After 16 glorious days, we now watch the teams arrive back home from the cavalcade of total joy and excitement from Paris Olympics 2024. The French did a great job with the Champion’s parade. It stopped us all talking about business or politics. It really all came together. The winners and their teams pack up and return to their countries, as we all take away from the thrill of witnessing pure and unrivalled joy. We enjoyed 14 hours of great sport. I think the secret of great games captures intangible magic, including security.
We will remember the grin of delight and excitement shown by super swimmer Daniel Wiffen.
After years of training, he won an Olympic GOLD medal. There is something wonderful to see the happiness on the faces of the competitors when they win, the supporters and families when the finish line comes and they know they have done it!
CS Louis, Belfast writer and literary scholar said “Joy is the serious business of Heaven.”
Success in sport is like a vital spark bursting into our world, the mood is not something that can be confected or manipulated. It just happens amid people going about their lives.
The great Olympic endeavour brings that rush of joy whether we are watching an unusual sport or something more familiar like track and field.
It is an emotional experience to see someone win or break an Olympic or World record. The elation is utterly spontaneous, it overflows from the action itself and it is so powerful that it can reach out to us, the TV viewers, and supporters in the stands. The experience makes us glad we witnessed such greatness and history in sport.
The experience of this unbridled joy is a natural response to winning in the most pressured circumstances.
It is simply a reward for years of hard work. During these games, we have all seen competitors faces that goes beyond that, beyond winning, a lightning bolt, the surprise and feeling their world will never be the same again.
We have all marvelled in the skill of the Paris Olympians.
Returning to CS Louis, he also said “Joy is never in our power”. These athletes have demonstrated that. Very few of us will ever be Olympians but in giving that all the Olympic athletes have shown with a passion that transcends the partisan bounds of nationality, and revealed the true glory of the Olympic Games.
Well done Team Ireland, 64 women, 69 men and a seven medal haul.
ENDS