Milestones, Moments, and Memories
Remembering a balmy Parisian morning facing the smouldering purple core at the centre of the Earth…
This is the introduction to December’s edition of the Off-Field newsletter, curating monthly tales from the fringes of sport and society. Read it here.
Do you have one abiding memory of 2024? One moment that will sum up the year when you look back decades on?
If you got married or had a baby, it’s an easy one to answer. Unfortunately, that’s also the case if you lost somebody, too.
The human brain has a habit of filing entire years into digestible chunks, condensing 365 days into one or two comparatively fleeting moments — wonderful or painful — for future recall.
It’s often only in the days after the Christmas mania, to a soundtrack of Jools Holland twinkling on his ivories, that we have a chance to consider what will be forged in our cerebral cortex until the day we die.
But, unless you’ve experienced some of the major milestones mentioned above, it might not be obvious what will stand out about 2024.
For me, there are no more babies to be had (2015 and 2017), and I trust my wedding (2021) won’t require a sequel. The grim reaper was dodged, although if you were there with me at the Great North Run in September, he probably felt a little too close for comfort (I’m fine. But it turns out Covid and half-marathons don’t mix well). Speaking of which, there was no pandemic to spread its ghastly spectre over the calendar like it did between 2019 and 2021.
So for many of us, it might be tricky to know what one thing will symbolise 2024. But I’m fairly certain what mine will be.
It’s a balmy August morning in Paris, sitting around a smouldering purple core that feels at that moment like it’s the centre of the Earth. There are 80,000 others in this global melting pot of languages and cultures. In a Stade de France drenched in flags, smiling Danes and giggling Swedes enjoy the noisy Mexicans in full voice. There are Brazilians in front of me, Swiss to my right, a smattering of orange-clad Dutch behind.
But what makes this most memorable, are the three people sitting to my left. They’re the three people I cherish the most and they’re smiling back at me, buzzing with excitement, waving their little Union Jacks with glee. On the track, we cheer for Josh Kerr, Dina Asher-Smith, and Daryl Neita. But there are just as many amazing things happening off it. The athletics at the Olympic Games has brought the world and its wonders to this small corner of Paris. And we’re sat right in the middle of it.
As I meet the giddy glances of my wife and two daughters I feel a moment of bliss. In their twinkling eyes, I see awe, incredulity, and adventure. This is what sport can do. I’ve known it for a long time. I’m lucky to have been to World Cups, European Championships, Ryder Cups. But this was the moment my nearest and dearest appeared to share my zeal. And if my youngest’s Olympic mascot collection is anything to go by (five Phryges and counting), then it might not be a one-off.
I hope you enjoyed many such moments in 2024, watching sport or indulging in another passion that fires that mutual glow of kinship. At Off-Field, we don’t judge whatever it is that fuels that flame.
It might be hoop dancing in Arizona or reading Moby Dick on the chilly beaches of LA. It might be finding the best pastel de nata joint in Macau, or enduring the pleasure-pain combo of another ultra marathon.
We’re wrapping up the final newsletter of the year with a selection of our favourite reads from December. Our eclectic picks encompass yet more milestones, moments, and memories from the fringes of sport and society.
Enjoy the selection and we’ll be back at the end of January with more from Off-Field, including news of a live event and an exciting new print project to share. Stay tuned, and happy new year!
This is an excerpt from the Off-Field newsletter. Subscribe, for free, here
