It's a Summer Games to savour
With the pandemic long behind us, the joy of the Olympics will be back in Paris. And with Canadian athletes poised for a medal haul, it should be a winning recipe for CBC.
You have a conversation with the man who will direct the television coverage Canadians will see during the Paris Olympics and the word “joy” jumps to the forefront. As in, the emotion that should be back in full force as the Summer Games finally move beyond the global pandemic that kept the stands largely empty in Tokyo back in 2021. And stole away the aforementioned emotion that is so associated with the world’s biggest sporting festival.
If you’ve watched an Olympic Games, be it winter or summer, you know exactly what Chris Wilson is talking about. You know what was missing from the antiseptic Games of not only Tokyo, but of Beijing less than a year later (what should have been the 2020 Games were delayed a year because of the pandemic). Joyless, in fact, was a word bantered around in some quarters to define those Olympics. And so you know why the TV folks are especially enthused about the stories that will unfold in one of the world’s most historic cities beginning on July 26 (just three weeks from today), when the Olympic movement turns the clock back to “normal” times.
“Since I’ve been at CBC, this is my first Olympic Games outside of the pandemic. Tokyo and Beijing were my only two so far. In terms of the friends and family and the energy of the spectators and the energy of the city, and the festival atmosphere that happens around an Olympics, I think everybody is really excited to bring that energy into the broadcasts and into the coverage,” said Wilson, CBC/Radio-Canada’s general manager of Olympics for Paris 2024 . “A lot of the iconic visuals that people remember are of family members in the crowd crying and cheering when their family members win. We didn’t have any of that, really, for Tokyo or Beijing.
“A lot of what we’re excited about is that energy that an Olympic city generates, and we’ll be trying to bring as much of that energy into our coverage as possible, and make sure our stories sort of reflect that circle around an Olympic athlete of coaches and support and family members that have helped them get there and, in the case of Paris, in large part are going to be there in person, which is just so magical.”
Magical might be just the right word to describe the kinds of things that those of us who follow an Olympics closely for 17 days (and I’ve lost count of how many of them I’ve seen over the years) will witness. From a sports perspective, it truly is the Greatest Show On Earth, and now it arrives in the French capital for the first time in exactly a century. And Paris promises a Summer Games that will be bathed in not only the history of its past, but is also forward looking with the introduction of new sports such as breaking, and an Opening Ceremony that might be the most unique you’ll ever see.
If they so choose, Canadians can absolutely drown themselves in Olympic viewing. Between its various platforms (linear TV and streaming via either computer or a wireless phone app) and broadcast partners TSN, Sportsnet and RDS, the CBC will make more than 3,000 hours of Paris coverage available. CBC itself will be on the air 22 hours a day, Radio-Canada a similar amount for those wanting French language coverage.
It’s exhaustive, to say the least.
We dug a little deeper into that coverage in our conversation with Wilson, and what follows are some of the highlights that should pique Canadians’ interest:
Goodbye, wacky time zones
For the first time since 2016, the Olympics aren’t in the Asian time zone (remember those sleep challenging games of PyeongChang, Tokyo and Beijing?), and that should be most favourable to those of us who live in the Eastern part of this country. While the time zones of the previous three Games did present an opportunity for live sport coverage in the evening, a lot of the good stuff ended up happening the wee hours. That should be a thing of the past in Paris, which is six hours ahead of Eastern time, meaning the biggest events will happen in the morning and afternoon.
Don’t know about you, but I’m pretty pumped about all of the above.
“There will definitely be less stuff happening overnight while people are sleeping, so that’s a good thing,” admitted Wilson. “We expect the daytime viewing, in the morning and afternoon, is going to be epic because that’s when all of the main live sport is happening, so we’re excited to see what those numbers are like. It is definitely different to have the next two Games in Europe, and we think daytime viewing will be really, really popular.”
(the 2026 Winter Games are to be held in Milan-Cortina, Italy).
It might also mean a lot of distracted workers, who will no doubt do their best to find ways to stream their favourite events. As Wilson quipped, “we hope we’ll see a drop in work productivity for 17 days in July and August.”
And while we’re on the subject of streaming …
Pick a sport, any sport
There are 32 sports being contested at Paris 2024, four of them new (breaking, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing, which will be held in Tahiti. The basketball program adds 3-on-3). Chances are, there’s somebody out there who might have an interest in any one of them. And thanks to the growth of streaming, it’s possible to watch just about all of them in Paris — it’s literally your call what to want to see, to a point, with up to 16 live streams available (yes, gone are the days when someone in TV land with the big clicker will make those decisions for you).
