It renewed my faith in the Olympic movement.
A lifelong Olympics fanatic, I kinda fell out of love with the Olympics after Rio. The impact of the games on everyday Brazilians, the insistence on prioritizing the games over the major issues facing Brazil at the time, and the sad state of Olympic infrastructure after the games really left a sour taste in my mouth. Moving to Montreal a year later only compounded this (iykyk).
I didn’t even watch PyeongChang, and Beijing and Tokyo felt so insignificant compared to the Olympics I loved growing up (mostly bc COVID tbf). Add to this the unpopularity of hosting the games among the Japanese people, massive costs, and a very underwhelming opening ceremony that made zero noise, and I was ready to completely write off the Olympics as an increasingly irrelevant vestige of a pre-globalized world à la Expo/Worlds Fair.
But WOW, the French proved me wrong. Love it or hate it, everyone was talking about the opening ceremony. The venues were absolutely stunning and a fantastic model for future games. The French really rallied behind hosting. And it felt, at least to me, like the whole world was united for the last few weeks. At work, with my friends, or at social functions, everybody was talking about the Olympics.
Will Paris lose a few billion from these games? Probably. Could that money be better spent on pressing issues? Definitely. But seeing the world come together to celebrate friendly competition, seeing Chinese and Americans hug eachother, seeing North and South Koreans take selfies together, seeing my 60 yr old Quebecois neighbour nearly brought to tears by a 21 year-old from Botswana winning their country’s first ever gold… you can’t put a price on those moments.
I felt like I left these games inspired– a better person. Isn’t that what the Olympics is all about!?
So, thank you Paris 2024 for renewing my faith in the Olympic movement. Milan and LA, let’s keep the ball rolling!
Yes with an asterisk… We achieved our best ever performance at the Olympics (outside of boycotted 1984) with some pretty inspirational moments. Winning gold in the men’s 4x100m after the men really struggled in their individual events, Summer McIntosh tearing up the pool at just 17, getting the double gold in both men’s and women’s hammer throw, our first ever black swimming medalist. Very proud of our entire team, medallist or not.
I only wish we could’ve snuck into the top 10 of the medal table. Very happy with 12th, but kinda irked a much smaller country like New Zealand managed to get more gold. But hey, kudos to the Kiwis for their amazing performance!