It’s never too late for Olympics

All you need to know about the 2024 Paris Games

The Olympics has always been a premier place for athletes to showcase their athletic talent and push the boundaries of human potential. The 2024 Summer Olympics held in Paris brought together a cumulation of not only traditional sports but some new additions. From breaking (also known as breakdancing) to artistic swimming, boxing, and kayak cross, these new sports brought a fresh wave of excitement and diversity to the Olympics.

With much debate, people questioned the place of breakdancing as a sport to be included in the Olympics. The breaking competition included solo battles where athletes were judged on creativity, personality, technique, versatility, performance skills, and musicality.

All the reviews were mixed. Some appreciated the new addition as a form of a newer twist to the narration of the Olympics and traditional sports while some criticized its credibility as a sport.

While artistic swimming is not entirely new to the Olympics, it has been praised for its artistic precision and physical demands. While a visually appealing sport, artistic swimming requires many technical skills to perform, like the ability to tread water for an entire routine.

It also requires the swimming skills to gracefully maneuver underwater, the ability to hold your breath for long periods, and staying in sync with a team even when you are underwater. The Olympics website wrote that the People’s Republic of China’s artistic swimming team came out on top and won gold with the high score of 996.1389 points.

These new additions have brought in solid TV ratings this year, as people previously uninterested in traditional sports watched to see how the new additions trialed.

In an opinion article from the Washington Post, Daniel Pink states: “But as the International Olympic Committee, the 200-plus participating nations[,] and all of us sports fans ponder the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, we have a chance to think bigger — to bring this quadrennial spectacle more fully into the 21st century.”

There is a hope that the future Olympics will see a newer perspective and challenge everyone to think beyond what we know of it. There is a possibility of different narration to take over the current story of challenging resilience, durability, and potential.

Kayak cross came with positive feedback in the viewership of the Olympics as Olympians navigated obstacles and hurdles down a whitewater course. People praised the sport, and overall, the reaction was very positive, likely due to its chaotic and thrilling nature.

With water being splashed all over and teams paddling through the rough waters and overcoming potential challenges, it just doubles down on the traditional values of a sport, especially those that have historically qualified for the Olympics.

The debut of this sport was a pure success, with people cheering and anticipating it as a continued addition in the future due to its unpredictability and exciting nature. Its ability to refresh the program and inspire a new generation of athletes in a sport like that was well taken.

It’s never too late to talk about the Olympics, especially with a broader shift in the view of athletics this year. The Olympics are no longer just a showcase of physical endurance, strength, and resilience but also the launchpad for artistic expression, cultural creativity, and global diversity. The newer additions not only enriched the program experience but also opened doors for new athletes and fans to broaden their horizons, thinking bigger and better.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/breakdancing-paris-2024-events-squash-martin-b1767999.html https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/videos/paris-2024-artistic-swimming-women-team-final-highlights