The 2024 Olympics

The fabled City of Lights truly dazzled this year. Paris was ablaze with gaudy spectacle for the 2024 Olympic games. Am I the only curmudgeon glued to a TV and wondering how in the hell French President Emmanual Macron planned to pay the electric bill for that show? Probably so. None of the gushing pundits assembled near the Eifel Tower emblazoned with neon Olympic rings seemed to be concerned.

Never mind all that. It’s the Olympics after all, the supreme test and exhibition of skill at exciting stuff like BMX bicycle racing, synchronized swimming, rhythmic gymnastics, skateboarding, and break dancing. Apparently standard events such as track and field have become Olympic afterthoughts, taking a backseat to contests that are much more esoteric thrill shows than real sports. Over on this side of the Atlantic, viewers like me had to endure lots of late night channel surfing to keep up with anything resembling standard sports competition at Olympic levels.

Patriotic American sports fans who couldn’t make the Paris pilgrimage had to dig deep and hang in there to get to the gut of familiar Olympic competitions that involved running, jumping, throwing things, swimming, and contact sports such as judo, wrestling, and boxing. More about that in a minute.

For the most part it was worth the wait and increased coffee consumption. I didn’t see all of it—and often didn’t understand what I watched—but clicking my way through the hype and clutter brought some spectacular performances by world class athletes. What I saw were people from around the world who devote practically their entire lives to training for a few—hopefully golden—minutes in worldwide championship competitions. Generally, the rest of us slugs and couch potatoes give up that kind of commitment once we earn varsity letter in high school or college if we tried at all. There were vicarious thrills and touching moments galore in these Paris Olympics for worldwide believers in the human spirit. With a loose focus on mostly American endeavors, here are some of the things that stuck with me.

Simone Biles, Suni Lee, and their fellow female American gymnasts spun, twisted, and dazzled to win both team and individual medals. While most fans focused on Biles who delivered in spectacular fashion, it was nice to see female American runners and hurdlers tear up the track. They harvested lots of medals in astounding performances and set several world records while they were at it. And it was nice to see the US male gymnasts finally mount the award platform, winning a bronze medal after a 16-year draught. Young nebbish-like whiz Stephen Nedoroscik evoked Superman roaring out of a phone booth with his horn-rim specs doffed for a medal-winning whirling dervish performance on the pommel horse.

While it was a squeaker in the men’s 100-meter dash, American sprinter Noah Lyles nosed out (0.005 of a second) his competition to stake a claim on the title of fastest man on earth. That was a stand-up chest thumper. His counterpart female sprinter Sha’carri Richardson burned up the track in several of the women’s races. It was a wonder she was able to avoid bloodshed with those Wolverine nails flashing but no question the woman is a phenomenal runner in a broad field of international female speedsters. She finished second for silver in the 100-meter dash to a blazing run by sprinter Julien Alfred, from the tiny Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia with a population under 200,000. From the video shown after Alfred won the gold medal, it appeared that most of them were out celebrating their favorite daughter’s victory. Nice moment there.

It was a treat to watch the muscular giant (6’7”/230 pounds) Bryan Crouser compete for—and win—a third gold medal in the shot-put. Who knew watching a guy spin around and hurl a 16-pound cast-iron ball could be so exciting? Americans dominated in that field event with fellow shot-put beast Joe Kovacs claiming the silver medal. Watching those two talc-smeared giants whirl and heave made me want to buy them a beer. They just seemed like the kind of guys who might enjoy that.

Watching swimming is a tough routine for the uninitiated but the Olympic TV folks made it easier with tricky shots from underwater cameras. That made it a thrill to watch folks like swimming sensation Katie Ledecky roar through her lanes like some kind of crazed dolphin and keep it up for long distances to win gold. Most male and female Olympic-level swimmers are built like Aquaman on steroids, totally devoid of body hair and wearing goggles that make them look like oversized guppies, but it all works. And when a young woman like Ledecky pulls off her tight little swimming cap and smiles for the cameras, you get a sense of why they sacrifice so much for those moments thrashing through the water. American aquatic athletes both male and female swam their way to 25 medals in the competition including Ledecky’s new world record for the 1500-meter freestyle event. I found myself wondering what they were listening to in their headphones as they approached the starting blocks. Why don’t the breathless commentators explore this kind of question?

When I could find it covered at all, I was glued to shooting competitions, although this business of air rifle and air pistol seems overly wimpish even for the liability-terrified International Olympic Committee. When real ammo went downrange at the shooting events, Americans mostly dominated following skeet champion Vince Hancock who won an unprecedented fourth gold medal in that competition. In other shooting events not involving scatterguns, it was all about ultra-precise accuracy as exhibited by petite Army Sergeant Sagen Magdalena who overcame some early firing line jim-jams to score silver in fierce competition. She was just one of the American competitive shooters that I was proud to watch demonstrating prowess they honed and polished while in military service.

At their level of shooting competition, Olympians come to the firing line these days sporting more technology than Inspector Gadget. All sorts of esoteric eyewear, straps, supports, levers, and adjusting screws are attached either to them or to their guns. I’d find it difficult with all that paraphernalia just to locate the trigger, but they regularly shoot strings that are measured in millimeters for scoring. It’s kind of like watching one of the Transformers plinking at dime-size targets with .22 long rifle ammo. It humbles old shooters like me who struggle these days to hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle.

And then there’s my new favorite Olympic shooter Yusuf Dikeç of Turkey, who along with his female partner shot for silver in the 10-meter mixed air pistol competition. This 51-year-old guy looks like some of the reprobates I shoot with on the range. Or maybe a retired hitman who wandered in off the Paris streets to blow away the competition. Unlike his gear and optics festooned competitors, Dikeç stepped up with no special glasses or hearing protection, wearing a t-shirt and jeans, and just drilled targets. It was like watching one of my old Marine Corps pistol coaches who shot with a locked elbow and their off hand shoved deep in a trouser pocket. It was a no-nonsense demonstration of unadorned, unassisted skill. I’m betting this guy went out for a beer as soon as he stepped down from the podium.

There were highlights and thrills for just about everyone in the coverage of the 2024 Olympics, even if your thing is watching over-sexualized 16 year olds whirling around waving ribbons or hula-hoops in rhythmic gymnastics. Some people believe that’s a sport, thus proving there’s a lid for every pot. But there were also some lowlights like the women’s boxing event that allowed an opponent with elevated male testosterone levels to box against a biological female. Italian female welterweight Angela Carini was pitted by the IOC against Algerian Imane Khelif who was disqualified from the 2023 world championships for failing a gender test. The fight was over in 46 seconds with Carini on her knees and unable to continue.

That kind of thing is ludicrous and an insult to all the women who worked so long and hard to make Olympic level competition. Why those women aren’t bitching long and loudly about it puzzles me. Equally puzzling is why the International Olympic Commission would allow itself to be a part of such a thing when practically the whole world is watching. There are distinct competitions throughout the Olympic schedule that recognize physical differences which give a strength advantages to males versus females. It’s not sexism. It’s simple biology. That’s why separate categories exist for male and female athletic competition. I’m hoping the women who work so hard to excel in athletics will get an even break despite all the transgender nonsense that tilts their playing field. It will take a large helping of courage, but females and their coaches should simply refuse to play in unfair and dangerous games.

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