Michael Burgess: NZ Herald Sports Journalist on the vibes in Paris with the opening of the 2024 Olympic Games

The 2024 Olympic Games kicked off with a bang – or a light show. 

NZ Herald Sports Reporter Michael Burgess is on the ground in Paris, taking in the festivities before and as the games begin. 

He joined Piney to give a sense of the energy and excitement in the city. 

"I think this is going to be an absolute beauty, mainly because of the venues being all in the city, all these classic venues, and talking to the athletes, they’re all so excited about being able to perform at some of these iconic stadiums and venues.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from Newstalk z'b Kelen Herolds.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Michael Burgess is on the ground in Paris for the
duration of the games, covering all sorts of sports, including burge.
I know, one of your favorite sports, the opening ceremony,
How was it?

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Yes, Norma, I'm not a.

Speaker 4 (00:27):
Big fan opening serumi, So this is amazing, mate, this
was This was the best ever. I mean, I was
lucky to be in Beijing in two thousand and eight
and that was incredible. Sidney was good, of course, London
was great with James Bond, but this was amazing.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
This was the best ever.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
I sort of got a feeling that this should be
the last one because no one's ever going to top this.
You know, it was just absolutely remarkable. No one thought
they could do it on a six kilometer stretcher river
and they did it. So yeah, the French of they
made themselves proud.

Speaker 5 (00:56):
Pretty ambitious stuff, Burge.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
As you say, you know, when you're when you're walking
into an Olympic stadium, you're kind of enclosed in a
in a finite area, but six kilometers of river, anything
could have gone wrong and I'm sure a couple of
things did behind the scenes, but overall you were, by
the sounds of it, utterly impressed by it.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Yeah, I mean exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
Right up until about November October last year, they were
still talking about a plan B or a planc because
I'm still worried mainly about security, but also other things.
They had something like sixty thousand police and soldiers in
Paris today, but you know, mainly for security, and they.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Had, you know, all these boats on the river.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
The weather wasn't great, the weather didn't come to the
party's rain windy, so it was pretty rocky out there.
But they did it. You know, they pulled it off.
They pulled off something that everyone thought was impossible. And
as I say, I think this will ever be top Mates.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Seriously, all right, well, you've been on the ground in
Powis for a week or so. Now just give us
a feel of the city of Paris as it prepares
to host the biggest sporting event on the planet.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
It's been a funny one, mate, because I've talked to
quite a few locals and there's sort of there's mixed feelings.
There's quite a few locals that you know a bit
negative about the games, and then there's a lot that
are so excited. But one thing I did notice today
really is that all these people have just flooded in.
I just sort of was walking through the center and
you're just suddenly seeing all these fans like they've just
derived from somewhere so or you know, Cuban fans, an

(02:25):
American fans, Danish in the end. So there's a real
sense that the games is about to begin.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
The preamble is always good.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
I mean we've already had, of course football and handball
and rugby seven's, but it all gets underway tomorrow and
I think I think Paris is buzzing. There's so much
excitement about this French team. The president macarn has already
come out of said he wants them in the top
top five. I think there are eighth to ninth in
Tokyo and they could have their best ever Olympics. So

(02:55):
that that has really got the nation going, because France
is such a proud sporting nation and they're so good
at so many different sports.

Speaker 5 (03:02):
Incredible stuff.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
In the first couple of three days around the Burgeon,
it's been all over I think every media outlet everywhere
in the world as have you been by the sounds
of it with drone gate around the Canadian football team.
Can you give us just a bit of an idea
of how big this story has become.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
Oh, it's been huge, mate, it's been.

Speaker 4 (03:23):
It's been one of the biggest stories we've covered. You know,
just wandering around the media center in Paris and you
know there's journalist river in the world when they see
you in New Zealand Herald t shirt or you're talking
and they there's people from orderful places that want to
talk about this story because it's just it's just a
zinger of a story. You know, the Espinas are spying,
the cheating, it's something that.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
It's really a perfect story in a way.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
Media wise, and it's just so bloody bizarre and the
fact that it started off and it's just rumbling and
rumbling and getting getting bigger and bigger, and we've seen
the consequences and the Canadian media still can't believe it.
But yeah, it's been in the it's been in all
the French papers, the Spanish papers.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
No one can quite understand what's gone on.

Speaker 4 (04:10):
And the fact that New Zealand's involved has made it.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Well, it's made it pretty cool for us, hasn't it, Piny.

