Jack Tame: I absolutely love the Olympics

It’s upon us.  

We are exactly eight minutes away from the conclusion of the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. Yes, the Opening Ceremony is a total cheese-fest. Yes, about a third of the athletes will have caught a cold from standing out in the rain for so long. But I for one, am fizzing.  

I love the Olympics. Absolutely love them. Always have, and even though of course I can see clearly enough that they are an obscenely commercialised orgy of hyper-capitalism, consumption, and junk food sponsorship deals, I’ve never wavered in suspending my cynicism for a few weeks every four years, and I doubt I ever will.  

Usually, the only things that get the whole World’s attention are bad things: wars, terrorism, and natural disasters. The Olympics are about as close as humanity comes to a shared experience of, and shared interest in something good. It’s about our only truly shared collective celebration.   

I remember once filming alongside a super-conservative Mennonite community in rural Pennsylvania. The Mennonites eschew most modern technology and deliberately cloister themselves from much of the rest of the World. Twelve years ago, I asked a woman from the community if she’d heard of the Olympics. She’d never watched them, she said. But she’d heard of them. Was it something where people from different countries came together?  

Yeah, I said. It is.   

My favourite Olympic events are the primal ones. Ones where you don’t need crazy specialised equipment. Ones where the barriers to entry are relatively low.   

Who can swim the fastest? Sprint the quickest? Jump the highest? Do the most impressive flips?  

Outside of New Zealand’s medal prospects, these are the three sports I’m most excited about at the games:  

The 1500m. An absolute classic. Maybe it’s the legacy of Snell and Lovelock etc, but the thing I love about the 1500m is it’s the shortest running race to be properly tactical. I was in the front row of the stands at the Olympics in Rio, and remember my shock at seeing just how fast the 1500m runners were moving. TV gets you close, but you still lose something in perspective. In the men’s contest this year, the favourite is Norway’s defending Olympic champion. If Jakob Ingebrigtsen wins again, I think most middle-distance running fans will consider him the greatest 1500m runner ever.   

My second event is another running race and another all-time great. Eilud Kipchoge is the boss of Olympic marathoning. He was Olympic champion in 2016 and Olympic champion in 2020, and he’s pursuing a third consecutive title. Again, TV is good, but you can’t appreciate how fast they’re running until you see it!  

The athlete I’m most excited about at these games is Simone Biles. There aren’t really sufficient descriptors for what she’s capable of doing, but seeing her at her best, spinning and flipping and throwing herself into unbelievably complex and dangerous contortions really pushes my engrained understanding of what the human body is capable of. I was team Simone when she pulled out at the last games. How could you throw yourself into the stuff she does without absolute, supreme confidence? I’ve watched all the redemption documentaries. I know she’s getting on a bit in gymnast years, but she’s clearly an all-time great and I’m desperate for her to pull off a gold… or five.   

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at B.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
And yes it is upon us. We are exactly seven
minutes away from the conclusion of the opening ceremony of
the twenty twenty four Summer Olympic Games. We've just seen
an array of big name sports stars handling the baton,
passing the baton in the Olympic Flame, Zidan passing it

(00:35):
on to Rafael Nadal, who yes, isn't French but has
one a few French opens in his time. Serena Williams
coming up the scene as well. The opening ceremony is
a total cheese fest. Let's be honest, and I think
after this morning's opening ceremony about a third of the
athletes competing in these games probably will have caught a

(00:58):
cold from standing out in the rain for so long. Nonetheless, I,
for one, am absolutely fizzing. I love the Olympics. I
absolutely love them. I always have And even though of
course I can see clearly enough that they are an
obscenely commercialized orgy of hyper capitalism, consumption and junk food

(01:20):
sponsorship deals, I have never wavered in suspending my cynicism
for a few weeks every four years, and I doubt
I ever will. Usually the only things that get the
whole world's attention are bad things, right, think about it,
the whole world's attention. Usually it's usually it's war, maybe

(01:43):
it's terrorism, natural disasters. Those are the only things that
get the whole world's attention, the only things that unite
the attention of the entire world. But the Olympics are
about as close as humanity comes to a shared experience
of and shared interest in something good. It's about our
only truly shared collective celebration. I remember once filming alongside

