Return of Fans, Olympic Experience Herald Normalcy for Veterans at Paris Olympics
In a sense, everyone was a rookie at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. There was no precedent for an Olympics, already postponed a year, to be held during a global pandemic. With no overseas fans, no family, an impermeable bubble, social distancing in the athlete village and daily COVID-19 testing, even athletes who had been to Rio five years prior had little more than context of what was missing in the Tokyo’s photo-negative version of an Olympics.
As the world prepares to convene for a more typical Olympics in Paris, the lessons of the past are confined to memory, but they’re not easily discarded.
Katie Ledecky, for one, takes the positives from her time in Tokyo. Stressful as they were, Ledecky hopes that some of the caution of those Games, to stay healthy and fit, is preserved in Paris when distractions are more readily available athletes.
“I think we’re all looking forward to a non-COVID Olympics, just not having to stress as much about some of those little things,” Ledecky said after U.S. Olympic Trials in Indianapolis last month. “But honestly, there are probably some things that we did well in 2021 that we can continue to do this year, like staying healthy on these trips. We are going to be together for a long stretch, so continuing to follow best practices there is important.”
One byproduct of the forced isolation was team spirit. With no one else to interact with, Tokyo brought Team USA closer together. Ledecky hopes that can be replicated on some scale, absent the epidemiological mandates.
Those scant benefits don’t outweigh what was lost in Tokyo, though. No one is under that delusion. Athletes that experienced normality in Rio and restriction in Tokyo posit Paris as a goldilocks situation – the time and wisdom to appreciate freedom, having lived through its absence.
“I think everyone that was in Tokyo that wasn’t a rookie in Tokyo will acknowledge that it was weird,” Lilly King said. “I feel like in Rio, I was such a newbie that I didn’t really embrace the experience. I was kind of like, OK, get ready to go, get ready to race, deal with all these things. I don’t think I really took time to appreciate how special it was.”
“I think it’s even more exciting because Tokyo wasn’t like the others,” said Canadian backstroker Kylie Masse, who like King is headed to a third Olympics. “But I think so much of the Olympic experience is obviously the competition and what we’ve worked so hard for for so long, but also just being a part of the whole Games and being a part of Team Canada, cheering on other athletes, meeting other athletes, being able to learn more when you’re finished competing and hopefully watch other events.
“All these sorts of experiences and moments are memories that you’ll remember forever. So I’m really looking forward to enjoy that again hopefully and for everyone else to enjoy it as well.”
The return of crowds is the most visible addition to the Paris Olympics. The stands were full of swimmers in Tokyo, which provided some semblance of an atmosphere. But it was a far cry from ambience like the raucous and record-setting crowds that filled Lucas Oil Stadium for American trials.
The addition of family and friends traveling to see Olympians live out their dreams is a treasured opportunity that athletes missed more than they may be able to appreciate even now.
“It was still loud in Tokyo – the athletes were loud and it still looked like we filled out as much as we could,” Tokyo double gold medalist Bobby Finke said. “But just going there and being able to see your fans and the family around the arena – I’ve seen renderings of the arena and it looks really cool, and I’m really looking forward to racing in that pool.”
“I think definitely that’s something I’m looking forward to,” King said. “I’m really looking forward to having a crowd again. That’s probably the thing I’m going to embrace most, I think.”
For Ledecky, the doyenne of the American program in her fourth Games, it’s all a balance. Just like you couldn’t let the deprivations of Tokyo affect your performance, so too for the potential abundances of the Paris Olympics. Staying focused has never been a challenge of the legendary distance swimmer. But she counsels younger swimmers to find that balance between enjoying the experience and remembering that it is foremost a business trip.
“I think that’s something that I’ll probably advise some of the younger athletes to just be careful with,” she said. “I think it’s great to do a lot of those things and get to meet people from all over the world – it’s such a unique experience. But you want to get your rest as well, you want to save your legs, not do too much walking, those kinds of things.”
