Paris Olympics 2024 (non-cycling) thread

[tobydawq]

July 24, 2024 is the first day of action at the Paris Olympics, but there's so much more then guys and girls running around a track.

For example, Police have searched the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympics organising committee, as well as its major infrastructure partner, as part of investigations into alleged embezzlement of public funds and favouritism.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jun/20/french-police-search-paris-olympics-hq

and, an Odoxa opinion poll showed that nearly one in two Françiliens - inhabitants of the Paris region - now thought the Games were a "bad thing". The 44% negative rating was double what it was in 2021.
The same poll found that 52% of Françiliens were considering leaving Paris for the duration of the Games. "Perceptions about the Games are reaching alert level," Odoxa reported.
"On the morning of June 9 I'm voting in the European elections then I'm out of here till September," says Evelyne, 65, encountered by the Place de la Concorde (scene of several events including break-dancing, or as the French felicitously put it, le breaking).
"Paris will be unbearable," she adds. "Impossible to park; impossible to move around; impossible to do anything. Madame Hidalgo has wrecked Paris, and I want no part of the Games."
"How long is it before the police chief simply asks us Parisians to leave the city?" another inhabitant asked on social media.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67564177

Talking about leaving the city, some go under duress ... or "social cleansing" as it's now known-
https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/202406...l-cleansing-ahead-of-2024-paris-olympic-games
If Olympians want to participate in some out of competition "relaxation" then ...
Areas used by sex workers in northen Paris and in the eastern Vincennes wood had seen "increased police pressure" leading to identity checks, detentions and expulsion orders for dozens of people.

More topics are bound to follow -

Another greatly optimistic post from you.

Anyway, not a good start with the shenanigans in Saint-Étienne.


Edit: I see that all your contributions to this thread is of the same ilk.

 

[tobydawq]

And in wrestling there are two bronze medal matches.

There is a tournament structure that makes no sense if I ever saw one.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

There is a tournament structure that makes no sense if I ever saw one.

All those B/C/D finals in rowing are also a bit weird, but at least they don't hand out medals in them.

 

[Nomad]

WTH? LOL

'It's rock solid': Aussie athletes test anti-sex beds at Olympics

The flood of Australian athletes have started to arrive in Paris.

www.northweststar.com.au

 

[Tricycle Rider]

WTH? LOL

'It's rock solid': Aussie athletes test anti-sex beds at Olympics

The flood of Australian athletes have started to arrive in Paris.

www.northweststar.com.au

Hm, apparently the water pressure (in the bathrooms and such) is very low, reminds me of the unforgettable Seinfeld episode where they had to use low-flow showerheads and not liking them for obvious reasons they had to get more powerful showerheads on the black market...

If the athletes end up having flat, greasy looking hair we'll know why. 🤣

 

[Unchained]

Seen a couple of things saying that France had a slightly less than $10 billion budget and they are the rare exception to be close to budget, and they had to build or retrofit @8% of the venues..

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Seen a couple of things saying that France had a slightly less than $10 billion budget and they are the rare exception to be close to budget, and they had to build or retrofit @8% of the venues..

$10 billion, wow! Half of that was probably spent on the Opening Ceremony, so I'll be sure to watch. (Glad it'll be on live in the late morning today in my time zone, means I won't have to stay up late into the night till they finally get around to lighting the cauldron. But after that I'll have to be careful to avoid spoilers, and the cycling competitions will be on in the middle of the night like usual. No worries though, I'm well-trained from having just watched the Tour.)

 

[Rob5091]

$1.5 billion went on just cleaning up the Seine.

 

[Unchained]

$10 billion, wow! Half of that was probably spent on the Opening Ceremony, so I'll be sure to watch. (Glad it'll be on live in the late morning today in my time zone, means I won't have to stay up late into the night till they finally get around to lighting the cauldron. But after that I'll have to be careful to avoid spoilers, and the cycling competitions will be on in the middle of the night like usual. No worries though, I'm well-trained from having just watched the Tour.)

I have super super strong opinions about TV, movies and news and entertainment!! Now that many things are available online or many TV services have digital storage, wow brave new world!! I see things I would have never seen in years passed. And sort of sad to say.. but many of the highlight broadcasts are really all I need for lots of stuff!! I tried to watch full length archery or race walking.. Frustrating!! It will be curious w road racing if drones and helicopters will be used..lots of car and motorcycle based cameras are almost as big of a waste of 98% of YouTube, were bike racers think that me watching helmet or handlebar mounted GoPro videos of them getting 26th place is necessary!!! I hope that there are at least some rebroadcasts of stuff that happens way way late in North America time schedule

 

[Tricycle Rider]

$1.5 billion went on just cleaning up the Seine.

That's a lot of dough, but this kind of expenditure I actually agree with because clearly Seine needed the cleanup whether Paris is hosting the Olympics or not. (Were they gonna do it if Paris hadn't been selected?)

 

[firefly3323]

$1.5 billion went on just cleaning up the Seine.

