Snoop Dogg: The Olympic torch bearer to light up the Games

From music, film, fashion to entrepreneurship, US rapper Snoop Dogg has seemingly done it all. Real name Calvin Broadus Jr, Snoop will now add Olympic torch bearer to his CV.

Snoop Dogg will carry the Olympic torch through the final stages when it passes through Paris before the opening ceremony on Friday.

U ready? 🥇 Paris 2024 Olympics ya digggg 👊🏿🔥 pic.twitter.com/OOIo2DRZSC

— Snoop Dogg (@SnoopDogg) July 23, 2024

UK publication The Guardian reports that Saint-Denis mayor Mathieu Hanotin wrote on X that after Snoop carries the torch, there will be a concert by French 2024 Eurovision singer Slimane in front of the Basilica Cathedral of Saint-Denis. He added it would be the “last step before the Eiffel Tower”.

Snoop Dogg had to check out his speed at Hayward Field during #TrackFieldTrials24! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/WhvaNIaxKo

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— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) June 23, 2024

During a special exhibition race at the US trials in Oregon last month, the weed-connoisseur limbered up for his Olympic stint by posting a time of 34.44 seconds over 200 metres.

Wearing a T-shirt with the face of late Basketball player Kobe Bryant, the renowned rapper raced against four-time Olympic medallist Ato Bolden and retired American sprinter Wallace Spearmon.

“34.44 for a 52-year-old? Ain’t bad,” said Snoop after the exhibition race.

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Previous torch carriers

The torch was lit in Greece in April at the site of ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Games, before being carried across France by a relay of runners.

The opening ceremony will be held on the River Seine on Friday night, with the athletes parading on boats.

Other hip-hop artists who carried the Olympic torch in previous Games include Sean “Diddy” Combs for the 2004 Athens Olympics, while the British rapper Dizzee Rascal and the Black Eyed Peas singer will.i.am were involved in the build-up to London 2012.

The 68^th stage of the torch relay will see it travel through the Olympic Village and past the Aquatics Centre and the Stade de France, before it is taken to the banks of the Seine.

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Olympic fever

On Monday evening, MultiChoice hosted an exclusive screening of the Paris 1924 Olympics film produced by world-acclaimed filmmaker Anant Singh, courtesy of Video Vision.

Singh, who co-produced Sarafina, is also a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The documentary film, which has been remastered, captures the first-ever Games to be shot on film: Paris 1924.

Some South African Olympians were in attendance, one of them bronze medallist in canoeing Bridgitte Hartley, reflected on the challenges of being at the world games.

“It [dining hall] is big and there are so many people, it doesn’t stop. You have to be prepared for it because it could take you an hour [to get food]. I remember not wanting to eat breakfast because it would take too long,” averred Hartley.

Hartley won a bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the women’s K-1 500 metres.

She said there’s also the temptation that comes with the ubiquity of types of food one can choose from, healthy and unhealthy.

“It’s another form of discipline that you are not aware of and there’s anything you can eat. The first thing I ate after getting my medal was a red velvet cake,” she said bursting into laughter.

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