Five Ideas to Make the Olympic Games Even Better

Credit: Olympics

I love the Olympics.

​I was the kid who got up at 5am before school every day to watch the Olympics when they were held in Beijing. During London 2012 I skipped lectures to watch finals or because I’d stayed up all night to watch them. When I was younger, having taken a (very) early retirement from gymnastics, I used to consider what other sports I could take up so I could get to the Olympics. In my opinion, there is no better sporting event.

The Olympics are inspiring and heart breaking all at the same time. I get nervous watching people that I don’t know compete for medals to solidify their place at the top of their chosen sport, to make all that sacrifice worth it. I get excited for the ones that get to stand on the podium, and sad for the ones that don’t.

We all quickly become experts during the Olympics. We know which gymnastics routine should get a high score, and we can tell you what caused that shot-putter to throw short of their best. So given that, I always smile to myself whenever I see the below comment doing the rounds online:

After seeing it during Tokyo 2020 I was inspired to think of a few other ways we could improve this sporting extravaganza. Just like the Olympic rings, there are five of them:

One. Make the opening ceremony shorter. Typically they’re very long, and if we’re honest we’re only really interested in seeing who lights the Olympic cauldron, watching our nations walk out, and commenting on countries we’ve never heard of before.

Two. There should be one person join the commentary team that knows nothing about the sport so they can ask the expert commentators all the questions we are asking at home.

Three. Include sports that are a little more “every day”. What if there was a bunch of keen homeowners who got to represent their country at the Olympics for speed lawn mowing?

Four. Broadcasters seem to like to put information on the screen such as the height or weight of the athletes. What if instead we had a fun fact, like how long they’ve been doing the sport, or what their favourite colour is?

Five. Get better camera angles for the rowing and kayaking. It’s 2021. Surely they could use a drone or a spider cam for the entire race? That horrible side angle that shows the athletes much closer than they actually are does nothing for our nerves, which are usually already shot and don’t need the extra stress.

So there you have it. My five simple ideas to make the Summer Olympic Games even better. With any luck the Paris 2024 organising committee might see this and put some of my suggestions in place.

In the meantime, the countdown is on for the Paralympic Games (starting on August 24th) and I’m more than ready to get inspired all over again.

“The Olympics are a wonderful metaphor for world cooperation, the kind of international competition that’s wholesome and healthy, and interplay between countries that represents the best in all of us.” – John Williams

That’s all for now,

Jordyn