If you blur your eyes and don’t listen too hard, you can almost convince yourself we’re back in the glory days of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), when cities and countries hurled themselves and many expensive gifts at fat-and-happy delegates to secure the Games.

On Friday, more than 10,000 athletes will parade down the Seine in unique and frankly very cool-looking opening ceremonies to the 2024 Olympics in Paris. And if Paris still wants the Olympics, well, maybe things aren’t as bad as you’ve heard for the “Olympic Movement,” as the IOC calls its thoroughly grotesque moneymaking enterprise.