Having memories of avidly watching the Olympics since London 2012, I have now built up a repertoire of favourite sports and sportspeople to watch. However, having spent the majority of the 2024 Olympics in the host city, I have had a completely different experience. The media there (expectedly) focussed on an almost entirely different variety of sports, mostly those with French medal hopes, amongst the usual big events.
I never thought I’d end up watching so many handball matches, let alone 3×3 basketball (the existence of which in the Olympics evaded me previously). In light of this exposure, here is a round-up, in no particular order, of special stories from these Olympics (perhaps still slightly skewed towards my favourite events). Artistic gymnastics, specifically the men’s competition, is my all-time favourite.
As a self-proclaimed superfan of the GB men’s team, I can tell you about the time that Joe Fraser became world champion in parallel bars in 2019 with fellow Birmingham compatriot Dominick Cunningham biting his leg in anticipation. Or Max Whitlock posting a high floor score in Rio 2016 and needing every competitor after him to make a mistake, and him eventually winning the gold. Or when I was in the stadium at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games as newcomer Jake Jarman, now one of our leading gymnasts, burst onto the scene to clinch four golds.
Whilst the GB team didn’t quite have the gymnastics success I had hoped for them this Olympics, there were ple.