Paris Olympics memorable moments: Simone Biles was the star but the spotlight reached many faces

Saint-Denis, France: Aiming to prove that the top in Paris is not mission impossible, Los Angeles on Sunday took over the hosting of the 2028 Olympics from the French capital, a skydiver named Tom Cruise, Grammy winner Billie Eilish and It featured other stars. , who ended their 2024 Games just as they began – with joy and gusto.
Paris is bringing down the curtain on the Olympics, bringing a spectacular sport to the heart of the capital and reinvigorating the Olympic brand, which was battered by the problems of the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro and the lackluster spirit of Tokyo's covid-stricken event.
Even the Parisians were affected by the Olympic enthusiasm.
“We wanted to dream. We got Leon Marchand.” Paris 2024 President Toni Stanguet told the crowd, referring to the French swimmer who won four gold medals in the event.
“From one day Paris became a party and France found itself. “From a country of ravers, we have become a country of crazy fans.”

Following Paris promises a challenge: for the first Games in 100 years, they became Olympic stars in their own right, with the Eiffel Tower and other iconic monuments as the backdrop and venue for the medals. Winning masterpieces

But the city of Angeles showed that it, like the city of light, has up its sleeve.
Cruise — in character as Ethan Hunt — wowed as he swooped down from the top of the stadium to the electric guitar riffs of “Mission: Impossible.” Once her feet were on the floor — and after shaking hands with the adoring athletes — she took the Olympic flag from gymnast Simone Biles, secured it to the back of a motorcycle and roared off the field.

The appetizing message was clear: Los Angeles 2028 also promises to be an eye-opener.
However, this was very much Paris' night – its chance for one last party. And what a party it was

The closing ceremony of an extraordinary two-and-a-half weeks of Olympic sport and excitement ended with a star-studded spectacle at France's Stade Nationale that mixed unbridled celebration with a sweeping call for peace from International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach.

“These were exciting Olympics from start to finish,” Bach said.
After announcing his intention to leave the post next year, Bach struck a more bitter note when calling for a “culture of peace” in the war-torn world.
“We know that the Olympic Games cannot create peace, but the Olympic Games can create a culture of peace that inspires the world,” he said. Let's live with this culture of peace every day.
Then there was another gear shift courtesy of Cruze.
In a pre-recorded segment, after rappelling down live from the dizzying heights of the rooftop, Cruise rode his bike past the Eiffel Tower, boarded a plane, and then jumped over the Hollywood Hills. Three circles were added to the O's of the famous Hollywood sign to combine the five Olympic rings.
Thousands of athletes cheered it on as they danced and sang into the night — and an art show celebrating Olympic themes flourished with fireworks.
When a crowd of them stormed the stage at one point, their enthusiasm rose. Stadium notices in French and English asked them to answer twice. Some stayed and created a rat hole around Grammy Award-winning French pop-rock band Phoenix as they played before security and volunteers cleared the stage.
Several time zones away, Eilish, Red Hot Chili Perez, rapper Snoop Dogg—wearing pants with Olympic rings after being a headliner at the Paris Games—along with longtime collaborator Dr. Dre kept the party going with a performance in Los Angeles. Venice Beach
Every single one of them is from California, including HER, who sang the US national anthem live at the Stade de France in front of more than 70,000 people.

At the start of the show, the stadium crowd erupted as French swimmer Leon Marchand, wearing a suit and tie instead of the trunks he wore to win four gold medals, collected the Olympic flame from the city's Tuileries Garden. Giant screens were shown. Paris.
After loud chants of “Leon, Leon” from the audience, Marchand reappeared at the end of the show and extinguished the flames. The Paris Games are over.
But they come back
“I want the youth of the world to gather in Los Angeles in four years,” Bach said.

205 countries, 9000 athletes

As a delicate pink sunset gave way to night, the athletes first marched into the stadium flying the flags of 205 countries and territories – a show of global unity in a world embroiled in global tensions and conflicts, including in Ukraine. And it is Gaza. “Together, united for peace” was written on the stadium curtains.
As the 329th medal race came to an end, the 9,000 expected athletes—many of them wearing their shiny medals—and team staff filled the arena, hard-dancing and cheering.

