I was a mere nine years old during the summer of 1984, and the last thing I wanted to do was watch the opening ceremony for the Los Angeles Olympics on television. My family had a single 29-inch Zenith colour TV set, and the pomp and ceremony was what we were going to watch.
The Games that year were deeply political, boycotted by the Soviet Union and 13 other Eastern Bloc nations and their allies. The event presented a stage for Ronald Reagan's patriotic, sun-drenched America to showcase the power of democracy and capitalism to the world. Over 90,000 people packed into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on July 28th, and just as the opening ceremony was about to begin, a man clad in a jetpack soared over the crowd for a thrilling 20 seconds, captivating the audience and millions watching at home.
That man was test pilot Bill Suitor, sporting a high-tech, hydrogen peroxide-fuelled device called the "rocket belt," a creation of Bell Aerosystems. In that moment of human history, he was the coolest person alive â at least, that's what my nine-year-old self thought. Once Suitor landed safely, I was forever hooked on the Olympic opening ceremony.
The rest of the event was pure Hollywood glamour, featuring thousands of dancers, dozens of grand pianos, and even Diana Ross. That was the year legendary film composer John Williams penned the *Olympic Fanfare and Theme*, a catchy piece of triumphant and elegant music. The Olympics still utilise it, and I am seriously considering it as the processional music for my upcoming wedding.
The 2024 Summer Olympics will take place from 26th July to 11th August in Paris, France. Over those 16 days, 10,500 athletes will compete in 32 sports for 329 medals. All of it will be broadcast live by NBC on traditional television and streaming.
All the classic sports will be present at this year's Games: gymnastics, swimming, athletics. New sports are also making an appearance, like kiteboarding and a sport called Kayakcross, where four kayakers jostle and battle their way down a whitewater course for the gold medal.
But all I care about is the opening ceremony, which will air live at 1:30 P.M. EST on Friday, and will be rebroadcast on NBC at 7:30 P.M. EST that evening. Every four years, this event gives me a chance to pump my fist and shout "USA! USA!" as I watch dozens of athletes, from all backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations and genders, wave their little flags as they prepare to compete on the international stage.
I can't wait. I want host nation France to showcase its cultural and artistic heart: mimes juggling baguettes, Moulin Rouge dancers performing the Cancan to techno covers of Offenbach's Infernal Galop, a giant, inflatable Jean-Paul Sartre balloon. For the first time in history, boats will carry the world's athletes down the Seine towards the lighting of the Olympic Flame. I intend to watch every second.
The last few Summer Olympic ceremonies have been truly wonderful. In 2008, the Chinese pulled out all the stops: thousands of dancers, drummers and martial artists performed under high-tech LED screens and firework displays.
Directed by Hollywood filmmaker Danny Boyle, the 2012 London Olympic Opening Ceremonies celebrated the UK's history, as well as James Bond, The Rolling Stones and the Queen. The country of Shakespeare put on a fantastic show. Then it was Rio De Janeiro's turn in 2016, and the Brazilian city embraced the Amazon, Favela music and dance, and supermodel Gisele Bündchen.
The most recent Olympic Opening Ceremonies, the 2020 Games, were held in Tokyo a year later, in 2021, due to COVID-19. No spectators were present, but Japan and the athletes still gave it their all. The Opening Ceremonies were muted but defiant, celebrating Japan's cultural heritage. Spectacles included a massive armada of drones forming a unified globe above the stadium to John Lennon's *Imagine*.
The Olympics are a high-stakes affair, a global mega-event that combines peak human physical and mental achievement with geopolitics. Since the first modern Olympics in 1896, in Athens, where the ancient Games were born, the world has, more or less, paused to play instead of killing each other. There were years the Games didn't happen, and, as I mentioned, boycotts, but for the most part, every four years for 128 years, give or take, the nations of the world have agreed to settle their differences on the tennis court, or at the pommel horse, or in the boxing ring.
But the opening ceremony, for me, is the true spectacle: an emotional carnival that combines Cirque du Soleil with Broadway and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
It is a way for the host country to flex its cultural muscles and give the very best performing artists an opportunity to shine before the athletes step in and steal the limelight. The Olympic Opening Ceremonies balance the intimacy of television with the stadium-sized pageantry of a Super Bowl Halftime show, the cheesiest possible "We Are The World" pablum with a distinctly nationalist vibe.
When the U.S. athletes emerge to cheering crowds behind hundreds of other hopefuls from other countries, I get choked up. This year, as the Parade of Nations will consist of boats sailing down the river Seine in Paris. I love boats. I love the story the ceremony tells: no matter who you are, we all love a parade.
I will watch and pray fervently for someone with a jetpack to soar through the air. I know that won't happen because I'll never be nine years old again. And when John William's rousing score blares, I will stand with my hand over my heart.