Through selfie, shhh and hug, the Olympic spirit shines

Kolkata: The after-match brawl in Bordeaux, where Zinedine Zidane’s career was once shaped but whose club is now in dire straits, was weeks in the making

Kolkata: The after-match brawl in Bordeaux, where Zinedine Zidane’s career was once shaped but whose club is now in dire straits, was weeks in the making. Ever since Argentina won Copa and its players sang a song mocking French players of African descent, there was as much chance of this football quarter-final passing off without incident as Messi and Mbappe participating in the Olympics.

Argentina and France players clash after the football quarter-final in Bordeaux. (Getty Images)

France’s Wesley Fofana and his Argentine Chelsea teammate Enzo Fernández may have made up with Fofana deleting his X post that said Argentina’s singing was “uninhibited racism” but not everyone has moved on. Jean-Philippe Mateta, a player with roots in the Democratic Republic of Congo whose goal made the difference on Friday, had said that the song has “touched” every French.

And so the red card to France’s Enzo Millot following a second booking while on the bench. Alexandre Lacazette had to be checked from picking up another fight after a bust-up involving the teams. During the match, France defender Loic Bade did to Lucas Beltran what Kamala Harris says Donald Trump cannot: say it to her face. And, if Bade’s expression was an indication, they didn’t seem like endearments.

But – and this may not age well because, including Saturday, there are nine days before the flame is put out – the Games have been more about fraternity than fights. China’s Pan Zhanle has spoken of swimmers not being friendly but Australia’s Kyle Chalmers countered claims of pool-side toxicity stemming from charges of doping. Belarussian and Russian athletes medalling without national anthems were awkward but like with Argentina-France and Chinese swimmers, that was expected.

The Games have seen Ariarne Titmus and Katie Ledecky, archrivals in 400m freestyle, smile and pose with Canadian newbie Summer McIntosh. There have been proposals for marriage and gold medallists asked whether love actually fetched the podium finish. An embrace between boxers made more news than their fight, a Japanese gymnast asked the crowd to keep quiet before his Chinese rival’s routine and there has been a coming together of North and South Korean table tennis players.

All of these were reminiscent of the scene from “Chariots of Fire”, a film which climaxes in the 1924 Paris Olympics, where forgetting their rivalry, USA sprinter Jackson Scholz hands a note of support to Britain’s Eric Liddell. Scholz said what was shown in reel never happened for real. But it remains a hat-tip to the Olympic spirit just as much as Lutz Long’s advice to Jesse Owens that put the American on way to the long jump gold in 1936.

Of such bonhomie and more, the Olympics are full of. In 1988, sailor Lawrence Lemieux left the course to rescue competitors whose boat had capsized. Arms draped around the shoulders of opponents Britain’s Andrew Turner and Jackson Quinonez of Spain, Liu Xiang, the world and Olympic champion from China, had exited the 2012 110m hurdles race. Japanese pole vaulters Shuhei Nishida and Sueo Oe fused medals of silver and bronze to show that even though one had finished second and the other third, they didn’t see it that way. Eighty-five years later, at the Games where Neeraj Chopra let Arshad Nadeem train with his javelin, Qatar’s Mutaz Barshim and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi shared a gold medal.

Who knows whether that will happen in Paris but Daiki Hashimoto’s gesture sure came close. Japan had just nudged ahead of China in the battle for the men’s artistic gymnastics gold when Zhang Boeheng stepped up to the horizontal bar. As he did, Hashimoto gestured to the Bercy Arena crowd to pipe down by putting a finger on his lips. “To be able to do something like that when the team could still have lost is the mark of true sportsmanship,” Reuters quoted one user as saying on social media. “So cool.”

Cool it was too was when Huang Ya Qiong said “yes”. She had just won the badminton mixed doubles gold when teammate Liu Yuchen proposed at La Chapelle Arena on bent knee with a bouquet of flowers and a ring. “Today I am an Olympic champion and I got proposed (to), so that is something I didn’t expect,” said Qiong. Unexpected proposals also came the way of French skiff sailors Sarah Steyaert and Charline Picon. Both said “oui”.

It is not known whether Katerina Siniakova and Tomas Machac expected the question but they handled it well. “We like when you are confused,” Siniakova told reporters on being asked about their relationship status after winning the mixed doubles tennis gold for Czech Republic. Are they still in a relationship? “This is top secret,” said Machac.

Relationship, or the lack of one, between countries on either side of the 38th parallel is well known. So, it was special when North Korea’s Ri-Jong-sik and Kim Kum-yong posed for a podium selfie with South Korea’s Shin Yu-bin and Lim Jong-hoon.

Victor Schelstraete didn’t medal. He lost in the men’s 92kg boxing quarter-final. But the Belgian hugging Samoa’s Ato Plodzicki-Faoagali and then holding his arm in the air will be one of the abiding memories from this Olympics. Schelstraete was showing the world what it meant for the Samoan to come to the ring 48 hours after his coach was found dead in the Games Village.

“The Olympics are special,” Martin Sinkovic, one-half of the Croatian brothers who won the men’s pairs gold in rowing, said before the Games. Schelstraete showed why.