We'll always have Paris
The Paris Olympics brought back the joy absent in Tokyo and Beijing. The 2028 L.A. Games face a tough top-this challenge.
More, please.
More rowing and taekwondo and marathon swimming and artistic swimming and hurdling.
And more gymnastics (with scrupulous judges), pole vaulting, diving, handball, rugby sevens, and sprinting, too.
The Paris Olympics left us wanting more, a remarkable feat for a gargantuan competition that included a dizzying variety of sports contested by 10,000 athletes. The Olympics usually drag toward the end, especially after marquee events like gymnastics and swimming have ended. The Paris Games, played out against spectacular backdrops such as Versailles, the Eiffel Tower, the Grand Palais and the Seine River, passed altogether too quickly.
More, please, of competition like the stunning closing sprint Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands managed in order to add a women’s marathon gold medal to the bronze medals she had won in the 5,000 and 10,000. More drama like American sprinter Noah Lyles’ late burst to win the men’s 100-meter dash in a photo finish. More comebacks like Quincy Hall’s determined push to win gold in the men’s 400. More clutch performances like Steph Curry’s against France in the men’s basketball gold medal game. More races for Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh, who won three of her country’s nine gold medals in Paris. More time for medal-winning British diver Tom Daley to knit sweaters for everyone.
Above all, more stories and more scenes of athletes hugging their loved ones, as American basketball star Sabrina Ionescu embraced the family of the late Kobe Bryant after the U.S. women won their eighth straight gold medal. Those sights were greatly missed during the pandemic-restricted Tokyo and Beijing Games. Their return enhanced the humanity that makes the Olympics compelling.
The drama of best-on-best competition led even casual viewers to become emotionally invested in sports most of us knew little about before they were broadcast or streamed to us. Handball? Kayak cross? Who knew how much fun they are? And that was reflected in the ratings. NBC’s coverage on the main network, on Peacock’s Gold Zone, and on USA and E! provided extensive coverage day and night and allowed viewers to select what they wanted to watch. It was a feast.
The announcers were nearly impeccable. I’ll miss many of those voices. I want them to narrate my daily life.
I’d love to have Rowdy Gaines, the three-time Olympic swimming gold medalist who became an outstanding commentator for NBC, analyze each part of my journey when I drive along the 405. I want to hear his infectious enthusiasm when I snake through an opening in traffic to find open road. I want to hear his happy shout when I pull into a parking space ahead of other drivers and hear his genuine relief and joy when I turn off the engine, safely at my destination.
I want to hear the expressive voice of Laurie Hernandez, a gold and silver gymnastics medalist at Rio in 2016, discuss the events of my day with the same empathy, knowledge, and insight she brought to the Paris gymnastics competition. I know she’ll be informative but forgiving.
Dropping a plate when I put the dishes away will require a deduction of a tenth of a point from my score, of course, but she will charitably mention the degree of difficulty in my routine of reaching over the counter to put everything on the shelf where they belong. I didn’t vacuum the living room carpet in precise lines? She will offer the consolation that I brought my “A” game to the effort, and that it’s all about doing the best you can in big moments. I hope she’d become emotional when I pirouette to keep the vacuum cord untangled on the stairs.
From here on out, I will judge whether an athlete is jittery by checking to see how much their ankles shake, Hernandez’s standard measurement for the state of a gymnast’s nervousness. She rose to the occasion in Paris, which makes it all the more baffling that after she appeared on live broadcasts of competition, NBC swtiched to commentary from Samantha Peszek in its evening replays. Hernandez is more than ready for prime time and has earned major assignments in the coming years.
The Paris Games also were a showcase for Noah Eagle, Kenny Albert, Mary Carillo, and track commentators Sanya Richards-Ross and Kara Goucher. Mike Tirico was a steady and assured host during countless hours on air. A little less celebrity-gazing and promotion of NBC stars during the broadcasts would have been welcome, and did we really need Jimmy Fallon blathering at the closing ceremony? But Snoop Dogg proved to be an amiable presence, adding to the generally joyful atmosphere as everybody’s genially sports-crazed uncle.
Thanks to these announcers and analysts and their research staff, we were prepared to celebrate athletes who won the first Olympic medal in their country’s history (notably Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia in the women’s 100-meter dash and Letsile Tebogo in the men’s 200, whose triumph led to the declaration of a national holiday for his compatriots in Botswana). It was equally easy to rejoice at the repeat feats of athletes like gymnast Simon Biles (four medals), runner Gabby Thomas (three golds) and swimmers Katie Ledecky (four medals), and five-time medalists Leon Marchand, Torri Huske, Reagan Smith, Kaylee McKeown, and Mollie O’Callaghan, who needed extra suitcases to haul their bounty home.
We saw noble efforts fall short, grimaced the U.S. men’s 4x100-meter relay team botched the baton-passing again on the track, and agonized while the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that Jordan Chiles should return the bronze medal she had won five days earlier in the floor exercise final. For no good reason, the International Olympic Committee sought to punish her for procedural errors made by judges, and it wouldn’t permit the sensible solution of allowing her to share the medal with Romanian Ana Barbosu. USA Gymnastics announced Sunday it had submitted additional evidence to prove it had submitted its inquiry on Chiles’ score within the permitted timeframe, and it requested that Chiles’ medal be reinstated. This isn’t over yet.
But more than bureaucratic bumbles, these Olympics will be remembered for late rallies that turned into victories and dispiriting falls that became lessons in how to bounce back in competition and in life. American pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik and Brazilian gymnast Rebecca Andrade did wonders for the optometry industry by pulling out eyeglasses to read their medal-winning scores after they’d performed. Glasses wearers of the world felt that deeply.
The Olympic spotlight has dimmed, but the Paralympics are up next. NBC, USA, Peacock, and CNBC are scheduled to offer coverage starting on Aug. 28. There are many great stories begging to be told.
Remember, too, that Olympic sports don’t vanish between Games. The WNBA resumes its season on Thursday. NCAA gymnastics season gets underway in January. College rowing is a fall sport. Track and field, enormously popular in Europe and a key part of the Paris Games, has struggled for attention in the U.S. between Olympics. My former L.A. Times college Andrew Greif wrote an excellent story on the dilemma the sport faces.
The Paris Games ended Sunday with predictably grand ceremonies and symbols, with athletes dancing and Olympic rings soaring. “The Olympic Games Paris 2024 were Games of a new era,” International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said, citing gender parity and environmental sustainability.
Soon after that, he participated in the ceremonial handover of Summer Olympic hosting responsibility to LA 2028—a bit of protocol that included Biles alongside mayor Karen Bass.
They were later joined by actor Tom Cruise.
L.A. organizers will have a formidable act to follow. Staging the athletes’ parade along the 110 at the opening ceremony wouldn’t have the same resonance as watching them sail along the Seine. But Los Angeles has beaches and mountains and a long history as a place where big dreams are nurtured amid the talent to make them come true.
The 1984 Los Angeles Games revived the Olympic movement after several boycotted Games had jeopardized their viability. Paris reinvigorated them after the pandemic L.A. has the creativity to put its own spin on the Olympics in 2028 and keep them relevant and successful long into the future.
Man, I am so behind in life because of these amazing games! What a thrill to see these athletes face the world watching as they competed and achieved. Even those who didn’t medal are worthy and amazing.
Peacock (and a nearly reasonable time zone difference) made these Games great. What will it be like in our time zone when everything will be live?