Bless Their Hearts

OLYMPIC GAMES
All Eyes On…AI?

I keep reading that AI is going to be the star of the Olympics this year. I still think it’s going to be the athletes. But, let’s still have a look.

Well, let’s start with all the wrong reasons AI might be one of the biggest names in Paris 2024. Mainly because many fear it’s being used as Big Brother. You read “police snipers and AI cameras”, and maybe you’re already cringing. So, yeah, AI is coming to keep these Games safe, but the fear is that it could also be the start of governments going overboard with the technology. But AI came at the right time for the Games in France regarding the need for security systems, as the country is still at its highest level of terrorist threat alert. The question is how far AI surveillance can go, and do we really trust officials when they say they’re not using facial-and-biometric-recognition technology nor use these AI cameras in public spaces? Do we also think it will go away after the Games, or that the Games are a rehearsal for what’s to come? It’s again the same old bargain that we are sold: how much privacy do we accept to lose so we can stay safe?

And now for the fun that AI could bring to the Games. Well, there’s clearly some potential. Do you want to test what sport would be best suited for your body? AI at the Games has a stand for that with Intel. This specific use could have consequences for how talents are detected all over the world. "I hope that this technology has a role to play and we think that there's going to expose so many more opportunities for athletes around the world,” said Sarah Vickers, Head of Intel’s Olympic and Paralympic Office, to Euronews Next.

Thanks to AI, there’s also a chatbot whose sole duty is to answer athletes’ questions regarding going around the city, social media guidelines, anti-doping rules, or collecting credentials. Were they fearing the well-known ‘hospitality’ of some parts of the French people? (We’re dolls, don’t @ me 👀 ) Are we soon going to be hearing, “Yeah, let’s try the bot instead?” Who knows!

AI should also help fans to get better coverage. How? With “a record number of multi-camera replay systems with AI-powered, high-quality reconstruction in the cloud, to create three-dimensional models and mapping of additional viewpoints across 21 sports and disciplines. This will deliver more compelling replays from more camera angles,” said Yiannis Exarchos, the CEO of Olympic Broadcasting Services. AI will then also play a crucial role in creating all the highlights of the competitions. NBC, for example, is creating a 10-minute highlight playlist every day, tailored to users’ preferences.

AI will also help judge the performances during the Olympics. AI has actually been used to enhance the accuracy of the judging since 2018, but it’s getting to the next level in Paris. “With proper modelling, we can have detailed information of the entire performance of an athlete: their rotation, speed, angles, everything that is crucial for judging,” said Alain Zobrist, the CEO of Swiss Timing, part of Omega, the Games’ official timekeeper, to the NYT. “We can analyse it in sequencing and do all of that in real-time. “It shows the opportunities and the information which we can share with judges, but also to start understanding these performances much better.”

OLYMPIC GAMES 
Bless Their Hearts

The tennis barely started in Paris, but there were already some memorable moments. Here’s a selection of what struck me.

• THAT second round. At 6-1, 4-0 for Novak Djokovic against Rafael Nadal, it was all “damn, that blockbuster went South real quick”. At 6-1, 4-4, it was all like “yep, 7-6 in the third now, it’s happening.” This is the scale of the RafOle kind of trauma and expectations inflicted on our collective brain for nearly two decades. But Djokovic found a way to close the door on Nadal and the remontada to win that second round 6-1, 6-4, and so to now lead 31-29 in their battles. Was it the last one?
  

• Muzz Gonna Muzz. 
  I’m sorry, but when is Muzz not ‘Muzzing’?! In a pretty incredible turn of events that is actually totally fitting for a career that has been full of these turns, Andy Murray found a way, with Dan Evans, not to lose in the first round of the doubles. Saving 5 match points. Just to live another day. “It shows how much people are supporting tennis being in the Olympics,” he said. They’re coming out to support the doubles and create an atmosphere. That doesn’t happen every week on the Tour, it doesn’t happen at the Grand Slams. I loved it and both of us feed off that."

  
  As much as I was sad for Murray that he couldn’t play one last singles draw at Wimbledon, I’m more than glad that his last days as a professional player could include one more (at least) crazy win. Also, Sir Andrew - aka The King Of The Cheeky Caption - has been working overtime in Paris to ensure great coverage, even on the gossip front.
  

