Do You Know The (Olympic) Muffin Man?

I LOVE the Olympics. The first Olympics I remember watching was the 2008 Beijing Summer Games when Michael Phelps was in his prime. Ever since then, my eyes have been glued to my TV every two years while I've been cheering for Team USA as hard as I'm sure most of you out there are. But this year's Games are a little bit different. Not on TV, but online.

This year, athletes worldwide have been documenting what it's been like to be in the Olympic Village on platforms like TikTok.

While we did get some insight into what the lives are like of athletes competing in the Games during the last Winter event, it paled in comparison to this year. We've been seeing the cardboard beds they're sleeping on, the pins they're trading, the friends they're making, and the memes/trends they're participating in.

But there's one athlete who has been dominating my, and many others 'For You' Page for the past couple of days. And it's not Simone Biles (even though we've seen a lot of her, of course).

His name is Henrik Christiansen and he's sent the Internet into a tailspin. Have you heard of him? He's a 27-year-old swimmer from Norway competing in his third Olympics. But that's not really what TikTok knows him for. He is known for his love of the chocolate muffins they serve in the Village. It's all he's posted about since the Games have officially begun.

It started with one video, then another. It's now been 5 days of nonstop muffin content. And I can't say I blame him, those muffins look really good. But as word has gotten around about Henrik and his muffins, other athletes have been posting about these muffins. Or how they're hoping to find the Muffin Man.

Even though Team USA has already won 37 medals as of the writing of this article (on August 1st), the real winner of the 2024 Olympics is Coup De Pates, the supplier of the muffins. Unfortunately for most of you reading this, only those working in the food industry can buy them directly from the company. But if you do somehow get your hands on these, please message me immediately. I've completely bought into the hype and I want to try these muffins very badly.

And if any of you are curious as to what kind of an athlete the Olympic Muffin Man is, you can watch him compete in the Men's 1500m Freestyle event on Saturday, August 3rd. He'll be in the second heat. As much as I love the silly goofiness of it all, go Team USA!

The Olympics are going on now through August 11th in Paris and can be watched on NBC and streamed on Peacock.

Summer Olympics 2024 is officially in full swing in Paris following an Opening Ceremony for the ages.

Seriously, this Opening Ceremony had something for everyone, and get ready for us to do our best Stefon:

-Can-Can dancers.
-Lady Gaga.
-A surprising sub-plot in the overall ceremony's narrative that involved a ménage à trois.
-References to the beheading of Marie Antionette, which led into a performance from French metal band Gojira.

-A buttload of rain.
-Priceless artwork from the Louvre coming to life.
-A silver horse galloping across the Seine in majestic glory.

-A catwalk from out of nowhere highlighting France's club scene and the country's influence on fashion.
-A brief performance from Les Misérables.

And then, as if things couldn't get any more over-the-top, Celine Dion delivers a stunning performance of Edith Piaf's "Hymne A L'Amour" from inside of the Eifle Tower. The legendary singer has been battling stiff-person syndrome, which is a condition that impacts the central nervous system. This condition has affected Dion's ability to sing. She revealed her diagnosis in December 2022, stopped performing and made very few public appearances while she sought treatment to return to performing.

Even once the Olympic cauldron is extinguished, people will still be talking about this triumphant moment.

Now that we've gone through all of our tissues from happy-crying about Celine, it's time to get down to business and talk about the athletes.

This 2024 Opening Ceremony was very unique for the above reasons, but also because it saw the Parade of Nations actually make their way down the Seine in boats of all sizes. Some small countries had a small boat to themselves. Oftentimes, there were multiple countries sharing a boat, while countries with large delegations had massive boats just for their athletes.

Regardless of boat size, pretty much every athlete got drenched by the pouring rain throughout the entire Opening Ceremony. However, the rain didn't seem to dampen the moods of the athletes. In fact, Kelly Clarkson commented, "Everyone is killing that wet look. Just sayin’!"

Now, because of the rain, this led to many of the athletes to wear clear plastic rain ponchos over their Opening Ceremony outfits, which had to be a bit of a bummer. (It certainly got in the way of checking out all of the various team outfits.) However, this also made us take a closer look at the fashion choices of each nation, and it's led to our very serious (wink-wink) assessment of the best and worst fashion choices from the Summer Olympics 2024 Opening Ceremony. Enjoy!