by John Cushing, Sept 2024

Paris 2024 Part Deux sounds like some naff 90s movie sequel, but this is my second part of my blog on Paris 2024, about the second weekend of the Games, the second full week of the Olympics, and in someways, that second half of the Games is better than the first. You’ve hit your stride and start getting better - or at least I think I did!

Carrie, Matthew and I went to the first morning of the athletics, and as mentioned it was fantastic to be in the stadium, hear the French roar, sing ‘Les Champs-Elysees’ that became a staple in every venue and is now on our ‘Olympics playlist’ on Spotify! Moments like that create great memories and singing in the car in the pouring rain in Blighty will always take me back now! But my 24 hours off was over and as we left the Stade de France, and Matthew dropped his hot dog on the floor (“5 second rule even in France”) I departed for the gymnastics venue in much loved Bercy. We had a pretty good idea Bryony Page was going to medal in the trampoline - I’d joked with her when being announced for her third Olympics, the bronze and silver medalist had one medal missing! And she totally delivered, with twists, turns, somersaults and hitting her mark - the Chinese who followed her failed to register a score and the gold was Britain’s and Bryonys! What a return to work - I quickly updated talkSPORT2 with the medal from the mixed zone, as the media watching area was good 10 mins run around the Bercy arena! And then patiently waited for Bryony to come through. The broadcast mixed zone is where rights holders get the chance to speak to athletes - as mentioned you pay the IOC for this. BBC regions were going to go first as they’d been there all day, I turned up for the gold medal, that was the right thing to do in my mind. The rest of the world’s media, China and other nations were then going to be after me. Suddenly as Bryony came through, BBC News rushed in from nowhere, grabbed her, then regions and I was then told two questions and to share my interview with the rest of the world! We got 30 seconds! This was the biggest moment of Bryony’s career and she was being rushed away. Even she looked confused and slightly embarrassed. I don’t often make a fuss, but this annoyed me. I complained to the mixed zone manager who at first wasn’t having it “there’s no guarantees in the mixed zone”. I tried to calmly say it wasn’t fair that the BBC had three separate interviews (having done one already inside the venue) and talkSPORT as rights holders as well had 30 seconds. She finally agreed maybe she’s got it wrong, particularly allowing a BBC crew to job the queue. Understandably, the BBC have a huge heritage with the Olympics, but media officers also need to think about all audiences - when will trampolining become headline news on talkSPORT again? Fortunately, British Gymnastics media man Tim ensured I got 5 mins with Bryony a bit later - and I told her she would carry the Union flag at the closing ceremony! #justsayin
Day 8 second Saturday, and more fantastic rowing gold medals in the morning. But it was all usurped in my memory bank as finally I saw the star of Paris 2024. The Eiffel Tower! I was heading into the centre of Paris for the end of the men’s cycling road race - Tom Pidcock was going for another medal, but in the end he finished outside the top ten and Belgium dominated. To get to that mixed zone though at the Trocadero, where the Opening Ceremony had taken place, the media had to walk across a platform or a stage, and I suddenly realised I was standing looking at the Olympics rings on the Eiffel Tower. Eight days in it finally felt like I was at Paris 2024! (BTW that mixed zone was ridiculous, 4/5 broadcast crews deep! I know each sport runs their own mixed zone differently, but standardisation across venues would be helpful for reporters like us who do lots of different sports and run from one thing to another! #justsayin But then we’re not your average Olympic reporter either!
Carrie and Matthew left for home on Sunday morning, day 9, and Michael and I realised the night before that Tommy Fleetwood was in with a chance of winning another Team GB medal at the golf - even gold like Justin Rose in Rio! It was slightly ironic that Michael had done some tennis commentary on Andy Murray, a sport I love, and now I was heading to the Le Golf National for a sport he loves and still puts Rose’s gold in 2016 as one of his all time Olympic highlights! Jumping on a RER train, then getting a bus with spectators is always so much more fun than getting a media bus - so I was talking to an Irishman who’d come to the Olympics just for the golf - and was going in for the 4th day. He told me he couldn’t see past an American winning it - but even he didn’t pick Scottie Scheffler! The double masters champion hit a course record to deny Tommy the gold. Rory McIlroy had a great last round too which the RTE crew I was with in the mixed zone were going crazy about! Unfortunately, the talkSPORT mic didn’t have enough pull for the world golfers, so Rory, Shane Lowry, and Tommy all didn’t stop to talk. But I actually had a ball doing live updates on talkSPORT on the golf, which is something I’ve grown up listening to on radio, and I was also including in my updates the history making Djokovic victory over Alcaraz in the mens’ final at Roland Garros! Ironically, tennis presenter Marcus Buckland was doing the talkSPORT show that day - never felt more pressure to get the tennis right! I did and he was like how are you across all this stuff at the same time? I wanted to say our years of practice and doing Anything but Footy podcast, but just said it’s all part of the job for talkSPORT!
