The Paris Summer Olympics are upon us, and even with some Olympic sports starting already (women’s football and handball, to name a few), the much-awaited opening ceremony for the Olympics will be a very unusual one with the city not just as a mere backdrop but central to the arrival of the national teams by boats down the Seine (Olympics.com,2024). Therefore, it is quite an exciting start for the weeks ahead.
We will be cheering on our favourite teams and sports. One of which caught my attention as it is now at the Olympic Games, Breaking (Brief, 2024), from Breakdancing, which should be very cool to watch. The athletes in these competitions train very hard for their place at the Games, the rivalry to be the best puts quite a lot of pressure on them (from within and without).
Remember Nadia Comaneci and her perfect score at the young age of 14? (BBC Mundo, 2016). She has passed the torch to Simone Biles who she considers “the gymnast/sportswoman of this generation” (Bregman, 2016). Biles will be competing in Paris, no doubt earning gold medals. Most importantly she showed us in the Tokyo Olympic Games that our mental health which influences our physical health, comes before even the highest achievements in our careers (Ramsay, 2021).
The good news is that this Olympic Games will be the first to have an equal number of female and male participants. The person who made this possible is lately being recognised, Alice Milliat (Branch, 2024). So, let’s enjoy the Games as much as possible and then get to practise some outside as well to care for our bodies and minds.
P.S.: I would like to mention Lilí Álvarez who at the age of 19 was with Rosa Torras the first Spanish woman to participate in an Olympic Games in Paris 1924 (they played tennis doubles). And was the first female tennis player to wear a skort in Roland Garros in 1931, specially designed for her by Elsa Schiaparelli (School of Feminism, 2024).
Alicia García Pajares
Junior Girl
Girl Museum