Actually, I'm clinging onto the side of this boat because the current actually in the Seine is so strong that if I don't, I'll quickly be swept downstream.

Last week, CNN's Melissa Bell jumped into the River Seine in Paris. Normally, this would be a very strange and illegal thing for anyone, let alone a CNN correspondent, to do. That's because that river is hella polluted. It's super dirty, or I should say it has been.

What's changed, according to specialists, who talk to us about the water quality, is the fact that they've managed to complete one huge infrastructure project upstream that collects a lot of the sewage and the rainwater that used to pollute the sand so much, bringing E coli levels dangerously high.

Over the last eight years, more than a billion dollars have been spent in an effort to clean up the sand to make it safe for the swimming portion of the triathlon at this year's Summer Olympics. And just to prove how safe it is now, the mayor of Paris invited the media to come along as she dunked her own head under the water.

It was a dream, and now it's real. After the Games, we will have a swimming pool in the river for all the people, for the Parisian people and for the tourists also.

Now, there are still concerns about the water's E coli levels. Any unexpected rainfall that could cause it to spike. But as the opening ceremonies get set to float down that same river for the first time on Friday, it's worth asking, will the world even be tuning in? My guest today is Bob Kostas. He was the face of NBC's primetime Olympics coverage for decades. He's now a CNN contributor. We're going to talk about what to watch for as these games begin and whether the Olympics, as an ideal, still holds water in 2024. From CNN, This is One Thing. I'm David Reind.

Bob, thanks for being here.

Thanks, David.

You hosted the Olympics on TV how many times?

Twelve.

Twelve. So you've been around this block before. What stands out to you about these games getting underway in Paris?

Well, I think this is the beginning of a stretch where the Olympics has a chance to get its groove back. The Washington Post this past weekend had an extended article about that. We know that viewers habits and the entire media and television landscape has changed considerably. So that has an impact, even minus the factors I'm about to cite. But the last three Olympics, beginning with a Winter Olympics in 2018 in Korea, to which there was a tepid response by the US audience. And then you have a Tokyo Olympics, which could have been great.

Olympic dreams dashed for more more than 20 athletes so far, testing positive or being placed in the COVID-19 protocol, including five members from Team USA.

But it was blighted by COVID, had to be postponed for a year. And it was conducted with no fans in the stands.

The stadium eerily empty as flag bearers proudly represented their countries.

And then, regrettably, the IDOC returns to China, to Beijing, where they'd already been in 2008. Now, There were some mitigating circumstances. There were places better suited to a Winter Olympics that could have hosted, but they backed out because of concerns about cost and other issues. And so the IDOC, conveniently for them, goes back to China. But by then, there was widespread public understanding that China is one of the most egregious human rights violators on the planet. And so that stands in stark opposition to the supposed Olympic ideals. And it was conducted under even stricter COVID circumstances. None of this was terribly appealing to the American public, and none of it is NBC's fault. Either. So now you've had this run of three. Now you've got this run that begins in Paris, obviously a beautiful setting, all kinds of history. Then they go to Milan, Italy for the next Winter Games in 2026, and then it comes to the United States in 2028. So if this run of three is in a counterpoint to the previous run of three, if the Olympics doesn't, in some tangible way, begin to feel like the Olympics used to, both in terms of ratings and just the general buzz around it, then we'll know that the Olympics have taken on a new position and not the position at the top of the pyramid that it used to have for two and a half weeks every two years.

Well, yeah. I mean, that's what I wanted to ask about, because I remember when I was a kid, it was appointment viewing. I would be on the floor in front of my TV with my parents, and we would watch all the primetime lineup, and that definitely has shifted. Is that due to the geopolitics behind the scenes, doping scandals, locations, or in 2024, is the Olympics just something that doesn't make sense anymore?

Well, I think the factors you just cited are part of it. The shift in the way people consume sports product contributes to it. And also you've had, and I won't belabor it any further, but the last three might have gotten some people out of the Olympic habit. Now, we have to say that the Olympics still won prime time every night it was on during all those Olympics, but not at the same level that it did before. So have some people gotten out of that Olympic habit? Reasonable to speculate that they might have. And then, you're talking about younger people, maybe they never got into the Olympic habit. If that stretch of time between 2016 and 2024 is when they're in their adolescence or early adulthood, maybe they never got into it yet. But this is a chance now. They've got optimal circumstances. This is a chance now to maybe, if not turn it completely around, turn it back in the right direction.

Cnn has done a lot of reporting on Ukraine athletes preparing to compete amid Russia's war waging in their country. Israeli and Palestinian athletes will also have a presence months after October seventh. Having covered so many Olympics, do you get a sense that these geopolitics political undercurrents actually make a difference out in competition?

