Olympic Games (2024)

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    How Zaho de Sagazan Won Over Iggy Pop

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    Zaho de Sagazan went viral for her performances at the Cannes Film Festival and the Paris Olympics. Next, she’s coming to America.On the Verge showcases emerging talent from the worlds of fashion, food, music, art and design.When the French singer-songwriter Zaho de Sagazan, 24, was a teenager she earned the nickname Petite Tempête — “Little Storm.” “I was crying all the time,” she says. “I didn’t know what to do with all my angst.” But after her twin sister introduced her to the work of the English singer-songwriter Tom Odell — with which she quickly became obsessed, learning all his lyrics and teaching herself to play his songs on the piano — she realized that music could be a means of processing her dark emotions. By 2020, she was sharing videos of her original songs, which blend elements of synth-pop, electronica and chanson Française, on Instagram. Her expressive, sometimes husky voice caught the attention of Warner Chappell/Virgin Music, which released her first album, “La Symphonie des Éclairs” (“The Symphony of Lightning”) in spring 2023. It went platinum in 2024 and earned four awards at Victoires de la Musique, the French version of the Grammys. Tomorrow, a reissued edition will hit streaming platforms with new material, including “Old Friends,” which de Sagazan recorded with Odell. “I basically slid into his DMs,” she says. “We’ve been friends since. Singing with him is one of the few things I dreamed of for myself.”De Sagazan was born and raised in the working-class shipyard town of Saint Nazaire, on France’s Atlantic coast, reared in a family of artists and free spirits with few rules and plenty of encouragement. Her father, Olivier de Sagazan, is a painter, sculptor and performer who has collaborated on immersive exhibitions and videos with musicians including FKA Twigs. During her adolescence, de Sagazan spent hours holed up in her room, alone at the piano, writing about themes including self-doubt, addiction (she recently quit smoking weed, a decade-long habit), climate change and romantic love — though she says she hasn’t yet experienced it herself. She moved to Nantes at 17 and attended university for a while to appease her mother, a schoolteacher, though her ambition was to make music or start a label. To earn money, she worked as a home health aide. “I thought I’d become a nurse or work in a hospital,” she says. “I wanted to care for people. Music is another way of doing that.”Amélie Ambroise and music courtesy of Disparate / Warner Chappell Music FranceWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Travis Scott Is Accused of Assaulting a Security Guard in Paris

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      The rapper, who was in France for the Olympics, was taken into police custody at the George V hotel, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.The star rapper Travis Scott was detained on Friday in Paris, where he was visiting for the Summer Olympics, after a conflict with a security guard at a luxury hotel, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.The prosecutor’s office said Mr. Scott, 33, whose real name is Jacques Bermon Webster II, had assaulted a security guard at the George V hotel, in the city’s Eighth Arrondissement.“The security guard had intervened to separate the rapper from his bodyguard,” the office said in a statement.There are no known charges against Mr. Scott. It was unclear later Friday whether he was still in custody. The Paris prosecutor’s office said it had referred the case to the judicial police.Representatives for Mr. Scott said in a statement, “We are in direct communication with the local Parisian authorities to swiftly resolve this matter and will provide updates when appropriate.”Mr. Scott, a multiplatinum artist in the United States with a string of No. 1 albums, was arrested this summer in Miami Beach, Fla., after what the police called a disturbance on a yacht. He was charged with trespassing and disorderly intoxication. His lawyer said at the time that he had been “briefly detained due to a misunderstanding.”On Thursday night, Mr. Scott had posted on Instagram from the crowd of the men’s basketball game between the United States and Serbia, snapping photos of the American stars LeBron James and Stephen Curry.In 2021, 10 fans died as a result of a crowd crush at Mr. Scott’s Astroworld festival in Houston, his hometown. A grand jury declined to indict Mr. Scott and others who oversaw the festival, and settlements have been reached in the lawsuits over the deaths.Aurelien Breeden More

