Paris Olympics in the rear-view window – John Cardullo

The Paris Olympics are now in the rear-view window, let’s look at what went down!

The anticipation of the 2024 Paris Olympics has now passed and is in the history books. History will now be the judge of how they will be remembered. After an interesting, or more of a controversial opening ceremony, the games hit their flow, but not without some bumps along the way.

It started with the first day when some protestors crippled the mass transportation system. The problem was that the protestors only interfered with those people leaving the city for the Olympics. These were citizens who rather go on vacation and rent out their property to all the tourists that were coming into Paris for the Olympics. The damage was repaired and those who left the city did so with little problems and the issue was resolved by the time the Olympic flame was lit.

The opening ceremony was a bit , and a tad interesting, but a whole lot of controversial. Showing off the city’s beauty and landmarks, the flame at times seemed as if it would never make it to the cauldron. Hitting on historic references, and special guest stars such as Lady Gaga and Snoop Doog made things rather odd, seeing that in most case in past Olympics, the highlights featured celebrities of the host country. Two of the guest hosts, Kelly Clarkson and Peyton Manning seemed a little out of place as they narrated what was going on, and often seemed that they were a little lost themselves. The march of the athletes was replaced by each country sailing up the river Serine (which will have the spotlight all to itself a few days later). The traditional march into the stadium was lost and missed. The actual lighting of the cauldron was off site and an endless march of the torch passing from to one person to another. It seemed that the flame was never going to be lit! It eventually was, and the games were on.

As expected, Simone Biles and the women of Team USA fared well in gymnastics and did the men’s team. The Women’s winning a gold medal while the men took home a bronze in the team events. The men’s team featured Brody Malone, Fred Richard, Asher Hong, Paul Juda and Stephen Nedoroscik. It was Nedoroscik, from Worcester, who shined on the pommel horse (his specialty) that took home the bronze medal and made him an instant hero. He would go on to win the bronze medal on the same apparatus during the individual competition. The women led by Biles, who shook off the demons of the 2020 Olympics that were held in Tokyo, included Hezly Rivera, Jade Carey, Sunisa Lee and Jordan Chiles. It was Chiles whose individual floor routine came into the spotlight, when her score was appealed and a higher score was awarded to her, giving her the bronze medal. But Romania protested that the appeal came late (by 4 seconds) and Chiles had to forfeit her medal. At this time the appeal and reversal is under protest and review.

The Swim team was anchored by Katie Ledecky, who became swimming’s all time medal leader. The men were led by Caeleb Dressel. The women’s team battled Australia in every event, they won 8 gold medals, 13 silver medals and 7 bronze. The Men took home 3 Gold, 7 Silver and 3 bronze. In Cycling, Kristen Faulkner won two gold medals in the women’s road race where she just began taking up the sports and beat her more seasoned competitors by a whopping 30 seconds, and then a few days later she anchored the team pursuit. In Women’s Volleyball, Team USA took home a silver medal losing to Italy, while the men won the bronze medal.

Overall, the Olympics were very successful for Team USA, winning 40 Gold (tying China), 42 Silver and 44 bronze – taking home 126 total medals as of this writing. Although it makes one wonder who decided that swimming a competition in the Serine River was a good idea. The river has been a waste disposal site forever, sort of, and a couple of years of trying to clean it up just was not going to be good enough. Many athletes had to pull out of the competition because they were getting ill. This was a disservice to all those athletes who trained and worked hard to compete and was essentially cheated out of their opportunity.

Many of the traditional sports were played at the Olympics such as table tennis (ping-pong), tennis, golf, badminton and both men’s and women’s beach volleyball. The USA women’s rugby team medaled for the first time ever.

But there were several sports that were included in this year’s roster of sporting events that had fans asking “why” – 3 X 3 basketball, breaking, speed climbing was included while women’s softball, men’s baseball was left out. The host country has the decision on what sports are dropped and included, skateboarding and breaking seemed to be an attempt to get a younger generation interested in the Olympics. Skateboarding seems to be a sport that will stick around, breaking however needs to improve the scoring part of the competition. 3 X 3 basketball may suffer elimination as it was as exciting as a game that is played in a driveway.

