Why The 2024 Paris Olympics Were Such A Major Fail 

Now that the Paris Olympics have finally come to an end, we can all fully digest what we witnessed. Some extraordinary performances but also some bizarre moments. From the extremely blasphemous opening ceremony to the many other allegations from athletes, this is why the 2024 Paris Olympics were such a major fail.

For some crazy reason, the Paris Olympics was riddled with some sort of extreme bias against Christianity. The opening ceremony was horrendous and blasphemous (even though the director of it tried to claim that was not the intention) and it has been alleged that athletes were not allowed to show or depict any Christian imagery at all. Top Brazilian surfer, Joao Chianca, was forced to remove an image of the Christ the Redeemer statue from his board. The surfer claimed that he was threatened with disqualification if he did not remove the religious symbol. It’s scary to think that that type of religious restriction can be confidently allowed and accepted. On a brighter note in regards to this, a major shout out needs to go to 16 year old Brazilian skateboarder Rayssa Leal who used sign language to quote the Bible verse John 14:6 since athletes weren’t allowed to depict Christian imagery or words. Many from the deaf community loved this major gesture from the young skateboarder and it gave them some recognition as well. It was even more encouraging because it was done by a hearing person who has just clearly taken the time to learn sign language. This is what true inclusivity looks like.

For the first time in history, three black women stood on the podium for the Gymnastics event at the Olympics, but that was unfortunately overshadowed by a technical judging mistake that has now stripped one of the athletes of their medal. Simone Biles (USA) took gold, Rebeca Andrade (Brazil) took silver, and Jordan Chiles (USA) took bronze after all performing superbly at the Games. Chiles managed to clinch the bronze due to a score adjustment that pushed her up from 5th place. But unfortunately, just a short while later, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) requested that Chiles return her bronze medal after it was ruled that her coach had been too late to request a score review during the event. And how long did Chiles’ coach delay by? Four seconds. Yup, four seconds. As of Sunday, Chiles has officially been stripped of her bronze medal and it was given to Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu.

This one is on a slightly lighter note but it still caused a stir during the Games. French pole vaulter, Anthony Ammirati, was knocked out of the running for a medal and finished in 12th place after his, uh, nether regions clipped the pole causing it to topple. It caused quite the buzz on the internet (with the commentators trying to tastefully explain what exactly had happened) and was proof of how much of a (sometimes hilarious but mostly just terrible) mess this Paris Olympics was.

The Paris 2024 Olympic Village was criticised by athletes as being “filthy” and “unacceptable.” Stories of cardboard beds, terrible food, and lack of basic sanitary products like toilet paper rolls, leaving athletes in severe discomfort plagued this year’s Olympic Games. Let’s not even consider the fact that these are elite athletes who need to be comfortable and rested in order to properly perform in their respective events; more important than that is treating human beings with respect and in a humane way, regardless of their status.

This went so viral that a literal petition was signed by over 45000 people to inquire into how exactly it even happened (the petition has since been taken down due to alleged misinformation being spread through it). If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s the case of Australian break-dancer, Rachael “Raygun” Gunn, who had a not-so stellar performance (this is the general public opinion, I’m simply delivering the message). Most viewers, including her own fellow countrymen and women, were less than impressed and would like to know how she was even selected to compete. Yes, that’s how bad her performance is said to have been. I’m not one for shaming so I won’t get into all of that, but what I will say is that it’s never a good look for an event as huge as the Olympics to have any performances in any discipline that are considered unsatisfactory (or ill-trained for) for the games themselves. It can cause disrepute and reduce the prestige of the games, which this year’s Olympics just about did. It was shambolic.

Now, all of this is not to take away from African athletes who did amazing things, such as Letsile Tebogo of Botswana who ran in memory of his late mother and deservedly won gold for his country (and is the first ever African to win gold in that race). There were many other amazing African athletes, including Zimbabwean 200m runners, Tapiwanashe Makarawu and Makanakaishe Charamba, who made it to the final of their race, which was a first for the country so a big congratulations to them as well. But it was a frustrating Olympic games this year with all of the horror stories coming out of it and the plain disrespect of others’ beliefs. Very strange times, indeed.

Did you enjoy this article? You might like this one, too: https://motivatedentrepreneur.co.zw/blog/2024/08/16/remotasks-is-no-longer-available-in-certain-african-countries/

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