Star quality
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Wasnât Lewis in a wheelchair or am I imagining that?
Never saw that.
This is one of my earliest memories of the Olympics
https://twitter.com/Olympics/status/1816385310940389811?t=YKHpRYGob7eBafpVpZpkBw&s=19
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Amazing opening ceremony. Like a cross between interstellar and Eurovision at times but hit all the right notes with some iconic imagery and naustalgia thrown in as well
Moscow 1980 was iconic. The doves set loose at the opening ceremony. Settling on top of the unlit torch. The lighting of the torch. The smell of roasted doves.
The bear sheeding a tear at the close
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That definitely happened in Seoul as well.
Years ago I mean
I presume this type of ceremony was easier for the athletes too rather than being stuck on their feet for 6 hours completely dehydrated. They could just fuck off once the board moored if they wanted too. Canât do that when youâre cramped inside a stadium.
Loads of pubs along the riverside as well. Would have suited some
Los Angeles will now surely use the ICONIC Sunset Boulevard or Hollywood Boulevard for its opening ceremony while Brisbane will use the ICONIC eh, weâll get back to ya on that.
Luzâs last letter to Jesse in 1942 or 1943, probably written from North Africa where Luz was in the German Wehrmacht, spoke to the friendship they had:
I am here, Jesse, where it seems there is only the dry sand and the wet blood. I do not fear so much for myself, my friend Jesse, I fear for my woman who is home, and my young son Karl, who has never really known his father,â Long wrote.
My heart tells me, if I be honest with you, that this is the last letter I shall ever write. If it is so, I ask you something. It is a something so very important to me. It is you go to Germany when this war done, someday find my Karl, and tell him about his father. Tell him, Jesse, what times were like when we not separated by war. I am sayingâtell him how things can be between men on this earth.
If you do this something for me, this thing that I need the most to know will be done, I do something for you, now. I tell you something I know you want to hear. And it is true.
That hour in Berlin when I first spoke to you, when you had your knee upon the ground, I knew that you were in prayer.
Then I not know how I know. Now I do. I know it is never by chance that we come together. I come to you that hour in 1936 for purpose more than der Berliner Olympiade.
And you, I believe, will read this letter, while it should not be possible to reach you ever, for purpose more even than our friendship.
I believe this shall come about because I think now that God will make it come about. This is what I have to tell you, Jesse.
I think I might believe in God.
And I pray to him that, even while it should not be possible for this to reach you ever, these words I write will still be read by you.
Your brother,
Luz
Letter cbn.com.
Carl âLuzâ Long was wounded in Sicily on July 10,1943, during the Allied invasion of Sicily in Operation Husky (July 9 â August 17, 1943). He died on July 14 in a British military hospital there. Luz was buried in Motta St. Anastasia German War Cemetery in Sicily. He was 30 years old.
In 1951 Jesse Owens returned to Germany and was able to find Luzâs son, Karl (called Kai). They would stay in contact, and when Kai got married Jesse was the best man.
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Wow. Some story
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Better version here - suggests the letter is probably not true
A good bit of that ceremony was odd and tacky but the Frenchies redeemed themselves after the boats. Some spectacle and one of inclusivity. iâd say Le Pen didnât tune in.
Watching the Womenâs Handball on Eurosport. The joys of the Olympics
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