Reflections on #Paris2024 Part 1️⃣
One year ago (July 26) the Paris Games Opening Ceremony unfurled along the River Seine under a torrent of rain, swollen with symbolism and sports diplomacy that only such a “show” can convey.
It was no easy feat. The weather threw a curve ball into the planning. Security was high as it was the first time that such an event was held outside of the comparatively easier-to-secure confines of an arena. That extended to extra vigilance around the country’s infrastructure; a few days earlier a Russian spy was arrested over alleged plans to disrupt the games and just that morning France’s famed TGV lines went down after saboteurs targeted the train lines with arson attacks.
I was caught in the subsequent travel snafu. I started the morning of July 26 in Nantes following a fun Spain-Japan match the previous day to open the Olympic women’s football tournament. It was only when I arrived at the train station that I learned of the sabotage, and was immediately confronted with the logistical challenge of getting myself to Lille ahead of the July 27 tipoff of the men’s basketball tournament, my next set of tickets. What ensued was an impromptu road trip through the countryside, pointing out to my friend along the way the names of towns and cities we passed where members of the French team grew up (Lisieux: Nicolas Batum and Marine Johannès; Saint Quentin: Rudy Gobert). While I missed the pre-Opening Ceremony roundtable on France24 that I was supposed to contribute to (sad!), I made it to my Lille hotel and tuned into the celebration just five minutes late (whew!). As it turned out, my hotel was the basecamp for the Australian basketball team families, so a fun exchange all around.
And what a marvelous Opening Ceremony it was! From the first images of renown comedian Jamel Debbouze and football legend Zinédane Zidane to the final light show at the Tour Eiffel, it was a masterclass in how to communicate, represent, and negotiate about a twenty-first century France to international publics…and to a domestic one, too.
Just a few sports diplomacy-related standouts:
Singer extraordinaire Aya Nakamura, accused by far-right nationalists of flubbing the French language with her incorporation of slang and non-French vocabulary, sang in front of the Institute de France, the historical arbiter of French language, backed up by the conservative Guard Républicaine was an evolutionary statement. The most streamed Francophone artist in the world communicated, represented, and negotiated about who and what constitutes France today. https://youtu.be/uuHtD8MOaFk?si=KBWyi3o-tHoVTcHo
The torch relay, which included Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal and Carl Lewis, in addition to French sportswomen and men, again communicated, represented and negotiated about sporting history in France, particularly the long proud tradition of tennis and Roland Garros.
The final light show in front of the Tour Eiffel, a structure first erected for the 1889 Universal Exposition (and which was originally thought to be an eyesore among the City of Light’s skyline), welcomed state, civilian, and sports dignitaries alike, some of them literally diplomats in tracksuits; that this final phase could be pulled off despite the continued downpour was testament to engineering and ingenuity (among other things).
Watch the Olympic Channel’s broadcast of the Opening Ceremony.
What does it communicate to you?
What kinds of representations can you identify?
And how does it negotiate foreign opinions (i.e. your own) about France, its history, people, and culture?
You can read in on the symbolism and imagery behind the Paris 2024 brand here.
I learned later that many in the United States did not share the same perspective—many of who had no understanding of the stories being told through that fluvial production because U.S. commentators didn’t know the history, cultural, or sporting references and thus could not explain them to their audiences. That’s too bad, and perhaps a lesson on the need for (and merits of) having experts in the house to help storytell and translate, even if they are not big stars or household names.
Read more from my sporty colleague and friend Dr J Simon Rofe on the sports diplomacy at Paris 2024, and peruse through the Olympic Analysis Project for more golden, silver, and bronze nuggets as we reflect on the Paris Games one year afterward.