Paris 2024 was a sorely needed Olympic experience, and Canada was front and centre
Some thoughts on a great Olympics after they came to an end in Paris on Sunday.
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou
The Olympic Games are always a momentous occasion. These last two weeks in particular, Paris 2024 — the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad to use their official name — were unlike anything we have ever seen before.
The motto for these Olympics was Ouvrons Grand les Jeux — or Games Wide Open. And that was sorely needed after a Tokyo 2020 Olympics where iconic moments played out surrounded by empty seats and deafening silence — the world still kept apart because of the pandemic that postponed the Games by a year to 2021.
The Olympics in Paris were the polar opposite.
It started with an epic opening ceremony that took place on the Seine River and included many of the city’s iconic landmarks. Those landmarks also provided a stunning backdrop to the Games themselves — including beach volleyball at the base of the Eiffel Tower, fencing at Grand Palais, equestrian at the Palace of Versailles, and surfing as far away as Tahiti, among others.
These Olympics were truly the pinnacle of sport once again. Paris welcomed the world for the first time in a century, and they knocked it out of the park.
At its best, sports are not only about what is happening on the field of play, but the community it can foster in the stands, among competitors, and around the world as people gather to cheer on their favourite athletes as they strive to be the greatest.
Over the past two weeks in the French capital, people were brought together for moments of triumph, heartbreak, and just about every emotion in between.
As is the case at every edition of the Olympics, stars were born, records were rewritten, and legend statuses were cemented.
That was especially true on Team Canada, where Andre De Grasse tied Penny Oleksiak’s Canadian record with his seventh Olympic medal, while many athletes stepped onto the podium for the first time.
Whether it was Summer McIntosh in the pool, the men’s 4x100 team on the track, Ethan Katzberg and Camryn Rogers in the field, Phil Wizard at Place de la Concorde, or so many others, Canadians were at the centre of all the action, writing history of their own. Team Canada picked up 27 medals at these Olympics, nine of them gold and several in sports where Canada has not historically had success.
With every medal featuring a piece of the Eiffel Tower, 50 Canadian athletes took a piece of Paris home with them across the various individual and team sports.
Not every athlete can leave as a champion, though. Whether because of injuries or failing to live up to expectations — either personal ones, or those from the the outside — some were left heartbroken, but Canadian fans quickly reacted with support and pride for those who represented them so valiantly.
One of the memorable moments from these Olympics wasn’t a moment of celebration, but a moment of bravery and humility in defeat.
After going into the final of the women’s shot put as the favourite for the gold medal, Sarah Mitton battled the wet conditions at Stade de France, but wasn’t able to post the scores she is capable of, and fouled on her last throw. In what was undoubtedly a low moment for one of the best athletes in this country, Mitton remained in the field to watch the rest of the competitors decide the medals, smiling and hugging them but taking no further part. She also wanted to see what she was missing, so she can be back in four years, and add an Olympic medal to a growing trophy cabinet.
Some things are a lot more important than sport, though.
Mitton lost her father 10 weeks prior to the Olympics, and her mother was watching her compete for the first time in Paris. She so desperately wanted to win a medal for them and for Canada. “I feel like I can finally breathe,” she said afterwards. "Unfortunately, it’s not the breath of fresh air I wanted. But it’s a breath. Just standing here today, I know that they’re both very proud of me.”
It is moments like that that make people proud, and there were many in Paris this summer.
Team Canada’s marketing campaign for these Olympics was named “Brave Is Unbeatable”, and its athletes undoubtedly lived up to that. In Mitton’s home province of Nova Scotia, she returns home a hero.
These Olympics weren’t perfect, or without their controversies — Canadian or otherwise. The Olympics never have been perfect and never will be, but they and the Paralympics are the greatest platform for what sports should be all about — bringing people together.
As athletes, coaches, and fans from around the world belted out We Are The Champions at Stade de France on Sunday, surrounded by people from all corners of the globe and singing in unison, there was a prevailing feeling:
We were all winners for having been able to experience the true magic of the Olympics once again.
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What a quintessential, eloquent article and thematic. It was a magnificent fortnight for the entire world to become "one champion"-- buoyed by the human condition, and the Olympic spirit!! Cheers everyone.