We’re more than midway through the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and the games have been full of drama, both good and bad. Airing on NBC and its streamer Peacock, the games are combination of popular events and those we only get a chance to see televised every four years. Tune in and suddenly you’re invested in a sport you knew little about minutes earlier. I’m not even interested in the medal count between countries, I’m just thrilled to see athletes who are this talented compete against one another.
So here’s a non-comprehensive look at the games so far, not from a sports writer but from from the point of a view of a critic taking in the storylines of this year’s extravaganza via TV and social media. Be sure to also check out all the stories by the Tribune’s Stacy St. Clair and photos by Tribune photographer Brian Cassella, who are in Paris covering athletes and events with local connections.
The highlights
The opening ceremony, which took place along the Seine, may not have been universally loved, but at least it wasn’t boring. I found the headless singing Marie Antoinette in the windows of the former prison, the Concierge, to be a timely if cheeky reminder that wealth hoarding is, in fact, bad. And who wasn’t moved to see Céline Dion, who has a medical condition called stiff person syndrome, which threatened to halt her singing career altogether, belt out a gorgeous rendition of “Hymne A L’Amour” from the Eiffel Tower? That she was able to perform at the Olympics mirrors the experiences of so many Olympic athletes, a fitting bit of symbolism to kick off the games.
Gymnastics has always been a popular draw and this year has offered so many incredible storylines and performances, including Team USA’s pommel horse specialist (and noted glasses wearer) Stephen Nedoroscik, who helped the men’s team clinch the bronze before winning one for himself in the pommel horse individual event. Nedoroscik’s self-deprecating charm and talent can be seen in a nine-minute documentary from a few years ago where he says: “The horse guys are their own thing. And that just comes down to horse people. They’re usually an engineer or someone who’s smart, goofy.”
I think I’ve cried watching every women’s gymnastics event. Many of these gymnasts have such tremendous backstories, from American Suni Lee’s recovery from a recent kidney disease diagnosis, to Kaylia Nemour becoming the first gold medalist in gymnastics for an African country (Algeria, the country of her father’s birth) after a dispute with France’s gymanstics federation over her return following an injury. Team USA won the gold, with more individual medals for Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles and Lee (bronze) and Simone Biles (gold and silver). If you haven’t watched the first two episodes of the Netflix documentary “Simone Biles Rising,” it gives the comprehensive backstory on the disorientation she experienced in Tokyo that caused her to pull out. The final two episodes are filming now, though Netflix hasn’t said when they will premiere. It’s been thrilling and magical to witness Simone Biles’ career.
Also, if you’re wondering how the bottoms of their leotards stay in place (I did), apparently there’s a sticky spray some gymnasts use to ensure the fabric doesn’t inch into wedgie territory.
U.S. sprinter Noah Lyles has insisted he’s the world’s fastest man — some thought he might live to eat those words — but he ended up winning the 100-meter track race in a true photo finish by five thousandths of a second. “I was shocked,” he said afterward. “I thought I was going to have to swallow my pride on this one … and then my name came up and I was like, oh shoot, I’m incredible.”
In swimming, Katie Ledecky has been breaking records (she won her first gold medal as a 15-year-old at the London Games in 2012) but it was her gold-winning swim in the 1500-meter freestyle final that was so remarkable: She was 10 seconds faster than the second place swimmer, which looks like an eternity when you see it on your screen. Over the weekend, with her gold in the 800 freestyle, she became the second swimmer to win an event at four straight summer games in a row. She has a memoir called “Just Add Water: My Swimming Life” where she talks about being diagnosed with POTS in 2016 and how that’s affected her athletic career.
Technically, Snoop Dogg’s title is Special NBC Olympics correspondent, but he’s more of an exuberant ambassador, bringing curiosity and enthusiasm to each event he attends. Meanwhile, Flavor Flav has brought a similar joie de vivre to the games as the sponsor of both the men’s and women’s water polo teams. And he stepped up and cut a check when discus thrower Veronica Fraley posted to social media last week: “I compete in the Olympic Games tomorrow and I can’t even pay my rent.”
Few things are as moving as competitors extending human kindness, even in the most stressful circumstances. It costs nothing and it tells us so much about their character. In the preliminary heat of the women’s 100-meter, runner Lucia Moris fell down on the track in pain, unable to get back up. Silina Pha Aphay, a sprinter from Laos, immediately went over to her. “Standing beside Moris, Pha Aphay called out for help,” according to NPR. “Once medics arrived, Pha Aphay continued to stay on the track, holding Moris’ sneakers while medics prepared to put Moris on a stretcher. Another competitor, Salam Bouha Ahamdy of Mauritania, later also appeared to support Moris.”
Olympic athletes belong in a category of accomplishment all their own, but that goes extra for those with intense academic interests and accomplishments. American Lee Keifer won the gold medal in fencing and after the Olympics she will … return to medical school. British gymnast Bryony Page, the gold medalist in trampoline, studied paleontology and wrote her dissertation on the “acoustic signalling” in dinosaurs (she theorizes they probably didn’t roar).
