August 12, 2024

The Olympics we sorely needed

So the Olympic Games are finally over. Paris 2024 has provided us with more than 2 weeks' of excitement as well as a fair share of controversy. I think the overwhelming sense from many people is that Paris put on a really good show, and the athletes were genuinely excited about being in Paris and competing at many of the venues with iconic backdrops.

This time around the TV rights in Hong Kong were bought by the government, who granted the four broadcasters rights to show whatever they wanted. So we had, at times, up to 7 different channels with live coverage of the games. However, the channels prioritized events where Hong Kong or Chinese athletes were participating, and since each broadcaster wanted to attract viewers, there were many instances where I would see 4 different channels - one from each broadcaster - showing the exact same event. Yes, there were times when I could only watch two different events out of 6 channels broadcasting the games.

Nevertheless, I got to see plenty of action in beautiful Paris. Shots of fencing competition in Grand Palais, where Hong Kong's Vivian Kong Man Wai (江旻憓) took the gold in the Women's Individual Épée under that gorgeous glass ceiling on the first day of competition after the Opening Ceremony. Triathlon athletes bicycling and running, as marathoners did, on Pont Alexandre III and past the Tour Eiffel, and shots of them on Champs-Élysées with the Arc de Triomphe in the distance. Skateboarders jumping over obstacles with the Obelisk of Luxor as the backdrop. All memories I will cherish.

The theme of these games was always one of inclusion and equality, with new rules in place leading to a 50:50 ratio in male and female athletes. One of the biggest brouhaha during these games was centered on the inclusion of two female boxers who had previously been disqualified by the International Boxing Association - which itself has been removed from organizing boxing at the Olympic Games. Amidst lots of furor, hate, and support, both Algerian Imane Khelif and Taiwanese Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) went on to win gold medals in their respective weight class.

One of the best moments from this uproar came from Lin's coach Tseng Tzu-chiang (曾自強) who, in an interview, thanked J.K. Rowling for her attacks on the two boxers. Accordingly to him, the world focused their attention on female boxing, and in particular Lin Yu-ting. Under normal circumstances, it is hard to imagine that anyone outside Taiwan would even know of her existence. But now her name is often cited alongside that of Imane Khelif.

In the spirit of "inclusion", the organizers also chose to hold the first "Marathon Pour Tous", where the general public from across the world could apply to run the same marathon course as the Olympic athletes. More than 20,000 people participated and this is just waaaay cool! There was also a 10k run open to just about anyone.

Hong Kong achieved its best results ever at the Games, with two gold medals in fencing and two bronze medals in Swimming. Taiwan took in 2 gold medals and 5 bronze medals - a result that was second only to what was achieved at Tokyo 20201. I was really happy for both teams.

But what has been incredible throughout the Games was the love and support I saw. In the past there was a lot of criticism from armchair experts when certain athletes did not achieve the results they had been expected to. People who have shown little or no support - either financially, emotionally, or otherwise - to the athletes suddenly felt they had the right to slap down the men and women who have dedicated years of their lives to achieving their best in the sport. I saw a lot of this from the Taiwanese in the past, but that's no longer the case.

Thankfully, social media these days is dominated by posts supportive of the athletes' efforts, regardless of whether they managed to bring a medal home for the countries they represent. More and more people realize that even if an athlete ends up coming in last in their event, there had been a huge amount of effort involved to even get them onto the Olympian stage. That alone was worth cheering for. Kinzang Lhamo was one of three athletes from Bhutan at these Games. She came dead last in the women's marathon, finished 90 minutes behind the winner and 58 minutes behind the competitor immediately before her. But it didn't matter. She was determined to finish, even as she walked part of the course to conserve her energy. The crowd cheered her on, with some spectators running along with her. This outpouring of love and support was just amazing.

Something else I loved seeing was the fulfillment of Olympic dreams of athletes from countries which are not traditional powerhouses. Saint Lucia, Botswana, Dominica, and Pakistan all stunned the world with their first gold medals in Athletics. Guatemala had their first gold medal in Shooting. Philippines took home two golds in Artistic Gymnastics. Algeria took gold in Artistic Gymnastics and Boxing. And of course, that first ever medal from the Refugee Olympic Team. So gratifying.

Gotta hand it to the organizing committee for coming up with the Champions' Park, where medalists come out and greet and interact with the public who may not have been able to see them in action. What a great idea this was! Having this also provided a venue for the medal reallocation ceremony for athletes from past Games to receive the medals that were wrongfully awarded to others, and give these athletes the spotlight and recognition they were due. This should become a tradition at every future Olympic Games.

While I was enamored with the Opening Ceremony 2 weeks ago, I didn't have the same love for the Closing Ceremony today. It was said that Thomas Jolly had "reworked" elements of the Closing Ceremony after all the uproar over the opening, and I have no idea what had been changed, but it just wasn't as exciting or creative.

