Olympics coverage, Olympian feat: Our writer relays scenes from Paris

Episode transcript

Ira Porter: Bonjour! Hey everybody, it’s Ira Porter, still in these Parisian streets at the 2024 Olympic Games. [Speaking French:] “Eyes have not seen and ears have not heard what I have seen and heard [here].”

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Clay Collins: As a showcase of sports prowess and national pride, the Olympic Games never fail, whatever the apparent state of the world, to inject a sense of optimism for humanity, to again and again prompt the question: How did that athlete do that? 

Yes, this time, as always, the stories of achievement have been tempered by reality checks. Is the host city hiding its homeless? Is its river remotely clean enough to use? A surfing site in Tahiti bears reminders of an era of nuclear testing, a Ukrainian fencer’s poignant medal dedication is a reminder of war. 

But through it all shines the fruitage of dedication, sacrifice, and skill-building. There have been expected wins by virtuosos, and all kinds of niche sports surprises and newly minted stars. 

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This is “Why We Wrote This.” I’m Clay Collins. Staff writer Ira Porter has been on the ground in Paris since mid July, reporting with a palpable sense of discovery and joy, and he joins me from Paris today.

Hey, Ira.

Porter: Hey, Clay. How are you doing?

Collins: I’m good. So first of all, how’s the City of Light treating you? What’s been the vibe? Are you getting any sleep? Are you eating well?

Porter: So it’s funny that you asked that because I’ve been running, ripping and running, nonstop. And so yesterday was kind of like my first day off because maybe it was like a one day cold or something like that. I don’t know. I’m preparing to head out to the main press center today. And basketball starts in Paris tonight [August 6] too, so I was really looking forward to that, and that’s where I’m going to be later on.

Collins: That’s great. And seeing the sights a little too, I hope, while you’re there.

Porter: The sites are the backdrop of the city. So my family is here with me and we’ve done everything. We’ve done the Louvre. We’ve done what we could of the Tuileries Garden. I’ve done the Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe, the Trocadéro, and I’ve really walked across the whole city.

It’s not as big as I thought it was. So that’s why you really can walk everywhere. Like I’ve walked until my feet hurt, but I love it.

Collins: Fantastic. That’s great. An Olympic event of its own. 

Porter: [Laughs.]

Collins: So, we’re speaking on the Tuesday of the game’s final week, and so there’s a lot still to come. You mentioned basketball. You spoke to editor Mark Sappenfield last week about just the sheer power of the fandom in Paris. And there’s been a lot of spectacle and of course, so many highlights.

In track and field alone, we had that wild women’s 5,000 meter race. We had Noah Lyles by a 5,000th of a second in the men’s 100. We had Femke Bol come from behind in the mixed 400 relay to take gold. All amazing sights. What for you have been the most memorable sports moments so far?

Porter: So a little bit of, of all of that, and I’ll go into a couple of ’em. I think so far my favorite definitely was the [U.S.] women’s gymnastics team gold, the all-around team gold. It was so packed in the press box in the Bercy Arena that I couldn’t even get a seat for the first half of the show.

You know, Simone Biles was just incredible. I mean, the whole team was incredible, but to watch her perform some of her signature moves and to see the way that she executed was just amazing. And I’ll give credit to the Italian gymnast who really shocked people and they won the silver.

For … all around because they performed really well, and so I think that was a standout moment But to go back to what you just mentioned at the Stade de France, that 400 mixed relay I could not believe and I have to give all of the credit in the world to [Bol of] the Netherlands that, that last leg when she came back It was just like a burst of energy and it was going with the crowd like as the crowd roared I don’t know how she picked up speed and came and really zoomed past the U.S. because in the semifinal, they set a world record. So, I just thought they were going to blow everyone away. And then she came out of nowhere and smoked the girl, really.

Collins: Just found another gear, clearly, in that home stretch.

Porter: Yeah.