Adding to the fact that the Men’s and Women’s basketball teams not only won gold medals, but they did it with NBA and WNBA star power! The debate of who was on each basketball team and how the players were used in the games will be debated for a long time to come. Steve Kerr who coached the men’s team, often seemed clueless and over his head by the star power he had on his team, and most likely put a target on his own back when he comes to Boston to play the Celtics. Jayson Tatum who didn’t see much playing time in Paris was benched twice, and Jaylin Brown wasn’t even selected to the team. Brown was the NBA finals MVP. It’s safe to predict that when Kerr comes to town to play the Celtics this upcoming season, the Celtic faithful will let him know what they think of him. Any team that followed the first “Dream Team” will, in my opinion, will always be second best. Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley and David Robinson could still give this team a run for their money!

Some of the highlights of the games were the stars of track and field that normally don’t get a chance to shine on the big stage, except every four years. Think about it, when was the last time do you hear about Jesse Owens or Carl Lewis other than when they are mentioned every four years? Noah Lyles, Rai Benjamin, Cole Hocker and shot putter Ryan Crouser, Discus thrower Valarie Allman, runners Sydney McLaughlin, Gabby Thomas and Sha’Kari Richarson and the list goes on as the USA dominated the track and field events.

USA! USA!

Reflecting on the two plus weeks that the Olympics were competing, we all were interested in the medal count, how was the USA doing? Tuning in more times that you want to admit, checking in on the marathon, how the diving competition was going. For two weeks we were Americans cheering and pulling for our team. Feeling bad for competitors who worked so hard to get to shine in the ultimate competition and falling out of their sport knowing that they will have to wait four long years to get another opportunity. Watching the runners from Kenya running their hearts out and medaling. Watching the team from South Korea taking a selfie with the members of the team from North Korea, a truly amazing sight to see.

Winners of the Olympics other than the athletes were Snoop Doog. Yes, you read that correct, like him or not, this guy was everywhere cheering on our athletes. He was seen at events that normally don’t get that much of the spotlight, and he brought them into the front of the cameras. He made his segments entertaining and fun. Watching the athletes in the stands cheering on the athletes of other sports. No jealousy, no resentment just pure team spirit!

The closing ceremonies were just like those of the past except for when movie star Tom Cruise stepped off the top of the roof of Olympic Stadium and took the Olympic flag on its journey to the next host site, Los Angeles. It was pure Hollywood and done in a pre-production, movie-like setting, it set the tone to America that we are now on the clock.

The Olympic afterglow makes you wonder that if the world can come together for 16 days every four years and compete in peace, where there are no politics, no conflicts, then why not go for this every day? Every week? every year? We have one earth and too many conflicts, we need to be like the world’s athletes, we need to do better!

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John Cardullo, sportswriter. John is a lifelong Rhode Islander. His sports experience is extensive, as a player, coach and sponsor of youth and high school sports. He has been the Public Address Announcer for the CCRI Men’s and Women’s Soccer teams. Both the Cranston East and Cranston West football, Cranston East Boys and Girls basketball for 12 years before moving onto the Central, Juanita Sanchez and Mt. Pleasant football teams. Also, Central HS Boys and Girls Basketball, Scituate High School Boys and Girls Basketball, Johnston High School Girls Basketball, Boys Volleyball, Girls Softball, Boys and Girls Soccer teams, and CLCF football.

John has been involved in Men’s softball for 61 years, starting as a batboy for his father’s team in 1964. He moved to the teams scorekeeper then became a player in 1975, and created the men’s team, Players Corner Pub, that went on to win 20 State Championships in their 35 year history. In the 1990’s he published the statewide softball magazine “The Fielders Choice” which was dedicated to all topics related to adult softball. As a feature writer, John and the publication won several media awards. In 2019 he was elected and inducted into the Rhode Island Slow Pitch Softball Hall of Fame which he also helped create. John is a softball umpire in Warwick, Rhode Island.

In his spare time John golfs with his life long friends on a weekly basis in season. After retiring from the printing Industry after a 45-year career, he now writes specialty sports columns for RINewsToday.com.