A fortnight of rainbows, roses and pure joy
The big names met our expectations but it’s the previously anonymous and invisible gold medallists who transformed a very good assembly of athletes into a legendary one.
The little sister to a superstar … the skateboarder who should be in school … unlikely heroes have made this Australian Olympic team great.
The big names earned their keep and met our expectations but it’s the previously anonymous and invisible gold medallists who transformed a very good assembly of athletes into a legendary one.
Best Games ever, perhaps. From this side of the fence, with a dozen notebooks filled with superlatives, and with a thousand heartwarming memories to take home, and then a thousand more, Paris has delivered a feast for the sport-loving senses.
It’s an enchanting city at the best of times. Throw a triathlon into the River Seine, and the fresh young skateboarders onto Place de la Concorde, and whack a boxing ring inside Roland Garros, and place a beach volleyball court beneath the Eiffel Tower, and usher the highest, fastest and strongest track athletes into Stade de France, and an extraordinary school of swimmers into La Defense Arena, and you will never see the city of lights in a more phosphorescent one.
The fortnight has passed in the twinkling of a sleep-deprived eye. There’s been a cavalcade of Australian triumphs in the most lavishly colourful, unpredictable and entertaining Games since Sydney put on her party dress and played the hostess with the mostest in 2000. March on, March on.
My favourite athlete? Jessica Fox. She hopped on a boat and waved the Australian flag like her life depended on it at the opening ceremony. A mate was on that vessel. She said: “Jess is such a star. She cared so much. The flag weighs a tonne and she just kept waving it for hours and hours.” The gig jeopardised Fox’s gold medal chances but stuff that, she did it anyway. Then won canoe and kayak gold medals before really covering herself in glory as the overall Australian team’s biggest cheerleader.
Exquisitely beautiful was Jessica’s support for little sister Noemie in the kayak cross. She sprinted down the path next to the course at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium in her absolutely full-throated, temple-busting demonstration of sisterly love.
When Noemie won, Jess didn’t know what to do. She knew only that she had be with her sister and so one, two, three – she leapt into the artificial river, which isn’t exactly allowed, and hugged Noemie in a way you do only when you are going absolutely bonkers with joy and affection. “I’m just full of emotion,” Jessica said. “I’m so proud of her. There’s so much emotion in this moment. It’s amazing. I’m just so proud of her.”
I’d put Jessica and Noemie in a three-way dead heat for the best Australian moment of the Games.
The photo finish also features Arisa Trew. The Olympics no longer revolves solely around the traditional disciplines of swimming and track and field for popularity and relevance, and the entire skateboarding program at the iconic Place de La Concorde was epic.
Keegan Palmer was the skateboarder’s skateboarder when he defended his park title – oh, bro! It’s insane, dude! – but the total innocence and cheer of the 14-year-old Trew took the breath away.
How to explain it? A hardcore friend of mine was asked for his highlight of the Games. He has a trucker’s mouth and doesn’t bother with pithy sentimentality. He growled, “Arisa Trew”. On top of her gold medal performance came the most beautiful quotes of the Games. How would she celebrate her win? More to the point, how would her parents let her celebrate?
“My parents promised if I won the gold medal I would get a pet duck,” she said. “Because they are really cute. I can take it on walks and take it to the skate park. My parents definitely wouldn’t let me get a dog or a cat because we are travelling so much right now. But I feel like a duck might be a little bit easier. It will just be in my yard and I’ll get a little pool thing for it and … I don’t know. I just want a duck.”
I would pay good money to visit Trew’s skate park at home on the Gold Coast and see what the pet duck is up to. I don’t know, I just want to hug Arisa Trew forever. Another mate who’s played international sport for a couple of decades read those quotes and suggested, “This is the literal personification of all the roses, rainbows and cotton candy in the world. Just joyfully glorious.”
Hear, hear.
Of course, the Olympics isn’t all roses, rainbows and cotton candy. It’s big business and there are big issues. The XY boxing debate dialled the controversy up to Z. IOC spokesman Mark Adams deserved a gold medal for optimism when he asked the world’s media to “dial it down” on the issue of Algerian welterweight Imane Khelif and Taiwanese featherweight Lin Yu-ting being allowed to compete despite their chromosome abnormalities. Somebody might like to tell Adams what a good yarn is. IOC boss Thomas Bach was achingly and hopelessly naive when he said it didn’t matter because they were “hopeless” fighters anyway. Khelif and Yu-Ting were deep into the medal rounds at the time of writing and regardless of their results, they were an integral, unmistakeable part of the Paris story.
Yet it’s the roses, rainbows and cotton candy moments, the triumphs and also the meritorious defeats, that truly define any Olympics. The brilliantine snapshots of the world’s greatest athletes in their most raw and emotional moments.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything more freakish than American gymnast Simone Biles seemingly defying gravity to win the all-around artistic gymnastics final at Bercy Arena.
I happened to bump into her afterwards. Literally, at a bus stop. She was subdued and almost meditative. After years of physical abuses and mental challenges, she’s decided to take the good with the bad. French swimmer Leon Marchand was incroyable while winning four individual gold medals at La Defense, where they swapped key lyrics in Les Marseilles for his surname name. March on, march on? Marchand! Marchand!
Australian superstars Kaylee McKeown, Ariarne Titmus and Mollie O’Callaghan won gold medals. Titmus was rather delightful when she said, “I hope no one looks at me any differently. I’m just the same old goofy Tassie girl living out her dream.”
Somehow the most meritorious swim seemed to be Kyle Chalmers’ silver medal in the 100m freestyle. He’s finished first, second and second in the high-octane, blue-ribbon event from Rio through to Paris. You wouldn’t begrudge him the flag-carrying honours at the closing ceremony.
Alongside the Foxes and Trew as highlights, through my binoculars, was Nina Kennedy. She was a lioness while winning the pole vault and delivering Australia its historic 18th gold medal. Her final took three-and-a-half hours. She spent the entire time pacing Stade de France with the look of a stone-cold killer. No way would she beaten by American rival Katie Moon. No way. She put a finger to her lips to tell US spectators to have a great big cup of shut the hell up.
The fierce game face melted into the softest outpourings of jubilation when she won. The epitome of playing hard but fair. Kennedy embraced a smattering of Australian supporters who were going berserk in the stands. Among those in attendance? Jessica Fox.
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