As The 2024 Summer Games Came To A Close, Breakdancing Seemingly Proves No One Should Be Watching. However, The Actions Of Flavor Flav Prove The Value And Pride For The Olympic Flame Can Still Be Found.
When The Most Memorable Moments Are A Shooter With A Hand In His Pocket, A Gender Reveal And The Wanderings Of Snoop Dogg, The Olympics May No Longer Be The Event Viewers Are Promised (Or The Event We Deserve To See).
Here’s an Olympic challenge. Can you name five athletes that competed in Paris this year?
Before you answer, I have one condition of play and one fact for your answers. First, you cannot use any members of the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team or the U.S. Men’s Basketball Team. Second, Snoop Dogg did not participate as an athlete.
Ready? Ok, go, name five.
(You’re to be at it for a while. Some search engine work to do. So, I’m going to keep going and you can just let me know when you’re ready. Ok?)
The final straw was Breakdancing. I would joke about how I didn't see a cardboard box used, but I don't have to. I would love to joke about how I've witnessed single-digit-age children beg for the family to "watch this, you guys, watch me" and use a broken-down cardboard box placed on the driveway to deliver a more dazzling display, but I don't have to.
Before the Olympics began, I was sure no one had attempted breakdancing anywhere since 1993. After watching a bit of the coverage of the Olympics I can now tell you that, factually and with evidence, no one has attempted breakdancing anywhere in the world since 1993.
(Those of you looking for athlete names, please take a moment to pull up 2024 Paris Olympics Breakdancing videos, and let me know when you find anything that proves me wrong. Ok? Thanks.)
But, what should we expect? Are we surprised?
Yusuf Dikec provided one of the most famous moments from these Games. (Side note: Yes, you can use Yusuf in your list of five athletes. Stick with it, I believe in you.)
Dikec is the shooter from Turkey who won a silver medal in the air pistol category and became a global sensation. He won his medal with few accessories and a hand in one pocket. The 51-year-old competed in his fifth Olympiad this year and hopes to return for a sixth.
Simone Biles is amazing. Pick the adjectives, from breathtaking to brilliant, inspirational to majestic, and those positive words will work for anything you wish to say about her. Biles is wonderful. None of this is intended to say the Olympics are funny or sad. They can be motivational and provide some terrific stories.
It's simply a head-scratching scenario when everything promoted provides none of the drama or spectacle. Snoop Dogg is fine and entertaining. Please give me more of Flavor Flav and the U.S. Women’s Water Polo Team. For me, the thrills and true stories are in the depths of the event and not the commercialized frosting.
After a fourth-place finish in a Women’s Steeplechase, Alice Finot of France made one of the most important moments in her life even more meaningful. Her results set a record for a European athlete, after which she ran to the crowd, found her boyfriend, dropped to a knee, and proposed.
Katie Ledecky became the most-awarded female swimmer in Olympic history and is the most-awarded female athlete in individual events. She now has nine Olympic golds and fourteen medals overall. This joins her twenty-one world championship gold medals.
(I’ve now given you Yusuf Dikec, Alice Finot and Katie Ledecky. If you’re still struggling to name five athletes, please do yourself a favor and stop looking now. You’ve already proven my point.)
Much as Curling has become the cult-following-level dream sport of the Winter Games, the true joys of the Olympics are now almost fully in the somewhat obscure and hidden corners of the games. Fencing, Judo and Handball have provided matches worthy of comparison to any others that took place when measured for excitement and meaning.
(We’re about to wrap things up. Did you find the breakdancing videos? How about getting a fourth and fifth name?)
As the Olympic Flame is passed to Los Angeles, my most memorable moments may not be the same as yours. I’m not making fun of the breakdancers that competed as individuals, as they stepped forward and participated. Congratulations to them, as effort and dedication almost without exception deserve applause. I'll still argue that Flavor Flav captured more of what can still be great about the Olympics than any other example. Hopefully, moving forward, all of us can take some inspiration from his example and support. That’s how the Games can bring us together to appreciate the very best of who we are.
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