Paris 2024 Olympics -What Did You Think?

Well that is the Olympics over for another four years!
My interest has built over the years initially watching purely the Equestrian events. I remember urging Ann Moore on Psalm to the Silver Medal in the showjumping at the 1972 Munich Games and then over time my interests began to broaden. I was enthralled with Nadia Comaneci of Romania receiving a perfect ten on two separate pieces of apparatus at the 1976 Montreal Games.
Carl Lewis caught my attention at the 1984 LA Games walking away with four gold medals winning the 100 and 200 meters, the long jump and the mens relay. Suddenly the explosion out of the blocks when that gun went off had me gripped and I have been hooked ever since.

All the photos of Paris were taken last year when we completed a three month trip
around Western Europe

And so to Paris and the Opening Ceremony……
The first Olympic Games to hold the Opening Ceremony outside of a main stadium.
Did it work? In my opinion -no!
Taking away the fact that it rained which, excuse the pun, put a bit of a dampener on the evening it was just so long winded. It seemed to take forever for all those 85 boats to get the 4 miles up the Seine.
For those with tickets watching from the stands, in all their wet weather gear, and I have a friend who had flown over especially for this ceremony, they felt like they had completely missed out. They could only see what was in front of them and yes they saw the GB team float past but there was no atmosphere. All the entertainment that we saw on the television was spread out along the route so those who paid for tickets were sorely robbed in my opinion. I tried to imagine what this would have looked like on the Thames in London and quite frankly could fully understand my friend’s point of view.

There was mass condemnation that parts of the ceremony brought Christianity into disrepute which I will come to later. However what was clearly evident was that the French organisers had included many references to their own culture. Great, but the rest of the world didn’t necessarily understand these references.
You could argue that it is the Parisian Olympics and, therefore, it is their right to include whatever they wish. However it is also important for people around the world watching to be brought on board and connect to the show and to be frank I don’t think they were.
One of the key reasons may have been that previously commentators were invited to the “dress rehearsal” so they could make notes and ensure they were able to explain to their specific audience, in their own language, the significance of each part of the ceremony. There was no dress rehearsal in Paris. I’m no expert, maybe the worldwide commentators were given supporting notes but it certainly didn’t appear to be the case watching on BBC 1 here in the UK.

I personally researched certain elements of the Opening Ceremony afterwards in order to try and understand what was taking place. For example the first part of the ceremony after the opening performance was entitled “Ça ira.” This roughly translates as “It Will Be Ok” and was the title of a popular song during the French Revolution. That went totally over my head!

It then became evident that unlike other hosting countries France was going to utilise people/entertainment acts from other countries. This was a little lost on me but I came to the conclusion that there are possibly not enough French born entertainers who are worldwide recognised to do them proud.
And thus the entertainment began with Lady Gaga, dressed in black surrounded by men holding pink feathers, singing “Mon Truc en Plumes”. Apparently this is a famous cabaret song but who knew? I certainly hadn’t heard of it? I thought on the night it was a tribute to the can-can and Moulin Rouge. For me it wasn’t a very impressive start and I usually like Lady Gaga.

The section entitled “Liberte” paid homage to the musical Les Miserables with dancers performing around a barricade in the centre of a stage as the masked torchbearer made their way through the theatre.
Then there was the section with the legendary Louis Vuitton cases on wheels. I later discovered this was an introduction to the fact that later in the Games, the medals would be handed out in (much smaller) Louis Vuitton cases.
Both of these parts baffled me along with Marie Antoinette (after her head was severed) singing the opening lines of a heavy-metal song. What on earth was that about?

I quite enjoyed the part where the dancers dressed in construction uniforms performed around the scaffolded cathedral of the world famous Notre Dame. It’s a shame the repairs couldn’t have been completed, as originally planned, for the games but at least this was a recognisable Parisian landmark. We visited the site during our three month travels (photo below) around Europe last year and it inspired me to write a post on my blog: https://amidlifeadventure.org/2023/04/21/adventure-old-notre-dame/

During the section of the ceremony celebrating “Equalite”, statues of significant women in French history rose from the Seine apparently in homage to the gender disparity of statues in Paris. If you’ve never been to Paris and are viewing it somewhere, anywhere else on the globe, you wouldn’t have understood this either!

And finally to the controversial long table with drag queens seated around or “Last Supper’ scene which viewers including Pope Francis and Ayatollah Khamanei believed was based upon and mocked Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting.
I am not religious but the Last Supper is the event that Christians believe instituted the Eucharist celebration and thus Christianity itself. This caused outrage around the world including amongst the anti woke contingent which doesn’t really help the idea of inclusivity.
It’s not exactly the introduction to your Olympic Games that you perhaps want.

Wondering whose idea and ultimate failure this was I was interested to see that the Director of the Ceremony, Thomas Jolly, did explain afterwards that the scene was based upon a painting by Jan van Bijlert called The Feast of God. The painting depicts the marriage of the characters from Ancient Greek mythology Thetis and Peleus, with the god Dionysus and his satyrs dancing in the foreground. The painting is on display in Dijon but as a painter from the Dutch Golden Age he does not really rank amongst the great painters around the world. It seems a massive error of judgement to me and I certainly questioned after the ceremony where Mr Jolly was going to retire to? Perhaps he just thinks it will all blow over but unfortunately I do think the Paris Olympics will be remembered now for all the wrong reasons.

