Even to the passive or occasional viewer, the 2024 Olympics proved one thing: We are, to borrow a phrase, so back.
The quadrennial event serves many functions — a celebration of sport, obviously; a chance for the host city to peacock before a global audience; a chance to check in (speaking of Peacock) on where broadcasting technology is at a given moment in time. But it’s also a vibe check of sorts, a moment to pause and reflect on the state of things, defined as broadly as possible. And after a COVID-delayed and then COVID-restrained Tokyo games, during which elite athletes performed to empty rooms and one of the world’s great cities sat cosseted and unable to show itself, Paris in 2024 gleamed with something Olympics fans had been yearning for last cycle: possibility.
For the American viewer, the Olympic team nailed down some heartening achievements, from Simone Biles solidifying her place in history to Katie Ledecky’s dominance in the pool to the winning teams in men’s and women’s basketball and women’s soccer. There seemed something striking about how many sports narratives, for Americans, existed around celebrating the achievements of women — so much so that Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, both deliberate about how they use their respective voices, narrated videos in celebration of the U.S. team. By the time Vice President Kamala Harris shouted out the Olympians from a rally stage (speaking of vibe shifts!), it was clear that a certain strain of sentimental patriotism felt, suddenly, deeply in style.
Swift and Beyoncé, contributing to the NBC broadcast, were illustrative, too, of the Games’ deep engagement with culture. Much as the NFL has increasingly leaned on music to bolster the Super Bowl even among those who don’t know a tackle from a tight end, the Olympics’ opening and closing ceremonies felt vibrant, chic and contemporary. They were conducted with a showmanship that showed French culture to its best advantage (just as the Games’ staging, with the Eiffel Tower seemingly omnipresent in outdoor competition) and that fueled conversation beyond the Games themselves.
The NBC broadcast sometimes leaned on celebrity culture to their detriment; the integration of Snoop Dogg and Jimmy Fallon into the proceedings could sometimes feel clumsy. But give them this — they nailed the streaming experience, providing a sort of choose-your-own-adventure for the Olympics-curious on Peacock. And the memeable moments that arose organically, from French pole-vaulter Anthony Ammirati seeming to disqualify himself after a part of his anatomy brushed the bar to the Australian breaker known as “Raygun” debuting the sport of breakdancing at the Games with more eagerness than skill, seemed to be conveyed in a spirit of good fun. Even J. K. Rowling and Megyn Kelly (the latter of whom, in a parallel universe, was commentating on the games in her capacity as a host of “Today”) couldn’t dampen the bonhomie. Both the controversy over misinformation spread about female boxer Imane Khelif and the one over a Bacchanalian image in the opening ceremony perceived as an insult to “The Last Supper” faded from view. Khelif won the gold; more people, surely, remember Celine Dion’s triumphant appearance to open the Games than the tableau.
After a down cycle, the IOC is likely looking ahead with great eagerness: the 2028 Games’ presence in Los Angeles means that the potential for movers of culture to integrate into the proceedings is somehow even greater than in Paris. Those who spent two weeks immersed in athletic competition, continental savoir-faire, and overall good vibes are surely disappointed about one thing only: That those Los Angeles games are four years away.
From Variety US