Page 14 of Let the Games Begin
A bright flash of light leaped out onto the stadium as a golden bolt of lightning began to form on the ground, crackling and spreading across the floor until it exploded and filled the stadium with light. The light revealed a gorgeous stage in the shape of a mountain. It was Mount Olympus, the home of the Greek gods. And as music began to fill the stadium, people dressed in white and wearing green leaf wreaths began to walk out of hidden doors and make their way onto the stage, forming a crowd of people playing the role of ancient Athenians.
Zeke Moyo had stayed up late or woken up early to watch every Olympic opening ceremony since he was eight years old. But watching this one, knowing that he’d be inside the stadium by the end of the night, made the whole thing feel even more magical.
Zeke, Team GB, and all the other Olympic teams couldn’t enter the stadium until it was time for the athletes’ parade. So, they were sitting in a field outside the stadium watching it on a set of big screens.
A man dressed as Zeus, the Greek god of sky and thunder, walked out onto the stage version of Mount Olympus that hadbeen created in the middle of the stadium. He had a long white beard and the regal demeanor of a king. What followed was a majestic performance portraying the beginning of the ancient Olympic Games through stories, songs, and meticulously choreographed dance.
Zeke kept asking one of the Greek volunteers what it all meant. But he didn’t have to understand every detail of the story unfolding before him to be completely mesmerized. It was the most incredible performance he’d ever seen.
People of all ages, races, and appearances began to fill the stage as the music grew louder and more ethereal. The audience watched in wonder as they heard stories about ancient Greece, learned about the country’s history, and discovered the city’s role in the creation of the ancient Olympics.
Zeke watched gravity-defying stunts, marveled at all the incredible layers of the set, and clapped after each song, dance, and performance that made up the first third of the ceremony.
Once the performances were done and the crowd got up to applaud the show they’d just seen, Zeke and the rest of Team GB formed an excited line behind their flag bearers to join the athletes’ parade. As each team walked in, the audience welcomed them with rolls of applause, whether they had over six hundred athletes like Team USA or a small but powerful delegation like the Refugee Olympic Team. When it was time for Team GB to go in, Zeke and his teammates walked out into the stadium to an even louder round of applause than Zeke remembered hearing in Tokyo.
Zeke’s eyes widened; he could feel the goosebumps springing up across his skin. The audience was a glittering wave of colorfulshirts and beaming smiles. He could see the flags of every country he could possibly imagine hanging down from the rafters. The energy was infectious. As he walked, ran, and danced around the perimeter with his teammates and oldest friends, for a few minutes all his worries and questions about what came next melted away. All he could do was hold his friends tight and stare out at the stadium in awe. If this was the pinnacle, it would be more than enough.
Once each country’s team had walked in and the athletes were seated around the stage, the stadium dimmed to complete darkness. Classical music filled the air, and the screens lit up with a live video of one man running through Athens with a flaming torch in his hand. Then he was surrounded by a sea of excited children, running alongside him with their own makeshift torches. He passed the torch on to an older woman, whose eyes filled with tears as she approached the stadium. The world watched as nervous local heroes, famous athletes, and legendary Athenians passed on the torch, until at last they entered the stadium. The final link in the chain walked up onto the stage and lit the fire. The crowd erupted into applause.
The 2024 Athens Olympic Games had officially begun.
14Olivia
THE DAY OF THE OPENING CEREMONY
Olivia hadn’t left the house that morning thinking she would end the night performing a Mariah Carey duet with a Bulgarian weight lifter to a rowdy crowd of Australian water sports champions. But nothing about the time she’d spent so far in the Olympic Village had gone the way she’d expected it to.
Olivia had decided to make the best of things. Lars Lindberg had her internship now and, as much as she wanted to march back to the HR office and give them a piece of her mind, she knew that at this point it was up to her to find a solution. To take the scraps she’d been given and carefully craft them into something beautiful. So, Olivia was determined to ace her second day.
As an “all-rounder” volunteer (she was still workshopping how to make it sound more prestigious on her CV), her job was to answer walkie-talkie calls and travel around the Village helping people in different departments who needed a spare pair of hands. Her office for the next two weeks would be the reception desk of the Athletes’ Hub. When she arrived, she was greeted by atall, tanned guy wearing a volunteer uniform. He had curly blond hair and an incredibly friendly Australian accent.
“Olivia? Hey! I’m Arlo, so excited to meet you!” he said as he reached out to shake her hand. He had the energy of a golden retriever.
As he showed her the ropes, Olivia tried to keep the conversation focused on work and how she could become the very best at it. She still had to find a way back to her dream career at the Olympics, after all. But Arlo loved to chat. She found out that he’d been traveling around the world for the past four years: “It was a gap year that went completely out of control!” Had alternated between teaching surfing classes and working at coffee shops. And that he was staying in Athens with his boyfriend’s family while he volunteered at the Games. Arlo was in the middle of telling her about the “absolutely mind-bending” surfing trip he’d taken in Bali, when Olivia’s walkie-talkie buzzed.