The Games Themselves…….
And so the actual events themselves. The first real positive for us in the UK was that they were held more or less on the same time zone. We should be grateful for this because the next two sets of games will not be and thus televised coverage will be adjusted accordingly.

However, and this is no fault of the organisers, because we were in a similar time zone BBC took advantage of this and took over the whole of BBC1 and parts of BBC2 every day. For television licence payers who have absolutely no interest in this event there was barely anything else to watch. Do they get their licence fees reimbursed for two weeks? I personally feel this was a massive mis-judgement.
Secondly despite having the opportunity to watch everything live I still recorded every programme. Why? Because the programmes were so full of conversation, debate, analysis and then more analysis it took sometimes three hours to watch half a dozen events. Totally unnecessary in the world we now live in. The percentage of viewers in the UK watching live TV falls year on year and the statistics show this is increasing exponentially the younger you are. So are we once again still catering to the older age group in the UK because we cannot stay on trend?

Why do the BBC feel we need this commentating overload? I have nothing against the commentators themselves and have to say I thought that JJ Chalmers and Jeanette Kwakye did a good job in the morning, although I must admit I didn’t know who Jeanette was beforehand. I guess I wasn’t the only one given her name is currently at the top of the Google list of Jeanettes!
The swimming coverage by Clare Balding, Rebecca Adlington and Mark Foster was entertaining and did keep my attention longer than other presenters did. Input from experienced athletes such as Dame Laura Kenny and Sir Chris Hoy was beneficial but what on earth was Fred Sirieix doing there? Was he our token French presenter?
And the athletics trackside reporter, who was she? I was totally not enamoured with her. She evidently wasn’t a well known previous athlete and literally rolled out the same questions every time she spoke to someone. “How did you feel emotionally?” was in there in some format every time. After listening to the first couple of trackside interviews I fast forwarded her away. Sad because maybe some of the athletes had quality feedback.

You cannot comment on the games without highlighting some of the new sports that have
arrived on the scene. Who knew watching speed climbing was going to be so exhilarating? I have to admit I love the skate boarding too which is still fairly new and the BMX racing was real daredevil stuff.
Conversely the issues with the River Seine quite rightly hit the headlines. Following reports that France spent 1 billion pounds to make the Seine safe to swim in, with reports of unsafe levels of pollution and even E.Coli we all watched anxiously to see whether this investment would actually bear fruit. The jury is still out on this but suffice to say events were postponed throughout the games and I think all of those who actually jumped in and swam in it, in the name of sport, deserve their own medals.
It seemed that despite the money invested no one had taken account of the currents with swimmers taking diversionary tactics to overcome this known phenomenon and some becoming ill afterwards. Again excuse the pun but what an insane idea that was. Why didn’t they just spend the money on a new stadium to host the opening and closing ceremonies which could then have benefited Parisians going forward as a legacy of these games?

The Closing Ceremony…….
I have to be honest following the Opening Ceremony I was sat ready with my remote for this event. Fast forward times 30 where necessary.
Recognising all the volunteers and thanking them for their contribution at the start of the ceremony was exactly the right thing to do. In their green outfits they had been there throughout the two weeks helping everyone from those taking part to the supporters trying to find their way around.

The athlete parade is always a highlight too. They’ve trained for four years, competed against each other for us all to see and now it’s over. It’s time to relax, enjoy themselves and make their way home. Unfortunately I feel the French got it wrong again when they started the celebrations with French songs. French is only spoken by 3.6% of the world’s population so needless to say it wasn’t until “Freed From Desire” came across the sound system that all the athletes and spectators could actually join in.

You couldn’t fail to be impressed when the lights at the Stade de France went out and tens of thousands of wristbands lit up all at once, illuminating the stadium as the sun fully set. The Bluetooth-synced wristbands started to not only flash and blink in time with each other, but individual sections of fans were, without prior knowledge, suddenly thrust into the show itself with their wristbands showing scenes of athletic competition moving across entire ends of the stadium.
This breathtaking display ended with the Olympic rings being raised above the stage in the centre of the stadium, and the wristbands of the fans throughout the venue being illuminated in this iconic image. It was a modern take with a technical performance of synchronicity on a large scale that was truly impressive to watch.

The organisers, alas, got it wrong again when they hadn’t quite taken into consideration the reaction of the athletes later in the show. Releasing them from the assigned areas around the stage and initially encouraging them to get up close to the performers some contestants misunderstood and actually joined the band on stage. Announcements were then made over the stadium’s loudspeaker system asking the athletes, politely, to get off the stage. Not quite what you want to see and hear.

The final handing over of the flag was somewhat of a spectacle. Was it the James Bond and Her Majesty the Queen’s opening ceremony in London that inspired the moment when Tom Cruise jumped from the roof of the building? Landing on the field below he then made his way to the  Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, was handed the prize of the Olympic flag and then found a motorcycle and rode out of the stadium with it. Driving through Paris to an airfield nearby he then flew off to the USA which then led into a party on the beach in Southern California. I guess it’s an example of what is to come when the next Games are held in Los Angeles, the Hollywood capital of the world!

Thank you and goodnight!

Los Angeles taken when we drove Highway 1

I was intending to comment about the cost of the Olympic tickets and how this reflects on availability to all going forward but this post was lengthy enough. I’ll keep that for my next post. In the meantime I look forward to your comments about this post and hearing about your own experiences of Paris 2024