As the Opening Ceremony closed with a song from Piaf, so the Closing Ceremony opened with Sous le ciel de Paris that had also been sung by Piaf. I was a little surprised that the cauldron was extenguished at the beginning of the ceremony, but I guess they had to provide for Léon Marchard's travel time to bring the lantern back to the Stade de France.

Back at the stadium the music started with some Charles Aznavour. Classic French, yes, but not something you're familiar with if you're not French. This was a hint of things to come. At least Joe Dassin's Les Champs-Élysées was more recognizable...

In a twist to Olympic tradition, the final medal ceremony this year was the Women's Marathon instead of Men's. This was a nice gesture in a nod to equality, the same way that the final Athletics event inside Stade de France changed to the Women's 4x400m race. When Sifan Hassan stood on the top step of the podium and the Dutch national anthem played, I thought I was watching another F1 race being won by Max Verstappen... And it was funny how some guy got his 3 seconds of TV fame by peeking out behind the Dutch flag as the TV camera was fixated on it...

The artistic portion featuring the Golden Voyager reminded me of the Opening Ceremony in Rio 2016. It was artistic, with some acrobatics, but kinda meh. Fairly pedestrian compared to what Thomas Jolly gave us 2 weeks ago.

Some excitement came when Hymn to Apollo was performed with a grand piano suspended perpendicular to the stadium floor with its lid removed. Alain Roche was obviously strapped in with his back parallel to the stadium floor, and I can't imagine that's a comfortable position to be in. I saw someone noted on social media what the French were doing to their pianos during the ceremonies, as one had been rained on (albeit this was not intentional), one had been set on fire (this was part of the show), and now this one has been hung perpendicular to the floor.

The musicians playing live featured French artists that are kinda famous to an international audience but whose names may not be on the tip of everyone's tongue. The fun part about Phoenix's time on stage has got to be when a bunch of athletes rushed the stage to boogie with them, even though that wasn't part of the plan - and the stadium announcer had to ask them to get off the stage at least twice. Not sure how many people recognized Air, Kavinsky, or Angèle.

The handoff from Paris to L.A. this time around paled in comparison to the one from Tokyo to Paris 3 years ago. Yes, we got Tom rapelling down from the roof of the stadium, then hopping on a motorcycle after taking the Olympic flag and going through the streets of Paris before boarding a cargo transport, parachuting out from the plane, going up to the Hollywood sign, and passing the flag to athletes on the way to Rosie's Dog Beach in Long Beach.

The "live" musical set was filmed the day before, and kicked off with the Red Hot Chili Peppers's Can't Stop before moving to Snoop Dogg's Drop It Like It's Hot and Snoop doing Next Episode with Dr. Dre. SERIOUSLY? These songs were more than 20 years' old and, as someone mentioned online, this has the vibe of an MTV Beach Party from the 1990s. Sheee-it... even them palm trees were fake! The only saving grace was Billie Eilish with Birds of a Feather while wearing an ugly-ass Polo by Ralph Lauren top. Team USA needs to fire his ass and switch to another designer.

Back at Stade de France, Yseult closes it out with an iconic song that was French in origin - My Way. I love that a singer of color and of Cameroonian descent was chosen for this.

I'm now suffering from post-Olympic depression, like many people around the world. Why is that?! Well... from my perspective, this was the dose of feel-good that we sorely needed. There has just been so much bad news in the world for the last few years... Just as the world was kinda coming out of Covid - and even before it really faded in Asia - we've had Russia invading Ukraine. The resulting spike in oil prices and continued disruption to supply chain - especially for grain and food - pushed cost of living up around the world. Here in Asia the economic slowdown in China impacted everyone and we saw widespread wealth destruction. Then the conflict in Gaza upended the world further, and there is just a whole lotta unhappiness across the globe. I found that even for myself, I developed a habit of tuning out a lot of the bad news and just wanted to focus on as much positivity as possible. A lot of negative energy was just a waste of time, and did nothing except drag me down.

The Olympics were the exact opposite of that. Yes, the wars are still going on even during the games, but the world's focus turned to the 10,000 athletes from more than 200 nations who were trying to do their very best on the biggest world stage. We waited with baited breaths for world records, Olympic records, national records, or even personal bests to be surpassed. People cheered for their compatriots as well as whoever the top competitors are in the event, hoping to see a good fight. Pictures of iconic moments - at the finish line, on the podium, at heartbreaking moments - flooded the internet and the news. It was a real welcome to take our minds off the troubles of the world and inject a dose of joy into our lives, even though most of us were just living vicariously through the athletes.

I miss that very much.
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