Issue #14: The 2024 Summer Olympics Guide You've Been Waiting For
Previewing Paris One Bite of Baguette at a Time
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Olympics.
I love the Olympics. In Summer 2008, the Beijing Olympics began on 08/08/08, which was my 13th Birthday. For the whole summer leading up, I saw the commercials, advertisements, hype, everything, all of which ended with 08.08.08 popping up on screen. I could not have been more ready to go.
Then Beijing delivered one of the best, maybe the best, Opening Ceremonies ever. I watched it while I ate birthday cake.
And then those Games delivered a handful of ICONIC performances and moments. Michael Phelps 8 Gold Medals (one one-hundredth of a second, Jason Lezak!). The Redeem Team. Usain Bolt running 9.69 on the way to 3 Golds.
My first Olympic memory was watching some of the hockey in Salt Lake City in 2002 with my mom because Atlanta Thrashers legend Ilya Kovalchuk played for Russia. That year she also got us special edition Olympic-themed Campbell’s Soup mugs with hockey players and figure skaters on them (which we still have!) I watched a little bit of Athens in 2004 and Turin in 2006, but they didn’t quite land.
In 2008, they landed. I got it.
From those two weeks on, I have been an Olympic fanatic. And that’s without even mentioning the nostalgia of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and merch and keepsakes I hold dearly as well.
After Beijing, I dove headfirst into London 2012 (Phelps & Bolt, again!), Rio 2016 (hello Simone Biles, Bolt’s triple-treble), and Tokyo 2020/2021 (Olympics during the Pandemic was a win by itself), along with Vancouver 2010 (Sydney Crosby Golden Goal at home!), Sochi 2014 (hello Mikaela Shiffrin), Pyeongchang 2018 (Shaun White career walkoff halfpipe Gold!), and Beijing 2022 (Nathan Chen!), which was a full-circle moment from 2008.
The Olympics are the best. They provide moments that have had 4 years of buildup to cement a legacy, and they give moments that happen out of thin air to crown a new superstar. The stories and emotions are incredible. The love of country, no matter which country, shines through in every event. The winning moments, and their subsequent medal ceremonies, with national anthems playing, are second to none.
And they always deliver.
So as we prepare for Friday’s Opening Ceremony, which begins at 1:30 pm ET and will take place on the Seine River (!!!), here’s a friendly guide of what to watch for across these next couple weeks.
Disclaimer: A ton happens at the Olympics, so this is not an exhaustive list. If I left your fave out, I’m sorry - tell me what you’re most excited to watch below:
Tennis
Olympic Tennis will be played on the beautiful red clay of Roland-Garros, home of the French Open, which has been dominated for nearly two decades by Spain’s Rafael Nadal (about whom I’ve written before, also in an Olympics issue 🙂)
Rafa won Olympic Gold in singles at Beijing 2008 and in doubles at Rio 2016 with his good friend Marc Lopez. He has won the French Open a record 14 times. Having just turned 38 in June and in what is likely the last season of his career, the King of Clay is looking for one final crown.
He has a significant chance to win the singles, but the real Olympic magic will come in doubles, when he teams with reigning French Open and back-to-back Wimbledon Champion Carlos Alcaraz to form a breathtaking Spanish duo. The 21-year-old Alcaraz is the best player in the world right now and will slot right in as unquestionably the best clay-court player on tour once Nadal retires. On their own, each always plays with a sense of dynamic work, aggression, and flair, which will make their pairing on the same side of the net one of the most entertaining and gratifying of the Games. In an event that literally passes real torches around a country for months leading up to it, Rafa and Carlitos playing, and hopefully winning, doubles together will pass the torch from one absolute tennis GOAT to one very potentially in the making.
Also on the men’s side, Andy Murray will end his career by playing Olympic doubles with Dan Evans, saying farewell to a storied career that had him positioned as one of the Big 4 with Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic. Murray will finish with 3 Grand Slams, including ending Great Britain’s decades-long Wimbledon drought, as well as 2 Olympic Gold Medals. He won on the home grass in London in 2012 and backed it up in Rio four years later. Of that Big 4 - his pair of singles Golds leads the pack. Give me a Nadal-Alcaraz vs. Murray-Evans final!
