I also watched the skateboarders live and loved how they supported each other and were thrilled for one another. It was so refreshing and inspiring.
So much wisdom in this thread. @coyote, @lovendures, @iradium, @cc1, I am drinking up your posts like ambrosia. To quote @cc1, Yes, yes, yeppity-yes to everything you said!
So important how our greatest achievers in sport, the world's role models, have stepped away from their commercial sponsors and the Olympic Committee, and sent a message to us all about what it means to be heroic in these changing times.
It means to honor our whole selves, care for each other, while doing our penultimate best.
So incredible that the athlete who the media and the commercial world chose to be the face of the Olympics was the very same person who turned the old paradigm of success at all
Lightworkers are dominating the headlines now, whereas before it was negative patriarchy.
@coyote: that we had to drop the pretense of our unflappable young professional selves and focus on self care as we head into the maelstrom...I don't think anyone can get through these years of transition unless they bend with the storm, and "bending with the storm" sometimes means assuming the fetal position, so to speak.
@lovendures: So many golden quotes from you, too many. Just reread her words, Community! Most of all I feel the beauty of how this all flowed, the good that flowed from one to all and back to one again. It is a glimpse of the best of humanity.
@cc1 I completely agree that it felt very much like a large tipping point.
Another athlete that is making her voice known is track and field's Allyson Felix. She has recently spoken out about her treatment by former sponsor Nike (regarding maternity policies.) It led to her creating her own running shoe! ( https://saysh.com/)
https://www.today.com/parents/allyson-felix-was-terrified-speak-out-about-nike-today-t225859
"I never would have thought that using my voice would have led to NIKE changing their maternity policy for athletes and I definitely never would have thought it would lead to creating @bysaysh," Felix captioned the photo, referring to her new brand. "Keep going and keep speaking up, even if your voice shakes."
Now that the (television) Olympic festival is over, I’m back to my normal Cassandra self on this subject. They might be able to pull off Paris ‘24, but Los Angeles ‘28 is looking flimsy.
I say that because the Olympic movement as we know it is built atop a lot of linear assumptions - namely, that environmental (and by extension, economic) conditions will be stable over a decade and thus allow host cities to adequately prepare. But we’re already seeing in real time that the environmental conditions we depend upon are changing fast, and that change will accelerate over the next 7 years. So I wouldn’t be surprised if natural calamity gets in the way of the Los Angeles games. I also think the Winter Olympics will be history after Milan ‘26.
@jeanne-mayell You should rename this thread “All Things Olympics,” that way we can discuss here these broader subjects plus the Beijing games (which are only 6 months away). And there is a lot to unpack about Beijing ‘22.
@coyote I loved that you folks were thinking about the Games - and while it's all over I wanted to share that my wife has been to every Olympic games since 1984 and I started in 1992. I hate crowds, sports and having to share tight spaces with people sweating their heads off. But for those late summer days - when you're seated with folks from all over the world, cheering for others from all over the world - and despite the media focus on gold and tally the people get wound up with the narrative on the field and for those moments, you feel deeply that each of us are uniquely "Citizens of the World" and that somehow, if we can all come together for this, that somehow it will be all right.....this hard earth will keep spinning and we will keep trying, despite our flaws, to achieve and celebrate our own beauty. And when there is a callout as the end of the games,.."for the youth of the world to come together in another four years...." that future presumption, that the youth upcoming, will be faster, higher, stronger, and together keeps the flame alive. #paris2024
It must be wonderful being in a crowd where together you can feel such wonderful moments of inspiration. Hope you can get to the next summer Olympics in Paris.
I believe Los Angeles has good infrastructure already in place to handle their Olympics. I do appreciate your thoughts on how the Olympics may have issues with stability though in future years however. It is in danger for sure and certainly the Winter ones. I felt this Olympics had a major shift in a positive direction. I really found myself rooting for the some inspiring young ( and older) people. It was a nice and needed break from all that has come before during the past 5 years.
Possible Covid cluster in the Olympic Village at the Tokyo Paralympics.
This an amazing story!!
If you want to feel what is right with the world, read the whole story about the Refugee Paralympic Team members in Tokyo.
“The Refugee Paralympic Team is more than a team, it’s a family,” Al Hussein says. “It’s giving hope to the 12 million displaced people around the world with a disability. I want to send them a message that nothing is impossible to continue things no matter what happens. I am here as an example.”
Yikes!
Toyota said on Friday it had suspended all self-driving e-Palette transportation pods at the Tokyo Paralympic Games village, a day after one of the vehicles collided with and injured a visually impaired pedestrian. The athlete hit had yet to compete and was taken to the Olympic village center for treatment and was able to walk back to their housing area.
Toyota Chief Executive Akio Toyoda apologized for the incident and said he offered to meet the person but was unable to do so. He said the accident showed the difficulty for the self-driving vehicle to operate in the special circumstances of the village during the Paralympics with people there who are visually impaired or have other disabilities.
“It shows that autonomous vehicles are not yet realistic for normal roads,” he said.