The story of the first few days of the Paris Olympics 2024 can be summed up in one letter of the alphabet: B
B as in boats, Bhaker and Biles.
It started with boats, vaulted Simone Biles to gold and shot Manu Bhaker to fame with two bronze medals.
On a very wet Friday afternoon, a flotilla of boats sailed serenely down the river Seine in Paris, carrying the athletes who smiled and waved soggy national flags at the spectators—almost four hours later (yawn), the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics ended with Celine Dion “Singin’ in the rain”.
Just as well this took place in the middle of the night for Indians: it was too long and repetitive for a ‘live’ experience. But the highlights were just enough to confirm that when it comes to style, it’s hard to beat the French (Jio Cinema, Sports 18).
So this week, it was a pleasure to get away from the chakravyuh or labyrinth of politics, to watch Rafael Nadal on the tennis court instead of JP Nadda in Parliament.
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A packed schedule
Come to think of it, these Games are full of Bs: besides India’s shooting sensation Manu Bhaker, and American wonder woman, gymnast Biles, the Olympics competition features badminton, beach volleyball, basketball, boxing, beach handball, BMX freestyle (huh, what’s that)—and our very own Manika Batra in the table tennis pre-quarter-finals.
All of these have been on display this week along with, swimming, table tennis, judo, archery, hockey, volleyball, sailing, tennis and…sorry, run out of breath giving you the entire list.
It’s pure joy for the sports enthusiast—and even for those who think the only game in town is cricket. That was on air too (if you can’t live without it) as India travelled to Sri Lanka and gave new coach Gautam Gambhir that winning feeling with the T20 series victory (Sony Sports).
What’s a BMX?
Of course, there’s always the danger that you won’t understand what you’re watching as you switch from sport to sport. For instance, two men in what looked like bathrobes were grappling to hold hands for several minutes and as you wondered whether this was some new form of greetings, one of them flipped the other to the ground—oh, Judo!
Then, there’s BMX Freestyle where you expect to see athletes wrestling on the floor. Not at all: these are magnificent men on bicycles—flying like acrobats across a synthetic obstacle race, with “front flips” on the cycle.
And those of you who sail might understand what was happening in the windsurfing event—besides the wind knocking the boats around. The dinghies bobbed about and suddenly took off for the finish line. Who won and how, is a complete mystery.
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Live feeds, day and night
The Olympics are brought to you by Jio Cinema and Sports 18 channels.
And you can spend your days and nights simply sitting before the screen and gaping in wonder at athletic perfection. You also have plenty to choose from: there are 20 concurrent feeds from the Paris Games, with up to 17 sports live feeds at different times of the day—or night.
Thoughtfully, for Indian fans, there’s a dedicated India@Olympics feed where you get to see most of the matches or competitions that involve the Indian contingent. There are Indian experts—and the stirring promo song “lehra do…’’ featuring star performers and coaches.
Patriotic stuff, for sure.
What’s very helpful is the information on the screen on timings of events—or ‘Starting Soon’ helping you to remain alert. What’s less pleasing—the frequent advertisements. In the middle of a match between PV Sidhu and Cristina Kuba of Estonia, on Wednesday, we broke for a commercial. Not done, Jio, not done.
The commentary offers streams in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu—the English mostly from different foreign broadcasters: Australian, British and American. At least that’s what the accents sound like.
Can’t speak for Tamil and Telugu but the Hindi commentators, such as tennis player Sania Mirza or boxer Vijender Singh, are expert and competent. But they don’t have the exclamation marks —the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ and ‘uhs’—of the English language commentators.
If you thought cricket commentators are given to hyperbole, you ain’t heard nothing yet—the commentators at the Olympics were quick with their “Ah, fantastic” for Biles, even when she moved nothing but a thigh muscle. And what a muscle it is, my countrymen… But wait, let’s finish with the spoken word: the commentators at the poolside were so excited during the relay races you thought they’d tumble into the pool any moment.
Some get so carried away they contradict themselves: during a Rugby Sevens game between Australia and Canada’s women, the commentator said the Aussies were “ferocious” and then added, “such finesse”—difficult to be both at once, right?
Another commentator thought it “fantastic” (told you it was the fav word of the Games), that a boxer listened to the men in his corner and immediately did what they told him—“amazing”. Hmmm: obedient for sure, but amazing?
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A visual treat
That’s half the fun of watching the Olympics: you are introduced to sports you never knew existed. And once you are better acquainted you can appreciate them, like Rugby Sevens.
Think rugby and you think of burly, rugged men who knock around and lock their arms around one another to get hold of a ball.
But here at the Olympics, in the Canada–Australia contest, players women tumbled all over the place, but then the ball got away from the pack and into the hands of Canadian Charity Williams, who, in a breathtaking solo run, scored a touchdown. Now, that really was “fantastic”.
The Olympics are a visual treat—and not only because we get to admire such well-toned muscular bodies. It’s the artistry of the camera.
If you watched the gymnastics, did you notice the up-close-and-personal shots, so close that you could see the sinews in Biles’ thigh muscles, move? Honestly.
Then, there was the montage of still shots that helped you appreciate the trajectory of the gymnast’s technique during the floor exercises.
This leaves just enough space to sigh over the underwater camerawork in the swimming pool—never seen so many limbs working furiously in such rhythm.
To use an adjective that has become popular since US Democrats used it to describe former President Donald Trump and his vice-presidential running mate, JD Vance—“weird”.
The author tweets @shailajabajpai. Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)