• Passion first. 
  Too much has already been said about the players who didn’t want to come to the Games. About how tennis wasn’t the best suited for the Olympics’ spirit. About how tennis players can’t relate to the majority of the other Olympians. And about how you can’t let tennis’s biggest stars alone in the Olympic village because everybody wants a piece of them. They’re a big deal; we get it.
  

  

  
  
  BUT look at them and what happens when it actually starts. Carlos Alcaraz being a bit of a nervous mess playing doubles here with Rafael Nadal: cute. Coco Gauff putting her heart out from the opening ceremony to her doubles match with Jessica Pegula to her singles first round: super cute. Barbora Krejcikova, who could still be partying her Wimbledon title somewhere, fighting all the fight to win her first round in singles: extra cute. Sara Sorribes in tears after losing against the Czech, showing everybody what it means to play and lose at the Olympics: sad but cute. Djokovic and Nadal dragging their bodies to these Games whatever the cost? Hella cute.
  
  Those Who Get It, Get It.

• Osaka’s honesty. 
  I’ve never believed that the Olympics had to only be about the winners. We’ve seen beautiful stories of athletes who didn’t win every single time. And often the losses make as touching stories as the victories. What did Naomi Osaka’s loss in the first round against Angelique Kerber teach us? Well, that Kerber really has her number (5-2 in the H2H now) and also that Osaka, who said she felt “more pressure in Tokyo”, is still willing to keep digging. “I guess I need to learn how to win again. Or maybe there are certain situations I don't know how to play. Maybe that's something I forgot how to do," Osaka told the Associated Press. "Maybe I have to keep playing matches against really good players to relearn that."
  

• Tennis, The Flag Bearer. Serena and Rafa on a boat with Carl Lewis and Nadia Comaneci? Yes, it happened. At night under the rain with Serena scaring us that she might get into the water? It also happened. There was something special for tennis people to watch these tennis legends being a part of the ceremony, getting to parade the flame, getting to be celebrated as other French monuments. Also, Coco Gauff, being the flag bearer next to LeBron James for the USA, was a mood. Who keeps saying tennis doesn’t belong at the Olympics?

QUESTION OF THE DAY 
Salty or not?

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO 
Injuries stealing the tennis show in Paris

What exactly is going on? I would love to know. We’ve already been talking here again and again about tennis players breaking down way too much. But what happened right before the start of the main draws at the Olympics is honestly not good for the sport. You can’t have so many players dropping from the singles at the Games and for some at the last minute. Also, someone really needs to check on Elena Rybakina’s immune system because she’s been sick every other week this year…

So who didn’t hit a ball in singles? Elena Rybakina (bronchitis), Yulia Putintseva (knee injury before her warm-up at the Games), Jannik Sinner (tonsilitis) and Marketa Vondrousova (hand injury), Hubert Hurkacz (knee injury at Wimbledon), Holger Rune (wrist injury), Cameron Norrie (back injury), Fabien Reboul (hand injury), Anhelina Kalinina (sore throat), Andy Murray opted out of singles (back injury). And Bastad nearly cost us Rafael Nadal…

I’m sorry but tennis must have the record out there compared to the other sports of the Games. It’s both worrying (again, because they keep breaking down) and giving a “not serious” image to a sport that is already regularly side-eyed for its lack of enthusiasm for the Olympics. You can already read people wondering if these players would have tried to play if the Olympics were offering points and money, wondering if they really took it seriously in their preparation. It’s unfair to doubt anyone’s injury, but at some point, when they keep piling up, people start to wonder what the hell is happening. Well, look at that schedule and where the Olympics landed for a start… You’re also ending with doubles players who are really not singles players in the draw at the Olympics because of these last-minute withdrawals. How do you present this as one of the biggest tennis events, then? Novak Djokovic wasn’t really happy about it.

If you add these injuries to the players who decided they just didn’t want to come and play, the field is less than ideal. We always say it’s the ones who don’t show up that are the losers in the end, and surely this tennis week at the Olympics still has some of the biggest names in the Games here. Yet I said it before, and I’ll say it again: tennis has an injury issue that keeps spreading and needs to be looked at. By this time next week, it’ll for sure be forgotten as the sport will celebrate its new Olympic champions, but I don’t think it should because tennis really looked bad at the start of this Parisian campaign. And it shouldn’t have happened.

