CNN One Thing

I should been I'm clinging on to the side of the boat because the currents in the Seine is so strong that if I don't, I'll quickly be swept downstream.

Last week, CNN's Melissa Bell jumped into the river scene in Paris. Normally, this would be a very strange and illegal thing for anyone, let alone a CNN correspondent, to do that, because that river is hella polluted, like it's super dirty. Or I should say it has been.

'What's changed, according to specialists who talk to us about the water quality, is the fact that they managed to complete one huge infrastructure project upstream that collects a lot of the sewage and the rainwater that used to descend so much, bringing e-coli levels dangerously high.

This over the last eight years, more than $1 billion have been spent in an effort to clean up the sand to make it safe for the swimming portion of the triathlon at this year's Summer Olympics. And just to prove how safe it is now, the mayor of Paris invited the media to come along as she dunked her own head under the water.

It was a dream and now it's real. And after the games, we will have a swimming pool in the river for the Parisian people and tourists also.

Now there are still concerns about the water's E.coli levels. Any unexpected rainfall could cause it to spike. But as the opening ceremonies get set to float down that same river for the first time on Friday, it's worth asking will the world even be tuning in? My guest today is Bob Costas. He was the face of NBC's primetime Olympics coverage for decades. He's now a CNN contributor. We're going to talk about what to watch for as these games begin, and whether the Olympics as an ideal still holds water in 2024. From CNN. This is One Thing, I'm David Rind.

Bob, thanks for being here.

Thanks, David.

So you hosted the Olympics on TV how many times?

12.

12. So you've been around this this block before? What stands out to you about these games getting underway in Paris?

Well, I think this is the beginning of a stretch where the Olympics has a chance to get its groove back. The Washington Post this past weekend had an extended article about that. We know that viewers habits and the entire media and television landscape has changed considerably. So that has an impact, even minus the factors, I'm about to say. But the last three Olympics, beginning with a Winter Olympics in 2018, and Korea, to which there was a tepid response by the US audience. And then you have a Tokyo Olympics, which could have been great.

Olympic dreams dashed for more than 20 athletes so far, testing positive or being placed in the Covid 19 protocol, including five members from team USA.

But it was blighted by Covid, had to be postponed for a year and it was conducted with no fans in the stands.

The stadium eerily empty as flag bearers proudly represented their countries.

And then, regrettably, the IOC returns to China, to Beijing, where they'd already been in 2008. Now there were some mitigating circumstances. There were places better suited to a Winter Olympics that could have hosted, but they backed out because of concerns about cost and other issues. And so the IOC, conveniently for them, goes back to China. But by then, there was widespread public understanding that China is one of the most egregious human rights violators on the planet. And so that stands in stark opposition to the supposed Olympic ideals. And it was conducted under even stricter Covid circumstances. None of this was terribly appealing to the American public, and none of it is NBC's fault, either. So now you you've had this run of three, now you've got this run that begins in Paris, obviously a beautiful setting, all kinds of history. Then they go to Milan, Italy, for the next Winter games in 2026. And then it comes to the United States in 2028. So if this run of three isn't a counterpoint to the previous run of three, if the Olympics doesn't, in some tangible way begin to feel like the Olympics, you still both in terms of ratings and just the general buzz around it, then we'll know that the Olympics have. Have taken on a new position and not the the position at the top of the pyramid that it used to have for two and a half weeks every two years.

Well, yeah, I mean, that's kind of what I wanted to ask about because I remember when I was a kid, like it was appointment viewing, I would be, you know, on the floor in front of my TV with my parents, and we would watch all the primetime lineup. And and that definitely has shifted. Is that like due to the, the geopolitics behind the scenes doping scandals, locations or in 2024, is the Olympics just something that like, doesn't make sense anymore?

Well, I think the factors you just cited are part of it. The shift in the way people consume sports product contributes to it. And also you've had and I won't belabor it any further, but the last three might have gotten some people out of the Olympic habit. Now we have to say that the Olympics still one prime time every night. It was on during the Summer Olympics, but not at the same level that it did before. So have some people gotten out of that Olympic habit? Reasonable to speculate that they might have. And then you're talking about younger people. Maybe they never got into the Olympics. If that stretch of time between 2016 and 2024, is when they're in their adolescence or early adulthood. Maybe they never got into it yet, but this is a chance now. They've got optimal circumstances. This a chance? Not a maybe. If not, turn it completely around, turn it back in the right direction.

CNN has done a lot of reporting on Ukrainian athletes preparing to compete amid Russia's war waging in their country. Israeli and Palestinian athletes will also have a presence, you know, months after October 7th. Yeah. Having covered so many Olympics. Do you get a sense that these kind of geopolitical undercurrents actually make a difference out in in competition?