Unlike Tokyo in 2021, where the Games were pushed back a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a large number of fans, athletes and more than 70,000 spectators at the Paris Arena graduated, singing together as the Queen's anthem “We Are They celebrated. “Heroes” shouted. Several French athletes surfed. Team USA members were jumping up and down in Ralph Lauren jackets.
The Stade Nationale, France's largest stadium, was one of the targets of ISIS terrorists and suicide bombers who killed 130 people in and around Paris on November 13, 2015. The jubilation and celebration that engulfed Paris during the Games as Marchand and other French athletes frolicked. Winning 64 medals – 16 of them gold – was a major milestone in the city's recovery from that night of terror.
The closing ceremony witnessed the awarding of the last medals, each of which was embedded with a piece of the Eiffel Tower. Fittingly for the first Olympics to aim for gender equality, they all went to the women – gold, silver and bronze medalists from the women's marathon earlier on Sunday.
The women's marathon took the place of the men's race, which traditionally closed the previous games. The change was part of an effort in Paris to shine the Olympic spotlight more on women's sporting feats. Paris was also where women made their Olympic debut at the 1900 Games.

Team USA topped the medal table again with 126 total medals and 40 gold medals. Three of them were accomplished by gymnast Simone Biles, who made an impressive return to the top of the Olympic podium after prioritizing her mental health over competing in Tokyo 2021.
Unlike the rain-soaked but spirited opening ceremony in Paris, which took place along the Seine River in the heart of the city, the artistic side of the closing ceremony took a more sober approach with space age and Olympic themes.
A golden shrouded figure descended from the sky into a dark world of smoke and swirling stars. Olympic symbols, including the flag of Greece, the birthplace of the ancient games, and the five intertwined Olympic rings, were celebrated in white in a field lit by tens of thousands of lights like fireflies.

“Culture of Peace”
Two weeks of sporting drama saw China and the United States sit atop the medal table until the final match.
The U.S. women's basketball team repeated the heartbreak the United States inflicted on France in the men's basketball final, handing France a tough one-point loss to claim its 40th gold medal and top spot on the medal table.

As the world emerges from the Covid pandemic in 2022, Paris has promised the Olympics will be the “light at the end of the tunnel” and set the stage for the Games as they return to Europe for the first time in more than a decade.
But Russia's war in Ukraine on Europe's eastern flank, Israel's military offensive on Gaza threatening a wider conflict in the Middle East, and France's heightened security alert state became visible as the games began.
Thomas Bach, the head of the international committee, greeted the athletes by announcing the closing of the games.
“All this time, you lived peacefully together under one roof in the Olympic Village. You hugged each other, Bach said. “You respect each other, even if your countries are divided by war and conflict. “You created a culture of peace.”

High bar for LA
The French had a new golden boy to celebrate with swimmer Marchand as king of the pool, before French judoka Teddy Reiner reigned as he won his fifth Olympic gold medal.
Simone Biles put her Tokyo woes behind her and returned to the Olympics in front of a star-studded crowd. He became the most honored gymnast in the world and went to the trophy cabinet with three more gold medals.
Breaking made its Olympic debut – which was mocked on social media – while 3×3 basketball, sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing made second appearances.
The IOC will be relieved that there have been no major scandals, although it has had to deal with some controversy.
A doping scandal involving Chinese athletes hangs over Olympic swimming where the United States faces the biggest challenge to its dominance in decades.
A storm over gender eligibility has engulfed women's boxing competitions, exposing the toxic relationship between the IOC and the discredited International Boxing Association.
Meanwhile, a $1.5 billion cleanup of the Seine River has rewarded Paris with the spectacle of triathletes and marathon swimmers racing down the river through the center of Paris without causing a wave of illness — even though the bacteria levels have to cancel some exercises.
But for all the sporting triumphs and drama, for many the biggest star of the show was the city itself, the stunning light and backdrop it provided to so many matches.
They have a high bar to reach. There are many things to do. “The Next Hollywood? It's something to be played with.”