Le Golf National was a stunning location - and like Bryony I got the interview with Tommy thanks to Claire and Laura at Team GB, after he’d done his other media and drug testing duties! Glamorous being a world class sportswear! And Laura even gave me a lift back in the car to the centre of Paris as the spectator buses had stopped - very handy! The next morning I got up early for the mixed team relay in the triathlon - another Michael event but he needed to now concentrate on athletics as he’s always been ‘talksport’s athletics correspondent’ - I was always #justsayin to him don’t let anyone else have that title! As he explained in his blog he also got to do commentary and presenting on talkSPORT - pretty sure I told him he would do ALL those things during the Games - there’s always some curveballs during a 17 day sporting event! Anyway, what a venue at the Pont Alexandre III - and the blue carpet and branding in contrast to the golden statues on the bridge - incredible! I commentated on the last leg of the relay and refused to say Great Britain had won the silver - when they hadn’t - it was bronze behind Germany and the USA. The mixed zone was pretty fluid, but I managed to get a word with the USA’s two Taylors about actually winning silver - I think I used the phrase ‘Taylor come here…’ I think the British four were disappointed with bronze, having led for all of the race apart from the last km!
Part of my role was to deliver half hourly sponsored updates through the daytime on talkSPORT, while the commentary and live sport was going on on talkSPORT2. That Monday I covered the triathlon and the Kayak Cross, I felt I said too much to producers I was travelling, or I’m doing Kayak Cross commentary, so the next day I was determined to be available for White & Jordan, Hawksbee and Jacobs and then Drive without interruption! So I headed to another new venue, again slightly out on the suburbs of Paris on the RER and the new Velodrome that had opened a couple of years before. Velodrome’s are great places, but I was there six hours before any sport. In the media centre someone came up and was like “are you a journalist?” It was day 2 of the track cycling and great to catch up with Ellie from British Cycling who always made sure we knew what was happening, and when we’d get the men’s Team Sprint silver medalists - also managed a word with their coach Jason Kenny, GB’s greatest ever Olympian! You’ll hear every journo moan about how hot the Velodrome is - it does make me laugh - it always is!! It was a long night in the end, and I remember listening to Nigel and the athletics team from the mixed zone commentate on Josh Kerr winning gold, oh no, being pipped by the fast finishing Hocker across the city in the Stade De France!
Listening to that inspired me, as the next day I joined Michael and the team - including the legend Daley Thompson and Dame Kelly Holmes in the stadium to see Matt Hudson Smith - again be pipped on the line by a fast finishing American! Theme! Athletics is the biggest sport in the Olympics and being trackside and watching Matt come so close after all his troubles was a very special moment. Also travelling back on the train with Daley and his son was a privilege - boy the double Olympic champion still walks fast! On the way to the Stade, I stopped a small restaurant off the Place de la Vendome and grabbed the house special beef curry - it was superb, and I did one of my updates from the outside table on the pavement! Earlier in the day, I visited Team GB house for the very first time - day 12 - had a nice coffee and catch up with Ruth, Beth and Lee from Team GB - also Simon from Channel 5 and Geraint from Sky Sports News - people I’ve worked with a long time and was nice to see a friendly face again! I interviewed Lewis Richardson after his boxing bronze and made him laugh when I said where’s your medal for a photo. Boxers get them at the end of the tournament so he was still waiting. I said I wouldn’t bother with a selfie then! My interview with skateboarding bronze medalist Sky Brown was used by the talkSPORT online team and I did a live piece to camera for White & Jordan! TV reporter I am not but again it was a good challenge!
