Imagine dedicating every day of your life for years and years to the relentless, exhausting pursuit of greatness. Then imagine finally reaching the pinnacle of competition for that one fleeting moment and the chance to rise to the greatest of occasions—only to be interrupted by political hacks forcing you to transmit their progressive virtue signals.
Fortunately television viewers are enjoying the Paris Olympic Games more than the tasteless ceremony that preceded them. But the athletes must still tolerate the tiresome French trying to impose their ideological agenda on visitors right at the moment when it can do the most competitive damage.
Julien Pretot reports for Reuters:
Of course the athletes demanded more meat. Who thinks that competitors attempting to post the greatest performances of their lives should suddenly be forced to adapt to somebody’s idea of a politically correct breakfast menu?
The Paris Olympics organizers, who did not spend the last several years of their lives preparing to compete at the highest level of athletic competition, decided to impose their “food vision” on the people who did. It seems that Paris 2024 preparations to provide “low-carbon food” and “sustainable catering” have been quite extensive, even if they weren’t much concerned with the needs and demands of the athletes—who are generally regarded as an important part of the Olympics. Here’s some of the official blather from the climate-obsessed organizers:
This seems to be the dining equivalent of ESG investing. The customers who need nourishment may or may not get a full meal, but “stakeholders” who don’t need to run or swim or jump will have their every desire satisfied. And here’s the global virtue signal the organizers intended to transmit:
So if voters and consumers won’t go for heavy climate restrictions, at least the Paris Olympics organizers could force the athletes to make meaningless gestures for the cause. “Reducing animal proteins,” for example, was one of the specific goals of Olympics organizers.
Thank goodness much of this nonsense, five years in the planning, was almost immediately cast aside when reality intruded. Mr. Pretot of Reuters quotes Paris 2024 CEO Etienne Thobois:
Now he does. Many athletes have had to rely on their own cooks and supplies or went outside the Olympic village to get a decent meal.
The French may be suffering from chronic ennui, but that’s no reason to try to make everyone else unhappy, too.
Let’s hope the French stop trying for the remainder of the games so that the athletes can continue to shine. Rachel Bachman and Joshua Robinson recently reported for the Journal:
Here too, the virtue signalers have had to bend somewhat to reality. The Journal reporters note:
It should be a no-brainer to avoid making the Olympics a platform for the pet causes of event planners. Organizers should instead aspire to remain in the background as the athletes make the most of the opportunities they’ve earned. Happily, this week’s soaring athletic performances suggest that Parisian climateers have utterly failed in their effort to make foreign guests miserable.
Let’s hope that unhappy climateers everywhere fail in their effort to disrupt human flourishing.
