Sorry to be so ridiculously British, but there’s no avoiding mentioning the soggy weather when it comes to the opening day television coverage of the Paris Olympics. As the Games began, the rain was giving “main character” energy as it cascaded down the panes of the BBC Sport studio window. Sofa-bound presenters Jeanette Kwakye and JJ Chalmers beseeched viewers to behold their wonderful (albeit hazy) view of the Eiffel Tower instead.
They then moved to sit in a “virtual Parisian cafe”, a plate of croissants grandly plonked on a table, with no rain to deal with. Here, they interviewed First Dates’ Fred Sirieix, who was practically combusting with pride about his daughter, Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix, diving for Team GB. “She’s going to fight like a lion!”, he roared.
As per with this most expansive of international galas (16 days. 329 events. 32 sports … and so on), navigating the channels starts feeling like an Olympic category in itself. What to watch and where? Eurosport’s comprehensive coverage of the various men/women’s rowing sculls? (Former Olympian James Cracknell mercilessly ribbing Kate Mason about insisting they use an umbrella: “I didn’t want one!”). Still on Eurosport, there was the men’s hockey (on a pristine blue indoor pitch, England beat Spain 4-0 in their first match).
On Discovery Plus, the women’s 3-metre synchronised springboard diving event supplied Team GB’s first medal: a bronze for Scarlett Mew Jensen and Yasmin Harper (the first for women’s British diving in 64 years), after a bad unlucky dive destroyed the Australian team’s chances. As tends to happen when watching the Olympics, I swiftly became over-invested in an event I’d only just heard of, marvelling at how contenders balanced on the balls of their feet before flying into the air in perfect synchronicity. Catching it again on BBC, the camera eerily but magically followed divers underwater, to such vivid effect you could almost smell the chlorine.
All the channels bulged with former Olympians (Jessica Ennis-Hill, Beth Tweddle, Matthew Pinsent, Tonia Couch and more) either presenting, commentating, or appearing as pundits. There were also emotional moments in the making: watching Team GB getting through the qualification round in the men’s artistic gymnastics surely felt all the sweeter because our dark lord of the pommel horse, Max Whitlock, had announced that Paris would be his final Olympics.
Similarly, this will be Andy Murray’s last time competing for Britain in Olympics tennis (what with Wimbledon as well, it’s been a year of damp-eyed goodbyes for him). Though with rain still thundering down, people were starting to wonder if the men’s tennis singles (featuring such luminaries as Spain’s Rafael Nadal and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic) would even happen at the Roland-Garros stadium (spoiler: it did).
Weather casualties included the skateboarding event (postponed) and, in cycling, the women’s time trials. While Australia’s Grace Brown won, and Team GB’s Anna Henderson grabbed a silver medal, serious contenders fell on the wet slippery roads. Though, arguably, it was equally shocking how many times the channels felt we needed to see slightly bloodthirsty action replays of the falls.
I, for one, am looking forward to the forthcoming brand new Olympic event of “Breaking” (breakdancing). Otherwise, we’re all going to have to wait to see Team GB’s now-veteran diver Tom Daley in action. We must also be patient for our first glimpse of the phenomenon that is US gymnast, Simone Biles.
Any gripes? There were times it felt as if the industrial amounts of repetitive filler could have filled the Bercy Arena twice over. The sight of actor Tom Hiddleston pointlessly sashaying around, David Niven-style, for BBC Sport’s opening credits nearly got me going on my first-ever rant about the licence fee. And while you’d have to expect sights from the City Of Lights, it got to the point I started to twitch at yet another over-lingering shot of a rain-splattered Eiffel Tower or Arc De Triomphe.
Other than that, as wet as the Paris 2024 Olympics began, as proven by the coverage, it was no less exciting. All that’s left to say is, très bien, everybody!
