We had the absolute privilege to attend some Olympic events in person this year.
First, logistics. It was nice to have the games so close to home. We took the train and stayed at the Nolinski Hotel, an adorable small hotel smack dab in the middle of the action. The hotel is literally on the tube stop and a twenty-minute walk from the Concorde venue. So, travelling was a breeze. The tube was well-signed, and helpful people were everywhere. It’s a very different experience than travelling around Paris off-Olympics.
We’re not a very sporty family. We love to travel and travel a lot, but when we don’t travel, we’re pretty much homebodies. We all work out, but none of us play organised sports. Moreover, we aren’t die-hard fans of any particular sport. We don’t really follow sports from home, either. When my partner and I lived in Canada, we followed the ice hockey league (when in Rome) and the NBA (finally in our time zone!). But that kind of petered off when we moved to London. There was too much to do, and it was the wrong time zone.
But I’ve always watched the Olympics. Even as a child, these two weeks were like a holiday: everyone was glued to the TV. We watched whatever was on, from the beginning of the Olympic day until the end, no matter the time zone. And, except for Beijing 2020/1, when I wasn’t in the mood for anything, I had followed every Olympic Games. I usually watch women’s Artistic Gymnastics as I was a gymnast myself once upon a time. With time, we watched more swimming, athletics, and the fun events: synchronised diving, BMX, and skateboarding. These are the kinds of events we gravitate to.
We attended six events as a family: the women’s gymnastics team all-around finals, the BMX freestyle final (men’s and women’s), the synchronised diving 10m platform women’s final, the Men’s breaking round-robin, the Men’s basketball Gold Medal game, and we had an evening session at the athletic stadium in which we watched several finals, including the 4x100 relay (men’s and women’s) and the 10k women’s final.
So, the following are my unprofessional thoughts as a non-commital spectator. First, the breaking was an event that tried very hard to be cool. I thought it was fun for two rounds, but then I lost interest, and it was hot. I suspect that watching the final would have been different, but we had another commitment. I’m not entirely sure why they took it out of the games for 2028, though. It looked like a fun event, if entirely incomprehensible for the lay audience.
The synchronised diving was fun. It was a bit repetitive (not unlike the breaking), but because it was the final and we only watched that, it was quite quick. Also, there’s something about eight competitors compared with sixteen. For starters, you can keep eight in your head pretty easily, as opposed to sixteen people you’ve never heard of.
The basketball was absolutely insane. Thousands of yelling French fans filled the arena, and the USA fans were not quiet. I had to put on my headphones to protect my dissipating hearing. That was probably a smart decision health-wise, not so much emotion-wise. That, and the fact that I was apprehensive to cheer wholeheartedly for the USA, made me somewhat detached from the game. I was worried about cheering for the USA while being surrounded by French fans. It was nothing they did–they just came to watch the game. But I’m an anxious person, and large crowds make me even more nervous.
I don’t usually watch athletics. I’d watch the 100- and 200-meter finals, but otherwise, I find it boring. The relay finals were exciting and short, with the surprising fumble by the US team, who usually dominates the track. So, that was an expectedly dramatic event. After these two events, there was a women’s 10k final, which I wouldn’t normally turn the TV on for. But we were at the stadium, and these ladies were running for twenty-five laps and there’s not much else going on. So we watched. And after about ten laps, something weird happened. The Brit, Megan Keith, was falling behind, and the French Alessia Zarbo was lagging even behind her. We didn’t realise she was the French competitor, but we joined in with the audience, who cheered both athletes every time they passed us. We thought it was lovely that we were cheering on the women who were struggling. Then, the French athlete collapsed, which was awful, of course, but a medical crew was out in no time. The audience cheered when the runners finished. But then, the cheer was much louder, I thought, for the British runner who continued to run her last lap and finished the race after the rest of her colleagues finished. It was the kind of drama that sports documentaries are made of.
The highlight, for me, was watching the women’s gymnastics in person. I’ve never been to a competition of this kind. It’s much more strenuous than watching any gymnastics on TV. Because the gymnasts go simultaneously on different apparatuses, it’s a bit like a four-ring circus. On TV, someone else directs your attention, whereas when you’re in the audience, you have to keep track of who’s competing where. Except for when Simone Biles competes, of course. Then, everyone else stops and stares. Watching these women perform amazing feats reminded me of what I loved about gymnastics as a child. It feels like flying.
Here are my impressions more generally. The Olympics are an excellent opportunity for people with a strong nationality to show their colours. It’s an interesting sublimation of aeons of human aggressive tendencies towards out-groups. All the flags made me uncomfortable, as I’m rather allergic to flags, but it’s much better than war, so there’s that.
Another impression: you can’t help but be inspired by the Olympics. Even if you know nothing, these are humans who perform, under immense pressure, impressive feats of physicality. You watch in disbelief that the human body can do this. And you come away feeling like, maybe, you can do some of it too. A warning from personal experience: take it easy on the erg after watching the Olympics. You’re not an Olympian yet.
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