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      When Olympic Sponsors Go Rogue

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      LVMH and Samsung intruded on previously sacrosanct spaces at the Paris Games, angering fellow sponsors and raising concerns about a repeat at the closing ceremony.When the French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH agreed to pay about $175 million to underwrite the organizing committee for the Paris Olympics, the company, owned by France’s richest person, Bernard Arnault, asked for more than any previous sponsor had ever done. Organizers of the Games, desperate for that cash, appeared to have said yes at every turn.The medals? Made by the LVMH-owned jeweler Chaumet. The French parade uniforms? Made by the LVMH-owned label Berluti. The medal trays for every event? The unmistakable checkerboard pattern of Louis Vuitton. And on and on it went. But there was one secret that had been held back, Antoine Arnault, who is Bernard Arnault’s son and the family’s representative to the Olympics, told a gathering of well-heeled Parisians on the eve of the Games.Keep an eye out, he and other LVMH executives said, for “a big surprise” involving the company.The Louis Vuitton logo displayed on the roof of the company’s Paris headquarters.Pool photo by Lionel BonaventureIn the end it was hard to miss. Among the parade of athletes cruising along the River Seine was one carrying different cargo: suitcases and trunks encased in Louis Vuitton leather. The Louis V vessel was just one part of the show, an hourslong broadcast that also featured a long video segment beamed to millions of people worldwide that showed the making of the trunk and then panned to dancers in LVMH-designed clothing.The audacious segment — effectively a three-minute advertisement for LVMH during one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the Games — left some longtime Olympic executives slack-jawed. But it also outraged several of the International Olympic Committee’s top partners, billion-dollar companies that have been involved with the Games for far longer than LVMH.“I was very surprised to see the level of LVMH branding in the ceremony,” said Ricardo Fort, a former executive responsible for events like the Olympics and the soccer World Cup at Coca-Cola, whose Olympic partnership dates to the Amsterdam Games in 1928. “This is so unusual I can’t even think about another opening ceremony where a brand had such a visible role.”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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      Feud Flares Between U.S. and Global Antidoping Agency

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      American officials allowed athletes to compete after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs so they could work undercover. Their global counterparts call that a breach of the rules.Since the World Anti-Doping Agency first came under scrutiny this spring for its handling of positive tests for banned substances by nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers, the United States has been the agency’s chief critic.Congress has threatened to cut funding for the agency, which is known as WADA. The Justice Department and F.B.I. have opened criminal investigations into how the tests were handled. And the head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency and American swimmers have raised doubts about whether WADA can be trusted to do its job.On Wednesday, WADA launched its latest counterattack on the Americans, accusing the United States Anti-Doping Agency, known as USADA, of doing the same thing it has accused WADA of: failing to strictly follow the rules when an athlete tests positive for a banned drug.In a lengthy statement, WADA said that USADA had gone against the global antidoping code a decade ago by allowing athletes who had been doping to continue competing.WADA acknowledged a wrinkle in the case — that the athletes in question were allowed to keep competing so they could work undercover to help authorities with a criminal investigation — but said it did not matter because the U.S. agency was still bound to follow the rules and had failed to get WADA’s approval.“In one case, an elite level athlete, who competed at Olympic qualifier and international events in the United States, admitted to taking steroids and EPO yet was permitted to continue competing all the way up to retirement,” WADA said, referring to two categories of banned drugs. “Their case was never published, results never disqualified, prize money never returned and no suspension ever served. The athlete was allowed to line up against their unknowing competitors as if they had never cheated.”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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      St. Lucia and Dominica Win First-Ever Olympic Medals

