gold medal of the 2024 Paralympic games.

Steph Chambers / Getty
Hicham Lamlas of Team Morocco collides with Maximiliano Espinillo of Team Argentina during a men’s preliminary group B blind football match on day four of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games at Eiffel Tower Stadium. Blind football is played between two teams of five, made up of four vision-impaired outfield players wearing blindfolds and a goalkeeper who is sighted or partially sighted.

Alex Slitz / Getty
Sheetal Devi of Team India competes against Mariana Zuniga of Team Chile (not pictured) during the Women’s Individual Compound Open 1/8 Elimination Match 49 on day three of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games at Esplanade Des Invalides on August 31. Devi, now 17 years old, was born without arms. In 2021, she was encouraged by members of the Indian army to take up archery and soon won two gold medals at the 2022 Asian Para Games.

Emilio Morenatti / AP
The Paralympic athlete Arjola Dedaj of Team Italy competes in the women’s long jump T11, at Stade de France, wearing a butterfly-shaped blindfold, during the 2024 Paralympics on August 30, 2024. The T11 class is for runners with near-total visual impairment, and all competitors wear full blindfolds. The long jumpers rely on guides to help them with audio cues as they approach the takeoff board.

Michel Euler / AP
Mason Symons of the United States and Mike Whitehead of Canada vie for the ball during the 2024 Paralympics wheelchair rugby match between United States and Canada on August 29, 2024, at the Champ de Mars Arena in Paris. Wheelchair rugby, also known as “murderball,” can offer some of the most physical and fierce competition in any arena.

Ueslei Marcelino / Reuters
On the final day of Olympic competition, members of Team Serbia celebrate their win, dragging Head Coach Uros Stevanovic into the pool after winning the men’s final water-polo match against Team Croatia at Paris La Defense Arena in Nanterre, France.

Kadir Caliskan / United World Wrestling / Getty
Kotaro Kiyooka of Japan celebrates winning against Tulga Tumur Ochir of Mongolia in the Olympic men’s freestyle 65-kg wrestling semifinal on August 10, 2024, in Paris. Kiyooka advances to the gold-medal match on August 11, against Iran’s Rahman Amouzadkhalili.

Jewel Samad / AFP / Getty
Sha’Carri Richardson of the United States crosses the finish line first, winning gold in the women’s 4x100m-relay final on a rainy day at Stade de France. Richardson ran the anchor leg of the relay, following legs by team members Melissa Jefferson, Twanisha Terry, and Gabby Thomas. Great Britain came in second place, and Germany won the bronze medal.
Previously:
August 8: British sport climber Molly Thompson-Smith hangs on by her fingertips.

Fabrice Coffrini / AFP / Getty
Olympic sport climbing is divided into two medal events, speed and combined boulder and lead. In the lead format, athletes have six minutes to climb as high as they can, scaling a wall more than 15 meters high, without having seen the route beforehand. The steepest sections of the climb have a 42-degree reverse incline.

Isabel Infantes / Reuters
Another of the sports making a debut at the 2024 Olympics is the Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay, where teams with one male and one female athlete alternate for four stages, race-walking about 10 kilometers during each stage and totaling a marathon distance. Here, Maria Perez of Spain reacts as she crosses the finish line first, beneath the Eiffel Tower, her effort and emotions clearly on display as she raises her arms to grab at the banner across the line.

Oli Scarff / AFP / Getty
In the artistic swimming events, team members can bring a level of intense theatricality to both their performances and their swimwear. Here, members of Team France pose just before entering the pool, facing away from the camera and displaying the faces on the backs of their swim caps, creating a bit of a mind-bending illusion. Photographed during the team free routine at the Olympics Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis, north of Paris.

Elsa / Getty
The spirit of mutual support and sportsmanship can be found throughout the Olympic Games, as evidenced so well in this photo from Bercy Arena today. On the podium, both silver medalist Simone Biles and bronze medalist Jordan Chiles of Team USA playfully bow down to the gold-medal winner, Team Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, as she celebrates her win in the women’s floor exercise.

Amanda Perobelli / Reuters
At the start of the women’s artistic-gymnastics uneven-bars final, the 16-year-old gymnast Zhang Yihan of Team China fell during her performance. Unable to fully grasp the high bar during a tricky move, she dropped face-down toward the mats. A coach, who had been standing close for just such a possibility, reached out quickly and was able to help slow her fall. She recovered quickly and finished the routine.

Jack Guez / AFP / Getty
The Olympic judo mixed-team final between France and Japan had come down to a tie, 3–3, at the end of the regulation bouts, when the random spin of a wheel was used to decide which gender and weight class would face each other in a tie-breaker: “men’s +90kg.” France’s Teddy Riner faced off against Japan’s Tatsuru Saito, with Riner winning the bout—and a team gold medal—before a wildly cheering home crowd.

Molly Darlington / Reuters
The sport of Kayak Cross makes its Olympic debut in Paris this year. At the beginning of a run, four kayakers drop about 15 feet from a ramp into the water below, then begin paddling as fast as they can down a white-water obstacle course, battling one another along the way. Here, Amir Rezanejad Hassanjani, originally from Iran and now part of the Refugee Olympic Team, drops in at the start of his time-trial run in Vaires-sur-Marne, France.

Mohd Rasfan / AFP / Getty
In the split-second after taking a huge punch to the face, Canada’s Wyatt Sanford was photographed during a match against Uzbekistan’s Ruslan Abdullaev in the men’s 63.5-kilogram quarterfinal boxing event at the North Paris Arena, in Villepinte.

Oli Scarff / AFP / Getty
Every time a new Olympic Games takes place, photojournalists endeavor to cover the action in novel and compelling ways—not only taking advantage of new technology, but also using their professional eye to discover new angles or framing. AFP photographer Oli Scarff placed an underwater camera in just the right position to capture close views of swimmers as they pass by above.

Jamie Squire / Getty
It is an incredible moment when the support of a world-class team pays off and everyone can celebrate their moment of victory. This amazing shot captures the reactions of the gymnast Simone Biles and her teammates in the background, as Biles finishes her floor-exercise routine and they realize that Team USA will win the artistic-gymnastics women’s team final. Photographed on day four of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, at Bercy Arena.

Ben Thouard /AFP / Getty
Nearly 10,000 miles away from the Games in Paris, the 2024 Olympic surfing events are taking place in Teahupo’o, on the French Polynesian Island of Tahiti, where 48 surfers from 21 nations are competing in the men’s and women’s shortboard events. I’ve always loved surf photography—the incredible power and beauty of nature, combined with the daring, skill, and grace of the riders.

Buda Mendes / Getty
One of the best parts about the Olympics can be the creativity and variety found in the arenas and courses. For the 2024 equestrian cross-country course, designer Pierre Le Goupil took inspiration from the features and grounds of the Palace of Versailles, creating 28 decorative obstacles—including this fence shaped like a stag’s head, with antlers reaching up more than 23 feet (7 meters) on either side.