The Games
Monday morning will be as close to my life getting back to normal as it gets - I’ll board a flight to Tokyo to go to the Summer Olympics, fulfilling another dream the young me could barely have imagined, yet it’s not going to be what I expected.
The stress before major tournaments is always palpable; there’s accreditations and previews and bags to be packed, but Tokyo will be different. PCR tests, vaccination certs, health checks and apps to install, quarantine rules and a playbook of procedures to be followed.
Tokyo wants to hold the Olympics, but it doesn’t really want journalists there, and you could hardly blame them.
The percentage of the population that is vaccinated is (I believe) still in single digits, meaning that I could be bringing in some variant that won’t bother me too much but could rip through their population if I don’t follow the rules (which, of course, I inted to do).
It’s not a nice situation. Part of me would rather not be going, but this is the job.
The New Kids
I wrote a piece about Conor McGregor last weekend that became very popular, and a lot of new people singed up for the newsletter, which is always fun - so welcome.
When you write about McGregor you usually end up getting it in the neck from all sides. Some people just plain hate him. His fans hate everyone who says anything even remotely negative about him. Some pose the question as to why I would want to write about someone about whom allegations of sexual assault have been made with alarming regularity.
What interests me about McGregor is more what he represents than who he is. On a personal level I’ve gotten on fine with him in the few interactions we’ve had, but that’s irrelevant. He has become a cultural phenomenon that is both intrinsic to who he is and entirely separate from him.
What has become known since last weekend when he suffered a gruesome leg break is that the UFC was apparently aware that he had stress fractures in his left leg.
This is what I mean when I say he is just as sinned against as he is a sinner. Who, really, sticks up for him? The UFC don’t seem to, and his manager doesn’t seem to either - if they did, neither one would send him into a fight with arguably the best lightweight on the planet right now with stress fractures in his leg.
The core of everything in McGregor’s world is power, and how it shifts from one entity to another in the stratosphere of fame he occupies. If you cannot say “no” to someone, you are not their friend - you are their subject.
Those McGregor cannot say no to, and those who cannot say no to him, need to have a think about whether or not what they are doing is for his best.
The Podcast
Last week I spoke to UFC fighter Molly McCann about her new book “Be True To You”, which is about her being gay and not feeling she could come out until she was 25.
Molly is one of the warmest, funniest people you will ever come across, but as she said in the course of a conversation that lasted almost 40 minutes, there is deep, deep trauma in her life that she is only beginning to work through.
That said, her simple stated desire to be a working class hero and to give back to her community burns with the force of a thousand suns - it seems she is forever going somewhere to do something for somebody else.
I wrote an interview for Reuters that will hopefully put her and her story in front of a much greater audience, but for full effect it’s worth checking out the podcast or the YouTube interview.
The Week Ahead
Next week brings about an anniversary of a story I’ve been covering for ten years, and the podcast to mark that occasion is already recorded - all that remains is to edit the constituent parts together. Again, it’s a story that deserves a wide audience, so I might partner up with someone who has a broader reach than me to see if I can get it into some more ears.
Monday is Tokyo, and then quarantine, and then almost three weeks of Olympic madness covering sailing, surfing and boxing, so make sure you’re following @philipoconnor on Twitter, @philipeblana on Instagram - and let anyone who you think might enjoy the coverage know that this newsletter exists.
Until next time, have a great week, wherever you may be.