With Olympic fever beginning to take hold for Paris 2024, I have begun to think about what this sporting-cultural event means.

We can only enjoy the biggest event in the world of sport once every four years. I admit to not enjoying football for what feels like 12 months a year, so when the Games come around, it is refreshing. But even in that one month in every 48, football still won’t leave me alone. Advertising between Olympic events clamours for the start of the new season, as if it were something we couldn’t live without. Meanwhile, here is a wonderful opportunity to broaden our horizons by watching such a variety of different sports.

That said, I want to like fencing, I really do, hey, The Princess Bride is a favourite, but I just can’t do it. So I appreciate that however much I proclaim my interest, I end up avoiding the weightlifting, flick on and off the dressage and maybe experiment with the rowing. But at least we have the chance to turn it off, because it’s actually on. I accept that there are many people who are not excited about sport, or are more inclined to football, but I repeat; one month every four years. Is it that much to ask?

I want to see the marathon athletes, sheltered by the landscape of the city they touch, sweating, enduring, overtaking, fighting with their own bodies. I want to see the canoeists early in the morning, with a blue sky behind them and joy in my heart. I want to see the pairs diving, when one counts down to jump, trying to whisper in secret. I want to see dancing horses, even though it seems like one of the daftest sports ever invented. Because? Because each of these participants is so grateful, so excited to be part of that illustrious global event that they are going to give everything they have and show their strength, their ability and their spirit to try to be the best they can be. And it’s also funny when a diver does a belly flop.

The Olympics may have become something commercial, full of sponsors and doping, but it is also true that there are still people with the Olympic spirit in their souls, and I sincerely believe that that spirit is not only valid but necessary. Necessary for human hope. We are living in a world of horrors and falsity. It seems that fair play, a concept so fundamental in sport, is seriously lacking in the world in which we live. Voyeurism and a lack of respect towards our fellow human beings have become the norm, in the media and in our daily lives, embarrassing us, under the banner of being informative and balanced.

But humans are more than that, than this. We are big (and small sometimes), we are fighters (and we give up sometimes). We have our ups and downs. We succeed and we fail, but above all, we survive, because we have no other choice. And when we are the best we can be, we are great, we are gods. But we often believe we are incapable, because they tell us we are. And so apathy sets in.

We are short of Olympic spirit. I’m referring to virtues like fighting for what we may achieve, taking responsibility, not complaining, being happy for others, fairness, sharing dreams, giving our best… These things unite us. Not as countries (there will always be the resentment that one nation holds against another, let’s be honest), but as individuals, as human beings with our hearts on our sleeves. And above all, being proud to know that we give our best in everything we do. Learning to accept our own failures and to appreciate and take advantage of our strengths is fundamental.

And it may also be that with self-belief, we can achieve anything we set our minds to. If we’re prepared to try.

NEW PODCAST AVAILABLE! At Link below and on Spotify

Episode 33: Theatres