Final Olympic Thoughts

I know lots of people were against it, and I know Tokyo is probably going to spend years trying to make up the money they lost by hosting the whole thing, but I have to say I am so glad they pushed ahead with the Olympics, because the last two weeks have been brilliant.

The Top 3 Events I Enjoyed Watching The Most:
GOLD – Surfing
SILVER – Climbing (especially the combined)
BRONZE – Mixed team triathlon
The open water swimming was a real thrill as well.

Paris is only three years away, which softens the impact of the post-Games blues a bit. Plus - when it gets here - it'll be in a similar time zone to us, so no more of this ‘waking up to find out how well we did rather than being able to watch it live’ rubbish. I think I might book the whole two weeks off work in 2024 so I can lose myself in an indulgent orgy of viewing. If the tickets aren’t ridiculously expensive (which, let’s be honest, they will be) I might even venture across the Channel to watch.

The National Anthem of Kenya sounds like the opening music for a movie based on The Bible.

I’m not particularly interested in where Lionel Messi ends up playing next season, but the story this week has reminded me why I don’t like football, and consider it to be well and truly f**ked as a sport and as a business. At the Olympics, we see people pushing themselves to the limit for the glory of a gold medal. Many of them make no money from their endeavours, and many of them end up out of pocket. Meanwhile, I read that Barcelona FC – one of the most successful club sides in the World – are more than a billion Euros in debt, and have to reduce their wage bill by 172million just to break even next season. That entire sport should be ripped up and restarted from scratch.

RC 8-8-21