“We can’t say that every sport and every minute is on. We don’t have every single feed available on those platforms. For the most part, it’s almost everything. It is a vast amount,” said Wilson. “If you go into the environment on CBC Gem and you’re really interested in watching track and field for the whole day or the soccer preliminary rounds or the tennis, those will largely be available. There are moments we can’t offer, because there’s so many feeds and we have to make some choices. For the vast majority of people, for the most part they’ll be able to see what they want to see in that streaming environment. It’s really pretty remarkable.”
A lean, mean Olympic machine
CBC will have around 200 personnel on the ground in Paris (both on-air and technical crews), which Wilson said “is about half of what we would have had pre-pandemic times.” Some of that is a product of the previous two Games, which affected the networks’ production, he added. “We were sort of forced into positions and then learned that certain roles could be done from home. So it’s a much smaller footprint than we’ve had in the past, but it’s enough that we think that not only will we be able to cover the Canadian athletes, but bring home a sense of the energy and make sure that we’re doing justice to covering what’s on the ground (more efficiently).”
Of course, dollars and sense are at play here. Olympic budgets aren’t what they used to be, that’s for sure, and the CBC is in belt-tightening mode. But Wilson says this isn’t just an issue for the public broadcaster.
“Just generally, the Olympic Movement and the IOC and all the broadcasters have made a commitment to reduce the carbon footprint of the Games. And there’s a legitimate and authentic desire to try to have less of an environmental impact, and part of that is travelling less people,” he explained. “It’s not just us. Every broadcaster around the world is moving toward a smaller, more efficient team in the host city, and bigger operations back at home. It’s definitely a world-wide movement.”
So whose boots are on the ground?
Along the same lines, Wilson said the CBC will limit live play-by-play to three disciplines: swimming (where Canada is expected to have one of its biggest medal hauls of the Games), track and field and basketball (Canada’s men’s basketball team is back in the Olympics for the first time since 2000, while the women are rated among the top five in the world).
“Radio-Canada is similar … they’re doing athletics, swimming and gymnastics. The rest of the commentators will be at home,” said Wilson. “We’ll have lots of field reporters there to do the interviews live in the mixed zones, but in terms of the live commentary, we have made the decision to have a minimal number of sports called from inside the venues.”
That decision making also extends to the segment hosts. With most of the live sport happening during the day, the CBC will have Anastasia Bucsis (RBC Olympic Morning, 6 a.m.-noon ET) stationed at Canada Olympic House. And Scott Russell, the public broadcaster’s foremost voice of Olympic sport, will host Bell Paris Prime (noon-6 p.m. ET) from a standup spot with the famed Eiffel Tower as a backdrop.
(you may have heard that Russell, who’s working his 17th Games for the CBC, has decided that Paris will be his Olympic swan song. The 66-year-old announced last month that he is moving on to a chancellor position at Nipissing University in North Bay, Ontario. His final broadcast after nearly 40 years with the CBC will be Sept. 8, the last day of the Paris Paralympics).
Toyota Olympic Games Primetime (7 p.m.-2 a.m. ET), featuring host Andi Petrillo, and Olympic Games Overnight (2 a.m.-6 a.m. ET), will emanate from CBC’s studios in Toronto (there will be a one-hour break for The National at some point between these two shows).
About that Opening Ceremony …
You think Opening Ceremony at an Olympics, you think pageantry, solemn tradition and creative production. But really, the heart of this has always been the marching of the athletes into the main Olympic stadium. But in Paris, you’ll be getting a very non-traditional take on this, with more than 200 boats carrying the parade of athletes down the Seine River through the heart of Paris, with thousands of spectators lining its banks to take in the festivities.
For those televising the proceedings, it’s something that could truly be spectacular, although there’s a lot of trepidation surrounding this as well. But Wilson has nothing but praise for the big swing Paris is taking,
“The fact that we don’t entirely know how it’s going to go is so exciting and it drives certain people crazy, especially television people that love to everything planned down to the second exactly what’s going to happen,” he said. “There’s no rehearsal for the Opening Ceremony for basically the first time ever. You can’t rehearse having two hundred or so boats go down the river, but we have had a sneak peek at what is planned in terms of the camera coverage, and specialized cameras and boats and drones that have been brought together to help make the coverage of this unique.
“It’s a bit of a technical and engineering marvel, and the fact we don’t know how it’s going to go is kind of exhilarating and kind of scary, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try it. I just have total and complete respect (for doing it). Just imagine when six years ago Paris is planning the Opening Ceremony, and someone says ‘hey, what if we did it on boats down the river instead of in a stadium?’ That took guts. It’s just remarkable and I think it’s to be applauded. The Paralympic ceremony is going to be the athletes marching down the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. That’s equally exciting.”
