Pressure, But Make It Natural: Diamonds & The Olympics

On July 26, 2024, the eyes of the world will turn to Paris, France to witness the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games. I love the Olympics, I love Paris, and I love having a good reason to put my life on hold for two and a half weeks to watch the most freakishly gifted human beings on planet Earth push themselves and each other to the outermost limits of what our species is capable of. 

I am lucky to have made several lengthy visits to Paris as an emotional support husband during Fashion Week. I was and remain transfixed by the city. Paris is seemingly locked in an ever-raging struggle to uphold her nation’s promise to guarantee Liberté, Égalité, and Fraternité to all her inhabitants – all while agreeing they share a collective duty to uphold the world’s highest standards of hospitality, cuisine, and culture for those who are lucky enough to visit. Paris’ assuredness in what she has to offer the world is, I think, the best form of national pride. 

In Paris, I have eaten so many incredible meals that have been deftly served by people who enjoy giving. I have wandered the city and gardens and museums and basked in the presence of the most incredible architecture, sculptures, and paintings that humanity has created during our tenure. And I have felt pressured to dress well even if I’m just running out to pick up some ibuprofen. The combined effect of these experiences compels one to stand a little straighter, look a little deeper, and begin to think that you, too, might be capable of quite a bit more than you previously thought. Visiting Paris is like trying on a beautiful natural diamond necklace that you weren’t sure would suit you, but finding out you actually wear it quite well. 

I have high hopes for what these Parisienne Olympics can do for the world at a time when we are particularly desperate for a positive collective experience. I hope we watch these athletes who are giving their fullest effort. I hope we admire the achievements of those who set new records and feel compassion for those who falter. I hope that in our champions we see our shared humanity and that we absorb the spirit of the Olympics: that our fiercest competitors are in fact our closest allies. 

In my personal history of watching, no athlete’s trajectory has captured the ecstasy and the agony of the Olympics as deeply as 7-carat VVS-certified G.O.A.T. Simone Biles. My heart broke for Biles when she pulled herself out of the 2020 individual all-around competition. She had entered the Tokyo Games having already vaulted and flipped over every existing bar in gymnastics history. She was a global phenomenon, and everyone was tuned in to see how she was going to outdo herself. Then, something happened to her that I don’t think most people understood: she caught a case of “the twisties.” 

Visiting Paris is like trying on a beautiful natural diamond necklace that you weren’t sure would suit you, but finding out you actually wear it quite well. 

The shocking announcement that she would not be competing in her most celebrated events was met with crashing waves of sympathy and derision. It was ‘Good for Simone for prioritizing her mental health!’ versus ‘Can you believe her cowardice? This is what’s wrong with the new generation.’ A lot of the people shouting from both directions did not understand what was going on. But I’m going to make a bold claim: I know how she felt. 

I was a pitcher and outfielder on my high school baseball team. One day during my junior year, I went to throw some warm-up tosses as I had done a million times. My first throw went ten feet over my partner’s head. That was weird. My second throw bounced halfway between us and rolled to him. I started to panic. I had no idea what was happening but suddenly I had no control over where the baseball was going. It felt as though someone had cut off my hand and replaced it with a clumsy replacement that had never held a baseball before. And no matter what I did, I could not get my old hand back. It was awful and humiliating and I had no idea what was going on. 

In the years since, I have learned that I caught a case of “the yips,” which is the more commonly used term for the gymnastics-specific “twisties.” I have not found a satisfactory explanation, but I have read many reports in my sadly fruitless attempt to put my yips behind me. My yips were embarrassing. For Biles, the twisties could have resulted in a career-ending or even life-threatening injury. Gymnasts rely on pinpoint awareness of their bodies moving through space at impossible, spinning, flipping speed. For whatever reason – Biles lost this awareness during a routine. This sudden, unnerving disorientation dropped napalm on her psyche. She didn’t withdraw to protect herself from embarrassment, she withdrew to protect herself from serious harm. 

It was frustrating for me to understand this on some level while so many loud people obviously did not. I wanted to reach through the television and tell this young woman, who felt like she was letting the whole world down and there was nothing she could do about it, that it was completely okay, and the world was not ending, that we were of course slightly disappointed not to see her do her thing. I wish the reaction had been as though she had broken her ankle – agony, sympathy, and compassion. Instead, there was just all this horrible noise. 

I found solace in my surety that Biles was protected from the hullabaloo by her own resilience and the comfort and support of those closest to her who did understand. Unbelievably enough, I did get a chance to tell her all of this in person a little over a year later at the InStyle Awards in Los Angeles. When I told her about my yips, she asked me, “How’d you get over it?” I told her, “I still haven’t.” She grimaced and said, “Dammit.” 

