“We must reignite enthusiasm.” This statement from Emmanuel Macron may well represent one of the most heartfelt sentiments from his recent address preceding France’s Olympic Games. While it’s reasonable in its own right, it might be even more fitting if we dropped the “re.” Welcome to Paris 2024, the 33rd iteration of the modern Olympic Games—an event that seems to have quietly snuck up on us with a careless shrug and a mere hint of urgency.
It’s almost tradition to worry about the Olympics in the first place. There’s always that urge to ponder the magnitude, the authenticity, and the sheer spirit of this quadrennial global spectacle.
This time, however, there is a strong sense of generalized apathy within Paris itself. The Olympics requires the host city to undergo a drastic rebranding, casting a shadow over the city and transforming it to fit the International Olympic Committee’s demands.
But Paris has its own selling points. The city promotes itself, showcasing a vibrant life where two million residents partake in the daily rhythm of being quintessentially Parisian, honoring historical roots while the outskirts remain notably distant from the beautifully preserved city center.
Just two days before the summer Games kick off, signs of celebration are modest, with subtle pageantry and armed security mingling in local cafés. It feels transitory, like decorative paper for a fleeting summer fair.
Strangely enough, the somber atmosphere this week feels oddly comforting. On Thursday, Thomas Bach, the IOC president, appeared at a stark desk, speaking in a tentative manner about how “all the lights are green,” while acknowledging many steps are yet to be undertaken. He resembled not the conductor of a grand global event, but rather a provincial detective announcing mildly promising developments amid ongoing trouble.
On Friday, the Games will formally commence with Macron’s persistently diluted imperial parade along the Seine, showcasing an authentic Parisian joie de vivre under the watch of 75,000 security personnel, military drones, rooftop sharpshooters, and armored vehicles patrolling the streets. Certainly, this is one method of executing a boat parade alongside a Céline Dion performance.
There is at least a flicker of urgency associated with this opening spectacle. Despite the subdued preparations, this Olympics is crucial for the future of the Games, the trajectory of major sporting events at large, and, beyond that, the cultural geopolitics that have shaped the sporting landscape since Paris last hosted the Games a century ago.
Two weeks left to salvage the Olympic Games. This could easily sound overly dramatic. The $8 million (£6.2 million) deal with NBC will keep fuelling the event’s machine. Corporate sponsorship remains enormous ($9 billion from Coca-Cola—that’s quite a lot of sugary beverage). Yet, an event that continuously feels the need to justify its own value, answering without being questioned the fundamental query of its purpose, appears to be at a pivotal juncture. Where will its fate lead?
The Olympic paradox is ever-present. The Games have always positioned themselves, increasingly absurdly, as a counterbalance to war and discord, an instrument of international diplomacy, a beacon of peace and global unity. Bach has emphatically touted this narrative before the Paris Games, painting a sugary picture of camaraderie, Olympic flowers blooming from the barrels of guns, athletes “living together peacefully under one roof.”
This is a story the Olympics has long favored telling. Yet the harsh truth is starkly different. The Olympics functions as a tool of power, wielded to exert influence and distribute political patronage, from Berlin to London and Mexico City to Rio. It embodies soft power, a military dress rehearsal conducted without the warfare.
In exchange, substantial revenue flows in, yet it often doesn’t benefit the very public that supports the grand spectacle. Despite the extravagance, we remain captivated by the show, allowing the vividness to mesmerize us, rendered irresistible by its kaleidoscopic visuals.
There’s a certain mystique here, a willing suspension of disbelief. When questioned about how he would persuade remaining skeptical Parisians to embrace the Games, Bach responded: “It will not be me who persuades them, but the Olympic flame when it ignites the cauldron.”
And he is correct. Even as the event grows more unwieldy and grotesque, the spectacle invariably overshadows the intricacies, expenses, avarice, and waste. The pressing question now is: how much longer can this continue? And is that already beginning to reverse?
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This time, the challenges to the Olympics’ supremacy are profound. The Summer Games must establish itself anew as a dream creator and a moment producer. The pandemic’s timing has dealt a heavy blow in this regard. What’s the latest iconic moment? If we reflect back, the last truly significant Olympic moment was Usain Bolt earning gold in Rio eight years ago.
Honestly, the COVID-affected Games in Tokyo felt like an abomination—a spectral event for broadcasters, conducted in front of empty audiences within large, sterile arenas filled with exhausted and overwhelmed athletes. The IOC’s own list of the top-10 moments from those shadow Games includes Simone Biles’ near breakdown (remember she won bronze), a pair of high jumpers sharing gold just because, well, why not, with nobody actually present. In a more rational world, that would simply never have transpired.
The mission for Paris is to remediate this situation. The Olympics consistently craves more heroes, fresh moments, and captivating human stories. The next fortnight is critical for restoring that sense of lost grandeur. The United States, in particular, has a massive appetite for Olympic stars. By the week’s conclusion, U.S. sprinters Noah Lyles and the incredibly talented Sha’Carri Richardson could find themselves catapulted into superstardom.
The Olympics needs its own success, and it requires an exceptional Olympics. However, do the spectators share that sentiment? A paper published two years ago on ScienceDirect, subtitled “the rise, crisis, and potential decline of the Olympic Games and the World Cup,” suggested we’ve possibly reached “Peak Big Event,” pointing towards a scenario where both the Games and the FIFA World Cup have overindulged, with contraction as the sole potential outcome.
This perspective holds logical weight. Such events can be envisaged as extensions of traditional Western cultural hegemony. The modern Olympics arose from Europe’s industrial rise at the close of the 19th century—a platform for showcasing power and prowess, initially coveting a world’s fair for advances in science, arts, military strength, and human grandeur. This explains why a truly apolitical Olympics has never been feasible, rendering the very notion itself absurd. It also clarifies why the Team GB dressage debacle earlier this week stands as an apt symbol of the folly inherent in siphoning public funds into an elite cultural relic. Really? Is this the best the Olympics can still provide?
The landscape surrounding the Olympics has evolved, even within the past eight years. Entertainment consumption patterns have fragmented, becoming less central and more critical. The somewhat aristocratic presentation of the Olympics—“check out canoeing, enjoy steeplechase, embrace these obscure activities”—now seems increasingly out of place in a world that thrives on demand. This structural change is also apparent. There are no longer bidding wars for hosting rights. The public is aware of the costs involved. Politicians can no longer peddle promises of regeneration and guaranteed growth. The numbers are known, along with the carbon footprint.
The Olympics will always maintain its globalistic, authoritative, and preachy tones, yet these traits are tied to a bygone era. Considering this, the tepid response from Paris demonstrates that this understated Games can manage its own costs. The most considerable financial risk lies in the significant investment in cleaning up the Seine, alongside the subtle introduction of bike lanes and restrictions on vehicles initiated by progressive mayor Anne Hidalgo.
In spite of its absurdity and extravagance, there remains an undeniable optimism embedded in this spectacle, reflected in its potential and moments of human triumph. The show will undoubtedly persist. However, the next two weeks could be pivotal in determining precisely how it unfolds.