Collins: You’ve written some really compelling stories about this being a big Games for women, about athletes taking care of their mental health, and we’ll link to all of those stories in our show notes. As an American, you’re probably finding your attention pulled to some American stories: U.S. women’s rugby team beats Australia on the final play. You just mentioned Simone Biles. You know, she piled up gold, Katie Ledecky dominating in the pool, you mentioned men’s basketball, that’s gonna get heated up in the next few days, just the star power. 

How do you make sure you don’t miss, you know, the teen and the preteen skateboarders, the table tennis players, the Thai boxers, the German kayakers – I mean, it’s a smorgasbord.

Porter: It is. And to be completely honest, I haven’t, and I have really criss-crossed this whole city. I’ve been outside of the city to like Roland-Garros and even to Stade de France is not actually in the city of Paris. But I haven’t been to every event. I’ve just been reading about them and, you know, when they send the daily press releases and I’ve watched replays.

Some of the viral moments that we’ve seen on memes, like I wish I could have seen the Turkish shooter who looked so cool with his hand in his pocket. He’s so, like, just nonchalant when he’s firing the weapon.

So I didn’t catch all of those memories, all of those moments, firsthand. This was a team effort, what we thought would be some of the more compelling stories, some of the more compelling moments for our readers and our followers, and I had to go from there.

Collins: Yes, there’s something that looks to you like a Monitor story, when you’re surveying the possibilities, what is it you look for?

Porter: So, several themes, right? So I wrote something recently about perseverance, with track and field, and I looked at Grant Fisher. And he won bronze for the 10,000 meter race. And so, this is a race where they run for almost a half an hour. It’s more than six miles.

I think his time was just under 27 minutes, I think, and he really … it almost was like a replay of the 400 mix race, because he was going to get second and then there was like a burst of energy from a runner from Ethiopia. You know, maybe the last 50 feet who took him out, but so that was a story of perseverance.

Porter: You know, he spoke about how growing up, he always heard that, you know, there’s no way you can beat a runner from Africa. There’s no way you’re going to be able to compete with the European runners. And he did it, and he performed well. I mean, I thought he was consistent the whole time, and I’m in the stadium in my chair and I’m wondering like, how can they do this?

They had to run around the track 25 times and I’m thinking like, I probably got four laps in me, if that. But they pushed their body to do it.

Collins: So what has a typical day been like for you? You wake up, you lace up your shoes, you get a huge breakfast and pick what you’re going to do? Do you ever change course midday based on what you’re hearing? And do you catch up at night on the moments you might’ve missed?

Porter: I do all of that. So, you know, in preparation for this, I made a schedule of all the events I was going to try to get to. I have kind of like a map of where every stadium is. One of the great things that they did is, I have a Metro card that allows me to get, ride the subway, the bus is the subway, and just unlimited.

And so I’m really, you know, zipping from like the main press center to say like the La Défense Arena, which is like two or three stops on the same metro line. But then going to the Stade de France, is all the way on the other side of town. And then going to the Bercy Arena is, you know, probably another 30 minute ride from there.

Porter: And I say that because, those are where some of the more popular sports are happening, and that’s where I’ve been. Or like Roland-Garros; going there, watching tennis, and you get off and you have to walk like another 20 minutes just to get to the stadium.

The same thing with the stop at the front, so I’ve been having the same kind of breakfast, just a bowl of cereal and some fruit, kiss my family goodbye, and I’m gone.

Collins: Wheaties?

Porter: Well, it is, it is like their version of Wheaties. And then at night, you know, I come home, I’m typing up notes and I am online looking up, like, all of the memes and all of the viral moments, thinking about how I can include those in a story, in [an Instagram] Reel. Just catching up.

Collins: So politics and other controversial topics inevitably tend to bubble up at the games. We saw a Ukrainian high jumper who got to hear her national anthem played. You know, there was a big story around gender misconception. On the conflict part of that, how much attention seems to be on things like the presence of Palestinian and Ukrainian athletes, for example, how much attention in general are controversies getting in Paris? 

