The Olympics is a bastion of patriotism and memories of a childhood well spent; despite growing up and coming to terms with the politicisation of it, says Deputy Sports Editor Matt Hardy.
Being asked about early sporting memories often leaves a sense of complete and utter embarrassment.
Now 24, I don’t vividly remember the 2003 Rugby World Cup or the then “clean” dominance of Lance Armstrong on the Tour de France.
My first rugby memory is one of tears – returning home from Twickenham after my Premiership side were spanked at HQ – while England not qualifying for the Euros 16 years ago and the 2005 Ashes are just about in the memory bank.
But in 2008, at the age of eight, my love for sport changed.
Because early in the morning I’d wake up, run downstairs, and watch sport until mid-afternoon. Every day for two weeks that was my life.
And what was this paradise of sporting action, where athletics was followed by badminton, canoeing and gymnastics? The Olympic Games.
The quadrennial event really is a highlight of a sporting cycle, up there with the Fifa World Cup and rugby’s equivalent.
Beijing 2008
Sporting awakening
It was a display of patriotism, where you’d support anyone and everyone as long as they had the words “Team GB” or “Great Britain” slapped across their kit.
The splendour of the opening ceremony in all of its regimented glory and the emotion I’d never thought I’d see from archers, triathletes and weightlifters.
It was a sporting awakening.
And since then – in the three Olympiads that have followed in London, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo – the Olympic Games have continued to captivate my attention.
So on Friday of this week, when the opening ceremony down the River Seine gets underway in Paris, again I will be drawn to the splendour and gravitas of this fortnight of dreams.
Growing up since Beijing the politics, drama and grossness that comes with these types of events has shown itself. We have seen doping scandals, athletes denied access to the Games because of their biology and problems with poor attendances.
But back in Europe for the first time since London – really one of the greatest ever Games – the Olympics will shine for a British audience once again.
Super Saturday
Olympics expectations
Team GB won 51 medals in Beijing. I probably watched them all at some point that summer. In London it was 65, Rio saw a return of 67 and in Tokyo it was 64.
Our stock has risen and expectations are higher now than 16 years ago.
But in a world where there’s sport on every single day the Olympics, for me, remains the one. It is the singular event where I cancel plans to watch the shooting, delay a dinner to see the 5,000m, and ignore my family until the open water swimming has concluded.
The Olympics, and our success in it, makes me proud to be British; and it makes me wonder just how there are people who do not like any sport at all.
My Olympic memories have been good ones; Chris Hoy, Super Saturday, the Brownlee Brothers and Bethany Shriever. That’s probably why it’s an event of joy in my psyche.
But even if that was not the case I’d be tuning in every day from this Friday.
I cannot wait to get lost in rugby sevens, skateboarding and climbing. I cannot wait to shout at the swimming relays, the surfing and race walk.
The Olympic Games, in all of its politicised glory, remains the greatest show on Earth. That is undeniable.