Illuminating Impact- Olympics week 1

In Illuminating IMPACT this week, we take a look around the Paris 2024 Olympics and highlight some of the themes behind many of the performances we have seen.

Let’s start all the way back to the Opening Ceremony – Thomas Jolly, artistic director summed up the performance by quoting the Roman philosopher Seneca “Life is not about waiting for storms to pass but about learning to dance in the rain” – we could certainly see that mantra employed (meteorologically and artistically) not least by Celine Dion who recently spoke about a diagnosis with a neurological disease and certainly did not wait for ‘any storm to pass’ by dazzling with an amazing performance of “La Vie en Rose” atop the Eiffel Tower – not only a fitting finale to the ceremony but a show of steely determination, skill and triumph over adversity which beautifully encapsulated the athletic performances to come.

Since the ceremony, a week has flown by and what a week it has been, high level performances at their best.

We have seen the IMPACT of finding intrinsic motivation on multi-Olympians – Team GB swimmer Adam Peaty and diver Tom Daly both spoke of drawing inspiration and motivation from their young children which enabled them to compete in these 2024 games which both thought not possible. French Athletes Teddy Riner (Judo) and Cassandre Beaugrand (Triathlon) have both spoken of the energy they have drawn from competing at their home Olympics and home crowds.

We have loved the introduction of heart rate monitors in the shooting and archery events to highlight the IMPACT of emotion and pressure and how some athletes’ heart rates seemed to drop in the highest-pressure moments. Not least French Archer Lisa Barbelin ,who scored the first ever medal in women’s single archery for France. A big score was needed on her last arrow – her heart rate could have sky-rocketed, but a few deep breaths, with heart rate stable she let fly…and scored a perfect 10 and a bronze medal

On a similar note, Simone Biles needed a big score in the all-round Olympic gymnastics final. Simone could have played it safe on the vault but instead chose her statement vault, with the highest of difficulty. For an athlete who has spoken of the mental toll elite sports can take, this was a high-pressure option which paid off as she scored the highest score of all athletes and secured gold.

Spare a thought for the male Chinese athlete Su Weide, who was going for gold on the final rotation of all-round team gymnastics final and needed a clean round on the high bar, he fell, twice, and Japan moved ahead to win gold.

We have also seen the IMPACT of perspective – Team GB cyclists took a similar tone albeit in different circumstances – when Tom Pidcock had a puncture and all but out of defending his Olympic title in the Mountain Bike cross country race he could have accepted the day was not his. Instead, after he had secured gold, he spoke of his simple outlook and one which he followed racing as a child – try to get to the front and see what happens.

Beth Shriever, was one of the favourites going into the BMX racing final having won every heat and semi-final as well as being defending Olympic champion – she did not win, in fact she came last. Her simple outlook echoed in her after race interview of “Sometimes things don’t go to plan but I’m happy, I’m healthy and I’ve got my friends and family here, that’s all that matters” may have been hiding the hurt and the disappointment but maybe that is what enables athletes to pick themselves up and go again in the irrational world of sport.

A simple perspective has not been lost on French Swimming superstar, Leon Marchand who has already secured four Gold medals. He has often spoken of the straight-forward outlook which he has used to remain calm before big races. He simply asks himself what’s the worst that could happen – and when the answer is “well I could come last in the Olympic final”, he rationalises this as being a pretty good result in any case.

Finally, on the IMPACT of perspective, when the French secured silver in the Team Eventing horse trials, we could have been forgiven for assuming a straight-forward sporting journey. Digging deeper, a beautiful yet tragic story emerges; Stéphane Landois, who was part of the team, was riding Chaman Dumontceau who had once been ridden by his good friend, Thaïs Meheust. Thaïs had spoken of her dream of taking this special horse to the Olympics but tragedy struck when she took a horrific fall during a cross country contest in 2019 and sadly passed away.

After this dreadful event, Stéphane was determined to carry on his friend’s legacy of riding this horse in the Olympics which he and the team not only realised but took away a medal – for Thaïs.

What a first week, we can’t wait to see what the next one brings!