Paris Olympics 2024

[Quintillus]

The Olympics opening ceremony starts in about two and a half hours, I'm surprised there isn't a thread about the Olympics yet. Some of the competitions have already started, such as in rugby.

Anyone planning to watch? I'll probably catch pieces of it here and there, it's been since the 2004 Athens Olympics that I watched a significant amount of the summer games, largely due to my own lack of easy TV access in 2008-2016, but with things being back to normal after Tokyo 2020, it seems like a good opportunity.

The opening ceremony might be worth tuning in to as well. It's going to be along the River Seine, rather than in a stadium like usual, and to me that sounds much more interesting to watch.

 

[Smellincoffee]

I saw that they were doing e-sports this year, which strikes me as rather silly, but (shrug). I think the only Olympics I managed to watch consistently was the 2008 series, because I was in college and had cable. I may just watch highlights on YouTube.

 

[really]

Watching the opening ceremony with my kids.

 

[thetrooper]

Same. But kid went back to SoMe as soon as Norway was shown.

I’ll watch bits and pieces if the weather is going to be bad.

 

[Quintillus]

I tuned in about the time that there was a metal band (Gojira) performing on the side of a castle. Pretty rad!

I didn't watch every single boat from that point on, but it was a lot more interesting than what I remember from previous opening ceremonies, most recently Pyeongchang, which I remember for being cold, having a small crowd, and an impressive Samsung drone display. In Paris, the themed interludes (liberté, egalité, fraternité, sororité, etc.) were largely interesting, and while not every performer was to my style, it was a good show all told, even with all the rain. I pity the piano and the string instruments that were being played in the rain.

Along with the metal band, my favorite highlights were La Marseillaise - the singer (Axelle Saint-Cirel) not only sang well but looked the part standing on top of the Grand Palais - and the rendition of John Lennon's Imagine near the end, on a floating rock in the river with a seemingly burning piano, with an excellent singer (Juliette Armanet). Evidently it's been performed at a few previous Olympics, but given the political climate, it seemed a poignant choice.

 

[AdrienIer]

I saw that they were doing e-sports this year, which strikes me as rather silly, but (shrug). I think the only Olympics I managed to watch consistently was the 2008 series, because I was in college and had cable. I may just watch highlights on YouTube.

No esports this year in Paris. They're planning to have a separate competition somewhere else in the next few years.

Ceremony was great. Bad luck with the rain, it's going to be fine weather wise starting tomorrow. I've got a few tickets so I hope it doesn't rain too much !

 

[thetrooper]

Are you Parisian @AdrienIer?

If so what’s the status security wise on the ground? They make a big show in our news that security is extremely tight during this Olympics.

 

[AdrienIer]

I actually live in Saint Denis (right outside Paris), where the Stade de France is. I'm going there this afternoon for the rugby sevens finals, I'll know more. So far I'd say that if you don't live near a venue for the olympics (or have to go through one) the olympics don't change your life much.
But security has to be extremely tight, we already had a coordinated attack on the olympics yesterday with 4 simultaneous fires disrupting the rail networks in France (no train going in or out of Paris in the 3 biggest train stations yesterday, traffic will only return to normal on monday).

 

[EnglishEdward]

The only question to me is whether the UK can get more medals than the host country and keep up with the tradition of:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/1000-years-of-annoying-the-french/stephen-clarke/9780552779937

 

[PPQ_Purple]

Am I the only one who thought the opening was just tragically underwhelming?

Like, there were elements there of something good and individual pieces that worked. But overall the whole experience felt like a decent opening act for something but without the main show.

The individual acts were so and so for the most part with a few good spots. And the whole thing felt more like a bunch of disparate acts thrown together haphazardly than a cohesive whole. It is as if the designers worked on each of the acts individually without any real consideration as to how they are supposed to fit together into something greater. So they just don't.

This also extended to the actual theming of the acts which was just all over the place. It's like they could not pick one theme so they went with a little bit of everything. So you have your 5 minutes of French history, 5 minutes of heavy metal, than bearded woman, than people in pink etc. etc. And what they ended up with is an opening that feels like a clip show assembled from different individual openings each of which would have been interesting to watch if only they picked one as opposed to a cohesive single ceremony with a start, middle and finish.

Which is ironic given that the actual start and finish were quite good. I honestly feel like they'd have been better of skipping everything in the middle simply because regardless of the quality it just didn't connect up.

Worst of all though the whole thing just really lacked that wow factor that an Olympic opening is supposed to have. There was no big moment of impressiveness, no big something that would make me stand up in my seat and that I would remember for years. Hell, they didn't even have the closing fireworks.

 

[Quintillus]

I don't think I've ever seen or heard of a fireworks display going on in the pouring rain. Whether any were planned, I don't know. But there were other pyrotechnics along the way.

It's true that there was not just one theme - there were twelve. I suspect that to some extent one's reception of it may have been influenced by their degree of knowledge of French, ability to pick up on the various references to French culture and history, and whether they have been to Paris. I definitely did not catch all of the references, but enough of them to realize that was the undercurrent connecting everything.

I think the setting itself will contribute greatly to whether people remember this opening ceremony five, ten, twenty years from now. Every other opening ceremony has been in some stadium, all of which are more or less similar, with similar constraints, this one featured so many of Paris's landmarks and its classic architecture, and those were often incorporated into the ceremony, not just as a backdrop. The sense of place was much improved.

One could argue that I'm the target audience for this style of performance. I couldn't care less about Super Bowl halftime shows or most other stadium performances, but love history and architecture, and have been to Paris a couple of times, so this was more my cup of tea.

 

[Civinator]

Am I the only one who thought the opening was just tragically underwhelming?

Here is another one with the same impression.

