PARIS — Simone Biles will leave these Olympics with four medals and a full smile, an improvement since Tokyo of three medals and a whole lot of tears. Noah Lyles has already won one gold medal, in the race he was least likely to win, and could leave with three. If you are wondering whom to credit for the extraordinary performances of these extraordinary humans, the answer, obviously, is you.
Well, maybe not you, specifically. But you, the sports fan. If the last two Olympic cycles have taught us anything, it is that sporting events are theater performances, not lab experiments. Audiences don’t just watch competitions. They are part of them.
