Alan Taylor

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.

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.

Fabrice Coffrini / AFP / Getty
Fencers can be very demonstrative during matches, and the impact of participating in the Olympics seems to intensity the many reactions of all competitors. Today’s photos from Paris, on day one of the Games, captured so many faces full of raw emotion, and I felt that this was a fantastic representative image of the moment.

François-Xavier Marit / AFP / Getty
Following the Parade of Nations on the Seine River, athletes and spectators watch as lasers light up the sky around the Eiffel Tower, at the Trocadero venue, during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 26, 2024.

Ballet in an empty Syrian market, a forest fire in California, releasing turtles in Israel, a briefing by the Easter Bunny in the White House, riots in Northern Ireland, a giant sand dune in France, a wheat harvest in India, sunny weather in New York City, and much more.

Here’s a collection of some of the sights and events taking place in and around Boston from 1970 to 1979. Below, images of the blizzard of 1978, a victory parade for the Bruins after they won the 1970 Stanley Cup, enforcement and opposition to school segregation by busing, a Celtics game in Boston Garden, urban renewals and restorations, a St. Patrick’s Day parade in South Boston, anti-war protests, charm-school lessons, and much more.

Spring started about two weeks ago, and the Northern Hemisphere has begun to warm, with flowers and trees in bloom. Gathered here today, a small collection of images from the past few weeks from North America, Asia, and Europe, of tulips, sunshine, and cherry blossoms—surely signs of warmer days to come.

A theme park reopening in California, Holi celebrations in India, flooding in Australia, whale watching in Mexico, protests in Turkey, a masked rock concert in Barcelona, a snowy Opening Day in Detroit, China Fashion Week in Beijing, tulip fields in Italy, and much more.

Nearly two weeks since its initial eruption, the Fagradalsfjall volcano on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula continues to be active. The gentle nature of the lava flows so far and the volcano’s proximity to the city of Reykjavik have allowed many hikers to make the trip to the site and witness the event up close. Here, a handful of recent images of visitors to Iceland’s newest volcano.

As of today, more than 565 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered around the world, at a rate of about 14 million doses a day. Shots are being given at mass-vaccination sites, hospitals, small clinics, and in people’s homes, as governments and organizations work to reach everyone currently eligible. The work has only just begun, though; despite encouraging early numbers, only 4 percent of the global population has received at least one dose so far.

Cherry blossoms in London, lava flowing in Iceland, Nowruz celebrations in Iraq, spring training in Florida, a COVID-19 memorial in Prague, a “rally against hate” in New York, record flooding in Australia, a stuck ship in the Suez Canal, and much more.