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      A Hip-Hop Comic Book Star Comes to Life in Steel

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      A statue of Rappin’ Max Robot is bound for Paris. But first it’s making a stop in the Bronx.Good morning. It’s Thursday. We’ll meet a new iteration of Rappin’ Max Robot that is bound for Paris, via the Bronx. We’ll also get details on Robert Kennedy Jr.’s testimony in the court case seeking to have him removed from the November ballot in New York.Clark Ivers, Welder UndergroundRappin’ Max Robot began life as a comic book character only a few inches tall. Now he is a man of steel. He has a skin of steel plates up to an inch thick that covers an I-beam skeleton.He is on his way to Paris, to take note of breaking’s debut in the Olympics, but he will get there a little late. First he will spend some time in the Bronx, the birthplace of hip-hop.Today an 18-foot-tall statue of Rappin’ Max Robot that was fabricated in Brooklyn will be hauled to a spot outside the Hip Hop Museum in the Bronx. The museum is not scheduled to open until next year. But Marc Levin, who with his wife, Adina, runs the studio and foundry where the statue took shape, said it would be assembled for a Champagne toast on Saturday, the second day of breaking events at the Olympics.Hip-hop is a “wondrous and centerless tangle,” The New York Times critic Jon Caramanica wrote last year, so perhaps it is not surprising that the toast will not be the only hip-hop event this weekend. Sunday is the 51st anniversary of the day hip-hop is said to have gotten its start, in the rec room of the apartment building at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, and a group that is not affiliated with the museum is planning a march from that neighborhood to Crotona Park, a couple of miles away.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      With ‘Sprint’ and ‘Simone Biles: Rising,’ Netflix Fills Olympic Content Gap

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      New seasons of documentaries about running, gymnastics and basketball are being filmed this summer as part of a partnership with the International Olympic Committee.The four-person crew from Box to Box Films, the production company responsible for the hit Netflix motorsports docuseries “Formula 1: Drive to Survive,” has often shot in lavish settings like Monaco and Miami.But one recent morning, it congregated in a far less glamorous spot: a set of flimsy bleachers next to a running track in the Paris suburb of Eaubonne, where it waited about an hour for a practice session to begin.“This is our life,” Warren Smith, a top executive at Box to Box, said of the waiting. It could have been worse: Across town, a second crew was filming a runner having a haircut.The footage from France will eventually be part of the second season of “Sprint,” a Netflix documentary following the American 100-meter stars Sha’Carri Richardson and Noah Lyles and a dozen or so other track athletes.The series is one of three projects being filmed during these Summer Games as part of a partnership between Netflix and the International Olympic Committee, a latecomer to the sports-documentary genre that is now an eager participant.Just as “Drive to Survive” forged a deeper connection between fans and Formula 1 auto racing, the I.O.C. hopes these projects will pique awareness and interest among a new (read: younger) generation of Olympic fans. They include the track series, a gymnastics one called “Simone Biles: Rising” and one about the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How Did Flavor Flav Become a Hype Man for the U.S. Women’s Water Polo Team?

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      The rapper has become a self-appointed hype man and benefactor to the U.S. women’s team in Paris. He plans to keep the poolside party going into 2028.As the robed members of the U.S. women’s water polo team stood single file at the pool’s edge before their match against Italy at the Paris Olympics, the rapper Flavor Flav stood directly across from them, clapping while the announcer at the Aquatics Centre in St.-Denis, France, listed the American players’ names one by one. He made a heart gesture with his hands.For the rest of the match, he rarely sat. Wearing a personalized water polo cap and jersey and a dessert-plate-size clock on a chain around his neck — all of them red, white and blue — America’s newest (and perhaps most unlikely) water polo fan leaned nervously against a glass barrier and shouted encouragement.Whenever the United States scored, he raised his wrists — both were adorned with big-faced watches — and shouted gleefully. He does not care if the players cannot hear him, he said; he prefers that they focus on their assignments anyway.“They know deep down in their hearts and they know way in the back of their mind that Flav is right there for us,” he said in an interview at a hospitality venue in Paris after the game.In an Olympics in which Snoop Dogg has seemed ubiquitous, a women’s rugby player has recruited an N.F.L. superfan and Parisian fans have lost their minds, the relationship between a team of women’s water polo players and a 65-year-old rapper from Long Island might rank as just another curious pairing. Except it’s not: When it comes to water polo, Flavor Flav is quick to remind anyone, he is all in.The United States beat Italy, 10-3, in a group match on Wednesday. The team then beat France, 17-5, to close pool play with a 3-1 record.Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      After Olympic Show, ‘Love Activist’ D.J. Barbara Butch Deals With Hate

