The ongoing Olympic Games 2024 in Paris have thrown a fair share of picture-worthy moments, apart from elite athletes that’ll go down as unique in sporting history. However, amidst the cheering crowds and celebration of sports, there have been intermittent spells of chaos spoiling the fun. While a few ugly incidents at the Games can be overlooked as mere accidents, others called for some spotlighting and redressal.
Politics enters the sport
While tolerance, inclusion and team spirit should be the core of any nation playing and its supporting crowds, unfortunately, politics entered the stadiums on occasions more than once. While earlier into the Games during Israeli men’s soccer team match against Paraguay, anti-semitic slogans could be heard with hateful booing and revolting words, pro-Palestinian protestors could also be heard shouting Nazi slogans.
The protestors held a sign reading Genocide Olympics as Israel’s national anthem played and could be heard screaming Heil Hitler. The threat of politics taking centre stage and sports taking the parallel backstage loomed large at the Games. French authorities were, however, prompt in taking action and taking the incidents seriously. In a statement, Paris 2024, said, “It is committed to combating all forms of discrimination, which are in every way contrary to the Olympic and Paralympic values.
We would like to remind everyone that the Games are a time for harmony and tolerance.”
Was Paris not prepared enough?
While the French authorities were quick in remedial action on the discriminatory incidents, off the field too many glitches experienced by the athletes left a huge question mark on the state of readiness of the host country. Thefts, shortage of food, and non-functioning AC in coaches have been all reported. Several Indian athletes, on conditions of anonymity, have shared about the food shortage to Indian media, while a couple of French newspapers like L ‘Equipe too have spoken about athletes complaining of lack of eggs and meat.
Despite a budget close to $9 billion and the Paris Olympic Village serving more than 40,000 meals a day, the food estimates were clearly off the mark. A few viral videos on social media early in the days of the game showed cardboard beds in the Village, which though eco-friendly did not go down well with several players. While a few elite athletes like Rafael Nadal stayed in the Village, tennis player Emma Navarro found the Village amenities too basic and opted for a five-star stay.
But nothing came close to the list of Olympic embarrassments quite like the quality of water in the culturally significant River Seine. After the footage of Canadian triathlete Tyler Mislawchuk vomiting violently went viral on news and social media, many speculated about the safety of swimmers and whether the French authorities should have conducted a quality check of water.
Mislawchuk had participated in the men’s triathlon on July 31 and later gave insight into what happened. “I happened to swallow a lot of water during the race,” he said in an interview as to what caused his upset stomach.
But it’s no surprise that questions were raised on the water safety standards of River Seine considering the race was postponed from its initial date of July 30 due to unsafe levels of fecal matter entering the river post the heavy rain.
Belgian triathlete Jolien Vermeylen minced no words in slamming the Paris Olympic authorities. “While swimming under the bridge, I felt and saw things that we shouldn’t think about too much. The Seine has been dirty for a hundred years, so they can’t say the safety of the athletes is a priority.”
Maybe things just did not start right from the word go. The opening ceremony itself, which was watched by close to 28 million people, was criticized for its execution and the way it played out. In keeping with this year’s theme of inclusivity, the opening ceremony saw a transgender model, an almost naked Greek God of wine, and a plump lesbian Jewish model. Moving on, the tableaux aimed at bringing people together but the French Catholic Church did not think so.
It viewed the ceremony as a parody of the Last Supper for many of its parts and deemed the show as blasphemous. Calls for boycotts followed from the Middle East and Latin America. So it wasn’t just the rain casting a shadow at the opening ceremony. It did not quite start right from the word go. Many hope that the Closing Ceremony makes up for the slightly dulled sheen of the Olympics.
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