I’ve talked a lot about venues, and again it was day 12 and beyond, when I started to base myself off the ‘Champs’ and I felt like I was part of a Paris party! The skateboarding venue was on the Place de La Concorde, normally a huge roundabout that’s lethal to cross in Paris! But half the Champs was closed and an urban park was created for BMX, breaking and skateboarding! I was there to see Andy McDonald compete for Team GB - he was never going to win a medal - but the reception he got from the crowd and the media he was a big favourite! The next morning, I was up early again on the Pont Alexandre III for the marathon swim, before staying in the media centre at the Grand Palais for the Taekwondo. talkSPORT reporter Katie Shanahan was covering that event but I was doing my half hourly updates. Now I’ve mentioned all the fab media officers and other journos I worked with on the way but it was just great fun working with someone from the same radio station, and just having random chit chats about anything! Just for a change! Katie is now presenting on talkSPORT as well as doing all her TV football stuff - so good luck to her!
Two weeks into the games and I felt like I was really hitting my stride by this point. Again I arrived at the Bridge for the breakfast marathon swim - Britain’s Hector Pardoe finished creditable 6th. And I then spent part of the day just broadcasting from the Grand Palais again. You could nip out for a baguette on the Champs - this was the Paris I was promised ha ha! That Friday I also managed to get up to the Sport Climbing for the first ever Team GB gold medal! It was near the Stade De France so then was easy to divert and see Katerina Johnson-Thompson finish on the second day of the heptathlon. I decided to go and do my drive bulletins from the Stadium as a preview. This is something Michael and I had talked about in planning this whole thing, so I had to make it happen. This is the Paris I was promised!
The men’s Marathon on the final Saturday was also good fun - and another new venue - the Invalides where Napoleon is buried. The mixed zone was like a London Marathon one, I knew I needed a place, I was radio, I squeezed in, then few interesting conversations with Chinese and Italian TV broadcasters - “you’re not allowed in here” (nonsense) “It’s not radio just TV” (rubbish) - but I got the three British runners together and Emile Cairess is one to watch for GB in the years to come!
That afternoon I returned to my new home at the Grand Palais - and had a good laugh with Tom from Sportsbeat who I told every minute to annoy him that Caden Cunningham was nailed on for gold. Of course as with all things in sport, he wasn’t and he won silver. A lesson for me - but seriously when the French woman won the gold straight after I really thought the glass roof was going to come down because of the noise. What a sporting setting.
Penultimate memory, and the last day of Paris 2024 Olympics. I’d been at the first Team GB medal in diving and was now off to the last one in weightlifting and Emily Campbell. I said the Taekwondo had taught me a lesson, but apparently not enough, as I was thinking Emily could win gold to add to her silver from Tokyo. But the power of the Chinese defending champion Li Wen Wen and the new South Korean - Emily did amazingly to win the bronze! It was also a new venue for me covering the Games, but was in the same hall as where Carrie Matthew and I had been to watch Handball in the South Paris Arena - so I knew my way around, and caught up with Craig from Team GB and British Shooting - last day and still seeing people for the first time! But it all pays, as then Craig got us gold and silver shooting medalists Nathan Hales & Amber Rutter as the Team GB Eurostar pulled in, back in London, the next day!* But on that last day, it was slightly eerie as I based myself at the Venue Media Centre for the rest of the afternoon building up to the closing ceremony, that things were being dismantled around me and the feed to the last bit of sport the women’s basketball final between France and USA went down - the USA won again in the end!
The Closing Ceremony is one of those things that matters to the people involved - understandably - and the handover to the next hosts - LA in this case - is always a big thing before the extinguishing of the Olympic flame! But there was no place I’d rather have been than sitting in our nice restaurant in Bercy with Michael. A nice meal, some drinks and watching it on the telly and realising we’d achieved a life’s goal! 100 years ago the first radio broadcast of the Olympics took place at Paris 1924. Now in 2024, the first commercial radio coverage of the Games with talkSPORT, our idea, our plan, and we helped deliver it with a fantastic team in Paris and in London’s News building. I will never be able to thank them enough for the opportunity and the belief they showed in us. I just hope, like us, they’re thinking what’s next?