SAINT-DENIS, France – Paris closes two and a half extraordinary years weeks of olympic sports and excitement with a raucous, star-studded show at France’s national stadium, handing over the responsibility of hosting the Summer Olympics to the next city in line: Los Angeles in 2028.
There was much speculation that Hollywood star Tom Cruise – seen around town last weekend – would appear in the closing ceremony that unlike the rain-soaked opening ceremony on July 26 of the 2024 Paris Games, took advantage of the warm weather.
Shortly after French President Emmanuel Macron and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach took their seats, the ceremony began with a singer singing “Under the Skies of Paris” – once sung by Edith Piaf and others .
The stadium crowd roared when French swimmer Léon Marchanddressed in a suit and tie instead of the swimming trunks he wore to win four gold medals, he was shown on the giant screens that collected the Olympic flame in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris. There, the Olympic cauldron – powered by electricity rather than fossil fuels – illuminated the French capital during the gamesthrilling crowds as he takes to the skies in a balloon every night.
For Los Angeles, surpassing Paris could be an impossible mission. The French capital made spectacular use of its urban landscape in the first Games in 100 years. The Eiffel Tower and others iconic monuments became Olympic stars in its own right, serving as a setting and, in some cases, venues for competitions.
But Los Angeles was bringing its own star power: singer Billie Eilish, rapper and Paris Olympics mainstay Snoop Doggand the red peppers are scheduled for perform on Sunday as part of the transfer from the City of Lights to the City of Angels.
Each of the musical artists is a California native, including HER, who is expected to sing the US national anthem live at the Stade de France, which hosted Olympic athletics and rugby sevens. The expected audience was 70 thousand people.
As a delicate pink sunset gave way to night, athletes marched into the stadium waving the flags of their 205 countries and territories – a show of global unity in a world gripped by global tensions and conflicts, including those in Ukraine and Gaza. The stadium’s screens displayed the words “Together, united for peace.”
With the 329 medal events completed, the expected 9,000 athletes – many of them wearing their shiny medals – and team officials filled the arena, dancing and cheering to pounding beats.
Unlike Tokyo in 2021, where the Games were postponed a year by the COVID-19 pandemic and largely deprived of fans, the athletes and more than 70,000 spectators at the Paris arena were able to celebrate with abandon, singing the Queen’s anthem together. “We Are the Champions”, he shouted. Several French athletes crowd surfed. Team USA members jumped in their Ralph Lauren jackets.
The national stadium, the largest in France, was one of the targets of the Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers that killed 130 people in and around Paris on November 13, 2015. The joy and celebrations that swept Paris during the Games as Marchand and other French athletes accumulated 64 medals – 16 of them gold – which marked a major turning point in the city’s recovery from that night of terror.
The closing ceremony featured the delivery of the last medals — each incorporated with a piece of the Eiffel Tower. Fittingly for the first Olympics that aiming for gender parityall went to the women – the gold, silver and bronze medalists in the women’s marathon earlier on Sunday.
Bach hung them around the race winner’s neck Sifan Hassan from the Netherlands, the silver Tigst Assefa from Ethiopia and the bronze Hellen Obiri from Kenya.
The women’s marathon took the place of the men’s race that traditionally concluded previous Games. In Paris, the men were eliminated last Saturday, with Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia wins gold.
The move was part of efforts in Paris to make the Olympic spotlight shine more brightly on women’s sporting achievements. Paris was also where women made their Olympic debut, at the 1900 Games.
The US team once again led the medal tablewith 126 in total and 40 of them gold. Three were courtesy of gymnast Simone Bileswho made a resounding return to the top of the Olympic podium after prioritizing her mental health over competing in Tokyo in 2021.
Following controversy surrounding the opening ceremony — attacked by former US President Donald Trump, French bishops and others for segments they felt mocked Christianity — the closing ceremony was being closely watched to see if artistic director Thomas Jolly had more surprises in store.
Jolly and other members of his creative team filed a complaint with the police about death threats and online vitriol against them and some of the opening act’s performers.
Critics concluded that a segment featuring drag queens and a DJ who is also an LGBTQ+ icon had parodied “The Last Supper”, a painting by Leonardo Da Vinci that shows Jesus Christ.
Jolly and his team have repeatedly insisted that this was never their intention and won support from Macron, who described himself as “outraged and saddened” by the backlash against them.
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