Well, they are definitely a story. And this is for the stick to sports crowd. The idea that sports has ever been completely separate from politics or sociological issues, and especially that the Olympics have ever been separate from that, is ridiculous. And so, you know, you mentioned, Israel and Palestine. There have been instances in the past where competitors have refused to go against Israelis and have not been, in my view, properly sanctioned for that by the IOC. There was one that happened in 2004, in Athens. The competitor in the judo competition just happened to draw an Israeli as his opponent. And this person had been the flag bearer for his country. And so he's he has to forfeit the match because he won't compete against the Israeli. And then he comes home and is awarded the same amount from the government as he would have had he won the gold medal. And when I asked the head of the IOC remembers Jacques Rogge about it, his answer was the competitor could not make wait like you're you're accepting this explanation for something that has a blatantly political aspect to it. Sometimes this stuff is unavoidable. And even if, Palestinians and Israelis compete peacefully side by side, the visuals of that will be part of the story of this Olympics. And I'm sure that NBC will capture that.

Don't come to Paris for the Olympics. I keep saying that...

I've seen on social media there's been a lot of TikToks from Parisians, people who live there who basically are telling, you know, tourists and would be spectators don't come.

We don't want the Olympic Games here. And our government, the city of Paris, is making it hell on earth.

Our metro system cannot handle it.

As a Parisian, I'm getting the F out of here because I don't want to be here. And all of my friends are leaving my family.

It's a city that's already has a lot of tourism to begin with. So I guess as we look forward to the US hosting, is that going to be a sentiment that is just going to get louder and louder as the years go on?

You know, you hear it from almost every potential Olympic city. Remember when Boston was front and center for a while and it was almost an uprising of the populace? No, no. Please don't. It may work for everybody, but it doesn't work for the people who actually live, right? The one thing or, well, one among many things that Los Angeles has going for it, you're not going to have much of the complaint about we built all these venues. It cost a gazillion dollars, and now they have more use because those venues already exist in and around Los Angeles. They will not be confined to the city center or the city core. They'll be spread out and they have the venues to accommodate.

So from a team USA standpoint, I know the big names Katie Ledecky in swimming, Simone Biles in gymnastics. Are there any other sports that you think we should be watching for in terms of team USA having a strong performance?

'Well, team is interesting here because I think there will be heightened interest in the basketball competition. And usually that has been a cakewalk, especially for the women. But as we speak just over the weekend, a team from South Sudan lost by only a point to the American team, which is made up entirely of NBA stars. The Americans, they needed a LeBron James layup in the final seconds to win 101 to 100. And the women. Provided the competition at the All-Star game for the WNBA. For the WNBA All-Stars and the WNBA All-Stars beat them rather handily. Now, that's a high level of competition. Any of the players on the WNBA All-Star squad could just as well, I guess, have been on the Olympics one. But that may be a wake up call for both of those teams that their gold medal is not inevitable. If they have an off night and some competitor has a great night. We might see an upset.

Do you have a take on any of these new sports that are being premiered here at this Olympics? We've got breakdancing, climbing, surfing.

Classic Olympic sports, you know, and anybody, anybody middle age or older who offers the thought that maybe this wasn't exactly what the Olympics were designed for, will be accused of shaking off the clouds or demanding that the kids get off their lawn. Right. But you tell me. You tell me how it sits with you that the very same gold medal once draped around the neck of Jesse Owens or Michael Phelps, could go to someone who's breaking. Nothing wrong with breaking. But is that really is that really the same sort of athletic competition?

It's hard. These are the people at the top of their game. You know, it's physical.

Yeah, there's lots of things that are hard walking across a tightrope or juggling at the circus is hard. It's a skill. May even involve some athleticism. Basically, the idea here is to keep it relevant or attempt to keep it relevant or appealing to younger people.

Yeah isn't this how the Olympics gets its mojo back with introducing sports and activities that younger people actually like?

Perhaps. And it's almost certain that I am no longer the test audience for this. But my connection to the Olympics is historically. I'm not the test audience for this. I think it's only a matter of time until there's some sort of video game competition. You know, people play video games, they play video games. And some people are undoubtedly better and undeniably better at it than others. It's a competition or three. We have basketball, but now we're going to have three on three basketball.

Oh, you don't like the three on three either?

Well, you know, most of us have played three on three basketball because we didn't have ten people at the schoolyard. So that's its purpose. If you're playing a half court. Look, it's all it's all fine. I'm not losing any sleep over it. Is it classic? It's not classic.

Not classic. But, we'll see if, people actually latch on to it. Bob Costas, thanks so much. I really appreciate it.

Thank you very much, David. Enjoy the games.

One Thing is a production of CNN Audio. This episode was produced by Paola Ortiz and me, David Rind. Our senior producer is Faiz Jameel. Our supervising producer is Greg Peppers. Matt Dempsey is our production manager. Dan Dzula is our technical director. And Steve Lickteig is the executive producer of CNN Audio. We get support from Haley Thomas, Alex Manasseri, Robert Mathers, John Dianora, Leni Steinhart, Jamus Andrest, Nicole Pesaru and Lisa Namerow. Special thanks to Carmen Conte Widman, Wendy Brundidge and Katie Hinman. We'll be back on Sunday with another episode. I'll talk to then.