Historic Games, historic venues
We saw some of this in London 2012, but these Paris Games will provide viewers with a look at some of the most iconic venues in the French capital — and as sport venues, not just travelogue-type eye candy. Among them …
Beach volleyball will be played in a stadium constructed on the Parc du Champ de Mars in the shadows of the Eiffel Tower (and yes, you can buy tickets to watch matches from the most famous landmark in Paris).
Fencing and taekwondo are being contested in the Grand Palais, which was first unveiled during the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1900.
Breaking makes its Olympic debut at Place de la Concorde, the public square that links the Champs-Elysees with the Louvre and the Jardins des Tuileries. BMX freestyle, 3-on-3 basketball and skateboarding are also to be held there.
The immense grounds at the famed palace of Versailles will be the site of all equestrian events (cross-country, showjumping and dressage).
“It is going to be visually stunning,” says Wilson of the historic venues. “One of the reasons we’re so excited to share our coverage with Canadians is the visuals that are going to come back from various venues, virtually all of them being historic places with amazing panoramic shots, in addition to the Opening Ceremony. It’s going to be so interesting and visually satisfying.”
Canada’s success stories
It is no stretch to say that the success of Canadian athletes goes a long way toward determining the audience levels for Olympic broadcasts. And if you haven’t noticed, we’ve become an emerging Summer Games power. Canadian athletes earned 24 medals in Tokyo three years ago, the highest ever for a non-boycotted Olympics, with the seven gold medals matching Barcelona 1992 in that area. More of that kind of success is expected in Paris, which should fuel CBC’s numbers for their broadcasts.
“The performance of the Canadian team without a doubt impacts the number of people that tune in. Our job is not to be cheerleaders for the athletes on the air; we’re there to cover it. But in a way, our coverage is a massive rallying place for Canadians to get together and unite behind Team Canada,” says Wilson. “We hope the performances are great because it’s good for us and for Canadians and for the athletes if they do well. It does make a difference.”
The last words
We asked Wilson what, in his eyes, would define these Games as successful for the CBC and its broadcast partners. Here’s how he put it:
“At the end of the day, our job and our role as the public broadcaster is to make sure that we make the Olympic Games as available as possible for Canadians in all the different ways that they want to consume it. And so we’re going to do that, and cover the Canadian athletes, and make sure all the work and time and energy that they’ve invested in representing Canada is reflected in our coverage. And obviously, we want millions of Canadians to tune in, in one way, shape or form — be it on their phone or their computer or their TV or all three, ideally. We hope they all take advantage of the fact that their public broadcaster is known as being among the very best in the world at covering an Olympic Games. If millions of Canadians take us up on that offer and use our service, then I think it’s considered a success.”
Some national team thoughts
We’ll conclude this yarn with a few words about the 2024-25 national team unveiled by Skate Canada earlier this week. All the defending national champions are back for another season — most notably World pairs champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps, and world ice dance silver medallists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier. The team includes three newcomers: Aleksa Rakic, Anthony Paradis and Hetty Shi.
Per Skate Canada’s release, here are the criteria for national team selection:
“To be named to the national team, skaters must have finished in the top three in the senior men, women, pair or ice dance disciplines at the 2024 Canadian National Skating Championships and/or be assigned to a 2024 ISU Grand Prix event at the ISU Grand Prix Selection meeting and must be competing during the 2024-2025 season.
“The synchronized skating (national) team is comprised of the synchronized skating teams that finished in the top three in the senior discipline at the 2024 Canadian National Skating Championships.”
With that in mind, the national team consists of the following skaters:
Men: Wesley Chiu, Stephen Gogolev, Anthony Paradis, Aleksa Rakic, Roman Sadovsky.
Women: Sara-Maude Dupuis, Kaiya Ruiter, Maddie Schizas, Hetty Shi.
Pairs: Deanna Stellato-Dudek/Maxime Deschamps, Kelly Ann Laurin/Loucas Ethier, Lia Pereira/Trennt Michaud.
Ice Dance: Alicia Fabbri/Paul Ayer; Laurence Fournier Beaudry/Nikolaj Soerensen; Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier; Marjorie Lajoie/Zachary Lagha; Marie-Jade Lauriault/Romain Le Gac.
Synchronized skating: Les Supremes, NEXXICE, Nova.
I wonder why surfing is to be held in Tahiti? Portugal is in the same time zone and is a world class surfing destination.