Earlier this week, I wrote a little piece on the rise of AI and connected it to the Paris 2024 Olympics. That piece was about one of my passions: technology. Here’s another piece, about another passion: the wonderful world of storytelling.
Do you have any idea how many athletes competed in the 2024 Olympics? I did the research already: 10.714. That’s a lot. No way you’ll know them all. So let’s make it smaller. How big were the delegations of the Netherlands, China and the United States this year? No clue? Here we go. The Dutch delegation brought 299 athletes to Paris. China brought 524 athletes and the US brought a slightly bigger group with 592 athletes. Same question: how many of those delegations do you know? Probably only a few dozen, typically biased towards your home country. But all of them? Nope.
Let’s turn it around. Who are the ones you do remember, either from your own country, or in general? And why do you remember them, and not the others? Why do you remember Simone Biles but you probably didn’t hear about Shane Wiskus? Why is it you may recall who Duplantis was, but less likely are you to remember Ernest John Obiena. We all remember Femke Bol won gold in the 4 x 400 mixed relay but I am having a hard time remembering the other names…
We remember those from who we’ve heard or know the story. We know about Biles’ struggles. We know LeBron James wanted to win once more. We’ve lived Femke Bol’s rollercoaster and turned quiet when we saw Sifan Hassan win the marathon. We connected with them, through their stories. Isn’t it lovely?