For the ladies, the tournament probably comes down to 2 players: Poland’s Iga Swiatek and United States’ Coco Gauff. Iga has DOMINATED Roland-Garros, winning the title four of the last five years and looking a Nadal-ian level of unbeatable on clay.
Before beginning play, Coco will have the honor of joining LeBron James as American Flag bearers during the Opening Ceremony. From there, Gauff, who is still only 20, will have her work cut out for her. Iga smoked her 6-2, 6-4 in the French Open semifinals in May. But both players put up lackluster performances and went out early at Wimbledon, so they’ll be looking to raise their level on the global stage.
Simone Biles
She’s back! The best gymnast of all time returns to the Olympic mat after her powerful and inspirational display in Tokyo of putting herself, her mental health, and her safety first by withdrawing from multiple days of competition.
Simone got the “twisties” and also opened up about feeling the immense pressure placed upon her by the world’s expectations. After taking a long break from gymnastics, with hard work she returned to the mat with a new perspective and once again began doing things that only Simone Biles can do.
At age 27 (more than 10 years older than some Olympians), with 7 Olympic medals already (4 Gold), she has zero to prove to anyone. But she’s back to compete and represent herself and her country. And when Simone is on the mat, the vault, the beam, wherever she is in the gym, she is MUST WATCH.
Men’s Basketball
As mentioned above, LeBron James will be Team USA’s flag bearer alongside Coco Gauff, as he leads the LOADED squad of USA Basketball looking for its 5th Gold Medal in a row. James has been clutch in legitimately thrilling exhibition games ahead of the tournament, and the Americans will need that to continue because this men’s tournament is going to be serious.
While the Americans have the most overall talent, star power, and experience (James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, Joel Embiid, Anthony Edwards), the rest of the world has closed the gap significantly.
Serbia has 3-time MVP Nikola Jokic and veteran shooter & playmaker Bogdan Bogdanovic anchoring a tough team. Victor Wembanyama will be making his Olympic debut for France, with the crowds and atmosphere of every one of their games sure to be absolutely electric on their home courts. Giannis Antetekounmpo has Greece in the mix, and Canada cannot be overlooked with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at the helm.
With 3 group-stage matchups followed directly by single-elimination quarterfinals, the tournament will have that dramatic March Madness feel, which sets us up for some excellent basketball.
Women’s Basketball
This one is a little simpler: Our ladies are gonna dominaaaaaaate. A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi, Sabrina Ionescu, Brittney Griner, Kelsey Plum, and the rest of the squad are seeking Gold Medal number EIGHT in a row. Team USA hasn’t even lost a game in the Olympics since 1992, when a couple of these players were not even born.
Swimming
Speaking of domination, in the Olympic pool we spell that K-A-T-I-E L-E-D-E-C-K-Y
Katie Ledecky, who has won 7 Gold and 3 Silvers already in her Olympic career, is Biles-ian in the way she does some things in the pool. In her signature event, the 1500-meter freestyle (about a mile swim), there’s a chance she could lap the field and set a new world record. Also set to compete in the 400m free, the 800m free, and the 4x200m free relay, Ledecky can add more metallics to an historic Olympic career.
Elsewhere in the pool, from a team standpoint, dial yourselves into any relay involving the Americans and the Australians. These rivals are gonna go at it, with Australia feeling like it has collectively overtaken Team USA in the water in the post-Michael Phelps era, while our group is determined to not let that happen.
Individually, Team USA stalwarts Caleb Dressel & Simone Manuel, who has had an inspiring journey to return to the Olympics, both are contenders for multiple Golds, which would help solidify America’s stranglehold as best in the pool.
Track
SPEAKING OF domination, y’all gotta check out Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in the 400-meter hurdles. She is INSANE. Less than a month ago, she set a new world record at the U.S. Olympic Trials with a time of 50.65 seconds. That is only 3 seconds slower than the current women’s world record for the REGULAR 400m and only 7 seconds behind the men’s 400m mark. She does it jumping over 10 hurdles…Again, that’s INSANITY.
McLaughlin-Levrone will also feature in the 4x400m relay and will be joined by Kendall Ellis, who won the 400m at Olympic Trials (after getting locked in a port-a-potty) and will race in that event as well as the relay. Ellis nearly retired from track between Tokyo and Paris but stuck with herself and put herself in position to win individual gold after relay medals in 2021.