In my eyes this boat caravan of the athlets was a typical French super-unconventional, but also in my eyes defenitely not convincing idea. There was much too less focus on the athlets, especially on the bigger teams compared to the teams marching in the stadium in former opening ceremonies and the ships passed by much to quick to identify many of the single athlets, especially in the bigger teams. Additionally the image of the athlets only standing (and at least sometimes jumping) on the boats and not moving, as in former opening ceremonies, gave a feeling contradicting to the thought, that the Olympic games are an exercise in using the bodies.

After some time I switched off that opening ceremony and invested my free time in the update of my Civ 3 mod. May be after I have switched off, the opening ceremony could have become better with more focus on the athlets, but in this case the event would have been defenitely too long.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Watching men's rugby sevens. The medal matches aren't for a couple hours, though. S. Africa-Australia in the Bronze match; France-Fiji for the Gold. Fiji are the 2-time defending Olympic champions, and just rolled up Australia like a carpet in the semi-final.

Early rounds of judo & boxing are going on this weekend. I might stick my head in some of those matches. I don't know anything about any of the athletes, but sometimes you catch someone special on the rise. I remember seeing Riddick Bowe during the '88 games (on television, not in person). Sadly I did not catch Kayla Harrison in 2012 or 2016.

Artistic Gymnastics is going on this weekend. I'm not sure what the differences are between 'Artistic' and 'Rhythmic' Gymnastics, but I might check that out. USA Women compete in the preliminary round tomorrow at... 5:40am.

Men's footie: USA-v-New Zealand this afternoon. I don't have high hopes for USA, but "signs of improvement" would be nice. Getting slammed 3-0 by France wasn't it. I'd like to see a couple goals against the Kiwis. 2-0 would be good, 2-1 would be acceptable.
Big Matchday-2 for women's footie tomorrow: Spain (World Cup holders) vs. Nigeria and then United States vs Germany. France vs Canada (defending Olympic champions) is at the same time as USA-GER, sadly, but if I'm not exhausted, and if they don't spoil the result during the USA game, I may look for the replay.

Wrestling doesn't start until the 5th.

I've never seen competitive Breaking before, I want to check that out. That starts on the 9th.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

Here is another one with the same impression.

In my eyes this boat caravan of the athlets was a typical French super-unconventional, but also in my eyes defenitely not convincing idea. There was much too less focus on the athlets, especially on the bigger teams compared to the teams marching in the stadium in former opening ceremonies and the ships passed by much to quick to identify many of the single athlets, especially in the bigger teams. Additionally the image of the athlets only standing (and at least sometimes jumping) on the boats and not moving, as in former opening ceremonies, gave a feeling contradicting to the thought, that the Olympic games are an exercise in using the bodies.

That too. The Olympics are first and foremost a sports competition. And yet the only mention of sports in the entire ceremony (not counting speeches) was that one decorative painting on the bridge. And the way the athletes were cut in between the events just makes it feel like there was no grand vision and so they just squeezed them in in between acts like you would a commercial break between two shows.

 

[EgonSpengler]

My feed keeps cutting out. Booo, NBC! Booooo! I'm missing USA-Argentina.

 

[Kyriakos]

It's nice that Giannis was the leader of the (entire) olympic team, but the opposite of nice to have the teams "enter" through the Seine.

 

[EgonSpengler]

WHY IS PEACOCK'S WEBSITE FOR THE OLYMPICS SO HARD TO NAVIGATE?! [FLIP] YOU, WEBSITE! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! NO, I DON'T WANT THE SPANISH BROADCAST! It's cool that you have it as an option, though.


EDIT: Okay, after watching USA go up 3-0 on New Zealand, I made it back to the rugby final just as La Marsellaise was ending. Just in time. Hey, it just occurred to me, do Fiji perform the cibi for sevens matches? If so, I missed it.

EDIT 2: I was wondering whether any of the sevens players also play union or league, and the answer is yes. Antoine Dupont plays scrum-half for Toulouse and France, and captained their squad at the 2023 World Cup. I imagine there are others, I just happened to notice him. (Could players from the NFL - aka American rugby - play sevens? I bet their contracts wouldn't allow it. Too great a chance of getting injured. NBA players play in the Olympics, though.)

EDIT 3: France rocking n' rolling. Fiji forgot a game was on. Total domination in the 2nd half.

 

[AdrienIer]

Hey, it just occurred to me, do Fiji perform the cibi for sevens matches? If so, I missed it.

They don't. Apparently NZ would have been able to do theirs if they went to the finals, but couldn't do it every game because of scheduling.

EDIT 2: I was wondering whether any of the sevens players also play union or league, and the answer is yes. Antoine Dupont plays scrum-half for Toulouse and France, and captained their squad at the 2023 World Cup. I imagine there are others, I just happened to notice him. (Could players from the NFL - aka American rugby - play sevens? I bet their contracts wouldn't allow it. Too great a chance of getting injured. NBA players play in the Olympics, though.)

Dupont is the best player in rugby currently. Perhaps the GOAT of rugby union, but some people say he has to win the world cup to claim that title. Losing a quarter final by 2 points while playing with a broken face is apparently a bad thing for his legacy.

Other notable rugby union player in the olympics is Ireland's Hugo Keenan. Maybe also some of the Fiji/Samoa/Australia players that I don't know about.

Olympic champions maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Bestbank Tiger]

My feed keeps cutting out. Booo, NBC! Booooo! I'm missing USA-Argentina.

Sounds like Fox with the NFL.

That's why I listen on the radio.

 

[Marla_Singer]

I tuned in about the time that there was a metal band (Gojira) performing on the side of a castle. Pretty rad!

For those who missed it.

EDIT: sadly the video on youtube was deleted by the IOC but I could find a shorter extract on Twitter

https://twitter.com/x/status/1816901151763366178