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      The Paris Olympics opening ceremony made the French D.J. Barbara Butch famous and infamous around the world. Already known in France as an outspoken lesbian and activist for fat people, Butch — her stage name, of course — appeared with a crown and her mixing board in one of the last scenes, called “Festivity.”For 45 minutes, dancers, including drag queens, showcased their talent along a raised catwalk that stretched down the stage before, at the very end, the French singer Philippe Katerine emerged from under a giant silver dome, painted entirely in blue and wearing little clothing, to sing part of “Nude,” one of his songs.The scene incited an almost instant public fury, particularly among those who interpreted it as parodying Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” and, by extension, mocking Christianity. Even after the ceremony’s artistic director, Thomas Jolly, explained the inspiration was a grand pagan festival connected to the gods of Olympus, the fury continued, with Donald J. Trump calling the scene “a disgrace” on social media.On Monday, Butch filed a complaint for cyber-harassment, and the Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation for discrimination based on religion or sexual orientation. The next day, Jolly followed suit, and an investigation was opened into his case, too.Delegations arrive at the Trocadero during the Olympics opening ceremony as spectators watch the French singer Philippe Katerine performing on a giant screen.Ludovic Marin/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesButch has become accustomed to hate, though not at this level. She is a Jew from a working-class family who grew up in a small apartment above her parents’ restaurant in Paris, and antisemitism had provoked her grandmother to leave France for Israel years ago, she said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      An Epic Summer Olympics Playlist

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      Hear triumphant tracks from John Williams, Whitney Houston and, of course, Celine Dion.Celine Dion performing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.Mike Hewitt/Getty ImagesDear listeners,I just got out my thermometer to confirm and, yep, it’s official: I have Olympic Fever.Like much of the world, I have been glued to my TV watching the Paris Olympics for the past few days. I confess that I am, at best, a fair-weather fan of most of the sports that take place during the Summer Games, but one symptom of Olympic Fever is suddenly caring deeply about things you recently knew next to nothing about. Several days ago, if you asked me to name a male gymnast who is currently competing at the elite level, I would have stared at you blankly. But after Monday, when the U.S. men’s gymnastics team won its first medal in 16 years thanks in part to the bespectacled pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik, everything has changed. Don’t even get me started on the U.S. women’s rugby team.Today’s playlist, naturally, is a soundtrack for Olympic Fever: A collection of past Summer Olympic songs from the likes of Whitney Houston, Gloria Estefan and Björk, among others — plus a certain Èdith Piaf song that took on new resonance at this year’s opening ceremony.Subtlety is not exactly a virtue when it comes to an Olympic song, so be warned that this playlist contains grandiosity, majesty and even a little schmaltz. But it also has the power to transform whatever you’re doing into an Olympic event, whether that’s running a 100-meter sprint, successfully flipping a pancake or — like Nedoroscik, man of many talents — trying to solve a Rubik’s cube in under 10 seconds. Use it wisely.I want one moment in time,LindsayListen along while you read.1. John Williams and the Berlin Philharmonic: “Olympic Fanfare and Theme”Let’s begin with some fanfare. The prolific composer John Williams — best known for his film scores — has written four different Olympic themes over the years. But his first, composed for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, is still probably the most widely recognizable. “Olympic Fanfare and Theme” is guaranteed to bring a sense of triumphant grandeur to whatever you’re doing. Put this on at the end of a run and you will be physically unable to slow down.▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTubeWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Opening Ceremony Misses the Boat

