Paris Olympics on channels 26.7.–11.8. Go to the competition website here. You can find the entire program of the games here.
A fit senior man presses the gas on the highway on his way from the main airport of Paris towards the city center. In the afternoon, the line of cars is long, but one of the three lanes is as if dedicated to that driver. The track is open, so to speak.
– If the wrong person gets lost in this lane, he will immediately receive a 150 euro breakdown fee. In the name of honesty, the locals are starting to get a little mature for this rule, says the gentleman driving the car.
The number and letter combination 2024PARIS can be found not only on the side of the car but also painted on the road every few hundred meters. We are in the lane reserved for the transport of the Olympic Games, which requires accreditation for the Games.
The certificate can be found, among other things, at every Games volunteer. The wheel turner is one of 45,000 volunteers.
– My name is Wally, I’m from Texas and I’m 77 years old.
Wallace Brians was born in 1947 in Panama, where his American parents were on assignment. Life took Brians to the United States and Texas only in 1964 as a result of the riots that started in the Panama Canal Zone.
Around the same time, Brians was training to become an American Airlines pilot. Even though the commercial pilot work has already been left behind, the strong-willed Brians still has a private pilot’s license. Its validity requires regular health checks, which have not caused Brians any problems.
Brians’ condition is guaranteed by an active lifestyle. The Texan actively participates in the World Championships of professional pilots in cross-country skiing.
– In 2016, the games were in Finland. We flew with the American Airlines team to Helsinki and drove across Finland to the competition venue Levi. Finland is a beautiful country, Brians praises.
This year the World Cup in question took place in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. There, Brians got excited about a new sport.
– I want to try biathlon again, before my speed fades too much. Age is starting to take its toll, says Brians.
The art of casting
However, Brians still has more power than many younger ones. Brians ended up at the Paris Olympics and behind the wheel thanks to his throwing skill, which has not faltered over the years.
– My friend who flies planes for American Airlines, who speaks Portuguese, was a volunteer in Rio de Janeiro (the 2016 Summer Olympics). He recommended by chance that I should apply to Paris as a volunteer worker and advised me on how to apply.
The application included a personality test, which the organizers used to determine which job each applicant would be suitable for. The applicant was also allowed to express a wish for an placement.
Brians ended up less than 16,000 kilometers away from the place he applied for, that is Tahiti, where the surfing of the games is organized.
– I have spent my life not only in the air but also at sea. I am a sailor and have been scuba diving all my life. That’s why I applied to Tahiti, but according to the organizers, my personality and language skills are better suited to the job of a taxi driver, Brians says and grins.
The knowledge of the French language dates back to the 1980s. At the time, Brians was serving in the US Air Force in the Mediterranean when the US tried unsuccessfully to oust the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Gaddafi ruled Libya for five different decades.
– Gaddafi, that was a troublesome guy, Brians is content to grind about politics.
Since then, the French language has taken hold in a more relaxed way, especially during the holiday trips Brians takes with his wife to France. The wife is also on a month-long Olympic trip to the familiar Paris of a couple of million inhabitants.
– I rented a bike on Sunday and with the accreditation card I was able to ride alone along the banks of the Seine. Besides me, there was no one there for miles. The atmosphere was very strange. When I showed the pictures to my friends, people couldn’t believe their eyes.
Behind the special arrangement are the opening ceremonies organized on the Seine river, where the countries present themselves in boats flying flags along the Seine.
At the weekend, ordinary people had no business being in the immediate vicinity of the beach.
– A stone’s throw away from the beach was an enclosure, behind which people sat in cafes and restaurants. It looked like the people had been in a cage, Brians describes.
Not a spectator character
In Paris, Brians rides for race organizers for a month. The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics will be celebrated on July 26 and the closing ceremony on August 11. Brians pesti ends on August 14th.
Although Brians is already at the respectable age of 77, having studied throughout his life, especially in Europe and South America and part of Oceania, in Paris he is only at the first Olympics of his life. There is also a good reason for that.
– I don’t follow sports. I’m not a spectator, but I love to play sports. Gymnastics and athletics are close to my heart. In high school, I briefly held the school quarter mile (400 meters) record.
Texan aviator, sailor, scuba diver, cross-country skier, possibly future biathlonist…Wally Brians has lived his whole life to embody the saying movement is medicine.
– I can’t do all these things in Texas. The most important thing in life is to keep moving, says Brians.