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      If it feels like the same countries are winning most of the Olympic medals every two years, that’s because it’s largely true.Even though more than 150 countries and territories have claimed a medal since the modern Games began in 1896, the list of winners is top-heavy. Entering the Paris Summer Games, the United States has the most, by far, with 2,975 medals, according to the International Olympic Committee’s research wing. A group of usual suspects follow: the former Soviet Union (1,204), Germany (1,058), Great Britain (955), France (898).Nearly 70 countries and territories, though — roughly a third of the parade of nations — cannot boast an Olympic medalist in any discipline, summer or winter. Some, like South Sudan, which sent its first team to the Olympics in 2016, have only just begun trying. Others, like Monaco, have been at it for more than a century.“It’s frustrating, definitely,” said Marco Luque, a member of the Bolivian Olympic Committee’s board and the president of his country’s track and field federation. “And you feel impotence, of not being able to do better.”Every once in a while, though, a nation breaks its maiden. On Saturday night at the Stade de France, Thea LaFond-Gadson, 30, of the Caribbean island of Dominica, won the gold medal in women’s triple jump. And soon after, Julien Alfred, 23, of St. Lucia, also in the Caribbean, won the gold medal in the women’s 100-meter sprint.“It means a lot to the small islands,” she said. “And seeing how we can come from a small place but also be on the biggest stage of our career.”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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      St. Lucia gets its first gold medal, thanks to the world’s fastest woman.

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      Ben ShpigelTalya MinsbergChang W. LeeGabriela Bhaskar and Julien Alfred, the fastest woman in the Caribbean nation of Saint Lucia, blitzed the field in the 100-meter dash Saturday night at the Paris Games to earn a far more awesome title — the fastest woman in the world.Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesShe swiped the distinction from Sha’Carri Richardson of the United States, who claimed it at the world championships last year but could not retain it at these Olympics. In a driving rain in Saint-Denis, France, Alfred finished in 10.72 seconds, 0.15 clear of Richardson, who was slow off the starting block and never seriously threatened.Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesGabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesWhen the results were shown at the Stade de France, Alfred jumped for joy and jogged to the bell set up on the edge of the track for gold medalists to ring. After winning Saint Lucia’s first Olympic medal ever, Alfred wrapped herself in her nation’s flag, sobbing as she fell to her knees before being embraced by Richardson and Melissa Jefferson of the United States, who won the bronze.Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesChang W. Lee/The New York TimesBidding to become the first American since Gail Devers in 1996 to win the 100 at the Games, Richardson, 24, could not claim the gold in the race she thought she would do so in three years ago at the Tokyo Games, when she was suspended after testing positive for marijuana.Daniel Berehulak/The New York TimesDaniel Berehulak/The New York TimesRichardson arrived in France as the 100-meter world champion. She will leave it as the fastest woman in the United States — but the second-fastest in the world. More

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      Olympics Opening Ceremony Singer Redefines What It Means to Be French

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      Aya Nakamura, the French Malian singer, did more than open the Games. She redefined what it means to be French.A new France was consecrated Friday evening during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. When Aya Nakamura, a French Malian singer, came sashaying in a short fringed golden dress out of the august Académie Française, she redefined Frenchness.Adieu the stern edicts of the Académie, whose role has been to protect the French language from what one of its members once called “brainless Globish.” Bonjour to a France whose language is increasingly infused with expressions from its former African colonies that form the lyrical texture of Ms. Nakamura’s many blockbuster hits.France’s most popular singer at home and abroad gyrated as she strode forth over the Pont des Arts in her laced golden gladiator sandals. A Republican Guard band accompanied her slang-spiced lyrics. Her confidence bordered on insolence, as if to say, “This, too, is France.”Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader, had said that Ms. Nakamura sings in “who knows what” language. But her denunciation of the performance on the grounds that it would “humiliate” the French people failed to stop it.The backdrop to the ceremony was a political and cultural crisis in France broadly pitting tradition against modernity and an open view of society against a closed one. The country is politically deadlocked and culturally fractured, unable to form a new government or agree on what precisely Frenchness should be.In this context, the thrust of the ceremony, as conceived by its artistic director, Thomas Jolly, was to push the boundaries of what it means to be French in an attempt to bolster a more inclusive France and a less divided world. It was a political act wrapped in a pulsating show.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 Olympics Scene Draws Scorn. Was It Really Referencing ‘The Last Supper’?

