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Olympia has given us many viral moments – and even more questions

tabnews August 11, 2024
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Next, Los Angeles will host the 2028 Summer Olympics. How will LA top the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics?

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As with the Olympics opening ceremony, my family, which spans three generations, will be watching Sunday's closing ceremony. Like millions of other people on Earth, we have spent so much of the last two weeks of the Summer Games in front of our screens on every platform that I couldn't imagine missing the final.

My family will remember the Paris Olympics for many viral moments, including:

  • Already the most decorated gymnast, Simone Biles, 27, won four more medals for Team USA.
  • How 27-year-old swimmer Katie Ledecky became the most successful American Olympian of all time with 14 medals.
  • Jerome Brouillet's photo of Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina, 30, and his board floating above the ocean as he scored a near-perfect 10.
  • French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati (21) is gaining followers because, as he posted on TikTok after knocking over the crossbar with his step, he said: “You attract more attention with your overall package than with your performance.”
  • Zeng Zhiying, a 58-year-old table tennis player who was not selected for China in Los Angeles 1984 but represented Chile in Paris. Her Olympic debut at our age was heavenly.

However, a much more down-to-earth performance will stay with me even after the 2024 Summer Olympics. It also brought a few questions to mind.

“I don't believe it. I'll score at least once.” The Olympic table tennis moment we need to know more about.

On the night of the opening ceremony, July 26, NBA superstar Steph Curry traded Olympic pins with as-yet-unknown Olympians like an excited kid at summer camp. Realizing he had just met the U.S. women's table tennis team, Curry brought the celebrity-smitten Asian Americans to his predominantly African-American basketball teammates, goading Anthony Edwards, who prides himself on excelling in many sports, that these seemingly demure ladies might shut him up.

A friendly trash talk followed, with 23-year-old guard Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves saying, “I don't believe it. I'll score at least once,” and 28-year-old Olympic veteran Lily Zhang smiling and replying, “There's only one way to try.”

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I immediately followed @usabasketball and @usatabletennis_ on Instagram, but so far there has been no word about this game that so many have been calling for on social media. This sparked the first of several questions I have for Olympians and Olympic organizers:

When can we see Ant play Ping-Pong? with Lily? It's heartwarming that Edwards came to cheer Zhang on as she advanced to the round of 16. And bravo that his team invited her team to basketball practice, where they exchanged souvenirs and autographs. But the US Major League Table Tennis could use the help of the NBA gods to rally support. Take pity on us mere mortals and put on an exhibition performance.

Where is Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva? In February 2022, during the Beijing Winter Olympics, I wrote a column that read: “I have never wanted a 15-year-old to fail so badly in my life. But when (Valieva) performed her short program … that was exactly what her team's handling of her positive doping test had reduced me to – a spiteful fan who had loved her during the pre-Olympic competitions but now feels betrayed. … Russia took gold, the United States took silver, and Japan won bronze.”

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USA TODAY sports columnist Christine Brennan wrote last week, “The Russia scandal … necessitated the cancellation of the original medal ceremony and set off a vexing series of international delays and appeals that finally culminated in a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) less than two weeks ago.” On Wednesday, the U.S. figure skating team for the 2022 Olympics – including “Rocketman” Nathan Chen – finally received their gold medals and the Japanese figure skaters received silver, all surrounded by their loved ones at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

But what about Valieva? She is two years older now, but still a teenager. Did she watch the medal ceremony anywhere? What is she planning to do? Who does she blame for losing the gold medal?

Gender equality at the Olympic Games vs. gender-neutral sport

How long will it take for the Olympic Games with gender parity to become gender-neutral? Paris hosted the first Olympic Games to achieve gender parity, and as the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro drew to a close, I co-wrote an editorial arguing: 'Let men and women compete in shooting..“

Josh Rivera and I argued: “For decades, male and female shooters competed against each other in international competitions. At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, American Margaret Thompson Murdock, along with teammate Lanny Bassham, took first place in the small-bore rifle competition. After examining the targets, the judges awarded the man the gold medal and the woman the silver. To Bassham's credit, he asked Murdock to share the top podium with him during the national anthem.

“After that, the International Olympic Committee gradually phased out mixed-entry shooting and created women-only competitions. But in the 21st century, shooting remains one of the few college sports that is gender-neutral – and in which women are highly competitive. It's time to take a fresh look at which sports are suitable for head-to-head competition, regardless of gender.”

Eight years ago, when equestrianism was the only gender-neutral Olympic sport, we wrote: “If the horse doesn’t care who leads it, why should a gun?”

How will Los Angeles surpass the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics? I'm curious to see how Sunday's closing ceremony will compare to the historic parade of nations on boats down the Seine at the opening ceremony. But the next Summer Games will be in LA. How do you climb the Eiffel Tower? Traditionally, the next Olympic host also puts on a show at the closing ceremony to announce the upcoming attractions. There are rumors that Tom Cruise, who has been prominent at numerous Olympic events in Paris, will perform a wild stunt.

Hollywood, bring it on.

Thuan Le Elston, opinion editor at USA TODAY, is the author of “Rendezvous at the Altar: From Vietnam to Virginia.”

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