I think the solution to the yips and the twisties is to set it all aside and focus on other things in life, which Biles hadn’t done since she came double back tucking out of the womb. I was so happy to see that she found love and got engaged to NFL player Jonathan Owens. 

I hope that her 3-carat, F color, VVS2 clarity beautifully set oval natural diamond ring designed and set by Zo Frost – and the loving bond it represents – helps keep her grounded and that she can find herself comfortably up in the air again. 

Perhaps you have seen the often-circulated humorous pitch that every Olympic event should include a regular person trying to keep up so viewers can have a better grasp of just how incredible the Olympians are. Because when the rarest diamonds have been mined, laser cut, polished, set, and all presented at once, they’re too dazzling an ensemble to fully appreciate their otherworldly quality. Nonetheless, there are plenty of individual “stones” that have utterly transfixed me over the years.  

I was completely riveted by the Shawn Johnson versus Nastia Liukin matchup in the women’s individual all-around gymnastics competition during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. At this time, I still wore the teenager’s sash of jingoism I have since set aside after experiencing more of the world, so for this showdown, I had no favorite since both gymnasts were on Team USA. It was thrilling to watch the two dear friends cheering for the other to do her best and together ascend to the podium after the chalk had finally settled.  

In her final floor routine, Nastia Liukin, perfectly counterbalanced by her natural diamond stud earrings, put the gold medal out of Shawn Johnson’s reach who nonetheless followed with a near-flawless swan song routine of her own for silver.  

I can’t imagine the pressure of trying to execute those maneuvers in front of the eyes of millions (also, I can’t imagine trying to execute any of those maneuvers ever under any circumstances). But I’m certain that without each other’s support, Johnson and Liukin would not have ascended to the same levels that they reached together.  

Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympian in history with 28 medals (23 gold). After he retired from competitive swimming he fell into a deep depression. I’ve done things I cared about before and been sad when they ended. But I’ve never entirely devoted myself every single day for thirty years to one thing, reached the highest peak ever achieved, and then suddenly stopped and had to figure out what fits into that vast space. But Phelps did.  

Fortunately (and impressively), Phelps has managed to discover and create new landscapes in his life. He transformed his love for the sport he so unbelievably dominated into a beautiful pool-shaped natural diamond engagement ring that he placed on the finger of his wife and mother of four, Nicole. Oh, and he’s devoted himself to the cause of helping others navigate the dark depths of mental health crises, because if the most decorated athlete in world history can ask for help, maybe it’s okay for you to as well.  

The fastest woman in the world, Sha’Carri Richardson, was prohibited from entering the 100-meter qualifier leading up to the 2020 Olympics after testing positive for cannabis following a moment of weakness upon learning of the death of her biological mother. This news was met with a screaming chorus of supporters decrying her suspension, but the international rules prohibit the consumption of THC – the psychoactive chemical compound in cannabis – as a potentially performance-enhancing substance.  

No one was happy about this, but we are all looking forward to watching her in the Paris Games. It’s impossible to keep your eyes off her as she bounds down the 100-meter track.  

The lashes are long, the wigs are colorful, and the diamond rings are flashing too quickly to capture on camera. During the four years between the Olympics, Sha’Carri has been buoyed by her many supporters, her undeniable sprinting prowess, and perhaps most helpfully by her Genevive Jewelry natural diamond encrusted serpentine necklace at the USA Track and Field’s Night of Legends in 2023.  

Cheers to blinding bling and Sha’Carri blazing her path to redemption and reclamation on track and field’s biggest stage.  

And then there are the athletes we are so accustomed to watching outside of the Olympics. LeBron James committed to joining the Team USA roster in the Olympic basketball tournament. LeBron’s legacy is already written in stone as one of, if not the (hot topic, I know) greatest player to ever live. At this point in his long, historic career he’s throwing every log he’s got left on the fire. Many, myself included, believe the main goal still driving him is to play in the NBA with his son Bronny.  

It’s odd to think of an Olympic gold medal as a side quest but there are hundreds of medals given at each quadrennial Games and only one all-time scoring leader in the NBA: a mind-boggling achievement for which LeBron received this mind-boggling natural diamond-encrusted lion pendant from Eliantte.  

Whatever you’re into – whether it’s a living legend burnishing their legacy, a talented rascal flouting authority, a decorated Olympian returning for redemption, or maybe you’re curious how the judges are going to score the new break-dancing event – I hope you tune in. I can’t wait to see what obscure sport I become passionately obsessed with, whose storyline steals my heart, whose records get broken, and what immortal gem is forged under the pressure of the Olympic stage. There is so much to watch for in the Olympics. I hope you tune in because I’d like to watch it together.