We’re well into the second week of the 2024 Olympic Summer Games in Paris, and so far it’s been … très bien!
It’s a bit of a pivotal moment in the Olympic movement, as recent host countries have been left with crippling debt, so much so that there aren’t many cities left willing to put in a bid to host the Games. Paris faced little competition from other cities in securing the 2024 Games, and they vowed to do things a little cheaper this time around.
Of course, cheaper is relative here – we’re talking cheaper as in buying a private jet but not springing for the tinted windows – but at least they are trying. So let’s look at how these cheap Games have gone.
City of Love
Paris itself has had a starring role in these Games, and it has provided a stunning backdrop. Who needs an expensive new stadium when you can float your opening ceremonies down the Seine and turn the Eiffel Tower into a giant laser? And Céline Dion! Oh my heart.
Those Opening Ceremonies were so satisfying, and not just because they got the “always angry” crowd even angrier with some folks in drag and other slightly risqué scenes.
Watching the gorgeous landmarks of Paris fly by has elevated events like triathlon and cycling to new levels (just watch out for the brown water, swimmers!), while the men’s 100-metre sprint final was an incredible piece of theatre.
The City of Light is beaming. Bravo, Paris.
Hammer time
I love it when a random athlete in a random sport arrives on the scene with such authority that they become instant stars.
For Canadians in these Games, that fellow seems to be Nanaimo’s Ethan Katzberg, the long-haired, moustachioed 23-year-old who in his Olympic debut in hammer throw chucked his very first throw more than four metres farther than any other athlete would do in the entire competition.
It was a performance that screamed “what, like it’s hard?” and I can’t wait to see him do it two or three more times as he becomes one of our every-four-year heroes.
(Editor of the editor's note: Camryn Rogers of Richmond scored gold in the women's hammer throw just as our weekly print edition hit the presses on Tuesday, making it two-for-two for Canada in the event. Nailed it!)
CANADA = HAMMER-THROWING NATION 🌟🔨
— Team Canada (@TeamCanada) August 6, 2024
Droning on
Canada’s women’s soccer team, the defending Olympic champions, was full of contradictions in these Olympics. So high tech, so low brow. So much shame, so much pride.
The program is going to wear this spying scandal for a long time, and well they should. The spying program is bad, and the way they got caught seems somehow worse.
“Hey we’re probably going to beat New Zealand, but just to be sure, let’s gain a miniscule advantage by sending a drone up over an Olympic training ground in the middle of a locked-down Paris no-fly zone to record their practice.” Breathtakingly stupid. And yet the players won three straight games to advance to the playoffs despite starting the tournament with minus six points.
Their run, which ended in the quarterfinals, somehow felt just as impressive as a podium performance. Boo, and yay.
Swimming legends
Two Canadian legends were on display in swimming this year. First, of course, was Summer McIntosh, who at the age of 17 won three golds and a silver in a performance that placed her alongside other Canadian Olympic multi-medal greats. McIntosh, Penny Oleksiak and Cindy Classen are the only Canadians to win four or more medals in one Games.
The other legend of the pool is Byron MacDonald, the colour commentator who has covered Olympic swimming on TV since 1984. He prides himself on knowing something about every swimmer in the Games, and he makes me and my kids laugh with his facts.
“In lane three we’ve got the Hungarian Henry Asboth, his Grade 4 teacher Miss Liztsky took the class on a field trip to a waterpark on May 8, 2009 and she jokingly told the kids she’d give a chocolate bar to any of them who one day made the Olympics. Here we are, 15 years later, and who is laughing now? Oh Henry!”
Big finish?
Canadians have performed well at these Games, with silvers for the women’s rugby sevens team and the women’s rowing eights team among the standouts. And it’s not over yet – don’t miss B-Boy Phil Wizard of Vancouver, looking to dance his way into our hearts as breaking makes its Olympic debut on Saturday.
There are other big guns left to fire, and there will most likely be another surprise or two as well. So go ahead, fire up that drone – let’s see if we can spy a few more Canadians on the podium.
Andy Prest is the editor of the North Shore News. His humour/lifestyle column runs biweekly.
