- The team of The Diary He compiled a compilation of the most notable events of the Olympic Games
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games kicked off on July 26 with an opening ceremony held on the River Seine. The event featured a boat parade in which all delegations participated, as well as various artistic performances accompanied by fireworks.
The new edition of the competition, which officially started on July 27, stood out for having gender parity among players, holding the inauguration outside a stadium – as is commonly done –, competitions in iconic places in the city and a new discipline.
However, the Olympic Games were also marked by various events such as delays in competitions due to the quality of the water in the Seine River, suspensions due to weather conditions and controversies over the opening ceremony.
The good thing
Opening on the Seine River
The opening ceremony symbolized a review of French history since the Revolution. The event, which lasted at least four hours, featured artists such as Lady Gaga and Céline Dion. Other notable figures included Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Snoop Dogg, Pharrell Williams, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.
Canadian singer Celine Dion sang Edith Piaf’s “Hymn to Love” from the top of the Eiffel Tower. French athletes Marie-José Perec and Teddy Riner were in charge of lighting the cauldron for the 2024 Olympic Games.
The show, directed by Thomas Jolly, was divided into 12 segments that began with the departure of the Greek delegation along the River Seine, followed by 85 boats carrying the 205 Olympic delegations.
During the ceremony, athletes and attendees had to wear rain gear due to the rain that began shortly after the event began.
Breakdancing as a new discipline
Paris 2024 had an urban focus with several competitions held in iconic locations such as the Champs-Élysées, the Eiffel Tower, Place de la Concorde, Les Invalides and Pont Alexandre, with the aim of keeping athletes close to the public.
This year’s Olympic Games saw the addition of a new discipline: breaking, a competitive version of breakdancing. This sport originated in the Bronx in New York (United States) and consists of two competitors facing each other in a circle to see who can do the best steps to the rhythm of hip-hop.
Being a dance discipline, the result in Olympic breaking is determined by the evaluation of a specialized jury. The competition had two categories: female and male.
Other non-traditional disciplines such as skateboarding, sport climbing, freestyle BMX and surfing were introduced at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Records in several categories
Several athletes managed to break Olympic and world records in the XXXIII edition. One of the most notable was the Swedish Olympic pole vault champion Armand Duplantis, who achieved the world record with a jump of 6.25 metres.
“I still haven’t come to terms with how fantastic that moment was. It’s one of those things that doesn’t seem real, an out-of-body experience. I still have a hard time coming to terms with it. My biggest dream since I was a child was to break the world record at the Olympic Games and I have achieved it,” Duplantis said at a press conference.
American hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won the gold medal in the 400 metres, breaking the world record with 50.37 seconds. This is the fifth time the athlete has broken her own world record and she became the first woman to win this event consecutively.
Sprinter Marileidy Paulino swept the 400 meters and became the first Dominican woman to win an Olympic gold medal. In weightlifting, Bulgarian Karlos Nasar won the gold medal in the -89 kilogram category and broke the world record by lifting 404 kilos.
South Korean archer Lim Sihyeon took gold by setting a new world and Olympic record with a score of 694 in the archery qualifying round, surpassing her own record of 680 achieved at Tokyo 2020.
In track cycling, the men’s and women’s sprint teams set new world records. The Dutch trio of Jeffrey Hoogland, Harrie Lavreysen and Roy van den Berg set a record in the men’s category, while Great Britain’s Emma Finucane, Sophie Capewell and Katy Marchant did so in the women’s category.
To date, more than 40 world and Olympic records have been accumulated.
Performance of the Venezuelan delegation
33 athletes from the Venezuelan delegation participated in the Olympic Games. Although the country did not win any medals, several of the participants received Olympic diplomas for their performances.
The first Olympic diploma was obtained by the men’s epee team, the second Raiber Rodríguez (Greco-Roman wrestling), the third Rosa Rodríguez (hammer throw), the fourth Yohandri Granado (TaeKwonDo 58 kilograms), the fifth Anyelin Venegas (weightlifting 59 kilograms), the sixth Keydomar Vallenilla (weightlifting 89 kilograms) and the seventh was for Naryuri Pérez (weightlifting 81 kilograms).
Bad
Cancellations due to the water quality of the Seine River
The water quality The Seine River was one of the most controversial issues of the Paris Olympics. Although a clean-up operation was carried out in Paris, open water swimming training sessions were cancelled on at least five occasions for not meeting sanitary standards.
