The 2024 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, have begun in Paris, France. Olympic athletes are competing for gold, silver and bronze medals in thirty-two sports including a brand-new addition to the competition, breaking aka breakdancing. Four sports that debuted at the 2020 Summer Olympics will return this year: surfing, skateboarding, sportclimbing and 3×3 basketball. If you’re like me, and associate the Summer Olympics with gymnastics, swimming, and field and track, well, there’s whole lot more going on!
I’m going to date myself, here, but the first Summer Olympics I remember watching on television was in 1976 when the games were held in Montreal, Canada. Like many young girls, I was hyper-focused on a tiny gymnast named Nadia Comaneci. When she was awarded the first perfect score of 10.0, I along with a million other young girls, made up my mind that I wanted to be a gymnast. The glory, the adoration — what a life! Unfortunately, it took just two weeks at a basic gymnastics class, held in the recreation center of my small hometown, to confirm that my future did not include a vault or uneven bars (by the way, the balance beam is crazy scary).
Fast forward forty-eight years, and I’m very happy to be a librarian instead of a gymnast. Plus, I will be able to watch Simone Biles, an absolutely incredible athlete, perform her gymnastics magic in Paris. I may not be able to attend or participate in the Olympics, but I can offer some Olym-picks from the library’s collection.
Feel like a gold medal winner by adding one or more of today’s suggestions to your reading list.
