Category: Social Science

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Commemoration Paris

The cemetery “Père Lachaise” is a spacious area of commemoration in the 20th arrondissement in Paris. Many famous people have been buried there or moved to this cemetery eventually. Edith Piaf, Gustave Caillebotte or Frédéric Chopin are known across borders. You find also a small monument for the controversial founder of homeopathy 200 years ago “Hahnemann” there. He spent his last 8 years in Paris before he died at the age of 88 in 1843. From a social science perspective it is interesting to note that commemoration is much more decided by the descendants like in the case of Hahnemann or the popularity of the person, like for Piaf, than the person her/himself. The tradition of joint graves for families holds for the Paris born painter and collector Gustave Caillebotte despite his movements to other places. The freshly cut flowers on the grave of Piaf show that the performances of the artist have made deep and lasting impressions.

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Sports International

Beyond the Olympic Games the practice of sport has been widely spread across cultures. The meeting of cultures through athletes is also a worldwide phenomenon. The “Musée du Quai Branly” offers an opportunity to delve into the different cultures of the world. With abundant water resources Oceania has developed boats that ensured survival, work, art and leisure. The image below is a fine piece of art which is exposed in the permanent exhibition of Oceania. Even a turtle appears to be rowing next to the others. Most other depictions or objects with reference to sports have fighting as a feature or refer to it. The Olympic games have similar historical depictions. Martial practices, sometimes also called martial arts, have been the source of decorations and special designs in all cultures. The ethnographic collections of this museum offer a glimpse into the rich cultural heritage of all continents. We have so much in common across continents that it is still hard to see mankind captured in many wars across the world. Paris 2024 Games with the “Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac” give hope that sustainable development (70% of the museum is green space!) and peaceful living together is feasible with a focus on joint cultural heritage with enriching diversity.

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Olympics Together

The extended version of the official Olympic principles now includes in addition to faster, higher, stronger- together. Together stands for all nations competing together in the Games. Additionally, together is a key concept of team work. Athletes in many of the Olympic disciplines need to have a competency to perform in teams. Sport is therefore a great exercise to enhance team spirit and take responsibility of own performance in a team. Job markets value this competence as it is a skill that is hard to measure in a reliable way. Even various forms of assessment centers have a hard time to test ability to work in various forms of teams. Asking for sports practiced in leisure time maybe faked easily but participants in high level sport competitions can reply to o questions with details that are rather unique. Even many individual sports have doubles, relays or larger team competitions. Olympic Games Paris 2024 made this particularly clear again. (Image Raoul Dufy, Les Régates 1908, MAM Paris)

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Olympic Virus

We tend to believe or want to believe that the horrible SARS Covid-19 crisis is completely behind us. However, science signals that we need to stay alert with respect to the mutations of the virus. International events like the Paris 2024 Olympics bring together athletes and spectators from all continents and some of them still seem to carry the virus with or without symptoms. A report in the LANCET Respiratory Health mentioned that dozens of athletes were tested positive for the virus and a largely unaccounted number of spectators had carried the virus FLiRT variants. As tracking is difficult with more or less absent testing strategies the tests rely on waste water analyses and reports from health care institutions. The Olympic Games are over but the virus still lives on and variants keep popping up. Games during the summer months should be much saver than winter games as the time spent outside is much longer. Traveling in crowded transport, however, remains a potential health hazard. Huge crowds at Olympics are inevitable. After all, birds of the same feather flock together.

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Olympic Competences

The athletes who managed to participate in the Olympic Games dispose of a specific skill set beyond their more narrow sports discipline. The general competence is long-term planning and sticking to training schedules. These schedules involve multiple deadlines with well-defined training goals. Coaches accompany the athletes in this endeavor. The competence to listen to advice from one or more persons to achieve personal goals is an important factor of success as well. Rather than being a personality trait this can be acquired through learning experiences. Coaching helps to achieve targets short and long term. Endurance in mental and physical form are trainable and most Olympic athletes have spent many years to prepare for the singularity of the Olympics like in Paris 2024. The same holds true for the participants of the Paralympic games. Maybe the most important competence of high level athletes is to keep exercising, training and trying despite many backlashes and missing of goals. (Image: Extract from Gustave Caillebotte Le Plongeon, 1878, Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris).

