The Olympics are coming -- just in time for Americans to take a big breath, settle on the couch, and root for the home team. In the midst of more political chaos than my brain can handle, the Paris Olympics might be exactly what we need right now. Lafayette, to rephrase Colonel Charles Stanton’s famous words in 1917 when Paris celebrated American Independence Day, we are coming.
From its inception, the Paris Games looked to be a Games-changer, bundled in a deal with Los Angeles ’28 — an unprecedented move by the IOC to grant two Games at once — and vowing to achieve complete gender parity through athlete participation, medal events (well, not quite), and scheduling. The U.S. stars for these Games are aligned, including Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, Noah Lyles, and the entirety of the U.S. Women’s and Men’s Basketball teams, all outfitted in Ralph Lauren’s navy-blue blazers with red and white piping.
Perhaps nowhere has Paris thought more outside the box than with its Opening Ceremony, deconstructed from the usual stadium gathering into a fully in-motion parade down the river Seine. Scheduled for sunset, just as the city of light comes alive, a boat procession carrying the athletes of the 206 participating national delegations will launch at the Pont d’Austerlitz (I’d like to thank my Taconic High School French teachers as well as Duolingo for enabling me to know that means bridge) and float toward the Eiffel Tower and the Jardins du Trocadero, where the usual Olympic rituals and protocols will take place, including the opening pronouncement by French President Emmanuel Macron.
The idea behind the floating Opening Ceremony was to turn the entire city into an Olympic Stadium, and give thousands of people access along the riverbank. While organizers have somewhat reined that plan in, worried about everything from security to the river’s current to the ability of the ponts — bridges, remember? — to handle dancers and performers along the route — it still looks to be something we have never seen before.
Paris, of course, is no stranger to hosting — it first did so 100 years ago in 1924. Back then, approximately 3,000 athletes competed in 126 events. This year, some 10,500 athletes will take part in 329 medal events, including a surfing competition that will take place 9,300 miles away in French Polynesia. And if anyone is looking for a writer to cover said surfing competition, slide into my messages tout suite.
Considering the attention that has been paid to the cleanliness — or lack thereof — of the Seine, the surfers are the lucky ones. With triathlon and marathon swimming events scheduled to take place in the river, where swimming has been illegal since before the first time the city played Olympic host, much has been made about the Seine’s water quality across the last several months, coming to a head (see what I did there?) when Paris mayor Ann Hidalgo and President Macron vowed to swim in the waters last month to prove they were clean, inspiring a now cancelled “mass pooping” campaign to double down on the fact that the river continues to test unsafe for humans despite a billion-dollar clean-up effort.
But instead of focusing on France’s water woes, I prefer to smile at Team USA, a group of almost 600 athletes that represent 46 states plus Washington D.C., ranges in age from 16 to almost 60 (thank goodness for equestrian and shooting — letting us old timers stand a chance!), and will compete in every sport except Team Handball.
The United States is apparently terrible at Team Handball.
But setting that aside, there will be a lot to cheer in Team USA in the coming weeks, and I for one am looking forward to it. It might be exactly what we need, when we need it, as trite as that might sound.
Go team.
Amy Bass is professor of sport studies and chair of the division of social science and communication at Manhattanville College. Bass is the author of ONE GOAL: A COACH, A TEAM, AND THE GAME THAT BROUGHT A DIVDED TOWN TOGETHER, among other titles. In 2012, she won an Emmy for her work with NBC Olympic Sports on the London Olympic Games.
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