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      The Paris Games began with a new look and sparkled with Celine Dion. But the show suffered from bloat similar to TV’s other spectacles.About six hours before Celine Dion gutted out the final number of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, the streaming service Peacock emailed a promo for its coverage with the headline, “We’ll all be crying by the end of this.” So maybe they knew more than they were letting on.The homestretch of the marathon four-hour broadcast, when the celebrating athletes and dance extravaganzas and speeches were out of the way, had some starkly lovely images and moving moments: the speedboat carrying former champions up the Seine in the dark (like a real-life echo of Leos Carax’s great water-skiing scene in “Les Amants du Pont-Neuf”). The grand scale and dramatic lighting of the Louvre as the torch was carried, like a firefly’s flame, through its courtyards. The torch coming to the hand of a 100-year-old French cyclist, steady in his wheelchair, and Dion defying her illness to belt out “Hymne à l’Amour” on the Eiffel Tower.Celine Dion’s performance of “Hymne à l’Amour” provided a triumphant finale.Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesBut it took endurance to get there — for the athletes, performers and spectators drenched by the summer rain, and for the viewers at home watching the ceremony as it was conceived by the French organizers and packaged by NBC and Peacock.The decision to abandon the event’s traditional format — the long, formal parade of athletes marching into a stadium — for a waterborne procession along the Seine intercut with performances had a twofold effect. It turned the ceremony into something bigger, more various and more intermittently entertaining. But it also turned it into something more ordinary — just another bloated made-for-TV spectacle, like a halftime show or awards show or holiday parade that exists to promote and perpetuate itself.Those spectacles can be fun, of course, and the traditional Olympics opening ceremony could feel dull and interminable. But it was not quite like anything else, and it played a key part in making the Games feel special.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Why the Olympics’ Parade of Nations Is the Heart of the Opening Ceremony

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      When the athletes march in — or float in, as they will in Paris on Friday — you can enjoy the illusion that it’s a small world after all.Welcome back to the Olympics, and a five-ringed circus of sport and security, national pride and international sponsorship.This summer’s Games officially begin in Paris this Friday, with an uncommon opening ceremony: athletes and acrobats floating along the Seine for as many spectators as the antiterror police will allow. “No other country would have tried this,” crowed President Emmanuel Macron in an interview this week, though the ministers by his side will be from a caretaker government. France is still processing its recent snap legislative election, which nearly brought the far right to power. The ceremony will be all about France’s openness to the world. Not all the local spectators will approve of the message.A rendering of the opening ceremony of the Paris Games. Participants will sail upriver to the Eiffel Tower and the Trocadéro: two landmarks of the capital that were built for 19th-century World’s Fairs.Florian Hulleu/Paris 2024, Agence France-Presse, via Getty ImagesA big modern show, then, after the Covid-shocked, zero-spectator Summer Games in Tokyo. But for all its contemporary soft power — the “Emily in Paris” tie-in, the medals displayed in Louis Vuitton trunks — these Paris Olympics will also be a throwback.The modern Games are a French invention, after all: a projection of Panhellenic manhood onto contemporary Europe by a romantic educator and “fanatical colonialist” (as Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Games, called himself). The opening ceremony, especially, plunges the world’s athletes into the nationalist structures of the late 19th century. The flag-waving of the Olympics, the it’s-a-small-world amusements of the universal exhibition, or the repellent human zoos at colonial fairs: there have been many ways to bring the whole world to Paris.This year’s parade of nations will be on the water. Teams will process through the city center on nearly 100 boats before arriving at the Trocadéro.Florian Hulleu/Paris 2024, Agence France-Presse, via Getty ImagesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More