BUSINESS/MEDIA
Murray’s legacy gets funding

Judy Murray wants to build a community tennis and sports centre near Dunblane, at Park Of Keir, and the Scottish government and the LTA said we’d help you. Both have committed to give £5 million each to the project. “The project, led by former Fed Cup captain Judy, includes plans for a multi-sport site with indoor and outdoor tennis courts, pickleball and padel courts, a multi-sport hall, multi-use games area, gym and cafe. Plans are also in place for a soft play facility, museum, and shop.”

Judy Murray was obviously delighted to see the plan getting several steps closer to becoming a reality. “I’m delighted that the LTA has committed £5m of funding and support to the centre at Dunblane. This is a huge investment in Scottish tennis and community sport. I’ve been working closely with Scott Lloyd and the LTA over several years to bring the plans to fruition and we will continue to work in partnership to deliver a legacy for Scotland. We're now hopeful that our other partners will commit their support to this important and exciting project, and to invest in other community tennis facilities across the UK,” she said.

It should be noted that not everybody in Scotland is pleased with the project and the loss of green belt land that comes with it. "I think it's really important that there's an Andy Murray legacy, that's not in doubt. But I don't believe that the best way to deliver that is through building a private tennis resort that's on protected green belt land, that's inaccessible for most people in Scotland,” said Green MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife Mark Ruskell.

SOME BREAK POINTS… 
Andreeva grabs that first trophy

• Mirra Andreeva, 17, captured the first title of her career last week in Lasi. The Roland-Garros semi-finalist is the younger winner on the WTA Tour since Coco Gauff, who was twenty days younger, in Parma in 2021. Unfortunately for Andreeva, she couldn’t keep the momentum going on clay as she lost in the first round against Magda Linette (6-3, 6-4), who had also just won a title in Prague.

• Yoshihito Nishioka clinched the third title of his career in Atlanta by beating Jordan Thompson (4-6, 7-6(2), 6-2), and the rain as the final was interrupted and so regularly delayed for a total of five hours.

• Emma Raducanu, in Washington, told The Times she wasn’t regretting not to be at the Olympics. But earlier, she had some doubts about her decision, yet not anymore because she loved the tournament in Washington so much. She’ll still watch the Olympics, but not tennis. Yet not everybody in the GB team understands what Raducanu is doing: “I can't really comprehend it,” said Heather Watson in Paris. “The Olympics is the greatest sporting event in history. So why wouldn't you want to be a part of that? Anyone in general who chooses not to [participate], I can't relate.”

PLAY HARD, TRAIN HARD, DRESS THE PART 
Fashion brands look for a glow-up in Paris

LVMH has spent €150 million on these Games so they’re going to show off, okay! The brand was all out during the opening ceremony, where fashion again walked hand in hand with sports. It was the first opportunity for brands to try to get some returns on the huge investments made for Paris 2024, and they didn’t disappoint.

“Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, Aya Nakamura and Juliette Armanet performed in Dior; Paris Opera’s Guillaume Diop danced in Louis Vuitton on the Hôtel de Ville rooftop; and a scene featured the making of the medals trunk in the Louis Vuitton ateliers and its journey from the Pont Neuf to the Trocadéro. With over 320,000 visitors at the banks on the Seine, plus the 2 to 3 billion viewers expected for global broadcast, it’s maximum exposure for LVMH’s two largest houses,” noted Vogue business.

Luxury brands have been feeling the heat lately and are starting to get cold sweats from these disappointing sales. So, the pressure is high to turn the Olympics into a redeeming moment…and a very - very!- lucrative pop-up store. Someone might again want to spare a thought in this moment for Kering and Gucci.

EDITOR’S PICKS 

READ: Andy Murray will be retiring at the end of his journey in Paris for the Olympics. I know… I know… But it’s real. And so The Guardian compiled what some of the people who know him the best have to say about him.

READ more: The Wall Street Journal explains in detail why Nike and Adidas are spending so much money on the Olympics. “Sales did spike during the Olympics quarters in 2012 and 2016 for Nike, but the effect was small and temporary. Similarly, Adidas hasn’t seen notable revenue spikes during Olympics quarters. (…) Spending on the Olympics could end up being a low-return investment for most brands, but the cost of failing to medal is too high.”

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WATCH: Did you miss Lady Gaga and Céline Dion at the opening ceremony of the Olympics? Catch up here and there.