“First walkie-talkie call!” Arlo said enthusiastically. The call was from one of the volunteers working in Canada House, whose athletes had just run out of bathroom towels. So, Arlo and Olivia grabbed their walkie-talkies and made their way to the launderettes. As they walked around the Village, Olivia quickly realized that Arlo seemed to know everyone. When they got to Canada House, he asked the concierge about her five-year-old daughter. He asked if the cleaner had enjoyed the shawarma at the restaurant Arlo had recommended to him, and whether the security guard had caught up on the latest episode of the Korean crime drama they were both obsessed with. Olivia trailed behind, trying to look friendly, as Arlo flitted around like an excited puppy. His unbridled enthusiasm was infectious, andas the two of them walked around running errands, she vowed to be a bit more like Arlo. And to say “yes” to everything that came her way.
When she was asked to handwrite 200 names onto the tickets being sent to national delegates, she said yes. When she got a walkie-talkie call to pick up all the sweaty towels the German rugby team had used after training, she said yes. And when Arlo asked her what her plans were for watching the opening ceremony that night, Olivia said…
“Can you stage a walkie-talkie call that gets us into the stadium?”
“No, but I can get you into the second-best watch party in town,” Arlo said.
So, Olivia said yes.
Arlo had arrived in Athens months ago. He’d been volunteering on the preparation side of the Games and had become the self-appointed social secretary of the Village volunteers. So once their shift ended, Olivia and Arlo headed to the other side of the Village and into a bustling sports bar that the volunteers were commandeering as their own. They were surrounded by a crowd of people wearing the same matching blue-and-yellow uniform as Arlo introduced her to more people than she could possibly keep count of. Usually, Olivia dragged Aditi along to every social event she went to, but she was at a food influencer party that night in the center of Athens. And she didn’t have the security credentials to get into the Village, anyway. However, Arlo was the perfect friend-making wingman, and soon Olivia felt completely at home with the volunteers.
As she settled into the atmosphere, she began to feel excitedabout her summer again. According to Instagram, Lars Lindberg was watching the opening ceremony from a VIP booth in the stadium with all the OOC executives Olivia had worked so hard to research. But she was sitting in a big, sprawling viewing party watching it with people who’d spent their whole lives following those five intersecting rings. People who loved the Olympics just as much as she did and weren’t afraid to show it. She decided that this was just as good. Maybe even better.
The volunteers were completely mesmerized by the opening ceremony unfolding just a short walk away from them. When the performers onstage did something spectacular, everybody clapped. When the story being performed got emotional, some people wept. And when it was time to watch the athletes’ parade, they cheered for every single country. Olivia took a photo of the ten-person-strong Zimbabwean team and sent it to her dad, who texted her back saying “by the time you run the Olympics, that will be a 100-person team.” Olivia shook her head, realizing that eventually she would have to tell her parents the truth. But before she could dwell on it, she got distracted by the party. The volunteers really were her kind of people. She talked to a Scottish guy volunteering in the accreditation office about how much they’d both loved listening to the London 2012 Olympic soundtrack. She chatted to an Indonesian woman volunteering at the ticket office about how she traveled the world working at events just like this. And she split a big plate of chips and dips with a group of Brazilians volunteering in the transport department as they told her about all of the best places in the Village that weren’t on the official map. When the final section of the ceremony began, the crowd came to a hush again as they watched the torch relayin wonderstruck silence. The 2024 Athens Olympic Games had officially begun.
Olivia was ready to leave the Village, head back to the apartment she and Aditi were staying in, and call it a night. She had to wake up on time the next morning for her second official full day. And she was planning on applying for new jobs to get her life back on track in time for September. But as she mapped her route back home, Arlo found her and put an end to her plans for an early night.
“Olivia, you are not going home, we havepartiesto go to,” he said with a glimmer in his eyes.
Olivia had heard rumors about the Village after-parties. About the drinking games, wild dares, and noisy bedrooms. That in London 2012 a whole team of French volleyball players had ended the night skinny-dipping in the River Lea. And that during Rio 2016, a group of Canadian cyclists had somehow woken up six hours away in São Paulo. She knew the after-parties were a thing of legend, but walking into one was a whole other experience. Arlo, because he was Arlo, had already befriended a few athletes. They’d invited him to a party happening in the huge apartment block occupied by Team Australia and said he could bring a plus-one. As they walked up the path they heard the loud, intoxicating aughts pop music pouring out of the windows. Olivia reaffirmed her vow to keep saying yes. Arlo opened the door, music blasted out, and the two of them were pulled into the wildest, most cinematic party Olivia had ever seen.
As the opening beats of “Lose Control” by Missy Elliottkicked in, Olivia realized that she was stepping into what could only be described as a high-performing-athlete rager. There were clusters of people on every floor drinking out of plastic cups. High-energy pop music playing from different speakers up and down the building. And fresh-faced athletes, who’d been on their very best behavior during the opening ceremony, completely letting loose. People were dancing in the halls, kissing in quiet corners, and taking photos of the party with the unspoken agreement that nothing scandalous would ever leave their phones. The athletes all had immaculate reputations to maintain, sponsors to keep happy, and home countries to impress. Posting a risky photo of another athlete guaranteed mutually assured destruction, so while they let themselves go at the party, they kept it cute online.