On August 6, river training was suspended for the fifth time due to fecal bacteria levels E.Coli y Enterococcus were above the limits required by sports organizations for athletes to swim.
A statement from World Aquatics and the organising committee said one in four bacteria readings in the river – an indicator of the presence of faecal matter – exceeded the maximum authorised limit.
On August 4, the Belgian Olympic Committee (IOC) and the country’s triathlon federation announced that its mixed team will not participate in the competition on Monday, August 5, in that event after triathlete Claire Michel fell ill after participating in the women’s event on July 31.
“The IOC and Belgian Triathlon hope that lessons will be learned for the upcoming triathlon competitions at the Olympic Games. We are thinking about the guarantee of training days, competition days and the format of the competitions, which must be clarified in advance and ensure that there is no uncertainty for athletes, the environment and fans,” they said.
It later emerged that Portuguese athletes Vasco Vilaça and Melanie Santos had possible symptoms of gastrointestinal infection after competing in the Seine River during the triathlon events at the Paris Olympic Games.
In a statement released on August 7, the Portuguese Olympic Committee (COP) said that World Triathlon “guaranteed” on competition days that the assessment of water quality complied with the defined standards, but that despite meeting the required safety limits, the presence of some parameters assessed poses “a risk of infection in this environmental context.”
Controversies over opening ceremony
At the opening ceremony, various artistic presentations were made, one of which generated controversy among religious people. The scene in question, called Festivity, showed several drag people sitting at a table with a set that looked like the painting of the Last Scene, by Leonardo Da Vinci, showing Jesus with his apostles.
The singer Philippe Katerine then appeared lying on a giant tray with his body painted blue and wearing garlands of leaves and fruit, an outfit that referred to Dionysus, the Greek god who symbolizes wine and carnal pleasures.
Following comments from the French Bishops’ Conference and the governments of Hungary and Russia, which described the event as a “mockery” of Christianity, the Olympic Games organisation has issued a statement.
“You will never find on my part any desire to mock, to denigrate anything. I wanted to hold a ceremony that would repair, that would reconcile. Also, that would reaffirm the values of our Republic,” he told the television channel. BFMTV the artistic director of the opening ceremony, Thomas Jolly, who argued that the Last Supper was not his “inspiration”.
Suspension due to weather conditions
On July 30, the International Surfing Association (ISA) decided to suspend quarter-final, semi-final and medal round action for the men’s and women’s surfing competition at the Olympic Games due to poor weather conditions on the Tahitian beach of Teahupo’o.
The competition was suspended due to a red code, which in disciplines such as surfing means at least a 24-hour interruption in all water activities.
However, the surfing competition was resumed on August 1 and concluded on August 5. “The men’s and women’s semi-finals and finals have been rescheduled for tonight due to improved wave conditions,” the Olympic Games organizers said.
Other events during the Olympic Games
During the Olympic Games, several athletes were expelled for different reasons. Ana Carolina Vieira, a Brazilian swimmer who participated in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay, was one of the first to be expelled from the Olympic Village for indiscipline.
The news portal Sports World The Brazilian Olympic Committee reported that Vieira and her boyfriend, Gabriel Santos, left the Olympic Village without permission to walk the streets of Paris one night before their Olympic participation, committing acts of indiscipline. However, only the swimmer was expelled after the Brazilian Olympic Committee considered that she aggravated her situation by disrespectfully and aggressively questioning the formation of the relay team.
Although Paraguayan swimmer Luana Alonso announced her retirement from competition after finishing last in her qualifying round in the 100-meter butterfly event, she continued to stay at the Olympic Village, a common practice among athletes who are allowed to continue staying until the end of the summer competition.
In this case, the Paraguayan Olympic Committee considered that the swimmer created an “inappropriate environment” at the concentration, for which reason she was expelled.
The World Anti-Doping Agency has notified the Greek Olympic Committee of a positive doping test by one of its athletes, whose identity has not been revealed, but he was immediately suspended. In addition, American coach Rana Reider was also banned from the Games due to allegations of sexual misconduct and sexual abuse.
Despite the setbacks, the competitions of all 45 Olympic sports were held. According to the Olympic calendar, the final matches, medal presentations and the closing ceremony took place on August 11.
#Summary #XXXIII #edition
2024-08-12 13:15:09