Lowlights
COVID-19 has been making its presence known at the Olympics. According to Time magazine: “In Paris, the fans are back, virtually none of them wearing masks, and there is no regular testing of athletes.” It comes as no surprise, then, that “nearly a dozen swimmers, including several members of the Australian women’s water-polo team, have tested positive, raising questions about how widely the virus is spreading, especially in the pool.” And likely elsewhere.
The Canadian women’s soccer team was rocked by a drone-spying scandal early in the games, leading to a six-point penalty against the team’s standing, and the news is only getting worse. According to AP: “Canadian soccer officials admitted in evidence to FIFA that spying on opponents was routinely done, for the men’s national team as well as the women’s team.”
It’s supposed to be a privilege to compete in the Olympics. That means top athletes who don’t cheat. But also people who aren’t convicted of physically harming another person. That seems like a low bar to clear. And yet convicted child rapist Steven van de Velde was indeed invited to play for the Dutch on their beach volleyball team. At least the crowd let their feelings be known, audibly booing him every time he served the ball.
Bad sportsmanship is supposed to have no place at the games. According to the Olympics’ own website, Olympic values are excellence, respect and friendship. I get choked up when competitors embrace and appreciate one another’s efforts once the results are in (gymnasts Biles and Chiles on the podium offering a loving bow to Brazil’s floor exercise gold medal winner Rebeca Andrade) which makes the lack of common courtesy stick out even more, from gold medal-winning French swimmer Léon Marchand (caught on camera ignoring a Chinese coach’s extended hand for handshake after the medal ceremony) to American tennis player Emma Navarro (at the net after losing her match to Qinwen Zheng of China, “I just told her I didn’t respect her as a competitor”).
The nastiest of them all occurred in boxing. I’m assuming everyone who participates understands hard hits are part of the deal, but apparently this was news to Italian boxer Angela Carini. She lasted just 46 seconds before abandoning her bout against Algerian fighter Imane Khelif after a hard hit left her in pain and unable to breathe. She refused to shake her opponent’s hand, fueling hate speech and deeply ugly transphobia in the aftermath, all in her name. Carini later offered contrition. “All this controversy makes me sad,” she said. “I’m sorry for my opponent, too … If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision.” She claims that in the heat of the moment, she was “angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke. I don’t have anything against Khelif.” I understand the power of disappointment. But we expect Olympians to not just be great athletes, but at least humanly decent in defeat. For her part, Khelif gave an interview on Sunday night, saying “the wave of hateful scrutiny she has faced over misconceptions about her gender ‘harms human dignity,’ and she called for an end to bullying athletes after being greatly affected by the international backlash against her.”
As global warming worsens, that’s going to affect the Summer Olympics. Sleeping on an unfamiliar bed is probably an adjustment all its own, but at the very least, athletes should be sleeping in accommodations that have air conditioning going forward, which is not the case at the Olympic Village in Paris this year.
Random observations
I am anti-gimmick. I don’t need to know the heartrate of family members in the stands, or which celebrities are there (if I were lucky enough to get tickets to the women’s vault finals, like Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling, I probably wouldn’t watch through sunglasses). I don’t even need some of the announcers, although first-timer Lauren Hernandez, a 2016 Olympic gymnast, has been terrific.
Maybe the most surreal moment was during a cycling event when one of the commentators started free associating over drone footage: “And another one of the chateaus from the Middle Ages. And this always fascinates me … did they call it the Middle Ages themselves, because back then they weren’t in the middle of anything.” He kept going: “It’s kind of like King Louis the Great, who we talked about earlier with the statue at the Palace of Versailles, and you always hear about Alexander the Great, Louis the Great — at that time, did they call them ‘the great’? Or was it just in retrospect that we decided they were great. So many philosophical questions to answer when you have a six-and-a-half-hour race like this!”
Social media can be a cesspool, but also a source of exuberance and real laughter. Exhibit A: “Suni Lee’s smile after her first tumbling pass has inspired a patriotism in me that I haven’t felt since my mom bought me my first Old Navy 4th of July T-shirt.”
Archery: They’re standing a lot further away from the target than I realized. I can’t even hit the garbage can successfully most days. That is all; archers are just really impressive, full stop.
Kayak cross is wild. I didn’t not know they start by being tipped into the drink. It’s like white water rafting but going around gates at the same time? There’s something called the roll zone??
Absolutely charmed by gold medal-winning Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh climbing into a sleeping bag between jumps, closing her eyes and … letting her mind wander. “I feel comfortable when I lay and sometimes I can watch the clouds,” she told Time magazine.
The Velodrome, the bowl-shaped indoor bicycle racing track, isn’t air conditioned because 82 degrees is apparently the optimal temperature for the fastest speeds. I salute all attendees.
Thoughts I had during equestrian events: Do horses experience jet lag? Are they thrilled to be jumping, the way dogs are thrilled to be chasing tennis balls? Is jumping fun … or? Also, they wear little caps? Sorry, the technical term is ear bonnet. Anyway, a jaunty look!
Watching track and field, it occurred to me that an “Avengers”-like assemblage of athletes coming to the rescue could be a great premise for a heist or revenge movie — just think of the real-world missions that would require the services of a shot-putter, a sprinter, a long-jumper, a pole vaulter and hurdler. Just picture a gold medal-er in the decathlon assembling a top-notch team to take down one injustice or another.
Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.
