Look, everyone! They already have .gifs!
Los Angeles is wisely looking to capitalize on all the enthusiasm generated by this year’s Olympic Games in Paris. It was not without its issues, which I would be remiss in simply blowing by. Most every modern Olympics has been followed by a predictable trail of corruption scandals, and Paris had those too. There’s probably more to come on that front, but by the time it does, most of us won’t be paying much attention anymore. Such is the way.
Then there’s the traditional IOC bullshit, from the much-documented Jordan Chiles ordeal to allowing multiple Chinese swimmers who’d tested positive for banned substances to compete, and win, in the pool. There’s always something, you know? If it’s not that, it’s the Seine as the suspected culprit behind some viruses putting triathletes in the hospital. Or the ill-fated decision to welcome breakdancing into the competition. Although that one turned out to be kinda funny, it then became sad? We live in confusing times.
There’s always something. No getting around that. However, if I may set those valid concerns aside, the seemingly general consensus — that the Paris Games were a massive success — seems entirely right to me.
It had, by far, the deepest cultural resonance I’ve ever seen for the Olympics. I can’t recall a time when so many people in my life were regularly watching and talking about them, and not just the major competitions, either.
My favorite of the more obscure sports, rugby sevens, had its greatest cultural awakening in American history with the success of the women’s team and its biggest star, Ilona Maher. She’s doing hits on Late Night and posting to nearly 4M followers these days, far and away the most of any active player, men’s or women’s.
The memes overfloweth. Memes became meta memes. The sheer collective attention paid to the Olympics felt like a high-water mark, and definitely for me personally — I have never watched nearly that many of the competitions.
Just about every morning, I’d wake up, see what was happening, and throw it on in the background to start my day. That led me to the cycling road race, bonus tennis at Roland Garros, every track event imaginable, tons of beach and indoor volleyball, IMHO rather chilling synchronized swimming routines, and yes, that legendary last stretch of USA Basketball, in which Steph Curry reminded the hooperati that he does indeed belong in the Top 10 Ever conversation.1
Much ink has been spilled over the fact that the Olympics is typically a humongous waste of money. NBC made a killing, and so presumably did a bunch of Parisian hoteliers. But the case often made for hosting the games — the (don’t) echonomic case, that the investment in the undertaking will continue to pay off well into the future — hasn’t been convincing in recent decades, and these cities know that going in.
The only two bidders for the 2024 edition were Paris and Los Angeles, which resulted in the IOC guaranteeing L.A. the next one. Now, one important thing to point out is that a city like Los Angeles has not only hosted the Games twice before, but happens to have a pretty significant base of infrastructure already. I’ll admit I raised my eyebrows at Mayor Karen Bass proclaiming that her famously sprawling city would play host to a “no-car” Olympics, and it’s not as if the city doesn’t have other rather pressing problems to solve, but I don’t think of L.A. as a place that’s ill-equipped to do this.
I do question whether it’s good for the city. It will probably run them somewhere on the order of $7 billion, and that’s today, four years out. Whatever the number is now, you can bet it’ll go up faster than it goes down. That sort of spending is tough to justify on good vibes alone, so I don’t want to pretend like the question isn’t valid.
The truth is, though, the good vibes are worthwhile. The Olympics obviously aren’t going anywhere, and Paris was a strong reminder of why. The Games may change, which we should welcome. The IOC is already changing the way they pick the host, which it’s needed to do for some time. Further reforms could eventually get this to a more sensible and responsible place, though I would cynically note that we shouldn’t expect to ever reach truly sensible and responsible in a context such as this.
It’s the bolder reform proposals that have my attention these days. Here’s one: selecting a permanent host who gets to consistently dedicate resources to making the event everything it can be. Or, related to that, maybe a set of cities that cycles hosting duties in a sequence.
I’ve also heard it suggested that the Olympics should be Tahiti’d (don’t) across the board (🏄). You know how all the surfing was held in French Polynesia this year? Just a cool 10,000 miles from Paris?
Well — what if you did that with everything? It makes some sense, in the modern media age we inhabit. Put events where they’re suited to be held and cut down on net-new construction. It’s not like this is mainly for spectators, and it’s not as if that aspect would disappear. People would just have to choose, which maybe they wouldn’t want to do. Maybe that’s a bad idea for reasons I’m not foreseeing.
What you’d lose is part of what made Paris special. It was pretty damn French. Beach volleyball under the Eiffel Tower? Get outta here.
These Olympics were done about as well as we’ve seen them. Los Angeles now (don’t — lots of these today) takes the baton, and it’s off to the races. Not sure what to expect from flag football, but I like that we’ll get baseball, and I have a feeling that squash could be a fun sleeper.
But most of all, I left these Olympics a little less down on the process — which does admittedly remain dumb, wasteful, and corrupt — and a little more up on the outcome. The Paris Olympics were hugely fun for the world. And that, I’m told, is the spirit. On to L.A.
Also, This
🏈 Lying is having a bit of a moment in football right now. I mean, lying has been having a moment since I started in journalism a decade ago now, but as
wrote this week, that does seem representative of a longer-term shift. Michael’s piece was about Jim Harbaugh, whose willingness to invoke a code of ethics while lying is pretty impressive. I’m also talking about Aaron Rodgers, who was said to have apologized this week for lying about being “immunized” during the height of his COVID-era antics a few years back. What struck me about this purported apology, however, was how little it resembled one. What Rodgers actually said was, emphasis mine: “If there's one thing I wish could have gone different, it's that, because that's the only thing [critics] could hit me with.” Meaning: I’m not sorry about pretty blatantly misleading everyone who asked me about my vaccination status at the time. But I am sorry that I gave my enemies ammunition to criticize me. Hate when that happens.🅰️ How about the Falcons, huh? Quite the string of moves for them. Matthew Judon and Justin Simmons within a week. If only they hadn’t willfully contradicted their own QB signing! Alas. They’re going for the division, which could hardly be any more winnable. Pretty sure Kirk can handle this one.
⚾ Somehow, it does feel as if Aaron Judge remains underrated. I’m not sure how or why that is, given he’s a Monstar when he steps into the batter’s box, but setting the first-to-300 record is the sort of thing that gets the keepers of baseball history all antsy. You know what I say? Good! Become a star. A bigger one. We could use one.
⚾ That might be curtains for my dear Cardinals. This team was never very good, and they’re slumping towards destiny lately as the NL Wild Card race picks up without them. Let’s file that under yet more evidence that “winning the deadline” rather often doesn’t translate to “winning games.” And guess which one’s more important? While we’re criticizing though, I’d like to see the team move Jordan Walker out of a platoon role. If you’re bringing him back up, then bring him back up. A player of his potential is going to need ABs if he’s going to get there.
Here’s a provocative question: are we sure Kobe was better than Steph? I’m not absolutely positive, no. Defense probably seals it, but it’s a conversation.