Sometimes, not often, a year in sports is like countries marching out in alphabetical order at an Olympics opening ceremony. Only here, the first letter is not G for Greece, like at the Games, but A for Annum (Latin for year, for Gen X’s benefit).
This year at the Paris opening ceremony, the letters rolled in off boats on the Seine, and under pouring rain even as Zizou (Zidane, for Gen Z) in a suit and white sneakers, brought in the torch jogging through the city’s underground to hand it to adopted son, Rafa, waiting anxiously at the foot of the Eiffel. The Brits hated it, what else? The French couldn’t care less. It was that kind of a year.