As for the fastest 9-10 seconds of the summer, Americans Sha’Carri Richardson - finally getting her Olympic moment - and Noah Lyles - chasing Usain Bolt’s world record - are the ones to watch in the hundred meter dash.
Last year Lyles (in)famously questioned whether NBA teams were really world champions, which could make things a little awkward in the Olympic village. Regardless, if you’re gonna say that, you gotta go out and win the whole thing on the biggest stage there is for your sport, and Lyles is in prime position to do so.
Soccer
Let’s take a look now at the United States Women’s National Team, which arrives to the Olympics with 1) a new coach in Emma Hayes 2) no Alex Morgan, who was left off the roster, and 3) no Olympic Gold since 2012. The pressure is on ladies.
By leaving Morgan at home, which a couple of my girl friends who played Division I college soccer told me was one hundred percent the right move, Hayes has officially begun a new era for the team as it welcomes in an extremely talented group of young players. Previous coach Vlatko Andonovski’s inability to commit to that in the 2023 Women’s World Cup, while he tried to balance his mismatched team, set the squad up for failure and cost him his job.
Make no mistake, there are still plenty of USWNT veterans on this roster - Lindsey Horan, Rose Lavelle, Crystal Dunn, and Mallory Swanson - who will play crucial roles in getting Gold back. But it’s the young and dynamic group of Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman, and Catarina Macario who hold the reigns now for a style of play that should make the Americans very hard to beat.
Golf
Okay, golf’s main international competition is the Ryder Cup, which pits Team USA against Team Europe for a weekend of team play and absolute scenes. That’s probably what the Olympics needs to figure out for its format, some kind of team/duo/foursome competition by country.
However, that shouldn’t take anything away from the Americans sending a stacked squad featuring defending 2020 Gold Medalist Xander Schauffele (winner of two majors this year), Scottie Scheffler (winner of just about every other tournament this year), Colin Morikawa, and Wyndham Clark,
Schauffele’s win at The Open last weekend marked the first time Americans had won all 4 majors in a season since 1982, and the cherry on top of that would be a sweep of the Olympic medal podium.
Breaking
Making its Olympic debut in Paris is the sport of breakdancing! I don’t know much more about this but think it will be dope and a fun way to get more kids of different cultures and communities watching the Olympics, and that’s a great thing. Also, look at this exquisite official Breaking icon for the Paris games:
Beach Volleyball
Beach Volleyball is just such a good, purely Olympic sport and always one of the best watches of the whole games. And it gets even better when this is the setting:
Olympic Sports That Go Hard
Lastly, a list of sports & events that you can turn on with no prior knowledge and immediately be hooked, enthralled, and suddenly you’ve been watching for an hour. Athletes & teams who three days ago you had never heard of, but now you are planning your day around their match and hyping them up all over the internet.
Really this is the overall essence of the Olympics - their beauty - just turn them on and enjoy:
Fencing
Handball
Table Tennis
Trampoline Gymnastics
Archery
Badminton
Rowing
Synchronized swimming
Let the Games begin.
Rep Your People
Keeping the theme and spirit of the Olympics, today I’m repping all of the unsung heroes who do the dirty work and the jobs behind the scenes that allow the events we’re about to witness in Paris for 2+ weeks, as well as those that go on all around us every day, happen.
The construction workers, trash collectors, electricians, plumbers, security, ushers, everyone handling every kind of logistics imaginable, landscapers, janitors, cooks, gardeners, first responders, bus drivers, train conductors, all sorts of crew members.
Nearly every time I work a Hawks game or event at State Farm Arena I see or learn about a new person or group of people who help make it happen safely, securely, and smoothly. Shoutout to all those people. They’re not just my people; they’re our people.
ADELE 30
Track 14 (Bonus Track, Target Edition): Can’t Be Together
Today we are going to do some bonus track double dipping. Because with Can’t Be Together, in addition to creating a beautiful song, Adele alludes to a bonus track on 25: Can’t Let Go. I will get into them in a moment. But first:
How are these bonus tracks?!?!?!
These two songs are capable of anchoring an album. They’re both single worthy. That they do not and are not is a testament to Adele’s talent and her discipline to keep her album length consistently tight: 19 and 30 each have 12 standard tracks, while 21 and 25 each have 11. It’s simply amazing that two songs of this quality can be relegated to bonus track territory, and relegated probably isn’t even the right word because thank God she still made them and put them on the Target Deluxe editions.
