Great Britain’s athletes doing what they do best at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

Since the mold-breaking, frequently baffling, relentlessly rain-sodden (such a shame) opening ceremony, I have been glued to every thrilling, heart-stopping, devastating, tear-jerking, dream-making, dream-crushing, impossibly inspiring moment of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and will be at the Paralympics, as I am every four years when the world’s greatest athletes gather for the world’s biggest sporting competition. (To keep things from being too unwieldy I’m not saying Paralympics every time, but know that I do, of course, include those in every reference.)

The thing about the Olympic Games though, is that you don’t actually have to be particularly interested in sport to enjoy them (OK, I accept if you really, really don’t like sport of any kind, it’s probably not your thing. Though there are so many sports to choose from, I defy you not to be able to find one that would pique your interest. Skateboarding? Breaking - that’s break dancing to you and me? Climbing?) Because when it comes down to it, the Games are about so much more than just the sports themselves.

Quite literally all human life and emotion is crammed into the month and a bit of the games (two and a half weeks of the Olympics, one and a half of the Paralympics) and the 35 venues and stadiums where the events take place, this time both in and around Paris and in venues as far afield as Versailles (equestrian), Marseille (sailing, windsurfing and kitesurfing) and even Tahiti in French Polynesia (surfing).

There are competitors who have endured extraordinary personal hardship escaping repressive regimes - a cheer for the amazing members of the refugee team,

The Refugee Team at the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

and others who are living in war zones (including Ukraine, Gaza and Israel). Athletes who have recovered from potentially life-threatening illnesses and injuries - Georgie Brayshaw, one of GB’s women’s women’s quadruple sculls crew that won gold was left paralysed down her left-hand side and in a coma for nine days after a horse riding accident at the age of 15.

Georgie Brayshaw celebrating her sculls crew rowing gold with her team mates at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

And participants who have managed to stay at the top of their sporting game for so long they have quite literally grown up over successive Olympics - step forward Tom Daley who competed in his first games in 2008 aged just 14 and won his fifth medal, a sliver, in Paris at his fifth games, now aged 30.

Tom Daley preparing to compete in his first Olympics aged 14, and with his Paris 2024 silver medal ,aged 30

There are movingly memorable personal stories and experiences - another member of that winning rowing team, Lola Anderson, tearfully dedicated her medal to her late father who had saved a page from a diary she had written when she was 14 saying she wanted to be gold medal winner but had then thrown away. Unbeknown to her, he had retrieved it and he gave it to her shortly before he died of cancer in 2019.

Rower Lola Anderson celebrates winning the women’s quadruple skulls at the Paris 2024 Olympics and tearfully dedicates her gold medal to her late father

Whilst skeet shooter (no, me neither) Amber Rutter was congratulated on her silver medal (she so narrowly missed out on the gold) by the surprise appearance of her husband and three month old son. Can we just take a moment to appreciate not only that she won a medal, but that she did almost all her final run-up training whilst she was pregnant.

Skeet shooter Amber Rutter celebrates her silver medal at the Paris Olympic Games with her three month old son

There are so many stories of perseverance, struggle, and triumph, not just in the GB team (I’m mostly highlighting those for the sake of brevity and patriotism!) They’re what make us root for someone we’ve never heard of, from a country we might know nothing about, and their experiences and superhuman efforts remind us that beyond being competitors, they’re people with dreams, fears and hopes, just like the rest of us. When they succeed, we feel a part of that success. And when they fail, our hearts bleed with and for them.

One of other delights about the Olympics is how it introduces us to sports we’ve either never known about, or been remotely interested in, before. These games I’ve found myself mesmerised by the absurd difficulty of kayaking, the insane danger of BMX biking, especially the freestyle (congrats to Phil Reilly for his well-deserved silver medal),

Phil Reilly won a silver for his BMX freestyle biking at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

and the utterly unbelievable skill of the speed wall climbing (do look it up, what they do is properly superhuman). I’ve been fascinated by the strategy of a judo bout, and the astonishing technicality of dressage. And as for skateboarding, how is it possible they stay on those boards when they’re upside down?

I love how exposing a global audience to the huge diversity of sport that exists (it helps that they are all being so brilliantly explained by expert commentators) unquestionably develops new audiences for them, but also encourages people - and especially key, youngsters - to consider having a go at them themselves. I heard an interview with the head of UK kayaking talking about how important the visibility of the Olympics is to interest and participation in their sport.

What really sets the Olympics apart for me is the way it unites the world. For these few precious weeks, we’re not all just watching our favourite - or new favourite - athletes or cheering for the participants from our home country, or thrilling at the prowess of participants from other nations. We’re part of something bigger - a global celebration of excellence and unity. In a world that feels impossibly divided and dissonant, the Olympics remind us of our shared humanity and of the fact that it is possible for us to come together in shared celebration and admiration.

Seeing athletes from different countries congratulating each other, showing their mutual respect even in moments when they may be bitterly disappointed themselves, is a powerfully moving reminder that if sport can transcend borders, surely we can too.

American gymnasts Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles - silver and bronze medal winners respectively - pay tribute to gold medal winner Rebeca Andrade from Brazil

And when it’s all over. When the triumphs and disasters, the surprises and moments of poignancy and heart-stopping inspiration are finished, the Olympics linger on in your mind and memory as a reminder of just how astonishing humans can be. And just what can be achieved with hard work, dedication and passion.

Whether you’re a sports enthusiast or a casual observer, you will have witnessed and been a small part of something extraordinary. You will have been uplifted, inspired and maybe even a little more motivated to chase your own dreams. Whether they’re sporting or something altogether different.

And already be looking forward to experiencing it all, all over again in Los Angeles in four years time.