Speaker 5 (04:17):
Oh, it has.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
It's as you say, it's been leading the news and
sports news cycle for forty eight seventy two hours. But
I guess what we're finding out now is that this
isn't necessarily just a one off thing. They're now talking
about this being something that's been going on for years, Burge.
If some rumors are to be believed, that's the thing.

Speaker 4 (04:41):
Like when this first broke and I did a bit
of digging, I had some Canadian sources telling me, Oh,
this guy Lombard, he's gone rogue. He's done it, you know,
as most guys do. They're trying to either impress their
mates or impress a girl. You know, he's done something
stupid to do that. Yeah, but no, that was completely wrong.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
It's not. He's just he's one of the victims.

Speaker 4 (05:02):
The assistant coach has been in on it, other people
have been in on it. It's you know, I think
you wrote in your column the other day, spying does
go on in football. There's all sorts of weird stuff
that goes on in South America, even in the Premier league,
and it's gone on back in the day as well.
But probably we're not used to it at the Olympics,
so that's what makes it weird. But the fact this

(05:23):
has been going on for years, you know, you start
to think about Canada's gold medal in Tokyo, you wonder, well,
wait a minute, and you also start to think about
their underperformance of the World Cup last year in Australia
New Zealand, because maybe there's something a bit wrong with
the culture. So yeah, there's quite a few strands to this,
and I'm hearing that it's still rumbling on. Because the

(05:44):
other thing that surprises me, Piney is that normally the
IOC would have made a decision before that game against
the Ferns, but they can't because there's so many layers
to it.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
So they're still investigating.

Speaker 4 (05:56):
You know, it's still and this is not great because
the game has been played, the competitions on, So I
think this is going to roll on, you know, obviously
at least into tomorrow.

Speaker 5 (06:05):
Such an interesting tale. What's the weather like?

Speaker 2 (06:08):
You talked about it not being great for the opening
ceremony temperature wise, but warm?

Speaker 5 (06:13):
Is it sticky? What's it like?

Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, there's been he's been warm.

Speaker 4 (06:19):
I'm not going to complain mate, because everyone else in
New Zealand is at home in winter. So I hate
people who are overseas reporting and their campaigning about the heat.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
But it is. It's warm. It's that kind of heat
where you sort of you know, you walk from.

Speaker 4 (06:30):
The metro to the video and then you're sort of
sweating and your shoes and all that.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
And you're sort of sweating all day. So it's that
kind of heat.

Speaker 4 (06:37):
But as I say, I'm not complaining at all. And
then today it's been a bit rainy and gloomy. Unfortunately
there is rain forecast for tomorrow, so there's a lot
of events on tomorrow and that will disrupt a few
of them, especially I'm thinking of the tennis with lu
Lusan and Aaron Routlift due to play rolling barrass So
hopefully the rain stays away. But yeah, there is rainforllcast

(06:58):
for tomorrow. But in general the weather has been has
been good, nice, nice summer, warm weather.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
And as a member of the working media at the Olympics,
I know it hasn't you know, started proper yet and
it will really ramp up. But are the facilities good?
Is it easy to find out what you need to
find out? And get to where you need to be.

Speaker 4 (07:19):
Yeah, it's pretty well organized, like the French always don't
have a great reputation for I guess organization compared to
some other European nations. But but look at the stereotypes.

Speaker 3 (07:30):
I'm throwing in blood. But no, they've they've been amazing.

Speaker 4 (07:34):
The the media centers are great, the transport's pretty good,
but the main thing that stood out is.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
The volunteers and just all the locals.

Speaker 4 (07:45):
Like you know, most of us media don't speak much
friends or any friends, but they're so helpful.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
They're prepared to put up with our lack of the language.

Speaker 4 (07:54):
So I think it's it's I've got a feeling, mate,
that this is going to be best Olympic Games of
the century, better than Beijing, better than Sydney, better than
and then obviously better than the last two because of
COVID and also Rio it was a bit weird because
it was so far away. So I think this is
going to be absolute beauty, mainly because of the venues

(08:17):
being all in the city, all these classic venues and
talking to the athletes, they're so excited about being able
to perform at some of these iconic stadiums.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
And venues.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Even hearing you talk about a burge, I'm getting excited
about what lies ahead over the next sixteen days or so.

Speaker 5 (08:33):
So good to have you on the ground setting the
scene for us, mate.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Look forward to chatting regularly, I hope across the next
two and a half weeks.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
Yeah, me too, mate, And great to talk to you.
And yeah, we can't wait for this.

Speaker 4 (08:43):
So I think it's going to be There's going to
be some really good New Zealand performances coming too.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
Yeah, I agree, I agree, burg Thanks indeed, Michael Burgess
on the ground in Paris.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
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