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      Some church leaders and politicians have condemned the performance from the opening ceremony for mocking Christianity. Art historians are divided.A performance during the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony on Friday has drawn criticism from church leaders and conservative politicians for a perceived likeness to Leonardo da Vinci’s depiction of a biblical scene in “The Last Supper,” with some calling it a “mockery” of Christianity.The event’s planners and organizers have denied that the sequence was intended to mock or offend, and have remained largely vague about the references associated with the images.In the performance broadcast during the ceremony, a woman wearing a silver, halo-like headdress stood at the center of a long table, with drag queens posing on either side of her. Later, at the same table, a giant cloche lifted, revealing a man, nearly naked and painted blue, on a dinner plate surrounded by fruit. He broke into a song as, behind him, the drag queens danced.The tableaux drew condemnation among people who saw the images as a parody of “The Last Supper,” the New Testament scene depicted in da Vinci’s painting by the same name. The French Bishops’ Conference, which represents the country’s Catholic bishops, said in a statement that the opening ceremony included “scenes of mockery and derision of Christianity,” and Robert Barron, an influential bishop in Minnesota, called it a “gross mockery.”The performance at the opening ceremony, which took place on and along the Seine on Friday, also prompted a Mississippi-based telecommunications provider, C Spire, to announce that it would pull its advertisements from Olympics broadcasts. Speaker Mike Johnson described the scene as “shocking and insulting to Christian people.”The opening ceremony’s artistic director, Thomas Jolly, said at the Games’ daily news conference on Saturday that the event was not meant to “be subversive, or shock people, or mock people.” Speaking broadly about the ceremony, he said, “The idea was to send a message of love and of inclusion.” On Sunday, Anne Descamps, the Paris 2024 spokeswoman, said at the daily news conference, “If people have taken any offense, we are, of course, really, really sorry.”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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      What to Know About Suni Lee’s New Uneven Bars Move

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      Sunisa Lee, the defending Olympic all-around gold medalist and uneven bars bronze medalist, may attempt a new skill at the 2024 Paris Games. The new element in her uneven bars routine is a release move in which a gymnast does a front flip and a full twist in the layout position. Lee is seeking to […] More

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      Your Guide to Olympic Gymnastics: Floor Exercise

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      Want to follow the women’s gymnastics competition in Paris, but don’t understand the skills or how they’re scored? Here’s a guide.For two weeks every four years, women’s gymnastics is one of the biggest sports in the world. The rest of the time, those of us watching are kind of a niche group.That can make it hard to fully appreciate what you’re seeing when the athletes take the Olympic stage. If you want to know what’s required on each apparatus or how to distinguish good routines from great ones, we’re here to help.Here, we’ll look at the floor exercise, starting with a broad overview and then moving into technical details. We also have guides to the vault, uneven bars and balance beam.The basicsThe square floor mat is about 40 feet on each side, which makes the diagonal paths along which gymnasts tumble about 56 feet. A carpeted surface covers a layer of foam, over wood, over springs. The slight bounce of those springs allows gymnasts to do more difficult skills.Every floor routine must include:A flip with a twist of at least 360 degreesA double back flip, with or without twistsBackward and forward tumblingTwo leaps or hops in succession, either directly connected or with running steps in between. One must involve a 180-degree split.Floor routines, set to music of the gymnast’s choice — no lyrics allowed — last about 90 seconds and include three or four tumbling passes. Gymnasts generally do their most difficult passes first. They receive one score for difficulty and one for execution, and the two are added.Unlike the vault, which showcases pure power, the floor exercise combines power with artistry. In practice, though, some gymnasts don’t put as much effort into their choreography. But when a gymnast really puts on a performance, you can tell.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