Paris 2024 O's Observations

Aug 11, 2024 Paris Olympics

 Observations

THB and KM in Atlanta, 1996

• Overall: After Tokyo 2020 went the way of Covid, THB wasn't sure if he and KM would make 2024 given age, health, life situations, etc., so just making it to Paris was a big accomplishment. Expectation exceeded and now there seems there is even a path to LA 2028.

THB  between BNB and JOB, 1984, LA

• KM: as a fellow traveler, THB needed a logistician, a mind-reader, someone deeply patient with the elderly, someone to be fun to be with, patient, able to enjoy herself when THB took extra time to rest up, endlessly selfless, patient, a great listener of repetitive stories, able to handle extreme heat and occasionally hot and crowded trains. This woman was raised right, and DB should be really proud!

THB's 1984 GOAT, Carl Lewis in 2024

• Paris: Well prepared, sell-outs at every event THB and KM attended, clean (Singapore clean!), the Resale app worked great - sold and bought tix as needed at only a slight mark-up. One metro card worked for the Metro and Trains, purchased by KM ahead of time. THB and KM didn't really act like tourists and that was expected so we really don't have much to tell anyone about what do when here in "normal" times.

THB and KM at the Cauldron, Paris 2024

• Attendees: Vast majority - easily 80+ % - are Europeans (including the Bexit'ers), maybe another 10% are other English speakers) and bits and pieces from elsewhere. Not really a surprise, given the world-wide lottery and ease of getting to Paris for Europeans. How many from France out the 80%..,maybe 30-40% depending on the sport. Many young children, many multi generation families, lots of father/daughter or mother/son combos. THB and KM were not unicorns, that's for sure.

THB and Fridge at VB venue, Paris 2024 (THB is the one with 5 fingers on his left hand)

• Accommodations: THB uses Skytours Travel Agency in San Rafael with help booking trips, and Michael Eklof came up with a great solution (a reco from his boss) to stay  at Hotel Cetadines Les Halles. It is mostly a biz person's style place: most of the people we talked to in the elevator or lobby had been here for weeks getting the O's ready, and the hotel had been refurbished in the year before the O's. The location was perfect, 1/2 hour to VB and 1/2 hour to the O Stadium. Room is refreshed weekly. There's a laundromat (KM came through again, doing a load for THB using an app on her phone!), small/efficient fitness center, several coffee machines. THB paid for 17 nights even though only staying 14; the fact that the place had a/c justified the extra expense and it was still cheaper than fancy hotels or apartment rentals. 

• Venues: THB and KM only went to three. Sight lines were very good (THB and KM were almost always in the Group A seats). TSA-like Security was almost non-existent, entry by QR scanning got better as games went along. VB seats were extremely uncomfortable.  VB venue would not pass ADA regulations, T&F had a very odd (double) section, and Handball was...THB can't remember except it was part of the convention center where VB was held and shared a metro station. Super clean, no smoking, and alcohol free. Long lines for toilets before and after. Food? THB and KB hardly bought anything to eat at the venes, and the lines were long (except at the hidden ice coffee stand). Charged $2.20 for a cup, refunded if you brought it back. 

THB and KM, Paris 2024, at VB venue (THB without his glasses)

• THB O's capacity: Dialed way back, no three-events-a-day, several open days, not too many late nights, no getting to the hotel after midnight. Paris O committee really tried to keep late night sessions shorter than at other O's.  Since THB felt fine the entire time, this seemed appropriate. 

THB and KM in row 6 at the Olympic Stadium, Paris 2024

• Flights: Booked through Skytours, THB and KM flew biz class on United/Luftansa. By stopping in Frankfurt each way and taking a 50 minute flight to/from Paris, it cut the cost of the  tix by half over flying non-stop...THB  knew this from experience traveling to other O's; why is this so? Hmmmm...

Put on your game face!

U

• Pastries: If there is a city anywhere in the world with Paris's quantity, quality, and uniqueness of boulangeries, THB hasn't found it yet. On the other hand, THB can see a growing pot belly...time to cut back until our next trip (only 5 weeks away).

The REAL Notre Dame

Book Review: The North Waters, Ian McGuire (novel, read by John Keating, pub'd 2016): a surgeon and psychopath are linked together on a doomed voyage of one of the last whaling trips to be made only under sail by a British investor and his hand-picked crew. Not much of a thriller, and totally eclipsed by any of the O'Brian sea battle books of a slightly earlier period. Neutral