Athletes and organisers cheer return of Olympics fans

Paris — Athletes and organisers are enjoying a more normal Olympics in Paris, with competitors welcoming family and fans in the stands after a pair of Covid-hit Games flattened the atmosphere and spending.

The pandemic-delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics — staged in 2021 — banned spectators, while the Beijing 2022 Winter Games offered tickets for events to a select few, creating a muted tone and organisers and host cities out of pocket.

The atmosphere in Paris is totally different, having started with a rain-soaked opening ceremony played out to hundreds of thousands of attendees and fans queued in long lines to grab a piece of “Paris 2024" merchandise.

For returning Olympians, Paris offers the Games as they once knew them.

“One of the nicest feelings about being in Paris is that we can have the audience,” said British gymnast Max Whitlock, whose five-year-old daughter Willow made the journey for his fourth Games. “Willow can watch an Olympic Games for real, rather than watching videos. That means a lot to me.”

Maddie Musselman, who won gold with the US water polo team in 2016 and in Tokyo, even welcomed the sound of opposing fans this time.

“Going to the Tokyo Olympics and not having anyone out there cheering us on — it was very quiet,” she said. “Having not only family and friends, but other fans for other teams, just to kind of create that atmosphere makes the Olympic Games so special.”

The scene could not be more different for Canada’s Ramon Liendo, who was in Paris to watch his son, swimmer Joshua, compete after trying various live-streams to watch the Tokyo competition.

“We had family Zooming into anyone’s live feed,” said Liendo, who was feted along with other Olympic families and friends at Speedo events this week. “It was us with a laptop, talking to other people watching the race. It was crazy. Like “what’s the link, what’s the password?”

American swimmer Abbey Weitzeil’s parents brought 20-odd people with them to cheer on their daughter at her third Games, as she picked up silver in the 4x100 metres freestyle relay.

“We were able to be there when she qualified for her first Olympics [in Rio], so to revisit this is very spectacular,” her mother Michelle Weitzeil said. “We get a vacation out of it as well — it’s good icing on the cake.”

Covid-19 remains a reality at the Games as it does around the world though. The Australia team was the first to report that one of their athletes, a water polo player, had tested positive on Tuesday, as officials moved to tamp down cluster concerns.

A handful of concerns, including travel costs, French political tumult and security, may also have tempered some fans’ enthusiasm, with many tickets still up for sale on Thursday.

But deep-pocketed sports fans were a welcome sight for organisers, with a 1,000m² Paris 2024 “megastore” on the Champs Elysees equipped to cope with thousands of shoppers daily and kiosks at venues kept busy.

Victor Matheson, sports economist at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, believes the Tokyo Games lost about $1bn in ticket sales, not to mention retail and tourism dollars.

“Obviously, they didn’t make the money they were hoping for on the 200,000 or 300,000 out-of-town visitors that they’re expecting over the course of the event and that maybe is another billion dollars of revenue lost by local businesses,” he said.

“And of course no-one bought Tokyo Olympics 2020 sweatshirts and trinkets and stickers and pins.”

Reuters