OLYMPICS 2024 WRAP-UP PART II—THE GOOD STUFF

It’s been almost a week since the Paris Summer Olympics ended, but I, along with every talk show host, am not over it yet.

As I mentioned in my article earlier this week, (itsnotaboutme.tv/news/olympics-paris-olympics-2024-wrap-up-part-i,) I was too enthralled by it all, (and having watched the proceedings for literally nineteen hours a day, way too tired,) to take many notes, but here are the rest of the few I managed to jot down in my exhausted stupor.

French hero of the Olympics, Leon Marchand, closing down the Olympic flame to begin the Closing Ceremony. Photo by Karen Salkiin, as is the one at the top of this page.

I started to be a bit embarrassed in front of myself at the number of times I got choked-up for the accomplishments of these complete strangers! But what incredible physical feats those people were displaying. No matter what happened for each athlete in Paris, just making an Olympics team is an amazing achievement.

American distance runner Clayton Young finished the marathon, and immediately turned right around to cheer on the people who were finishing after him! I’ve never seen that before. What incredible kindness. And he actually greeted a lot of them with a warm handshake.

American Clayton Young finishing the Men’s Marathon.

I learned a lot in those sixteen days of competitions, and not just about each sport. For example, I now know that the palms of the hands have thousands of receptors which respond well to cooling. In the past few years, I’ve noticed that when I touch the wall behind my bed or the back of my iPad in the mornings, my mood improves. I thought I was crazy but now I know why! Thanks, Olympic Marathon!

Here’s an eye-opening statistic: Every American male who was in a track final there won a medal, except for the lone guy in the 800 meters, who came in a very respectable fourth place.

I actually became a fan of Norwegian middle-distance running star Jakob Ingebritzen, after starting-out thinking he was just obnoxious. But then I saw one of those little features on him, and realized that he was the way he was because his father/former coach had been abusive his whole life. And Jakob has been trying to do better now that he’s gotten away from him. And I give him mad respect for failing to win even a bronze medal in the much-heralded 1500m, but then coming back in the 5000m to take the gold! That’s a perfect example of extreme mental fortitude.

Jakob Ingebritzen winning the5000m by a big margin. I never even noticed his unfabulous tattoos, but he had the coolest haircut at the entire Olympics!

I’m glad that the television producers did little features on some of the athletes, such as the one I referenced above. Before I learned about each one, I’m sure that the rest of the world joined me in deciding for whom to root based on country, name, and looks. Afterwards, I chose with a more educated approach.

The studio hosts kept saying there were thirty-nine sports in all, but the official list that I have lists it as forty-eight of them! That’s an odd discrepancy.

The Paris Olympics logo. Do you see a flame or a girl’s face with a cute bob haircut?

Before the games began, even when I published my first article heralding the start of the Olympics, in which I featured an image of the official Paris logo at the top, I thought it was a girl’s face with just lips, showing-off a hip French bob haircut!!! No lie. Crazy of me, right? In case you were also a tad confused, the logo is the Olympic flame in the middle of the circle. I see it now, but I also still see that chic girl.

I’ve already discussed that awful Australian so-called breakdancer, RayGun, in my previous article, but I feel the need to follow-up on her a bit more here. The world has discovered how dreadful a supposed dancer she is, but I said it first to Mr. X about thirty seconds into her routine as we were watching it live. I was basically WTF???ing. And he was pooh-poohing me, saying I was being a bit hard on her. Since then, we’ve watched all of her waaaaay sub-par offerings at the Olympics, (we had watched only her first “battle” originally—we couldn’t take any more of her,) and he’s amazed at her inclusion in the competition, as well.

Now her fellow Aussie Olympians and their organizers are sticking-up for her, declaring that we’re all wrong, and that RayGun was deserving of a berth on their country’s team. So I’m asking again—was there not even one better breakdancer in that entire country??? Something about the whole process there is fishy, and it does definitely stink. Just sayin’.

Yet another one of RayGun’s ridiculous moves. Her competitor, on the left, can’t believe what she’s seeing, either!

Lastly, as I stated in my previous Olympics article, neither the opening nor closing ceremony was what it should have been. I was expecting so much from the French and was disappointed on both ends. Now LA28 really needs my help!!!