A few years later, the alarm goes off and it's still dark. A shower, coffee and a sandwich and a sandwich on the way, and before you know it, we're in the early hours of the day. city won't be coming to life for a few hours yet. The posters on the wall announce a major and how to get there. All that remains to be finalized are the very last preparations.
Following in almost the same footsteps, the officials, other volunteers and all those who who will be taking part in the great sporting ballet of the next few hours have also begun their for the big day. It's a date on everyone's calendar, and it's the same for the spectators. spectators, family and friends. More and more people are coming together contribute to the collective rendezvous. There's promise and anticipation in the air, and it's you can feel. The atmosphere is building, a clamor is building. The competition is launched. The competition becomes an event, the moment becomes now.
In just a few days, however, the streets will be reopened to cars, the city and its amphitheaters amphitheatres will once again become more accessible, retaining at most a certain display of the Olympic feats achieved here. In Montreal, when I need to think it's not uncommon for me to sit in the bleachers of the Complexe Claude-Robillard, another Olympic venue. The sound of the lighting system takes up a lot of room when the space is empty. is empty, but I have no trouble hearing again the clamor, the ambient sounds that that make a competition an event and an event a special moment. When Alexandre Bilodeau won his gold medal in Vancouver, the very first Canadian gold medal gold medal on Canadian soil, the whole of Vancouver vibrated. I remember exactly where I was I was at that very moment. A few days later, when Sydney Crosby scored to give us the gold the gold medal in ice hockey, an entire country froze in time.
Seven-year-old Nathaniel's first shutout in his very first tournament. Little Margaux's header in the in the regional final. All defining moments in their own way for for someone. Of course, there are the regular matches during the season, but there are also the tournaments, the finals, the bigger events. It's special when a competition becomes an event event and an event becomes a moment. Life is made for special moments. moments. Our collective history is written of special moments, as often as possible sporting moments, please!
For a long time to come, we'll be seeing the typical colors of the volunteers and staff of the organizing committee for the Paris 2024 Games. It's a brotherhood, an eloquent demonstration of a need for association, for affiliation to moments that are both individual and collective.
