Postcard from Paris
Soft in head and heart at the Olympics
This is a Paris you’ve never known and never will again. Empty side streets speak of Parisians good to their threats to vacate for the Olympics. Hotel receptionists attest to sluggish bookings. Restaurants are shuttered. And yet the crowds are here, French and foreigners alike. They exude a relaxed urgency, a collegiate passion. The sport matters madly to them, but not to the point of despondency. These Games have truly cast their spell.
WhatsApp groups are awash with emojis denoting delirium and despair at athlete performances. TV anchors tease tears from stars whether they’ve won or lost. But the over-emoting played out across the screens on our phones and in our living rooms is mercifully absent here in the arenas.
Perhaps it is only in the flesh that you can truly appreciate Pierre de Coubertin’s dictum that taking part is the thing. ‘Home’ media (whichever home you come from) naturally narrows the focus to your national team. Enjoy the competition in person though - its Olympian sweep of nationalities - and jingoism is exposed as the sporting fraud it is.
Congratulations France. I’m grateful for the €8 billion you’ve spent. And let’s hear no more debate in Britain about London 2012 vs Paris 2024. Consider it a draw (although the balloon-cauldron at night might edge it…)
Random observation: few kids in the venues but hordes in the fanzones. Families priced out of the ticket market? Hopefully the big screens, ping pong and 3x3 basketball try-outs are hooking in future generations of Olympics fanatics.
No sugar, thanks
One wonders what our athletes think deep down when they are cajoled into sugary soul-bearing on the tele. This hardly squares with the iron resolve required to win, and we don’t expect it of the stars of the major professional sports - nor is it what the USA asks of its Olympians. More with Josh Kerr’s mentality please.
Rest assured I haven’t gone soft in the Parisian sunshine either. Normal Sport inc. service with medal table reflections will be resumed next week.
Matters of life and death
If you struggle to keep sport in perspective, it’s only a ten minute stroll from the fanzone in the idyllic Parc Monceau past the team houses for Belgium and Kazakhstan to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe.
DSD indelicacy
I finished Caster Semenya’s feisty autobiography The Race to be Myself the day before the controversy over the sex of two boxers broke. It is as yet unclear whether the fighters have differences in sex development (DSD) like Semenya, but it is obvious that no lessons have been learned from the brutally insensitive handling of the young South African athlete back in 2009 and since.
I’ve long held the minority view that Semenya should be allowed to run in female races without having to suppress her testosterone levels. But I can see that the need for safety can trump a desire for inclusion in the case of a boxer with DSD. Whether or not Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting are women with such a condition, my overwhelming emotion is anger at the handling of their cases.
The IBA and IOC, two organisations at war over the control of boxing, have both failed in their duty to all involved.
Baron out-dated
To the fabulous En Jeu! exhibition of artists and sport between 1870 and 1930 at the Musée Marmottan Monet. An explanatory notice provides a reminder of the long history of gender politics at the Olympics. De Coubertin, we’re told, believed that women’s role at his Games was merely to “crown the winners”.
“An Olympiad with females would be impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic and improper." Pierre de Coubertin
What would he make of the likes of Simone Biles, Cassandre Beaugrand, Cindy Ngamba, Keely Hodgkinson and Katie Ledecky I wonder?
You can read the IOC’s spin on this subject
Footprints in the sand
Early morning beach volleyball encapsulated the Paris vision of a sustainable Games using existing facilities augmented by city-centre temporary builds.
Pick a team, any team. Germany’s or Latvia’s women. Polish or Spanish men. Cheer, stamp, pose for selfies, head off to the metro or stop for caffeine at a nearby cafe. Games memories are made of this. France must hope that absent Parisians watching this party from afar will regret their holiday choice and that local visitors view the capital city in a different, sunnier light.
After all, when Paris 2024 is done, the footprints won’t just be raked over. The sand will be carted away, along with the scaffolding, seating and signage. This Games legacy must all be human.
Boom, boom, boom!
He’s in the room. And as every Crystal Palace fan knows, there ain’t no striker better than Jean-Philippe Mateta. France v Spain, men’s football final is on Friday.
How was it for you?
Clear highlight? Keely Hodgkinson extending British track & field’s long golden thread and the Mondo Duplantis world record just minutes apart. Incroyable! Pure sport, no frills required.
Most surreal moment? The accordion-cam attempt at crowd engagement on the big screen at the Stade de France. AC/DC’s Thunderstruck on a squeezebox? Back to the event prez drawing board…
One for the neutral? Serbia’s record- breaking Nikola Jokić-inspired comeback to beat Australia in overtime in the men’s basketball quarter final. Raucous and fiery!
Unexpected joy? Craning to see the cauldron aloft from the Jardin des Tuileries with the sound of Allez Les Bleus reverberating behind us from the late night 3x3 basketball on Place de La Concorde.
And you? Do let me know your own Olympic experience, either by leaving a comment or via email to sportinc@substack.com
Double Olympic champion boxer, Harrington, singing “Grace” with the fans long after the cameras have stopped filming.
Worth a look on social media.
Ringing the bell at the Athletics was a fun addition.
Paris has done a great job, a joyful games.
Very noticeable that the BBC didn’t have full coverage at times and you had to be creative to find the events you wanted to watch on TV.
Went over as a family group of eight for six days and had an awesome time. I’d agree it was every bit as good as 2012. All superbly well organised, slick public transport system, reassuring security.
Knew the men’s 1500m final would be thrilling but lots of unexpected amazing stuff too like Greece pulling level with Serbia with only six seconds left on the clock in the water polo, then Serbia delivering a buzzer-beater to win.
Arrived with tickets for wrestling, diving, BVB and hockey and managed to pick up sport climbing and canoe slalom on the excellent ticket resale site. Loved the kayak cross: like the sort of nutty games we used to invent as kids in long summer holidays!