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LA will host the 2028 Olympic Games
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Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billie Eilish perform at LA Sequence
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Paris Games seen as huge success
by John Irish and Richard Lough
PARIS – Movie star Tom Cruise descended on a rope from the roof of France’s national stadium to retrieve the Olympic flag and there was a touch of Hollywood at the closing ceremony of the Paris Games as the French capital handed over to next host Los Angeles.
Grammy winner H.E.R. teased the Mission Impossible soundtrack as Cruise leapt to the audience’s surprise as he fell 50 metres to the floor of the Stade de France, closing a ceremony that mixed the traditional, the obscure and the glitz of Tinseltown.
While Paris used iconic landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and the Palace of Versailles to win the hearts of Olympians and spectators, Los Angeles increasingly turned to its star attractions, namely top-list celebrities.
Paris was bringing down the curtain on the Olympic Games, delivering a dazzling Games in the heart of the capital, and breathing new life into an Olympic brand battered by the difficulties of Rio de Janeiro’s 2016 Games and the deadened spirit of Tokyo’s Covid-hit event.
Even Parisians got swept up in the Olympic excitement.
“We wanted to dream. We found Leon Marchand,” Paris 2024 chief Tony Estanguet told the crowd, referring to the French swimmer who won four gold medals in swimming.
“From one day to the next Paris became a party and France found itself. From a nation of ravers, we became a nation of rabid fans.”
‘Culture of Peace’
The two-week-long sporting drama saw China and the United States compete for top spot in the medal table until the final event.
In a repeat of the United States’ crushing defeat to France in the men’s basketball final, the U.S. women’s basketball team defeated France by one point to earn their 40th gold medal and top the medal table.
As the world emerges from the Covid pandemic in 2022, Paris promises to present the Olympics as the “light at the end of the tunnel” and provide a worry-free stage for sports returning to Europe for the first time in more than a decade.
But on Europe’s eastern edge, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the threat that Israel’s military operation in Gaza could spill over into a wider Middle East conflict, and France’s heightened security alert have all surfaced just as the Games are about to begin.
International Committee President Thomas Bach declared the Games closed while saluting the athletes.
“During this time you all lived together peacefully under the same roof in the Olympic Village. You embraced each other,” Bach said. “You respected each other, even though your countries were divided by war and conflict. You created a culture of peace.”
High Standards for Los Angeles
France had a new golden boy to celebrate, with swimmer Marchand emerging as king of the pool, before French judoka Teddy Riner reigned supreme by winning his fifth Olympic gold medal.
Simone Biles put her troubles behind her in Tokyo, making her long-awaited Olympic return in front of a star-studded crowd. She arrived as the most decorated gymnast in the world and returned with three more gold medals in her trophy cabinet.
Breaking made its Olympic debut – drawing ridicule from some on social media – while 3×3 basketball, sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing made their second appearance.
The IOC would have been relieved that no major scandal emerged, although it did have to deal with some controversies.
A doping controversy involving Chinese athletes overshadowed the Olympic swimming competition, where the United States faced the biggest challenge to its rule in decades.
The controversy over gender eligibility for the women’s boxing competition exposed the toxic relationship between the IOC and the widely reviled International Boxing Association.
Meanwhile, a $1.5 billion clean-up of the Seine River allowed Paris to see triathlon and marathon swimmers competing in the river through central Paris, causing no wave of disease – even though some training had to be cancelled because of bacteria levels.
But for all the sporting triumphs and drama, for many the biggest star of the show was the City of Light itself and its stunning backdrop to the competition.
“They have to get to a higher level. There’s a lot of work to do,” said James Rutledge, 59, a former banker wearing a Team USA T-shirt outside the Stade de France. “The next Hollywood? It’s worth playing for.”
This article is generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.