Wow, that's an in-seine amount of money.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

I have super super strong opinions about TV, movies and news and entertainment!! Now that many things are available online or many TV services have digital storage, wow brave new world!! I see things I would have never seen in years passed. And sort of sad to say.. but many of the highlight broadcasts are really all I need for lots of stuff!! I tried to watch full length archery or race walking.. Frustrating!! It will be curious w road racing if drones and helicopters will be used..lots of car and motorcycle based cameras are almost as big of a waste of 98% of YouTube, were bike racers think that me watching helmet or handlebar mounted GoPro videos of them getting 26th place is necessary!!! I hope that there are at least some rebroadcasts of stuff that happens way way late in North America time schedule

Race walking? Nobody watches race walking except for race walkers or those who want to spot whether any of the race walkers are cheating with their technique. (Same could be said for the marathon, while shorter running events can be exciting I don't think watching every km of a marathon is necessary.)

 

[RedheadDane]

That's a lot of dough, but this kind of expenditure I actually agree with because clearly Seine needed the cleanup whether Paris is hosting the Olympics or not. (Were they gonna do it if Paris hadn't been selected?)

Seems like something that should just be a part of the annual budget for the city...

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Race walking? Nobody watches race walking except for race walkers or those who want to spot whether any of the race walkers are cheating with their technique. (Same could be said for the marathon, while shorter running events can be exciting I don't think watching every km of a marathon is necessary.)

I love watching race walking because it takes a (not quite as) long time (anymore, sadly). It‘s a cool endurance sport.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

I love watching race walking because it takes a (not quite as) long time (anymore, sadly). It‘s a cool endurance sport.

Fair enough. I think race walking looks humorous and I can only imagine the amount of punishment the hips take! (I have a bum hip, so race walking looks painful to me.)

 

[Sciatic]

July 24, 2024 is the first day of action at the Paris Olympics, but there's so much more then guys and girls running around a track.

and, an Odoxa opinion poll showed that nearly one in two Françiliens - inhabitants of the Paris region - now thought the Games were a "bad thing". The 44% negative rating was double what it was in 2021.
The same poll found that 52% of Françiliens were considering leaving Paris for the duration of the Games.

Well, that’s a surprisingly low number leaving the city: in any given years probably 60% of Parisians leave Paris at this time to start their traditional August vacations!

 

[Unchained]

To all of us world wide..given years and months of redundant messaging " security is very, very, tight, extraordinary measures have been put in place " not getting many good examples of great security, now w train attacks in France!!

 

[Sciatic]

Some funny posts here!

Being old, I remember when the Olympics were a big deal, and a lot more spirited fun. The international competition was cool, and it made the Cold War seem less concerning. Oh, and the games were a LOT smaller. My parents actually went to the 1960 winter games in Squaw Valley. They were living in Reno, drove up for a day, paid a ticket to see slalom skiing, and then drove over to where XC skiing was, walked a bit in the snow through the forest, and saw some of that event for free.

Now there are way too many damned events, too many heats, semi-finals, quarter-finals, half-baked-finals. Too many events in an attempt to get other sports stars to appear. Judged events seem rigged maybe a quarter of the time. Oh, and everything is insanely expensive. Capitalism rules all. Paris is hoping to "only" spend about €10b, compared to double that Rio blew, almost bankrupting the city. No wonder so many citizens are seeking to leave town.

Hoping Loana Lecomte wins gold, or at least a medal in the women's XCO. Infectiously happy person.

Call me unpatriotic, but I'm hoping the US Men's basketball team doesn't even medal. Yes, I realize there are many pros, even NBA players, on other teams. Actually, I don't care who wins. I won't be watching any of it.

/curmudgeon

I can relate to some of that, as I was a huge fan of watching the Olympics in the 70s and 80’s before starting to get fed up with 1) the gigantic size and 2) broadcasters insistence on showing West Coast (US) viewers the most important events on tape-delay. Still I went to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver for a few days, since it’s only a 3hr drive from here, and loved it. I still watch Athletics at the Olympics because it somehow has more gravitas than the World’s. And cycling because it’s cycling.
But for years now I’ve been hoping the Summer Olympics would collapse under it’s own weight, without anyone getting hurt of course!

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Athletes coming in on boats (on the hopefully sparkling clean Seine), that's actually pretty cool and original.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Anybody looking for Remco on the Belgian boat?

 

[Sciatic]

Athletes coming in on boats (on the hopefully sparkling clean Seine), that's actually pretty cool and original.

Perhaps not sparkling clean . . . I just heard the E. coli levels today would be too high to hold any swimming events. Probably a lot of toilets flushing with new arrivals the past few days

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Do we really need an extended ad for Louis Vuitton? I would have cut that part out...

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Like the Olympic torch guy, and now a bit of metal music

 

[QueenStagiaire]

The cobbles of Paris are getting drenched this evening, unbelievable that we almost never get this in Roubaix.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

The cobbles of Paris are getting drenched this evening, unbelievable that we almost never get this in Roubaix.

Maybe they should do a Roubaix-Paris one day.