At last, the 16-day competition of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics has ended, consisting of 32 sports and 329 events. This Sunday, the 33rd edition of the Summer Games officially came to a close, and Paris handed the Olympic flame to the next host city, Los Angeles.
The closing ceremony gave a dazzling show with an audience of over 70,000 public turnout, besides 270 artists and performers.
The artistic director of Paris 2024 designed an exceptional closing ceremony called "Records" at the Stade de France so that the spirit would remain right to the end, putting the spotlight on the athletes who have been exemplary with their outstanding performances.
Stade de France was transformed into a vast open-air concert hall in which over a hundred performers, acrobats, dancers, and circus artists had assembled.
To loud applause, IOC President Thomas Bach and French President Emmanuel Macron received now handshakes and embraces, now waves and nods, in answer to the cheers of the people.
The opening ceremony had a parade of flags, in which the flag of France was paraded into the arena by the Orchestre Divertimento and Maitrise de Fontainebleau with the orchestra's rendition of the French National anthem, La Marseillaise remixed by Victor le Masne.
The arena was full of athletes dancing and busy taking selfies to preserve moments.
In the excitement, several athletes climbed the stage and onto it, whereupon the master of ceremonies begged them to come down. Finally, after much reluctance, the volunteers succeeded in emptying the stage and the show went on with fits of laughter running in echoes around the stadium.
Speaking to the audience, Thomas Bach—the 1976 Olympic fencing champion himself—remarked, "In a world full of tension, you all came together from 206 national Olympic committees and the IOC Refugee Olympic Team to make the City of Light shine even brighter."
He said, "Your performances were nothing less than spectacular. Everyone was striving fiercely to get even closer to perfection. You reminded the world of greatness humans are capable of. The Paris 2024 Olympics really were a big party of sport and athletics at its best.
Bach noted these were "the first-ever Games to be delivered fully under the reforms of Olympic Agenda, urban, young, inclusive and sustainable," while adding they also achieved full gender equality, so he called them "sensational from start to finish—or should I say: 'Seine-sational'.
The Olympic Flag will now make its journey from this city, carried through the streets of Paris, to that American city called Los Angeles, and over the hills of Hollywood, symbolically passed from Simone Biles to the future host city.
Rounding up the show were some electrifying performances by artists like Snoop Dogg, who lit up the event.
The IOC President then declared the 2024 Games officially closed, leaving a parting message for the world: "See you in LA…"
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