Are the Olympics “back”?

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2024/08/paris-olympics-recap-analysis/

by Jon Lewis

Anyone unfortunate enough to pay close attention to American politics has probably by now become acquainted with the concept of ‘vibes’ and their inevitable shifts. To boil the concept down to its memetic form, this would be the transition — always abrupt — from ‘it’s so over’ to ‘we’re so back.’ For the Olympic Games, the vibes have shifted sharply from the miserable austerity of the COVID-delayed Tokyo Games to a Parisian free-for-all that seemed to touch every aspect of popular culture, for better or worse.

From the very first NBC ratings press release of this Olympic Games, the narrative was set. Like Magic Johnson at a dunk contest, the network proclaimed — with an exclamation point — “The Olympics are Back!” Even longtime NBC Olympic host Bob Costas, generally not one for public relations (hence his unceremonious ouster from NBC), said on the network that the Olympics is getting its “groove back.”

https://awfulannouncing.com/olympics/nbc-american-viewers-gold-zone-primetime.html#comment-6524979329

The Olympics have had a rough go of the 21st century. Salt Lake City's revelation of the goings on of the IOC felt like just the start of a lot of issues. Everyone knew Athens and Rio weren't exactly in healthy enough places fiscally to host the games and both suffered for years because of it. Beijing and Sochi weren't savory hosts. Three-straight games in Asia, including a second set of Beijing games, weren't awe-inspiring, with the Tokyo games still feeling like "Olympics light" and kinda forced with pandemic limitations still in place.

Paris feels like a return to a full games in a cosmopolitan city that casual fans want to see. It probably wasn't hard to convince Emily in Paris viewers to watch gymnastics. Plus, the U.S. has had some known stars who got a chance to shine their brightest — Simone Biles, Sha'Carri Richardson, Katie Ledecky, Steph Curry, and so on. Furthermore, the games are a nice, unifying distraction from a lot of other things in the world, and I think there's a palpable excitement building toward LA28 as there was with Atlanta 1996.