I will have to be careful not to let this turn completely into a Can’t Let Go appreciation issue because that lullaby-esque track is perfect. My mom has the 25 Target CD in her car, and we almost always listen to it all the way through on long road trips. Can’t Let Go is our sneaky dark-horse favorite on the whole thing. It’s THAT good. And remember, my favorite Adele song ever is When We Were Young, on that same album. That’s the company Can’t Let Go is in. I been saying:
Okay, the two songs.
Both are vintage Adele piano ballads, although Can’t Be Together is much more up tempo.
Can’t Let Go was produced and co-written by Linda Perry, who has been part of plenty of hits but is a one-time Adele collaborator. Can’t Be Together was produced and co-written by Greg Kurstin, Adele’s most-frequent and long-term (and probably most-trusted) collaborator.
The themes of each song are different, they are about different people, and given the 5-year difference in when they were written, they cover different periods in Adele’s life and come from her different perspectives.
All that to say, here is the final chorus and last line of Can’t Let Go, from 25:
Did you find the note that I wrote?/
I hid it in the seam of your coat/
It was hard to write, I had a lump in my throat/
Do you even know that I can't let go?/
Hope you know, I won't let go
And now the final chorus and last lines on Can’t Be Together, from 30:
But we need to learn how to love who we're loving/
It's hard but we must, we've got to let it go/
And turn off the urge to know what could have been/
My love, let's learn how to love who we're loving/
It's so hard but we must, we've got to let it go/
And turn off the urge to know what could have been/
But I will love you forever/
But we can't be together/
No we won't be together
I cannot accurately describe with words that initial moment, listening to the 30 Target Edition for the first time, coming to the end of Can’t Be Together, and hearing Adele close by shifting from can’t to won’t. My gasp, my eyes widening, my jaw dropping, my heart, my chest…I couldn’t believe it. Did I just hear what I thought I just heard? I wasn’t sure if I should listen right back to Can’t Be Together or put on Can’t Let Go to refresh my memory.
She did it again!
In what is almost one hundred percent a lyrical wink, a shoutout to her fans, a reward to the realest ones who have bought the Target Deluxes or found a way to listen to them online or download them or whatever, Adele gave us a gift.
The first shift from can’t to won’t, on Can’t Let Go, is such a deft writing move. The whole song is about not being able to give up on a relationship, on love. The change goes from ‘I’m not in control of myself here, I can’t let go of this relationship no matter how hard I try’ to the ‘I am in control, and I am choosing to continue to fight for this love’ of “Hope you know, I won’t let go.”
The sequel, on Can’t Be Together, levels up. Because on Can’t Let Go, the lyrics “can’t let go” close all three choruses. On Can’t Be Together, we don’t hear the words “can’t be together” until the penultimate line of the song. Instead, each chorus ends with “I will love you forever,” as Adele, post-divorce, spends the whole song reminiscing about “what could have been” of a relationship she was in prior to her marriage with Simon and potentially what it could be now, despite insisting she and that man need to focus on the people and the lives they’ve grown into since that relationship.
All of that builds into the let down, “But we can’t be together,” which Adele follows, importantly, boldly, and confidently, with the final, clear-cut declaration: “No, we won’t be together.”
Based on the construction of the song, she didn’t need to add the last line. The point would have stood well enough had the track ended after “can’t be together” and had a nice bow on it. Whether or not she had a previous version of the shift from can’t to won’t, adding it on this song still elevates the lyric and further clarifies her position on the relationship. Therefore, Adele has her cake and eats it too. She writes the perfect final line, not only for the song, independent of anything else, but also for the callback to 25 and the present for her fans, who hopefully like me, heard the end of this song and perked up with joy and smiled.
Okay final thoughts, VERY quickly, only on Can’t Be Together.
Wow Adele gives a SHARP vocal throughout the song. It is utterly pinpoint from start to finish. My highlight is the last line of the bridge: “I will always miss you at the end of each day.” And my highlight within the highlight is everything she does vocally with “day” in that moment. So so so great.
Similarly to how I’m running out of ways to describe Adele’s voice and lyrics, I am in the same boat with Greg Kurstin’s production and instrumentation. He is out of his mind on the piano here, especially on the choruses, just magical. They complement each other beautifully.