(02:11):
a super conservative Mennonite community in rural Pennsylvania. This is
twelve years ago, and the Mennonites are similar to the Amish.
They essuw most modern technology and deliberately cloister themselves from
much of the rest of the world. Now. I remember
when I was filming, I asked a woman from this

(02:31):
community if she had heard of the Olympics, and she
told me that she'd never watched them, she'd never seen them,
but she did think she'd heard of them. She asked me,
was it something where people from different countries came together? Yeah,
I said, yeah, Yeah, that's it. That's it.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
It is.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
My favorite Olympic events are the primal ones, ones where
you don't need crazy specialized equipment, ones where the barriers
to entry are relatively low. You know, who can swim
the fastest, who can sprint the quickest, who can jump
the highest, do the most impressive flips. Outside of New
Zealand's medal prospects and competitors, these are the three events

(03:13):
and athletes that I are most excited about at these Games.
Number one, the fifteen hundred meters an absolute classic. I
don't know, maybe it's the legacy of Snell and love Lock,
et cetera. But the thing that I love about the
fifteen hundred meters is it is the shortest running race
to be properly tactical. At the same time, I was

(03:34):
in the front row of the stands at the Olympics
in Rio, and I remember I remember just how shocking
it was seeing how fast the fifteen hundred meters runners
were moving. And I know this seems obvious, but like
TV gets you close, but you still lose something in perspective.
And the men's contest this year, the favorite is Norway's

(03:56):
defending Olympic champion, and if jakub Ingerbritton, which is his name.
If he wins it again, I think most middle distance
running fans will probably consider him the greatest men's fifteen
hurr a meter runner.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Ever.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
The second event I'm really excited about is another running
race and another all time great. Aliob Kubchogi is the
boss of Olympic marathoning. So he was Olympic champion in
twenty sixteen, Olympic champion again in twenty twenty, but his
pursuit of a third consecutive title puts him in a
real master versus apprentice clash. And again TV's good, but

(04:31):
you just can't appreciate how fast they're actually running until
you see it right. And finally, the athlete I'm most
excited about at these games outside of the kiwis, of course,
is Simone Biles. There they just aren't really sufficient descriptors
for what she is capable of doing. But seeing her

(04:54):
at her best spinning and flipping and a kind of
blur throwing herself into unbelievably complex and dangerous contortions, really
it really pushes my ingrained understanding of what the human
body is actually capable of. Like I see Simone Bials

(05:14):
at her best, and I think I sincerely did not
know that Homo sapiens were capable of doing that. I
was team Simone when she pulled out of the last
Olympic Games. You know, how could you throw yourself into
the stuff she does without absolute supreme confidence? And I've

(05:35):
watched all of the redemption documentaries. I've followed her in
the years since the last Games. I know she's getting
on a bit in gymnast years, but she is clearly
an all time great and I am desperate, absolutely desperate
for her to pull off a gold or you know,
five jack team ninety two. Ninety two is our text

(05:57):
number if you want to flip me a message Jacketnewstalks
b dot co dot in z ed is the email address.
Don't forget that if you are sending me texts. The
standard text costs applay. The opening ceremony of the Olympic
Games has been going for a long time now. If
you haven't seen any of the images, it's been fairly impressive.
Plenty of kind of schmalty, cheesy stuff in there. When
I started watching this morning, they had various athletes coming

(06:22):
via the SEIN, so they were coming on boats down
the Seine one by one. It was absolutely pouring with rain.
They had some breakdancers and people on bmx's kind of
doing stunts nearby to try and entertain everyone, and of
course the New Zealand team was looking great, but it
has to be seen that almost all of the athletes
looked absolutely completely nutterly drenched, which I'm not sure was

(06:47):
kind of ideal preparation for the start of competition. But
since then they've had various speeches and things, and they're
at the absolute end of the opening ceremony. Now Tony Parker,
who is the French basketball champion, is currently carrying the
Olympic torch past that amazing triangular edifice that marks the

(07:09):
opening to the Louver Museum. So he's doing that at
the moment. I'm sure they will light the Olympic torch
and the Games will officially be underway. Kevin Milner, there's
whe u's next on Saturday morning. Right now, it's called
a quarter past nine. You're with Jack Tame. This is
News Talk's EDB.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to Newstalks EDB from nine am Saturday, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.