Porter: From what I’ve seen, not a whole lot. I mean, there are, you know, athletes who have been booed. When their name was announced, or when their country was announced, but other than that, I haven’t seen, like, any protest, I haven’t seen police having to, like, corral anybody from trying to cause a scene or anything like that.

I think it’s been peaceful so far, granted, you know, I’m sure that the papers here are writing a lot about different themes or, you know, wars going on or politics, but inside of the stadiums, I mean, outside of like a few boos here and there, I haven’t seen too much.

Collins: And you know, your colleague and mine, Colette Davidson, wrote about the French sort of, getting into it a little bit, which is nice as hometown fans.

Porter: So they are really into it. Probably like the standout, I would say, French athlete – his name is Léon Marchand. And he probably was the best swimmer of all of the swimmers. He won four gold medals and, you know, the energy that they had for him, I’m sure he will have to remember it for the rest of his life because they were just so in his favor, so behind him and I’m sure I’ll see it today.

Everywhere I go, there are French flags. People have their faces painted and they have a phrase, they say, “Allez!” They shout that over and over. They are really into it, I feel like even, you know, from the opening ceremony. They crowded the streets for all of the fans who couldn’t get down onto the river, on the banks.

They were outside. In the rain, in the mud, and they watched from big projector screens that they had on the street. They seemed like they were all in it to me.

Collins: That’s great. 

You departed from a pretty fractious United States, when you went on this trip and you stepped out of a news cycle that’s been pretty tough globally. We have war and we have looming war. We have financial chaos right at the moment. We have destructive storms here and there.

Would you say that immersion in the games has affected in any way how you’re feeling about the world?

Porter: In a good way. It’s a good way, like, cause it’s a cool distraction from me having to think about, or watch images of children being bombed, or back and forth with the war, or even the shakeup in American politics. We were having dinner when the president announced that he was stepping down [as a candidate for the 2024 race], and my wife and I just looked at it and just like … wow. Right? 

So we missed that moment because it happened while we were over here. But I think overall, it’s been a cool distraction for me. Like I’ve solely been focused on just falling in love with this city and, you know, being at as many sporting events as possible. I haven’t really had a moment to take in or really just kind of like chew on all of the stuff that’s going on in the world.

Collins: Not a bad thing. Thanks, Ira. Continue to enjoy the revelry over there. Say hey to Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart if you see them.

Porter: Will do. Maybe I will. Fun fact: So I ran into [Spanish former NBA star] Pau Gasol on the street. I got a picture with him. And this was, this would be in like my Olympic bloopers. Like I ran into the gymnast Aly Raisman, but I didn’t remember who she was at first. And I ended up having to apologize to her because I looked at her – this was after the team gold final – and I said,“ aren’t you a gymnast?”

She’s like, yeah, I am. Nice to meet you. Right. And then I looked at her name tag and I was like, “Oh my God, I feel so foolish.” And so a couple of nights later, we were at a press conference together and she asked Simone Biles a question.

And after the press conference, I went up to her and just apologized and she laughed. She laughed it off and was like, “Oh God, you know, you didn’t do anything to me.”

Collins: That’s great. You know, I think a lot of people probably remember when you talk about memes and things, there was a camera trained on Aly Raisman’s parents when she was doing one of her events and every parent was watching how they were trying to will her through her routine. It was quite something.

But that’s great. Nice. Well, I hope you continue to have some great celebrity encounters, [with] athletes and otherwise, while you’re there. 

Porter: Me too. 

Collins: Appreciate your being here.

Porter: Thank you.

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Collins: And thanks to our listeners. You can find more, including our show notes with links to Ira’s stories at CSMonitor.com/WhyWeWroteThis. This episode was hosted by me, Clay Collins, and produced by Mackenzie Farkus. Our sound engineers were Alyssa Britton and Tim Malone, with original music by Noel Flatt. Produced by The Christian Science Monitor, copyright 2024.