The fact that Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson isn't an athlete is beside the point. The fact that the only time we saw him involved in a sporting event, it resulted in the worst tackle in football history, irrelevant. The simple fact is that the London Games would be nothing - nothing - without a sense of humour, and Boris embodies that quality to a T.
Take the handover from Beijing. All handshakes and earnest thanks, there was little by way of entertainment or tone-setting moments, until Boris stepped up to the microphone. With Gordon Brown utterly terrified at the prospect of the verbose yet logorrhea-stricken Boris insulting absolutely everyone, the world watched on as the floppy-haired orangutan lookalike lectured the Chinese on the history of ping-pong. In one moment, the precise perfection of the 2008 Olympics was left behind, and the buffoonery and charm of London was laid in full view.
Since then, it's been the Boris show. Whether it's watching "semi naked women...glistening like wet otters", or hanging over his constituents on a zipline bantering jovially with the gathered masses (see video), Johnson rewrites the book on being an authority figure in one of the world's biggest cities. That, without a doubt, seals his spot as a 'Lympic Legend. Rio just won't be the same without him.
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