Usually it is clear within the first week whether an Olympic Games will be remembered for a long time. This time it felt like a winner even sooner for travelling British fans and viewers at home.
There are also positive things to report in Paris: a pleasant time zone, good luck for Team GB and the return of an audience after the hollow sadness of Tokyo 2021.
Green Pool-tastic Rio 2016 was a logistical nightmare for British viewers, and those who were there complained about a poorly located Olympic Park that felt about as authentically Brazilian as Doha. Unless you happen to be from somewhere other than London, everyone agrees that London 2012 was an unqualified success.
Each Games offers lessons for its successors and even a consensus Good Olympic Games like Paris 2024 could use some tweaking. So how do you deliver a flawless, flawless Olympics? Here are 10 steps to Olympic perfection:
Nail down the host city
Must provide sufficient source material for a well-placed TV studio, stunning drone shots to complement the coverage, and a really strong opening title sequence. Must have a functional infrastructure and reasonable local cuisine. Must not be the sort of place you have to feign approval for when a friend tells you they’re going there on holiday. Tokyo, Paris, LA, Brisbane: definitely yes. Riyadh: probably not. A time zone that works for the UK helps too, although there is a certain amount of fun in getting up really early or staying up really late for excitement/disappointment.
Make the most of what you have
Paris and Tokyo have set a welcome trend by avoiding the white elephants that have marred previous large-scale sporting events. Some may long for the all-encompassing Olympic Park where most of the events take place, but it seems better to put things in logical existing locations and spread the inevitable crowds out across your city, especially when it looks as beautiful as Paris.
…but don't go too far with your choice of a location that doesn't suit you
We're looking at you, triathlon on the Seine and surfing in Tahiti.
Sort the sports list
A slightly controversial view, but the more the merrier. If you don't want to watch Olympic football/golf/tennis, there are other sports available. The whole 'not the pinnacle of sport' argument has some validity, but football draws huge crowds, golfers seem to get more excited about the Olympics with each passing cycle, and who doesn't enjoy the heartwarming sight of Novak Djokovic winning yet another tennis match? Nevertheless, we're already on the verge of swelling, with 329 events in 32 sports covering 48 disciplines. So cut the core sports down to their current level (with squash, making its debut in LA, replacing breaking, a failed experiment in Paris) and let the host city choose three special guest sports per Games. These should have some connection to the host. Petanque and smoking should be at these Games, just as sumo and Total Wipeout should have been in Japan.
Reduce the disciplines
Seems unfair that there are 37 medals for swimmers and only two for modern pentathletes. OK, swimming has different strokes (for different people), but is there really a need to see them at all those distances and in medley form? Limit everything except athletics to 10 medals each.
Fix the sports graphics
A niche but serious gripe about these Games. Every Games since Tokyo 1964 has featured pictograms, visual representations the size of an icon from each sport. They were introduced for that Olympics because so few visitors would understand Japanese, but they remain a useful signage tool on everything from websites to, er, road signs. This year's, alas, are an impenetrable disgrace. The goal was “to create a rift and revolutionize the forms,” according to the organizers. The rift is too successful, because all the graphics are as instantly understandable as cryptic crossword puzzles.
Be realistic with the ceremonies
As with much of public life, there is much to be learned from the Eurovision Song Contest. The contest forces competitors to adhere to a three-minute limit on their entry, and it is clear that no opening ceremony should last longer than two hours. If that means putting the parade of athletes on e-scooters to speed them up, so be it. The closing ceremony should last a maximum of 45 minutes, and ideally be so unobtrusive that most of it takes place behind an engaging studio discussion between Clare Balding and Michael Johnson about middle-distance tactics.
Back to basics with mascots
The current trend is for innocent anthropomorphism, which produces Phryges, the disturbing tongue-tied nothing-creature of this Olympics that haunts children’s dreams. Tokyo had a robot, Rio a LOL-worthy “hybrid animal representing all Brazilian mammals,” and London the desperate Wenlock, “a drop of steel with a camera for an eye.” Recognizable animals from now on, and you can only have two, one for the Olympics, one for the Paralympics.