PARIS – Swim competition at these Paris 2024 Games got underway at 11:02 Saturday morning. By 11:38, Micah Masei, representing America Samoa, was done, his Olympics over just that quickly, 34th of 35 in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke, second to last.

Masei knew coming in that this, or something very much like this, would be the drill.

Which, in the case of Micah Masei and literally thousands of others of those taking part in these Paris Games, is absolutely the fundamental truth.

Because for most here the Olympics are not about winning.

The Olympics are about hopes and dreams.

Most swimmers do not take part in the opening ceremony. He did. Through the pouring rain. To take part in what International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach declared to the assembled athletes would be the “pinnacle of [their] Olympic journey.”