It was a bit of magic from a 25-year-old called Nick Park. A defender for the British hockey team, he won the ball, waltzed it 30 yards as if the ball was stuck to his stick and then deftly lifted his first Olympic goal inches over the crossbar.
Poor Luis Calzado was powerless to stop the rocket, and the goalkeeper ended up on the ground, as if he were a spectator. And in his debut at the Games, Park had set the tone for what would prove to be a resounding 4-0 victory over Spain in Group A.
No one in the team could believe it. He is not known for his superman-like feats in such advanced areas. He admitted that he had never achieved such a feat in training and that it was not something he did regularly at Surbiton Hockey Club either.
But perhaps there was always a theatrical contribution to be made in this stadium, the Colombes stadium, north-west of Paris. And Park was aware of the ghosts of the past, even if his grasp of the details was a little more superficial than if you asked him about London 2012, when he watched the whole show with his sister.
But I had a vague idea that the last time the Olympics came to this very venue, 100 years ago, Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell were gold stars in the 100 metres and 400 metres respectively. Their story was brought to the big screen in Chariots of Fire in 1981.
Nick Park (left) scored a wonderful solo goal from 30 yards as the Great Britain team beat Spain 4-0 in their opening game.
The rivalry between Eric Liddell (left) and Harold Abrahams, who won gold medals at the 1924 Paris Olympics in Yves-du-Manoir, was immortalized in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire.
The Yves-du-Manoir stadium, now decked out in 2024 Olympic branding for hockey events, served as the main venue for the 1924 Paris Olympics a century ago.
Not much remains of the once grand venue, but the site, packed with Liddell memorials, still retains a lustre that cannot be destroyed by a pristine blue synthetic pitch occupying the former cinder track.
Yves-du-Manoir, as it is officially known, hosted 250 international sporting events. It is not so grand now and did not look so good under a grey, tearful sky. Floodlights illuminated the gloom for a 10am start.
Outside, the police and army were heavily armed. More obviously than I remember from any of the four previous Olympics I have attended.
However, Park’s stunning first-quarter goal calmed the nerves of the British team, who had already endured two penalty corners by then.
He and his teammates brought a burst of optimism that had not been present in our men’s team since the golden days of 1988 and Barry Davies’ exclamation: “Where were the Germans? And, frankly, who cares?”
Now, after the podium-less years, coach Paul Revington, who has been in charge for two years, has taken the brakes off. “He’s like Guardiola,” said one observer. Generous, no doubt, but it is not a comparison the 50-year-old South African would accept with complete relish. He is a Manchester United fan.
His first task here is to guide his men through the group stage.
There are two groups of six in each, and four advance. South Africa (13th) arrive tomorrow. In addition to Spain (8th), the British have to compete with France (9th), Holland (1st) and Germany (5th). Our boys are ranked second in the world.
GB men’s hockey coach Paul Revington has been compared to Spain’s Pep Guardiola
The British team thrashed their Spanish opponents 4-0 in their opening match of the Paris Olympics
Great Britain are ranked second in the world and will play world number one Netherlands on Tuesday 30 July.
They were up to the task, although Spain were a little wasteful and goalkeeper Ollie Payne had to impress.
After Park’s goal, Gareth Furlong hit two more thunderbolts on his Olympic debut before Rupert Shipperley, a 31-year-old veteran of Tokyo and former geography teacher at KCS Wimbledon, scored a fourth.
The team had to pull out of the opening ceremony to prepare for it. Park, who got up early and was the tournament’s first scorer, said: “I didn’t expect to score that goal, but it was very important that my family was in the audience watching me. Our goal is gold. Why not?”
It’s early days, but there’s a lot of promise here.