Well, they are definitely a story, and this is for the stick to sports crowd. The idea that sports has ever been completely separate from politics or sociological issues, and especially that the Olympics have ever been separate from that, is ridiculous. And so you mentioned Israel and Palestine. There have been instances in the past where competitors have refused to go against Israelis and have not been, in my view, properly sanctioned for that by the IDOC. There was one that happened in 2004 in Athens. The competitor in the judo competition just happened to draw an Israeli as his opponent. And this person had been the flag bearer for his country. And so he has to forfeit the match because he won't compete against the Israeli. And then he comes home and is awarded the same amount from the government as he would have had he won the gold medal. And when I asked the head of the IDOC to then with Jacques Rogha about it, his answer was the competitor could not make wait. You're accepting this explanation for something that has a blatantly political aspect to it. Sometimes this stuff is unavoidable. And even if Palestinians and Israelis compete peacefully side by side, the visuals of that will be part of the story of this Olympics.

And I'm sure that MBC will capture that.

Don't come to Paris for the Olympics. I keep saying that.

I've seen on social media, there's been a lot of TikToks from Parisians, people who live there who basically are telling tourists and would be spectators, don't come. We don't want the Olympic Games here.

Our government, the city of Paris, is making it hell on Earth.

So we leave- Our Metro system cannot handle it.

As a Parisian, I'm getting the F out of here because I don't want to be here.

And all of my friends They're leaving.

My family members are leaving. It's a city that already has a lot of tourism to begin with. I guess as we look forward to the US hosting, is that going to be a sentiment that is just going to get louder and louder as the years go on?

You hear it from almost every potential Olympic city. Remember when Boston was front and center for a while, it was almost an uprising with the populace. No, no, please don't. It may work for everybody, but it It doesn't work for the people who actually live here.

The one thing, well, one among many things that Los Angeles has going for it, you're not going to have much of the complaint about, We built all these venues.

It cost a gazillion dollars, and now they have no use. Because those venues already exist in and around Los Angeles. They will not be confined to the city center or the city core. They'll be spread out and they have the venues to accommodate it.

From a Team USA standpoint, I know the big names, Katie Ledecky in swimming, Simone Biles in gymnastics. Are there any other sports that you think we should be watching for in terms of Team USA having a strong performance?

Well, team is interesting here because I think there will be heightened interest in the basketball competition. And usually, that has been a cakewalk, especially for the women. But as we speak, just over the weekend, a team from South Sudan lost by only a point to the American team, which is made up entirely of NBA stars. The America stated a LeBron James layup in the final seconds to win 101 to 100. And the women provided the competition at the All-Star Game for the WNBA for the WNBA All-Stars. And the WNBA All-Stars beat them rather handily. Now, that's a high level of competition. Any of the players on the WNBA All-Star Squad could just as well, I guess, have been on the Olympic Squad. But that may be a wake-up call for both of those teams that their gold medal is not inevitable. If they have an off night and some competitor has a great night, we might see an upset.

Do you have a take on any of these new sports that are being premiered here at this Olympics? We've got great dancing, climbing, surfing.

Classic Olympic sports. And anybody anybody middle-aged or older who offers the thought that maybe this wasn't exactly what the Olympics were designed for will be accused of shaking their fist in clouds or demanding that the kids get off their lawn. But you You tell me how it sits with you that the very same gold medal once draped around the neck of Jesse Owens or Michael Phelps could go to someone who's breaking. Nothing wrong with breaking, but is that Really? Is that really the same athletic competition?

It's hard. These are the people at the top of their game. It's physical.

Yeah, there's lots of things that are hard. Walking across a tight rope or juggling at the circus is hard. It's a skill. May even involve some athleticism. Basically, the idea here is to keep it relevant or attempt to keep it relevant or appealing to younger people.

Yeah. Isn't this how the Olympics gets its mojo back with introducing sports and activities that younger people actually like?

Perhaps. It's almost certain that I am no longer the test audience for this. Despite my connection to the Olympics, historically, I'm not the test audience for this. I think it's only a matter of time until there's some video game competition. People play video games. They play video games. And some people are undoubtedly better at it, undeniably better at it than others. It's a competition. Or we have basketball, but now we're going to have three on three basketball.

Oh, you don't like the three on three either.

Well, most of us have played three on three basketball because we didn't have 10 people at the schoolyard. So it has its purpose if you're playing half-court. Look, it's all fine. I'm not losing any sleep over. Is it classic? It's not classic.

Not classic, but we'll see if people actually latch on to it. Bob Kostis, thanks so much. I really appreciate it.

Thank you very much, David. Enjoy the games.

One Thing is a production of CNN Audio.

This episode was produced by Paulo Ortiz and me, David Reind. Our Senior producer is Fez Jamil. Our Supervising producer is Greg Peppers. Matt Dempsey is our production manager. Dan D'Azula is our Technical Director, and Steve Liktai is the executive producer of CNN Audio. We get support from Haley Thomas, Alex Manessari, Robert Mathers, John Dianora, Lanie Steinhart, Jamis Andres, Nicole Pessereau, and Lisa Namarau. Special thanks to Carmen Conti-Wiedemann, Wendy Brundage, and Katie Hinman. We'll be back on Sunday with another episode.

I'll talk to you then.