What's with Snoop Dogg at the Olympics?

As the Olympics Games wraps up, I am still a little puzzled as to why Snoop Dogg has played quite such a prominent role. What was that all about?

As a second-tier one-time rap star, he is one of those personalities more famous for being famous than for anything else, kind of the Paris Hilton of Rap if you will, a professional and very successful self-publicist. But he still managed to wheedle his way into the opening ceremony - hell, he even carried he Olympic Flame for a while - and he kept popping up at random times throughout the Games, not for any good reason that I could see. The BBC calls him "America's cheerleader".

Apparently, he was involved with some of the TV presentations by NBC, the American host network ("special correspondent", or "ambassador of happiness", according to NBC), as indeed he was at Tokyo in 2021. So, I guess he was at least there in some kind of official capacity. Some believe he was instrumental in NBC's increased ratings with this Olympics. Well, maybe. Still a bit weird, though, if you ask me.

I hate to think how involved and ubiquitous he is going to be at Los Angeles 2028.