Sporting rivalries, gender parity and a Games for mums – Paris here we come
This Olympics will provide a new experience for me: I am getting to see it from the other side and be a spectator. My family and I have tickets for the diving, where we should see Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix competing in the synchro. She is excellent. We are trying to do beach volleyball and judo, too, before I start covering the athletics with the BBC.
The kids are excited – they are looking forward to going on the Eurostar! – and so am I. I have never really seen much of the Olympics because when I competed the focus was on my event, and then Tokyo was obviously different because of Covid; everything was detached from what was happening.
The biggest thing for athletes is having family and friends and the people you love there to watch you compete at the highest level. It is such a huge part of the experience and the athletes missed that in Tokyo. It is as close as you can get to a home Games, too, so hopefully there will be a lot of support for Team GB across sports.
This will be the first Olympics, in 124 years, where there is gender parity among the athletes, with as many places for female competitors as the men, which is brilliant. There is that feeling of “why has it taken this long?”, but it is still something to celebrate.
It is great to see so much work being done to support mothers at the Games. Allyson Felix is involved in the first-ever nursery at the Olympic Village while athletes who are breastfeeding can stay in hotel rooms.
There was nothing like that when I was competing. If you wanted to have your children at a training camp, you had to do it somewhere else rather than in the team set-up. I had to work out how to do it for myself so I was happy and ready to compete. Before Rio, I went to Barcelona rather than to the Team GB holding camp so I could bring Reggie with me.
It is brilliant to see athletes now have options – some will want to have their families and children there, others may not, but it is about having that choice and feeling comfortable. It is a positive story to show that you can have children and be an elite athlete.
There has been a lot of discussion about some GB athletes not being selected for the Olympics despite having met the qualifying criteria. I think there are pros and cons to taking a smaller team. I understand that you want the team to have medal hopes and finalists; on the other hand, athletes who are given the opportunity to be at a Games often raise their game and do something special. I am just glad I am not involved in the selection process.
There are so many great rivalries and brilliant stories and big names at this Games. I do like the rivalries: Zharnel Hughes and Noah Lyles, Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen … hardcore athletics fans love the sport no matter what, but for those who do not watch it all the time it is good to understand the backstories. It makes you feel invested in them.
From an athletics perspective, there are lots of great events. The women’s and men’s pole vault competitions are very exciting with Molly Caudery and Armand Duplantis. Molly could really do something special. She has gone up against the best pole vaulters in the world and jumped personal bests and national records. A couple of years ago we probably would not have said she would be contending for a medal, but there is no doubt she can if she gets it right in Paris.
In the sprints, Daryll Neita has been running really well while Dina Asher-Smith is coming into good form; she ran a promising time at trials and looks like she is in decent shape. She has changed her set-up, moved out to Texas and is doing things differently – and it seems to be working for her.
Lyles is going to be very difficult to beat in the men’s 100 metres. Zharnel is coming into form; he has a lot of experience at the top level and should absolutely be in the mix. I had not heard of Louie Hinchliffe until recently but he is also running great times and is coached by Carl Lewis. Who knows what he could do when he is in that environment.
I am really hoping Keely Hodgkinson can turn silver into gold in the 800m. Athing Mu, who beat her in Tokyo, had a fall at the US trials so will not be at the Olympics. Keely would obviously want her there because you want to beat everyone, but she is looking in great shape.
Away from athletics, I am looking forward to seeing Max Whitlock. He is coming towards the end of his career, which has been fantastic, and I think he is a great performer. I love gymnastics and it will be great to see how Simone Biles performs, too. I also love tennis and boxing, and I am really excited about the breakdancing, which is a new sport this year. I loved the speed climbing at the last Olympics.
That is what makes the Olympics so great: you get to see different sports and all different types of athletes from different places around the world. It is great at bringing people together. For some of these athletes, their lives will change so quickly if they enjoy success. The Olympics is global; even people who do not follow sport that often start watching. It only comes around every four years and so much can happen in between, like injuries, that when you get the opportunity at a Games you really have to run with it.