SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Paris is closing out two and a half extraordinary weeks of Olympic sports and emotion with a star-studded sunset show in France’s national stadium, handing over hosting duties for the Summer Games to the next city in line: Los Angeles in 2028.
Speculation was rife that Hollywood star Tom Cruise — seen around town during the final weekend — would feature in the closing ceremony that unlike the rain-drenched July 26 opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Games, basked in sunny, hot weather.
Shortly after French President Emmanuel Macron and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach had taken their seats, the ceremony opened with a singer belting out “Under the skies of Paris” — sung in the past by Edith Piaf and others.
The stadium crowd roared as French swimmer Léon Marchand, dressed in a suit and tie instead of the swim trunks he wore to win four golds, was shown on the giant screens collecting the Olympic flame from the Tuileries Gardens in Paris. There, the Olympic cauldron — powered by electricity instead of fossil fuels — had lit up the French capital for the duration of the Games, thrilling crowds by rising into the skies on a balloon every night.
For Los Angeles, topping Paris could be mission impossible. The French capital made spectacular use of its cityscape for its first Games in 100 years. The Eiffel Tower and other iconic monuments became Olympic stars in their own right, serving as backdrops and in some cases venues for competitions.
But Los Angeles was bringing star power of its own: singer Billie Eilish, rapper and Paris Olympics mainstay Snoop Dogg, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are scheduled to perform Sunday as part of the handover from the City of Light to the City of Angels.
Each of the music artists is a California native, including H.E.R., who is expected to sing the U.S. national anthem live at the Stade de France, which hosted Olympic track and field and rugby sevens. The audience was expected to top 70,000 people.
The stadium, France’s largest, was one of the targets of Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers who killed 130 people in and around Paris on Nov. 13, 2015. The joy and celebrations that swept Paris during the Games as Marchand and other French athletes racked up 64 medals — 16 of them gold — marked a major watershed in the city’s recovery from that night of terror.
The closing ceremony also will see the last medals — each embedded with a chunk of the Eiffel Tower — hung around athletes’ necks.
Fittingly for the first Olympics that aimed for gender parity, they’ll all be women — the gold, silver and bronze winners from the women’s marathon earlier Sunday.
The race — won by Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands — took the spot of the men’s race that traditionally closed out previous Games. In Paris, the men were bumped to the final Saturday, with Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola taking gold.
The switch was part of efforts in Paris to make the Olympic spotlight shine more brightly on the sporting feats of women. Paris was also where women first made their Olympic debut, at the Games of 1900.
The U.S. team again topped the medal table, with 126 in all and 40 of them gold. Three were courtesy of gymnast Simone Biles, who made a resounding return to the top of the Olympic podium after prioritizing her mental health instead of competition in Tokyo in 2021.
Following controversy that enveloped the opening ceremony — assailed by former U.S. President Donald Trump, French bishops and others over segments they felt poked fun at Christianity — the closing ceremony was being closely watched to see whether artistic director Thomas Jolly had any more surprises in store.
Jolly and other members of his creative team filed police complaints over death threats and online vitriol targeting them and some of opening show’s performers.
Critics jumped to the conclusion that a segment featuring drag queens and a DJ who is also an LGBTQ+ icon had parodied “The Last Supper,” Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting showing Jesus Christ.
Jolly and his team repeatedly insisted that was never their intention and got backing from Macron, who described himself as “outraged and sad” by the backlash against them.
US ties China in Paris Olympics gold medal count
The U.S. women’s basketball team held off France on Sunday to win gold in the final event of the Paris Olympics, and that hardware was needed for the Americans to tie China for the most with 40.
The U.S. easily won the total medal count with 126. Aside from the 40 gold, the Americans won 42 silver and 44 bronze.
“I saw the medal count beforehand so I knew,” said U.S. women’s coach Cheryl Reeve, who thought to herself, “that’s what we need — more pressure.”
The U.S. lost a bronze medal Sunday when the International Olympic Committee said it was reallocating the bronze given to Jordan Chiles in the women’s floor final to Romanian Ana Barbosu. U.S. Olympic officials are appealing.
China came in second in the total medal race with 91. China won 40 gold, 27 silver and 24 bronze. Japan was a distant third with 20 gold medals, 45 overall. Great Britain won 65 medals, but only 14 were gold for an overall ranking of seventh.
The medal rankings are done by gold, and the last time the U.S. didn’t top the standings was at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, when the Americans finished second to China, 48-36.
The U.S. has won the most overall medals in eight consecutive Summer Games. The last time the Americans failed to top the medal leaderboard was the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. The “Unified Team” featuring athletes from ex-Soviet republics won both the most golds (45) and total medals (112), while the Americans were second in both categories with 37 golds and 108 medals.
The U.S. had been battling with China for the lead in gold medals the last several days and entered Sunday, the final day of competition, trailing China 39-38.
China picked up an early gold medal Sunday when Li Wenwen won the top medal in women’s +81kg weightlifting. The U.S. followed with another gold when Jennifer Valente defended her women’s omnium title in cycling track.
It then came down to the women’s basketball game, and the U.S. won gold for the eighth consecutive time.
The United States won a total of five medals on Sunday, including a silver in women’s freestyle 76kg (wrestling), a team silver in women’s volleyball and a bronze in men’s water polo.
Three years ago at the Tokyo Olympics, the U.S. beat China with 39 gold medals to 38. The U.S. won 113 medals in Tokyo. The Americans were far more dominant at the Rio Olympics in 2016, when they won 46 gold medals to 27 for Great Britain 26 for China.
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Khaosod note: The following text is from Khaosod Sports
Summary of Thailand’s performance at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games:
- Thailand finished 44th in the overall medal table.
- A total of 51 Thai athletes participated in the competition, winning 6 medals:
- 1 gold medal in Taekwondo
- 2 silver medals and 1 bronze medal in Weightlifting
- 1 silver medal in Badminton
- 1 bronze medal in Boxing
Key highlights:
1 Tennis Panipak Wongpattanakit won gold in Taekwondo (49 kg), her second consecutive Olympic gold.
2 Kunlavut Vitidsarn won Thailand’s first ever Olympic medal in badminton (silver).
3 Weightlifting returned successfully after being banned in the previous Olympics, winning 3 medals.
4 Boxing won its first medal since the 2012 London Olympics.
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