It’s time to ditch the old cliches and to change the way we think about Olympic athletes, who are humans rather than robots
Chris Boardman signalled the shift when he summed up British Cycling’s performance at the Tokyo Olympics: “Fewer medals but a better story.” What could he mean? We all know sporting performance pushes forward. Innovation never stops as athletes look deeper and search further to raise their game. The new territory this time is fresh vocabulary, human stories and different thinking.
The Paralympics are poised to begin, the Beijing Winter Olympics follow next year, with Paris 2024 not so far away. Olympians of different ages and from different nations are challenging us to shift our mindsets and broaden the lens on what we see and take from the Games. Our language as spectators, journalists, politicians or sports leaders needs checking. There was a new vernacular spoken in the performance arenas of Tokyo. Take your favourite most-quoted phrases and question whether an athlete would say them any more. Here’s three to start: