Paris Olympics 2024 – III

                                 

 The conclusion of the Paris Olympics provides time for reflection.

Overall, a really entertaining feast of sport which  illustrated humankind at its best

Paris is a beautiful city, saved from destruction in WWII unlike many other European cities including London, hence the especial glamour and beautiful lanscapes around most of the  Olympic venues there, perhaps excluding La Seine which despite the billion euros or so spent on cleaning that river, became  badly polluted during rainstorms.

The Games appeared to grow on the French especially after Leon Marchand’s gold medal swimming successes, when they became enthusiastic.

Team GB’s strength on the medals table, hugely assisted by the National Lottery was I believe  7^th    and  with 65 medals overall, was above expectations. Slightly fewer gold medals though in the  2024 Games; ce la vie.

There has been much deliberation about what sports to include/exclude from the Games when   they take place in Los Angeles USA in four years’ time.

The exclusion of boxing seems likely, not least because of the arguments about excluding male boxers from fighting in female bouts. The various boxing organisations do not appear to be able to get their acts together about this. Cricket might even be included, as might squash which has not featured previously on account of the difficulty of filming such a fast sport in a small court.

Whether the City of Los Angeles will be able to restrict traffic, is open to question given the traffic volumes and associated pollution there. Olympic teams which use hotels miles out of town would surely not be   assisting with this either.

Should the nature of the Olympic Games be changed to exclude say football and fancy moves on horseback?

Perhaps reverting to more track and field events as were applicable in ancient times might be apt though what about horse and chariot races?

Overall  the Paris Olympics 2024 were  a marvellous achievement.