The Paris 2024 Olympics have come to a close. With the Eiffil Tower and other historical locations as the backdrop to nearly every event, the result was an amazing experience to watch and probably to participate in.
There are three now long established traditions that NBC has created that I look forward too for each Olympics. The first is the opening ceremony introduction, voiced by a famous person, that shows off the beauty of the land and the moments of the Olympics might be worth looking for. The last two come at the end with the summary of the games given the host that wraps up how the games were and their host nation. The last is the Titan Spirit montage that when moments match the music, often will leave you in tears. The montage use to be longer and include credits to the amazing team that showed us the Olympics. Sadly that has since been relegated to the afternoon channels like CNBC or USA Network but on the plus it means we good a second montage, even if it doesn't hit the same as the Titans Spirit one. Instrumental music brings its own magic. Starting in 2012 they started have at least two montages. One for their afternoon and late night programming and one for end of the NBC coverage. The afternoon has the credit scroll but uses pop music while the NBC closing montage was shrunk from 10 minutes to give minutes while still using Titan's Spirt. I tried to provide both but often the do not make it online. IF you ever find videos for the gaps or better versions of the videos, please link in the comments.
To get people up to speed, in the United States, the Olympics Games television rights are owned by NBC (starting in 1988 for Summer Games, 2002 for Winter Games), CBS (1990s Winter Games) and ABC (1980s Winter Games). For NBC, their many hours of coverage always begins with a poetic introduction that shows off the host country and ends with their Olympics Ceremony credit montage that summarizes the games in spectacular fashion and while it has the expected focus on the US, it doesn't remain entirely there.
I tried to identify the music where possible besides NBC's traditional use of John Williams's "Olympic Fanfare and Theme", Leo Arnaud's "Bugler’s Dream" and Randy Edelman's "Theme from The Adventures of Brisco County Jr". Some of the videos are crap quality since NBC and the Olympic Committee isn't willing to post their versions online. Starting in 2014, If you find better copies, missing copies, or identify music gaps, please post in the comments.As always thank you to the Olympians for bringing two weeks of joy, peace and the competitive spirit. Looking forward to the next Olympics.