In Geoff Dyer’s interesting book “The Last Days Of Roger Federer and Other Endings” people getting old are warned against the risk of being “reduced to letting the clock go round.” It is a risk to which the old all too easily succumb instead of trying to remain productive and creative to the end.
There are many reasons why we succumb. One – certainly for me – is that watching sport is such a pleasant way of “letting the clock go round.” And these days we are captivated by so much good sport to watch.
The Paris Olympics, in particular, were wonderful. So many images are etched in my mind – from Celine Dion emerging from the terrible infirmity of “Stiff Person Syndrome”, to sing magnificently the Edith Piaf ballad “Hymn to Love” – Tom Cruise descending on a wire from the Stade de France roof to carry the torch symbolically from the City Of Love to the City of Angels and Dreams where it will be held in four years time. Who can forget the many countless memories?
● Noah Lyles, suffering from Covid, winning the 100 metres by 5 hundredth of a split second.
● The swimmer Leon Marchand winning 4 gold medals in the pool and becoming King of France!
● The legendary Simone Biles resuming her reign as Queen of Gymnastics.
● LeBron James and Stephen Curry putting on a show for the ages to win the Basketball gold medal for America.
● The great Swedish champion Mondo Duplantis, catapulting himself over the bar to another world record in the pole vault.
● The St. Lucian young woman, Julien Alfred, sprinting gloriously to beat the favourite and win 100 metres gold.
● Italian high jumper – Jian Marco Tamberi dropping his wedding ring in the Seine while waving his country’s flag in the Opening Ceremony and explaining the loss to his wife in a Social Media post: “I saw it dive into the water as if that was the only place it wanted to be. It will remain forever in the river bed of the City of Love. If you want you will throw yours into that river too so that they will be together forever.”
● Vinesh Phogat, the Indian wrestler, was dis qualified a few hours before her 50 kilogram freestyle final for failing to make weight – 100 grams over. She tried everything to shed those grams, even cutting off her hair.
● Novak Djokovic sobbing with emotion as he finally won the gold medal he said was the greatest achievement of his unsurpassable career – and young Carlos Alcaraz also speaking through tears because he had lost in their epic battle.
So many more images.
And then there was the prince of wrestlers, Cuban Mijaín López who won gold for a record fifth Olympics in a row, a feat unparalleled in sport.
In wrestling – one of the oldest sports – when a wrestler retires he leaves his shoes in the ring. At the end of his final bout in Paris, Lopez left his shoes in the ring. There they were, in the middle of the ring, not Nike, not Puma, simply an old battered pair of shoes – somehow a symbol which brought tears to my eyes.
“I have been trying to show the entire world,” Lopez said, “that indeed one can achieve many things with or without help. I think that it all boils down to love. In everything you want to do with your life, you always have to have love.”
