It is such a relief to simply sit back and enjoy the Olympics. After years of having to grit our collective teeth through the Games, trying to forget about the pandemic, Putin, China, or human-rights violations, these Games feel different. During a wildly tumultuous time in both the United States and France, the first few days of the Paris Summer Olympics have been a consistent source of pleasure, mirth, and good vibes. There haven’t been any major scandals. After some railroad arson before the Games got going (how French!), the only relatively small headaches have involved a Canadian soccer coach trying to spy with a drone, triathletes being unable to swim in the Seine’s shitwater, and a little bit of rain. NBC’s telecast, meanwhile, has been nimble and impressively light on its feet.
All of this has helped make these Olympics what they’re supposed to be: a big celebration of human beings from across the planet coming together to kick somebody, whack a ping-pong ball, or mesmerizingly twirl a ribbon in the air. The Olympics are always weighted down with self-importance, but it’s been a blast just to get to watch them for what they really are: silly, slightly confusing, vaguely (and inoffensively) patriotic endeavors that, every once in a while, make us jump in the air and scream — or maybe even cry.
There are still 12 days to go in Paris, but here are the most notable takeaways from a rousingly successful Games so far.
The opening ceremonies were great. Well, they were at least different.
Reasonable people can reasonably disagree about this — we appreciate the negative case The Atlantic’s Spencer Kornhaber made — but from where I’m sitting, the opening ceremonies were just the right mix of weird, self-important, and, most importantly, unusual. The rain interfered a bit with the boats-float-through-the-Seine conceit, but only part of it. The ceremonies still successfully previewed what has been the best part of these Olympics so far: You not only get to watch the athletes, you get to watch them compete right in the middle of Paris. Whether it’s beach volleyballers spiking in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, fencing in the Grand Palais, or horses galloping through the Palace of Versailles, these Games have been downright gorgeous. When I was covering the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, I watched a guy luge through what was essentially a dark back alley of a rickety, newly constructed soundstage; he looked like some sort of fast sewer raccoon. The opening ceremonies are usually in the biggest possible stadium, which is ideal for sporting events but not ideal for sitting and watching people wave for three hours. The boats and the parades and the odd musical number from a heavy metal band preceded by Marie Antonionette’s head emphasized the single most exciting thing about these games: They’re in Paris! Look at it! How cool is that?
Team USA looks like it’s finally having fun.
The last Summer Olympics, in Tokyo, featured almost no fans and a series of isolation pods. The whole thing was antiseptic and joyless. But everybody’s smiling this time around. Highlighting this mood has been the Team USA men’s basketball team, who have provided two of the goofiest-yet-sorta-inspiring moments of the Games so far. The first was LeBron James, serving as the flag bearer, inadvertently (??) recreating Washington crossing the Delaware.
Even more fun was Stephen Curry — in his first Olympics, somehow — goofing around with budding star Anthony Edwards and essentially setting him up to get his ass kicked in ping-pong by the USA women’s table-tennis team. This interaction embodies the best of the Olympics: superstar megacelebrities representing their country alongside everyday people who are extremely good at one specific thing they get to show off every four years. (For the record, Edwards would get absolutely smoked.)
It can feel complicated, and confusing, and even a little uncomfortable being an American right now — it certainly has felt that way for the last few Olympiads, anyway. (Remember when Fox News was actively cheering for the USWNT to lose in Tokyo?) But the looseness among Team USA at this Olympics, compared to the last few, is palpable.
The Olympics won’t really get going until Simone Biles does.
All apologies to LeBron, but the signature star at these Games remains U.S. gymnast Simone Biles, who helped the U.S. qualify Sunday for the team final despite, in a scary moment, seemingly injuring her calf on a landing. There isn’t a single thing that Biles — the most decorated U.S. gymnast in history — will do at this Olympics that won’t be one of the biggest stories of the event, particularly in the wake of her high-profile case of the “twisties” in Tokyo. The combination of her overwhelming talent, her courage in the wake of Tokyo, and the inherent drama of her being back at her next Games will crowd out anything else that happens any day she’s on the mat. I’ve heard people say that nothing huge has happened at these Games yet; that’s because we haven’t seen much Biles yet. She will be in action on Tuesday, and many days after. Then we get the real Olympics.
The Gold Zone Channel is fantastic.
Inspired the success of the NFL Red Zone Channel — which is now being aped by Major League Baseball’s “Big Inning” and the Premier League’s “Goal Zone” — NBC and Peacock (which has run pretty smoothly, all told) launched the Gold Zone Channel, which flips back and forth between big moments happening all over the Games at a given moment. It has been a smashing success: I honestly don’t know how we ever made it through the Olympics without it. The whole point of watching the Olympics is to witness a Big Moment, when everything these athletes have been working for for so long comes to a head. The Gold Zone Channel focuses solely on these moments — all presented as they happen — without the chaff. For years, NBC has struggled with figuring out how to balance their live broadcasts with made-for-TV, prime-time, tape-delayed packages. The Gold Zone Channel is the perfect merge of the two: live Olympics greatness, but only the good parts. The Gold Zone Channel is so great that I think I want one for my life: Skip all the boring parts and jump right to the good stuff. It is, simply put, the perfect way to watch the Olympics.
The AI advertisements are awful.
Two years ago, the Super Bowl was widely mocked for its endless series of Crypto ads, which became even more galling in retrospect after the industry imploded months later. But the endlessly dystopian AI shilling at these Olympics makes me pine for the days of Tom Brady and Larry David trying to make Sam Bankman-Fried more money. The worst of these ads comes from Google and features a father whose daughter is obsessed with sprinter and hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. He encourages her to use Google’s AI Gemini product to write her a letter, and the result will make you feel like your soul has been sucked through your chest.
Or, as I put it in a tweet:
Kids, remember: Athletes don’t want you to handwrite a note in crayon to them. They are looking for you to be as efficient and robotic as possible.
These depressing commercials will not make you feel better about the future. Or the present.
The Olympics are benefitting from being silly.
You may have noticed that Bob Costas, the broadcaster most synonymous with the Olympics (along with, uh, Matt Lauer), isn’t a part of this year’s broadcast team. He wasn’t in Tokyo three years ago, either: He retired from NBC’s Olympics coverage in 2019. Costas is a fine announcer and did great work at the Olympics — the highlight will always be his tough interview with George W. Bush in Beijing in 2008 — but it is fair to say that the Games do not miss his trademark self-seriousness. Ever since Leslie Jones essentially livetweeted the London Olympics 12 years ago — she’s back this year in a more official capacity — the notion of comedians and nonexperts as primary commentators has spread. This year, NBC’s biggest broadcasting star has been Snoop Dogg, and for good reason. While I don’t think I’d enjoy this kind of thing during the Super Bowl or the World Series, the Olympics are the ultimate casual fan event, full of sports that we all get deeply obsessed with for about two hours before forgetting about for the next four years. That is perfect for the casual commentator like Snoop Dogg, Kevin Hart, or even Colin Jost, who has had a couple amusing moments reporting from Tahiti, where the surfing competition is being held. The Olympics are meant to be silly and fun, and it’s a breath of fresh air to see NBC, and even the athletes themselves, treating them as such.
That’s just another reason why, so far, this is the most purely enjoyable Olympics in recent memory.
Correction: This article previously misstated the athlete who appeared in the Google AI ad.
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