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Over the past three weeks, the Paris Olympics have delivered some spectacular sporting moments, from incredible victories to heartbreaking defeats to Snoop Dogg standing there in an equestrian outfit. For most of us, that sporting glamour is out of reach — unless we have access to video games.
While there were no official tie-ins this year, a number of popular Olympic-inspired games have been released over the past 40 years. If you’ve got an old Commodore 64, PlayStation, Wii, or a suitable emulator on your PC, here’s how you can relive this summer’s unforgettable sporting memories from the safety of your own home.
The stars of the shooting event were undoubtedly Kim Ye-ji of South Korea and Yusuf Dikeci of Turkey, who lit up the pistol event with their cool, calm demeanor, hands in their pockets like cartoon assassins. The closest thing to a video game equivalent is the classic skeet shooting event in Konami’s 1984 arcade hit Hyper Sports. Sure, you’re using a shotgun to aim at flying skeets rather than fixed targets, but at the end of the event a cool, baseball-capped sharpshooter winks at the camera.
Pole Vault Record: International Athletics
Armand “Mondo” Duplantis broke the pole vault world record with a leap of 6.25 meters. To experience it for yourself, head over to International Track & Field, the fantastic 1996 PlayStation sports simulation. Alternate between mashing the button to run around the track, pressing X to jump, then vaulting over the pole. It sounds easy, but it’s one of the hardest events in the game. However, if you qualify on your first jump, improve on your second, and the space shuttle will pass you on your third. Not even Duplantis could do that.
After months of speculation about whether the water in the Seine was clean enough for Olympic athletes to compete in, authorities have determined after last-minute testing that the river’s water is safe for swimming.
After tests of the Seine’s water quality came back positive on Wednesday morning Paris time, the men and women will swim in back-to-back races as part of a triathlon, starting at 8 a.m. local time. The men’s race was originally scheduled for Tuesday but was postponed after the Seine’s water failed tests.
“The latest water quality analysis results, received at 3:20 a.m., have been assessed by World Triathlon as meeting the standards and clearing the way for the triathlon to go ahead,” World Triathlon, the organisers and governing body of the Paris Games, said in a statement.
People cool off under a bridge over the Seine during the sweltering heat at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday. Maya Hitidji/Getty Images
After the race, Team USA triathlete Taylor Spivey said he “swallowed a ton of water” during the triathlon swim in the Seine, a river that has historically been so polluted that swimming in it has been illegal for the past century.
Spivey, who finished 10th in the race, told NBC News that his biggest concern wasn’t the water quality, but the “exceptional” and “shocking” strength of the current, which he said was so strong that the race could have been canceled.
“The flow was incredible,” she said. “It felt like I was on a treadmill in one place.”
When asked about the quality of the water, she added, “I’ve been taking lots of probiotics for the past month. We’ll see how it goes.”
Cassandre Beaugrand of France won the gold medal ahead of Julie Delong of Switzerland, who took the silver medal, while Beth Potter of Great Britain took the bronze medal.
The Seine’s water quality has caused a bit of a stir in the run up to the events, as organizers rush to clean up the polluted waterway for prime-time attention. For months, France has been testing samples from the river for the presence of pathogens such as E. coli and enterococcus. High levels of E. coli put swimmers at risk of developing gastrointestinal illness.
The Seine has not passed these tests after wet weather, when storms can send runoff and sometimes sewage into the river.
Swimming in the Seine has been banned for more than a century because it was deemed too polluted, but the city of Paris led a $1.5 billion effort to clean up the river and strengthen waste-treatment systems ahead of the Olympics.
As the first event approached, organizers were hoping for sunny weather that would reduce overall pollution and allow ultraviolet light to inactivate some bacteria.
But the weather rarely cooperated.
last year, Test Event Triathlon rehearsals were canceled due to concerns about water quality after the rains.
The opening ceremony, which included a boat parade on the Seine, took place in pouring rain on Friday, which continued into Saturday.
Pollution from the rain forced organisers to cancel two days of swimming training on Sunday and Monday, then postpone the men’s triathlon originally scheduled for Tuesday morning.
