The Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony was quintessentially French. Le Papa Smurf’s blue hue created global controversy (equally ridiculous and also unsurprising) and the self-indulgence was palpable (we love to see it). The French committee offered up Revolution-style guillotined heads and metal bands while DJ and producer Barbara Butch (an LGBTQ+ icon) wore a silver headdress that looked like a halo while flanked by drag artists and dancers – we quite frankly vibed in this visual orgy.

However; after the conclusion of that Scorsese-length, in-situ, in-Seine-ity, we sighed a collective sigh — ‘how the f*ck are we going to sustain this sensory, over-stimulation, when the sports haven’t even commenced yet?’  

Sacré bleu!

We live in a society that ‘moves at the speed of culture’ and many of us were left wondering if the pressures of cultural relevance (and the French went to lengths to achieve this) are now prized more than the fortitude of what the Games represent for human athleticism. In this day and age — it seems no matter the event, it better prove meme-worthy for the masses in order to be marketed. Was the Olympics more a feat of ‘shitposting’ than it was of meritocracy in the elite athletics realm? Exhausting the cultural alley-ways and backends of social media platforms, you are probably more familiar with the achievements of a pole vaulting Parisian penis, Noah Lyles claiming Covid and last but not least, Hall of Shame, PhD breaker, who well and truly broke the internet; the street artist formerly known as ‘RayGun’, who made Olympics history by scoring a unanimous ‘0’ for her contentious and let’s face it, extremely silly performance. RayGun alone brought into question the very integrity of the Olympics Games, and what had always been revered as the pinnacle of human achievement seemed to teeter on the edge of becoming just another sideshow for social media consumption.

Image sourced via Akani Simbine Instagram

Has the focus on viral moments, whether intentional or not, cast a shadow over the true spirit of the Olympics, where the pursuit of excellence, discipline and sportsmanship should be paramount? As we collectively scroll through highlights and lowlights, have we traded the values of meritocracy and genuine athletic achievement for the fleeting amusement of a meme-able moment?

What of Tatjana Smith – the aquatic artist formerly known as Schoenmaker – becoming the most decorated South African Olympian of all time; a breast-stroking GOAT, who swims off into a Corona-sponsored sunset with two Olympic golds, two silvers and a World Record in her achievements’ column? How about Letsile Tebogo – Botswanian who – as the tweet suggests – created so much wind with his 200m blitz that it gave the favoured Noah Lyles instant Corona (the bat one, not the lime one) and a VIP seat in a wheelchair. Tebogo brought home the first-ever gold medal for our neighbouring country – that’s pretty massive. 

Also, AKANI FINALLY HAS A MEDAL. Simbine with the personality of Disney’s Simba, ran his anchor leg of his team’s 4 x 100m relay sub 9 SECONDS. 8.78 seconds to be exact. Then, there’s Bayanda Walaza – the matric pupil and teammate of Akani- who is currently being welcomed back at his high school hall in Tshwane, as he prepares to write a Trigonometry preliminary examination. Wild, completely wild. 

I was fortunate enough to attend both swimming and athletics fixtures at the Olympics, and the experience was unlike any other major football or rugby fanboy event. The crowd becomes a collective megaphone willing on individual world record breaking performances. The decibels doubled, noticeably, when a Frenchman or woman dons the lycra and circumnavigates the arena. The five rainbow rings symbolising human excellence across speed, strength, stamina, and distance were on display, and yet somehow our greatest innovation has algorithmically stunted our physical progression. Maybe it just feels this way, as those of us who are not competing at the highest levels of sport have more access than ever to extract these moments, as we digest them into the cultural zeitgeist in strange and hilarious ways. Maybe there’s enough room in the cultural milieu for memes AND moments of incomprehensible endurance? If the Olympics showed us one thing, it’s that there better be enough room — because our capacity for collective piss-taking shows absolutely no signs of slowing down. We call it ‘doom-scrolling’ for a reason. 

Image by Bo Zhang via Unsplash

In the world of creativity, advertising is our commercial-art imitating life. It becomes more ineffective each year, as the Cannes Festival of Creativity in 2022 was already reporting that 85% of ads do not work. Also, annually, a new brand will inevitably succumb to being cancelled for, ironically, being tone deaf with its virtue-signalling tactics. We’ve seen billions of dollars wiped off multinational corporations’ bottom lines, and share prices bottoming out because a CMO or agency somewhere, failed to read the room.

Nike, however, whether you pronounce it like ‘Mike’ or ‘Ny-key’ (this is the right way bt dubs) won the communications Olympics by going all-in on victory – the Latin meaning of Nike (by the way) with messages like: ‘Winning isn’t for everyone’, ‘If you don’t want to win, you’ve already lost’, and ‘There’s one souvenir I want from Paris’, were some of the defiant taglines espoused by the sporting behemoth ingeniously cut through category clutter.  

As a father of three small children, wanting to steer my progeny to greatness in their lives and to stand out from the billions of others, it’s hard to find real mentors in our generation. Locally and globally, dads are still absent or non-existent in large droves, our politicians are populist, and/or captured and celebs rarely have any scruples to actually be leaders. In a complex cultural landscape, sports have come to matter more than ever before; just think of what the Boks have done for South Africa. 

Sports stories are the most inspiring. Athletes are our North Star for success and personification of the human spirit. This is why Netflix, Apple, Disney and Showmax are investing billions of dollars in this narrative genre. When AI consumes all of our creative jobs, live sports will always be recession proof — hopefully. Perhaps we’ll reset to factory settings and return to mortal combat in venues such as the Colosseum, people will watch gladiators sever heads (not as art direction, but for real) and other limbs. Until then, we’re going to make the most of the digital age, in which one athlete’s misfortune might be momentary comedic relief.  

Yes, the French did it differently, but merci for magnifying human merits and earthling excellence from the Olympics to the upcoming Paralympics. Your river may be literally shitty, but your sporting showpiece was sensational. It’s not everything but it’s one of the greatest achievements and feelings in the world to WIN!

Written by Mike Sharman

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