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Olympic Shopping

After the Paris 2024 Olympic Games have closed officially it is high time, not only for the international tourists, to do some shopping of souvenirs from Paris. Some of the flagship stores like Le Printemps Haussmann renovated a 100 years old splendid staircase (image below) for this centennial occasion of Olympics in Paris. You may test your performance there and check which grades you will receive from passers by. The first numbers of the increase in tourists in Paris show significant increases from across the world including many countries from which previously few tourists arrived. Many will want to return to the marvelous sports sites and the great shopping experiences Paris has to offer.

The Galerie Lafayette, which recently closed a shop in Berlin, is a major attraction for international tourists. It offers unique instagramable images to visitors on the platform outlook into the world of luxury. Very difficult to not be seduced after so many exciting Olympic contests.

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Sports Beauty

Since the days of ancient Greece the combination of sports and the ideals of beauty has been praised. The many representations of mainly sportsmen at the time were copied by many artists to represent ideal forms of bodies and beauty. Only more than 2000 years later the female sportspersons find equal admiration in sports and the imagery of beauty. The Académie des beaux-arts in Paris 2024 has chosen this as a topic to guide visitors of the Olympic Games through the vast collections at the Musée Orsay (imaga below). The depiction of Hercules, for example, has idealized the strength of men. The beauty of sports movements reaches levels of dance or ballet. The precision of performances highlights the not only the physical qualities, but also the beauty of the body in motion. The popular appeal of performance and perfection contribute to the admiration of ideals. Reaching these ideals is a completely different story. The training and preparation may take years mostly invisible to the one time spectators. However, the glory stays for decades or until a closer match to the ideal is achieved by another athlete or another person. Even ideals are time dependent and rarely eternal.

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Green Olympics

Paris 2024 has won a medal for the Green Olympics. Sustainable building of Olympic sites is a crucial element in this struggle for saving resources. Just as important is the CO2 footprint of the transport within the city if you cannot prevent thousands of people from flying to the venues. Public transport in Paris used the occasion to improve its services considerably. The restrictions to cars driving around in the inner city also for security reasons made the Olympic experience for Paris a healthy walking experience for all. The view from the “Arc de Triomphe” during the Olympics in Paris is even more pleasant and relaxed as the noisy and polluting traffic is reduced to minimal levels. You were able to grasp the feeling what inner cities could be like if people were the overriding concern of cities rather than circulation of automotive vehicles. Redressing this balance in favor of people living, working and visiting is overdue and we all know this. The city of Paris used the occasion to demonstrate that another way or compromise is possible. This is also a way to write history and create unforgettable moments. Paris discusses already what to keep from the Olympics for longer. Maybe the vasque, maybe the cleaning crews. New Metro lines, of course. Why not the different traffic and mobility patterns? It’s well worth a lasting Green Olympic medal.

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Olympic Prevention

In the streets near the Stade de France at Seine Saint Denis the team of street workers addressed spectators with little presents. Each of these little items served the purpose to remind people of the prevention of disease or later consequences of the Olympic atmospheres in PARIS 2024. Sex, booze and drugs, but also noise were the topics of the prevention patrol around popular venues. Great way to bring home a message for visitors and the local population as well. Health and Olympic Games is a huge topic with many facets to it. Not only athletes are concerned, but also spectators. The team agreed to pose for media coverage as this is their reason of existence. Reaching big crowds is essential especially if big sugar is among the big sponsors of the games. It is another kind of competition with rather unequal starting conditions. You might loose some fights against yourself, but trying to overcome alcohol addiction or sugar overdose is worth a repeated game. Prevention is key.

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Olympic Democracy

It is interesting to follow how the Olympic Games follow a moderate version of how to run a democracy. Paris 2024 takes pride in making this a little bit more visible. It is the people in democracies who decide whether to host Olympic games in their country and the many executive branches of governments have to coordinate their actions, budgets and planning accordingly. The National Assembly in Paris 2024 is showing its commitment to the Games in front of the building as well. Beyond the ancient discipline of archery, new disciplines like surfing is turned into a piece of art like a statue honoring the athletes. The IOC follows the division of powers with an assembly of states, an executive and the judiciary. In each discipline it is evident that without a well established and accepted independent judges the Games would become a farce and would no longer attract such huge crowds. It is a steep challenge to ensure that doping and other illegal activities do not destroy the peaceful spirit of the Olympic Games. Science has a role to play in advancing and controlling the athletes and their teams acting under cover. All in all, we find democracy in a nutshell including the necessary trust in institutions to ensure a fair running of the Games in Paris 2024.