Stories from the world of the rings.
A prank across time, dodgy fan mail & the fear of winning.
It was inevitable that I would succumb. This week’s missive is themed on the greatest gathering of showboaters, winners, losers, smilers, criers, frenemies, dreamers, hopers, no-hopers, journeymen, newbies, legends and believers in the world.
Here’s to the Olympic Games!
To those of you not sportingly inclined- none of what follows is really about matches, results, technicalities and stats. I think the stories ahead will still feed the appetite for curiosities, oddities and the human spirit. Here we are:
The Duke, The Baron, The Thief: Three centuries and three men.
Dear Google: Some Friday Finds should be quickly unfound.
Fear & Raclette: A legendary explorer and a team in discomfort.
With: Sonically speaking, from the mat, going solo.
1. The Duke, The Baron, The Thief.
A story that spans three centuries and a theft.
The Duke.
There is a statue at Freshwater Beach near Sydney. Another at Huntington Beach, in Los Angeles. Then there is a monument in Christchurch, New Zealand. And of course, one in Waikiki Bay in Honolulu, permanently adorned with flowers. All honour ‘The Duke’, the legendary surfer known as the father of modern surfing, the champion who introduced the world to the sport. Those statues might be for his surfing legacy, but he was also a five-time Olympic medalist, including three golds.
In 1893, Queen Liliʻuokalani of Hawaii is overthrown. In 1898, the Pacific islands become a part of the United States. Eight years earlier in Honolulu, Duke Paoa Kahanamoku was born. Duke’s prodigious swimming talent and the country he was now part of, enabled him to reach the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, where he won gold at the 100m freestyle. (Kahanamoku was found asleep behind the stands at the start of the race, woken up in a hurry, and brought to the starting line just in time.)
By 1920, a World War had come and gone and taken one Olympics with it. The Olympics Games were held in war-ravaged Antwerp, where Duke looked to defend his title. He won the title twice on either side of his 30th birthday (the first race was nullified because of a dispute, and rescheduled). He also swam the the 4x200m relay, but guess what- just as the starting whistle was about to blow, he had to be woken up in a hurry to get to the edge of the pool in time. USA won gold anyway.
Duke won three medals at the Antwerp 1920 Games.
The Baron.
Born into the French aristocracy on 1 January 1863, Baron Pierre de Coubertin was an educator, historian and founder of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). He was also a bit of a designer, and came up with a symbol you might recognise.
At the opening ceremony of the Olympic Congress on 15 June 1914, the new Olympic flag was officially flown for the first time at the entrance to the Sorbonne. The Baron proclaimed,
These five rings represent the five parts of the world now won over to the cause of Olympism and ready to accept its fecund rivalries. What is more, the six colors thus combined reproduce those of all nations without exception.
The Olympic rings have now symbolised, for over a century, the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes from around the world. The ring colours (blue, yellow, black, green, and red) were chosen because at least one of these colours appears on the flag of every nation in the world, a nod to universality and inclusiveness. It has, amazingly, remained unscathed by design trends, marketing and brand building for over a century. There was a blip with a spaced version in 1986, but the IOC reverted in 2006.
This wonderful symbol crafted circa 1912-13, was also waylaid by the War. It made its Games debut only at the Antwerp 1920 Games.
The Thief.
At the time of his death at 104 in 2001, Hal Haig ‘Harry’ Prieste was the world's oldest former Olympic medalist, and the first known Olympian whose lifespan covered three centuries.
Born in 1896 in Fresno, California to Armenian immigrant parents, Prieste joined the Navy during WW1. Here he discovered a talent for swimming and diving that landed him in the US diving team for the 1920 Olympics. You know, the same one in Antwerp.
Prieste came away with bronze, but also something else. He became good friends with The Duke, he of ‘nap & win’ fame. At the end of the Games, Duke Kahanamoku dared Harry Prieste to steal the Olympic flag. An odd dare, you might think; schoolboy stuff, even. But maybe those were simpler times, and sports was still play.
Harry Prieste took the dare. Up a 15-foot flagpole, down with the official flag.
