Is it me, or are these Olympic Games all about the golden oldies? The unlikely comebacks, the final push, the last-ditch effort to squeeze one more ounce of joy on the loftiest sporting stage.
This morning, after winning bronze in the triathlon, a tearful Beth Potter, 32 - who previously competed for Team GB as a runner - told Eurosport: “Don’t let anyone tell you you’re too old, you’re never too old.”
One man who is living by that motto is 37-year-old Andy Murray. He and doubles partner Dan Evans jumped up and down like small children after reaching the Olympic quarterfinals on Tuesday night and the unbridled euphoria was palpable.
The Grim Reaper had been lurking in the wings, coming for Murray’s career, but the Scot said “Not today!” and he and Evans fended off their seventh match point of the tournament.
Murray has confirmed Paris will be his very last tennis event but, complete with a metal hip and a six-week-old surgical scar still healing on his back, he delayed the retirement party for at least one more match.
I’ll admit it, a mere few weeks ago I imagined Wimbledon to be a more fitting ending for Murray’s career. I couldn’t really grasp why he was dragging his ailing body to Paris for one last dance when, to me, Wimbledon seemed the far more appropriate setting to call time on two era-defining decades of tennis.
But how wrong I was. The two-time Olympic champion is thriving in Paris — be it on the court, on a boat down the Seine in the pouring rain, or collecting an exorbitant number of country pins as the ultimate souvenir for his last Games.
Tuesday night’s match was an absorbing, emotional rollercoaster: perfectly encapsulating Murray’s career. It is also exactly the dream-like run which he thoroughly deserved after a torrid bit of luck with injuries over the last few months (never mind years).
Murray played among men’s tennis’s Big Three, a trio of seemingly God-like record-breaking players, but his career was one of defiance against their dominance. He was immensely talented, but it was his grit that made him the more relatable, underdog fighter that endeared him to fans.
One of the so-called ‘Big Three’, Rafael Nadal, is working on his own fairytale story on the other side of the doubles draw in Paris - and there is still a slim chance the two veterans could meet in the final. Broken by injury in recent years, and in the midst of his farewell tour, 22-time major champion Nadal is chasing that last bit of magic too.
His record at Roland-Garros remains unsurpassable, but Nadal is no longer superhuman on court - his level in the loss to his longtime rival Novak Djokovic (37) in the second round of singles in Paris was evidence of that.
Like Murray, he is fighting against time running out, and that almost makes his story more compelling than it was during his pomp, as he has become a bit more human.
Simone Biles’s presence in Paris fits the bill too. She is only 27, but practically ancient for gymnastics standards. She and her teammates nicknamed themselves “The Golden Girls” this week, in a nod to the 1980s US sitcom about a group of a middle-aged women. In winning gold with her team on Tuesday, Biles became the oldest female Olympic champion since 1964.
She achieved it in the very event that sent her Tokyo Olympics spiralling away from the golden script, after she withdrew midway through due to suffering from a mental block called the ‘twisties’.
The mental health conversation her withdrawal sparked has propelled Biles’s impact beyond what she achieves in the gym, and - like Nadal and Murray’s physical difficulties - made her a relatable figure to millions who struggle with their own trauma. She has dubbed this Olympics her “redemption” tour, and every champion from Serena Williams to Michael Phelps wants front-row seats to the show.
In the same arena, 32-year-old British gymnast Becky Downie’s story is a comeback for the ages too. In 2020, Downie was one of the only active British team members to speak out as a whistleblower, describing the abuse she experienced as a young gymnast. The abuse case rocked British Gymnastics, and Downie - along with her sister Ellie - risked her whole career for the sake of doing what she felt was right.
I have had the privilege of interviewing Downie during these tumultuous few years. She described to me in detail the icy reception she and Ellie received at national team training camps immediately after they spoke out and the “lack of compassion” she said British Gymnastics showed when their brother Josh died tragically on the eve of the Tokyo Olympic trials.
Still, through those unimaginably difficult times, Downie persisted in her pursuit of one more Games. Her legacy will stretch farther than what she achieves in Paris, but I could not help but marvel at the strength it must have taken to nail her uneven bars routine on Tuesday, scoring 14.933 - the best in a field that included Biles and Sunisa Lee - on the exact day of her late brother’s birthday.
In a sport like gymnastics, which has churned through the hopes of teenage girls for decades — too often with little regard for their well-being — Biles and Downie are examples of longevity against the odds.
Across the Games there is plenty more longevity. LeBron James (39) and Diana Taurasi (42) are leading the USA basketball teams, and five-time gold medalist Taurasi spoke about the constant questioning about her age: “Only a woman would have 20 years of experience and it’s an Achilles heel instead of something that is treasured and used as a way forward for our sport and for women. So hopefully we can change that narrative.”
The Olympics will always make superstars of teenagers. Nadia Comaneci, Biles, Team GB’s 14-year-old Tom Daley in Beijing and then 13-year-old Sky Brown in Tokyo were all young guns that burst onto the scene. There have already been and will be plenty more of these stories in Paris.
But few can relate to a teenager reaching the pinnacle of their sport. It is different to watch an athlete bear the scars from years of losses and injuries and challenges, especially in an event they wait four years for. They are the kinds of stories that people draw parallels to their own lives - however far-fetched - and the type of narrative that prompts the lump in your throat and tears to well up, whether the athletes succeed or fall short.
From Daley winning silver in his fifth Games earlier this week, with his sons watching in the stands, to Adam Peaty returning from depression and alcoholism to take silver, to retiring Angelique Kerber’s quarterfinal run in the tennis, and rower Helen Glover’s upcoming appearance in Paris in her second Games as a mother of three.
To me, Paris is all about savouring every last moment we can watch the Glovers, Daleys, Peatys, Murrays, Biles, Nadals and Downies of the sporting world. Such a will to compete is rare — soak it up.
Recommendations
There’s not much to say except, get the snacks in, stick the Olympics on and sit back on the sofa. My one bit of advice is to catch Downie in the uneven bars final this Sunday.
I’m also so excited to be heading to Paris this weekend for my first Olympics. Will bring you more of the action from there!
Molly x