I can guess the flickering of the light that lit up the person in charge of writing Thomas Bach’s speech during the weak closing ceremony of the Olympic Games, when he decided to Frenchify the adjective “sensational” and wrote “sensational” so that the president of the IOC could pretend to be Juan Carrasco from the Stade de France. I guess it because all of us who sometimes write texts have fallen down that slope, some more successfully than others, for others to say.
As I know that the tree of ingenuity — however dubious it may be — sometimes does not allow us to see the forest of the idea, I imagine that writer cracking his fingers after having perpetrated such a pun, unaware that in reality it perfectly described the character of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Paris Games for good, but above all for bad: a tacky and old-fashioned spirit, like that kind of pun, and chauvinistic at all costs. As was the full inclusion of the Seine in the entire opening ceremony. Sensational in theory and sensational In practice, of course, the other side of chauvinism has been the enjoyment of unbeatable natural scenery. Sensational No irony. Any competition with the Eiffel Tower in the background was more spectacular than the two ceremonies together, except for Celine Dion.
In addition to the best sporting exhibition, the Olympic Games are always a mirror in which everyone is reflected. There are the LinkedIn gurus who subscribe to the epic of effort; the smart guys who believe they are discovering the unhealthiness of the discipline of many elite sports today; the real experts and those who believe it. And then the largest group, which includes you who are reading this, Shonda Rhimes and I — I am delighted to see us in the same bag —: the enthusiastic laymen. A few days ago the production company I uploaded to Instagram a photo of her on her couch, remote in hand, with the caption: “My couch hates to see me arrive. I’m sitting down! What new sport are we fans of today? Which Olympian will we love with all our hearts today?” We might see Shonda in the audience at Los Angeles 2028. After the appetizer they left us at the closing ceremony, who wouldn’t want to be there? The sets will be less showy, but we will surely enjoy not only the sport: also the spectacle.
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