Prieste won a medal and acquired a flag at the Antwerp 1920 Games.
“I Can Help”.
For years after, Prieste played parts in swimming and diving shows, as a vaudeville comedian, a banjo player, a circus juggler and a skater. And for 77 years, the flag was stored in a suitcase. He would often show it to friends as a souvenir from his Olympic experience.
In 1997, the United States Olympic Committee hosted a banquet, which Prieste attended, at the age of 101. A reporter happened to mention that the International Olympic Committee had never found the missing Antwerp flag, the first one with the five rings.
''I can help you with that,'' he said. ''It's in my suitcase.''
At 103 years old, legally blind and very deaf, Prieste returned the slightly faded and tattered flag to the IOC in 2000. It now resides in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Thus did a swimmer, a designer and a diver connect across the decades.
2. Dear Google
Olympics & AI.
No, not some intricate data science for a team, not some ‘virtual’ camera for the broadcast, not a chatbot for the athletes. Here’s AI… helping you become a better fan? Google decided to take a very real, endearing story of a little human who idolises an Olympian… and- bizarrely- throw AI into the mix.
It beggars belief that there were enough fine creative minds who felt this represents the best of what technology can bring us- AI writing a kid’s fan letter to her beloved idol. A child’s love for an athlete or pop star or cartoon character can be clean, pure, defying logic; their expression of that love can be cute, charming, gushing, weird, awkward… or a smattering of all the above. That’s what makes it endearing. But here you’d have us believe that its better to get AI to help?
Misguided, at best.
I spotted this from Stephen Moore at Treadmill, and thought it was so well put.
At this point, I’m starting to think the people involved in GenAI are devoid of emotional understanding, and lack basic human skills. Why would any athlete want an AI-generated letter sent to them? One without authenticity, without the funny, unique quirks that come with a child’s mind?
More to the point — when are we going to stop coming up with use cases that remove human creativity, and instead, start developing use cases that free us to be more creative?
There has been a backlash to it, unsurprisingly, and Google did it pull it off TV screens in the US. Is the backlash mingled with some innate resistance to technology / AI/ change? Possibly. But its also a visceral reaction to how the stripping away of our humanity is being put on a pedestal.
Afterthought: the other thing to consider though, is how accurate a picture does it portray of what life is becoming or will soon be? Will we be helping our children by asking AI to help them to write an email to Grandpa? Will our children do it anyway? Is it likely? I think we know, though may not like to acknowledge, where the scales tilt on that question.
3. Fear & Raclette.
We often talk about getting out of our comfort zones. Pushing ourselves to do something unfamiliar or new. We challenge ourselves, then learn and grow because we do. At least, that’s the idea.
The Indian hockey team was taken a step further in their preparation for the Olympics. Sports psychologist Paddy Upton decided uncomfortable was not enough, it was time for “genuine fear”.
Going Beyond.
Mike Horn is a Swiss-South African explorer and adventurer. His stunning achievements are too many to list, but here’s a sampling: he’s circled the world twice (once on the Equator and once on the Arctic Circle); he’s walked to the North Pole in winter in complete darkness; he’s scaled four of the world’s 8,000+m mountains; he’s sailed around the planet for four years on his boat educating the youth about the environment.
In April 1997, he embarked on his first major expedition: a six-month solo crossing of South America. He set off on foot from the Pacific Ocean, traveled up to the source of the Amazon River in the Peruvian Andes, then hydrospeeded the Amazon- 7,000 km down to the Atlantic Ocean. Since, he has been on a seemingly non-stop journey, a life dedicated to adventure, or as he might well say, a life dedicated to really living.
Fearlessness.
To go not just out of the comfort zone, but close to “genuine fear”, Paddy Upton needed more than just a workshop.
Paddy is a familiar figure to Indian sports fans in particular, having worked in cricket with the national and league teams over many years. He was a key member of the 2011 Cricket World Cup winning side.
Matt Horn worked with that side.
Horn’s coaching and team-building track seems to flow from his approach to life. He has worked with the German football team, Indian & South African national cricket squads, league teams like KKR in the IPL, and corporates.
