No less an authority than Snoop Dogg has promised that the Paris Games, which start on July 26, are going to be “the most epic Olympics ever.”
Snoop is spot-on.
First of all, there’s the location: Paris, City of Light and Love, one of the most celebrated places on Earth, which will welcome some 10,500 athletes from all over the world. And for the first time in the history of the Summer Games, the opening ceremonies won’t happen in a stadium. Instead, athletes will cruise down the Seine, through the heart of the city, in a floating parade sure to be a visual spectacle.
Read More: Welcome to the Noah Lyles Olympics
Second, for the first time in six years, the Olympics are really back, baby! The last two Games—the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics, in 2021, and the Beijing Winter Games of 2022—operated under strict COVID-19 protocols. Without international fans in the stands and streets, trading Olympic pins, and athletes unable to celebrate their accomplishments with their loved ones—or with each other in the Olympic Village, one of the world’s most famous party destinations—those Games lacked some lus…