France is playing host to 184 countries competing in the XXXIII Olympics. Centered in Paris as they are, the River Seine played a prominent role in the opening ceremony last Friday (July 26). The games run through Sunday, August 11.
The much vaunted opening festivities featured a parade of ships, each carrying one to three teams, and took a fair while with the athletes finally collecting at the Trocadero opposite the Eiffel Tower, which blinked and flashed in a myriad of lights. Fireworks on a decent scale are always fun but the organizers opted for the environmentally less polluting laser lights although a trifle insipid.
In the games, an early disappointment for France has been the failure of its women gymnasts to qualify for the final round. Melanie de Jesus dos Santos, the face of the team had disappointments on almost every apparatus: falling off on the uneven bars; grabbing the balance beam to keep from falling off; landing on her knees after a double flip in the floor exercise — it was not her day and left her in tears.
The 24-year old has been a European champion four times and spent the last two years cloistered at the Simone Biles Academy in Houston, Texas headed by Cecile and Laurant Landi — the dedication and hard work all lost like a puff of smoke. The French squad in general performed poorly, and, in a shock to the French, was eliminated before the final round.
Competition is so severe and takes so much time that the line between professional and amateurs has more or less disappeared, and they can all compete. If it were not so, only the independently wealthy could. The others would be too busy making a living to stand a chance.
Individual stories of heartbreak in gymnastics and joy in the women’s Australian swim team can hold the public’s attention. The occasional scandal can destroy careers: The British equestrian Charlotte Dujardin pulled out of the Olympics after a video appeared of her whipping a horse 24 times during a training session. She called it “an error of judgement”.
With a quadrennial event like the Soccer World Cup or the Olympics, the relative rarity contributes to their attraction. It is not uncommon then for sports fans to travel from across the globe to see them live even when they are likely to see more of the Olympic events if they just watched television at home. The broadcasters switch to the most interesting events because they wish to retain their audience, which in turn profits from the best choices.
Stories of heartbreak, stories of triumph; drama and what seems like melodrama and when the highly charged atmosphere and high stakes take their toll. Let the audience sit back and enjoy it … even the slow boat ride down the Seine River and even if stifling a yawn.