There were no spectators at the swimming venue for the Olympic triathlon along the Seine river in Paris on Tuesday. Thibaut Moritz/AFP – Getty Images
“I’m just trying to focus on what I can control,” U.S. triathlete Kirsten Kasper told NBC News on Tuesday. “We swim in a lot of cities and water quality is often an issue, but I just have to trust that the race organizers are doing the testing and doing what it takes to make sure we’re safe.”
Water experts said the difficulty of keeping the Seine clean enough could draw attention to a broader problem of environmental pollution shared around the world.
“In large cities, it’s very difficult to control the amount of human waste that you see,” said Katie Graham, an assistant professor in the Georgia Institute of Technology’s College of Engineering. “The public assumes that a lot of these problems have been completely solved, but that’s by no means the case.”
NBC News is a unit of NBCUniversal, which owns U.S. media rights to the Olympics through 2032, including the 2024 Paris Games, which begin July 26.
Evan Bush reported from Seattle and Alexander Smith from Paris.
According to a new report from Microsoft, Russia is engaging in a disinformation campaign targeting the Paris Olympics. This includes the use of a deepfake video featuring Tom Cruise as the narrator of a critical documentary about the organization behind the games. You can read the full report on Microsoft’s website.
Microsoft revealed that a network of pro-Russian groups is conducting a “malign influence campaign” against France, President Emmanuel Macron, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the upcoming games in Paris. Despite Russia’s ban from the 2024 Olympics, a few Russian athletes may still participate as neutrals.
One of the tactics used by the disinformation campaign was a fake video of Tom Cruise on Telegram titled “Olympics Has Fallen.” The video, a parody of the movie “Olympus Has Fallen,” falsely claimed to be a Netflix production, featured a fake Cruise voice, and criticized the IOC. Microsoft deemed this video to be a more sophisticated creation compared to typical influence campaigns. You can access the full report released on Monday for more information.
The fake video was attributed to a Kremlin-linked group called Storm1679, known for its history of deceiving US actors. Storm1679 has been spreading fear through various videos about potential violence during the Olympics, alongside fake news broadcasts impersonating Euronews and France 24 to instill false narratives about the event.
Social media accounts associated with Storm 1679 have also posted images of graffiti in Paris threatening violence against Israelis attending the Olympics. Microsoft reported that these images were likely digitally generated rather than physically present.
Russia has a history of trying to disrupt Olympic events, with strategies dating back to the Soviet Union’s boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Another Russian group, Storm-1099 or “Doppelganger,” has launched a fake French news site spreading allegations of corruption at the IOC and potential violence in Paris.
Microsoft warned that Russia’s disinformation efforts might expand to other languages and involve the use of automated accounts and generative AI systems to create convincing fake content. This mirrors similar Chinese attempts to spread disinformation using AI-generated materials, as detailed in a previous report by Microsoft.
Paris, the host city for the 2024 Summer Olympics, has undergone a significant transformation in recent years. The city has made efforts to become greener by reducing its reliance on cars, setting an example for cities around the world.
Under the leadership of Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Paris has enacted several changes to promote sustainability. Over 100 roads have been closed to automobiles, parking fees have tripled, SUVs have been restricted, around 50,000 parking spaces have been removed, and over 1,300 kilometers of bike lanes have been built.
These efforts have resulted in a 40% reduction in air pollution, according to city officials. Hidalgo expressed that Paris would end its dependency on cars through disruptive changes.
Although European cities like Paris have been leading the way in reducing car use, similar reforms in the U.S. have been slow to materialize. The American infrastructure has historically been built around cars, making it challenging to transition to alternative modes of transportation.
The environmental reforms in Paris have garnered support from residents like Louise Kraustl, who believes that fewer cars and more walking and cycling make the city safer and less polluted. Inspired by the concept of the “15-minute city,” Paris aims to create pedestrian and bike-friendly neighborhoods where daily necessities are within easy reach.
While some cities in the U.S. have made progress in promoting biking and public transport, car dependency remains prevalent. Despite the challenges, experts emphasize the importance of reducing transportation emissions to combat climate change and improve air quality.
Paris’ efforts to prioritize sustainable urban planning serve as a model for other cities to follow. As cities worldwide grapple with the effects of climate change, the need for transportation reform becomes increasingly urgent.
The upcoming elections in Paris will be crucial in determining the city’s continued commitment to reducing car use and combating climate change.
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