After two and a half weeks of sporting exploits, Paris said goodbye to its fans on Sunday. Olympics with a grandiloquent closing ceremony full of nods to French culture and an eye toward Los Angeles-2028.
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The United States came out on top in the medal table after 19 days of competitions that took place in the French capital in a luxurious setting, thanks to its most iconic monuments such as the Eiffel Tower, the Invalides and the Gardens of Versailles.
The Stade de France was the setting for a harrowing sequence: a futuristic dystopia in which “the golden traveller”, played by French breakdancer Arthur Cadre, descends from the heavens and rediscovers the Olympics that have long since disappeared, just as Baron Pierre de Coubertin did in the 19th century.
Tom Cruise carries the flag
Tom Cruise and his stunt.
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The actor Tom Cruiseas expected, made his appearance from the roof of the stage. He descended amidst the applause of the fans, took the Olympic flag from the hands of Simone Biles.
Flag in hand, Cruise left the stadium on a motorbike and, through a video montage, travelled through the streets of Paris until he boarded a plane that took him to Los Angeles, from where he jumped to land next to the famous panel of letters ‘Hollywood’, whose last two ‘o’s’ were converted into two of the five Olympic rings.
Closing in Paris
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach declared Sunday in his closing speech for the Olympic fortnight that “these Games were ‘Sen(a)sational’,” a play on the French pronunciation of the River Seine, before movie star Tom Cruise took the stage.
“It was a sensational Olympic Games from start to finish, or dare I say, ‘sensational’,” said the head of the Olympic movement at the Stade de France, where the closing ceremony for Paris 2024 is taking place.
This is how the event went
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Thomas Bach also wished to thank the French for their work: “The Paris 2024 Olympic Games were the Olympic Games of a new era (…) from every point of view. You can be proud of that.”
“Dear French friends, you have fallen in love with the Olympic Games. And we have fallen in love with you,” she said. At the end of her speech, the Olympic flag was handed over by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo to her Los Angeles counterpart Karen Bass, accompanied by gymnastics star Simone Biles, in a gesture that marks the start of the next Olympics, which will culminate in the next edition of the Games in Los Angeles in 2028.
SPORTS WITH AFP
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