I have seen many comments on social media to the effect that the 2024 Paris Olympics have gone “woke”. I agree. Many sports are now mere shadows of what they were a few decades ago let alone the original Greek ideals. Gymnastics for example, the name of which is derived from the Greek gymnós meaning “naked”, nowadays involves competitors with their naughty bits covered up. How woke is that? And the boxers even wear gloves! They’ve all gone soft!
Another example is the fencing. I’m not an expert on this but I did watch quite a lot when I was younger – admittedly not on live TV, but in the form of film recordings. The modern Olympic version of fencing is boring compared with how it used to be. Here are two photographs that illustrate how fencing has gone woke.
For a start, just look at all the protective gear worn by the namby-pamby competitors on the left! And they don’t even use proper swords! It’s health and safety gone mad!
Also, where are the fancy costumes, the stone staircases to run up and down, the chandeliers to swing from, the elaborate hanging tapestries to climb, or the long banqueting tables covered in expensive items there to be trashed? Pathetic!
(P.S. Basil Rathbone (in the still on the right) was actually a seriously good fencer, twice British Army champion in fact, unlike his opponent in the picture Errol Flynn who was so useless that he was a danger to other members of the cast, including Rathbone.)
