What The Olympics Got Wrong

Read Time: 4 Minutes

A 17-year old winning a gold medal on one leg.

That was the moment that I fell in love with the Olympics.

It was the 1996 games in Atlanta, and the U.S. women’s gymnastics team won gold when Kerri Strug landed a vault despite severely injuring her ankle on the previous attempt.

Since then there’s been no shortage of magic memories.

The triumphs.

The controversies.

The moments bigger than who won and who lost.

It all starts, of course, with the opening ceremony.

Now, this year’s opening ceremony has been controversial, but I’m not hear to talk about that.

Instead, I want to highlight a glaring oversight that became obvious before Lady Gaga’s waterfront performance was over.

It actually started as she and her escorts walked down the stairs.

One of the men, carrying a large pink fan of feathers, had his face clearly visible, while the other escort’s face was completely hidden.

Hidden escort popped his face out from behind his feathers in a peek-a-boo moment, then the first escort (who, again, was visible the entire time) did the same thing, then went back to ‘hiding.’

Uh-oh, I thought.

Sure enough, it was a sign of things to come.

Lady Gaga never knew quite where to look as she performed. Which made sense, because the cameras must have been on the other side of the river. I don’t think she ever once made eye contact with the camera.

Things only got worse from there.

Since the opening ceremony was all along the river, there were a series of spread-out songs, dances, and theatrics completely detached from each other.

Dancers on the streets performed amazing stunts… at least I think they did, because I never quite got a good view of them.

In one glaring example, the camera lingered on a man with his hands on his hips, trying to catch his breath, for a full 5 seconds before panning away to reveal someone coming down off stilts to land a stunt that we all completely missed.

Then, of course, there was the singular man, dancing on a roof, all by himself.

All throughout Paris, there were small spectacles happening at different times, across different places, and the viewers (much less those who were actually in Paris for the games) were left to cobble together disjointed pieces of various performances with little-to-no relation to each other.

Which, to me, defeats the entire purpose of watching athletics, which is to bring people together.

In the United State, we celebrate the teams with the loudest stadiums, the best environments, the most fun traditions.

We understand that sports are about sharing the experience with each other.

We celebrate the community that surrounds our favorite team.

Whether it be #BillsMafia, Chiefs Kingdom, The 12th Man, or any one of a thousand other fandoms.

And that’s what the opening ceremony got wrong.

In their attempt to be bold and try the first opening ceremony not held in a stadium, they lost the very spirit of the Olympic community that was so ready to come together again.

This hit such a strong nerve with me because I’m creating a community myself, but not for me… for international students.

I’ve worked with international students since 2016, and if there’s ever been a group that deserved a space for themselves to come together, share resources, and get the most up-to-date information directly from professionals in the field, it’s all of you.

So stay tuned, because more information is coming soon.

In the meantime, enjoy the Olympics everyone!

-Josh

P.S. If you just can’t wait and want to hear more about the first-of-its-kind community for international students, book a call with me here and let’s talk more.