Vivianne Robinson of Santa Monica is hard to miss on the streets of Paris.
Decked out in Olympic pins, flags and trinkets, she is enjoying her 40-year passion of attending the Summer Olympics.
“LA 84, Atlanta 96, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, 2012 London, 2016 Rio and now Paris,” said Robinson, talking to NBC4 via zoom from her Paris hotel room. “This trip cost me like about $10,000.”
Robinson, 66, maxed out her credit cards and worked two jobs, selling necklaces on Venice Beach during the day and bagging groceries at night, to pay for this trip.
“It was well worth it, and I would do it a hundreds times over,” said Robinson. “You can’t beat Paris.”
But she does feel cheated on the opening night ticket she decided to splurge on. She thought a seat on a bridge overlooking the Seine River would be a prime spot for the opening ceremony, but she said she ended up watching most of it on a big screen.
“I feel like I got ripped off on that one, paying $1,600 to watch a television, that’s not acceptable,” said Robinson.
It didn’t dampen the Olympic spirit that she first felt in Los Angeles during her first Olympics in 1984. Her mother volunteered as a French translator for the athletes and brought home Robinson’s first Olympic pins. The collecting started that year and has spanned 40 years and seven of the 10 games during that period.
Robinson said she has mixed emotions about the Olympic Games coming home to Los Angeles in 2028.
“Being in L.A., I don’t get to go anywhere, that’s the bad side about it… is not seeing the world. At least, I’ll save my money. I can maybe pay my credit card debt from this trip.”