Paddy decided to take this Indian hockey side to the legendary explorer’s training base in Switzerland.
We did things in the mountains and on cliffs that 100% no player has ever done before. And that very much triggered their anxiety and their adrenaline. There were a number of places where players needed support to be able to actually do things that were genuinely scary. We had very good safety, but if you made a mistake there was the possibility of there being much worse consequences than losing a hockey match.
Here was a side that won Olympic bronze in Tokyo after a medal drought of 41 years. In Paris, they would look to be on the podium again, and en route would play their Olympic nemesis- Australia, a team they had not beaten at the Olympics in 52 years.
Mike Horn says about working with sports teams,
"Drawing from my life as an explorer, I often tell the players that failure for me means not just losing a game, but potentially losing my life. This perspective instills a heightened sense of urgency and focus."
Winning.
Walking on glaciers, cycling in the mountains, sleeping on hay, climbing a via ferrata (a protected Alpine climbing route) and rappelling down a waterfall.- this was all part of the boot-camp, shaped to build camaraderie, mental resilience and trust. His advice focussed on “mental toughness, team cohesion, and embracing the moment, crucial for navigating the challenges of a high-stakes tournament like the Olympics".
Paddy spoke about this ‘camp’ in Switzerland just after India took one monkey off the back, beating Australia 3-2. The team went on to grittily overcome Great Britain despite playing with 10 men for more than 40 minutes of the match. Germany in the semi finals proved hard to beat, so it was, again, a bronze medal playoff. Last night, the team overcame a feisty Spanish side to finish, again, on the podium. The first words heard in the post-match huddle were, “We stay humble”.
The results are just that- scorecards. The journey these players have taken with their coaching squad and the likes of Upton and Horn, is probably much more than just a sum of their goals scored and medals won (and missed).
What about the cheese, you say? Well, it was not all fear and adrenaline. A meal of raclette (traditional melted cheese dish) came just after cycling to Rossinière, and before a night sleeping on the hay.
A less cheesy last word is best left to what Mike Horn said some years ago,
It’s only when the will to win becomes bigger than the fear to lose that you can go out there and take risks.’
4. Peanut Masala
(where I share stories or tidbits I find interesting)
Belize, Liechtenstein, Nauru, Somalia. These are the countries that have precisely one athlete representing the nation at the Games. What it's like to be your country's only Olympian?
Two pieces from - of all places- a sport I can’t claim to even fully understand, wrestling.
“During the many nights and days spent on the pavements of Delhi in the heat and cold, Vinesh has found herself growing, strengthening. With every abuse she faced, every tear she shed or act of brutality she felt from the establishment and their police, she shed fear, restraint, deference and doubt. When they went low, she went high.” I may be biased, but this is an important, not very long piece about Vinesh Phoghat, the Indian wrestler who pulled off a brilliant series of wins to reach the final. Then, a blow by blow of the lead up to the final that never was. More importantly, hers is a story of unimaginable fortitude both on and off the mat.
Wrestling legend Mijaín López became the first individual to win five golds at the same event. Pause for a moment to consider that- the now 41 year old Cuban debuted in Athens 2000, and has been winning the gold in the 130kg category since 2004! He retired after his win, placing his shoes on the mat amidst a standing ovation.
Sonically Speaking
A wonderful piece on the “music of sport” by the always excellent Rohit Brijnath. A century ago exactly in Paris the Olympics had its first dance with sound as a scratchy radio broadcast began. Then sport felt distant, now every sigh is transmitted. If you hear the weightlifter kissing his bar and then grunting like a furniture mover, then thank the sound folks.
Kendrick, Alicia Keys, Red Hot Chili Peppers and more. Some athletes and their go-to music here & here. Plus, Olympic skateboarders (US) get pumped up with these. (Psst- fastest woman in the world Julien Alfred finds gospel “is it”).
And, just to finish, this from the Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Movement, who for all his sporting efforts, believed in the power of art.
Art enlightens the intelligence, captivates thought, and incites ambition.
Off for my brew, and a panini.
Amazing stuff. Loved reading it. Blown away by some facts and episodes Thank you.