Too often, the professed ideals of the Olympic movement — excellence, respect, friendship and the building of a better, more peaceful world — have amounted to a grandiose fraud.
Instead, the Games came to be characterized by boycotts from one side or another of the Cold War, or exploited by authoritarian host nations for political propaganda.
There have been wholesale doping scandals, bankrupting infrastructure costs, and the cheerful accommodation of cash-bearing sponsors at the expense of local residents.
As a result, what’s taken root in recent decades is an abiding cynicism about the Olympic Games and everything to do with them.
But not this time. Not in Paris 2024.
The Summer Games just concluded were charming, inspiring and just what a weary world — gripped by economic uncertainty, war in Ukraine, the Middle East and Sudan, and pressures on democracy itself — seemed to crave.
Inevitably, there were missteps and misjudgments, including Canada’s drone-spying fiasco and the French ban on athletes wearing hijabs in competition.
But the defining ambience of the Games was of light and possibility — a coming together of humanity on the field of play, and celebration of the progressive values that reflected the recent pushback around the world against illiberal and authoritarian governments and candidates.
These games were marked by exemplary shows of sportsmanship, athletes from different countries supporting each other, applauding each other, congratulating each other.
The images that will endure after Paris are more likely to be the moments of humanity than the competition itself.
There was Brazilian handball player Tamires Araujo Frossard carrying Angola’s Albertina Kassoma to the sideline after the latter suffered a knee injury while competing.
“There was no way I wouldn’t help her,” said Frossard.
There was America’s Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles bowing to Brazilian gold-medalist Rebeca Andrade after the medal presentation for gymnastics floor exercises.
No excuses. No bitterness. Just respect.
At medal presentations for the women’s rugby sevens, athletes from New Zealand (gold), Canada (silver) and the U.S. (bronze) mingled together for a group photo.
There was a Japanese gymnast hushing the crowd so his Chinese rival could concentrate on his final routine.
There were North Korean and South Korean athletes posing together at the podium after the table tennis competition, a demonstration soon dubbed “selfie diplomacy.”
If the world loves stories of underdogs triumphant, grit rewarded, and the obscure ascending to moments in the sun, the Paris Games had plenty.
Arshad Nadeem won Pakistan’s first ever individual gold medal in the javelin. Thea LaFond won Dominica’s first medal with her gold in the women’s triple jump. Julien Alfred won Saint Lucia’s first two Olympic medals with a gold in the women’s 100-metre and silver in the 200.
“Growing up, I used to be on the field struggling, with no shoes, running barefoot, running in my school uniform,” Alfred said. “We barely have the right facilities.”
The Paris Games had a marriage proposal made trackside by a sweaty runner and a “gender reveal” of a runner’s imminent child by his pregnant wife holding a sign in the stands. They even had the requisite oddities, including a Turkish marksman who seemed to have wandered out of the stands to win silver.
For stories of resilience, it was hard to top Guatemalan Adriana Ruano, who saw her dream of competing as a gymnast in 2012 shattered by injury, but who returned this summer to become her country’s first ever Olympic champion by winning a gold medal in women’s trap shooting.
“It was like my dream come true,” Ruana said. “And I think it’s something that Guatemala has been waiting for .”
In truth, these Games may have been something the world has been waiting for a long time.
It was a global gathering that continually demonstrated excellence, respect and friendship.
An event that made the building of a better, more peaceful world seem, for at least a few weeks in summer, something more than empty rhetoric.
