Six-week global sporting extravaganza comes to an end

Eiffel Tower in Paris with the Olympics rings on the final day. / X/@Paris2024

After six weeks – July 26 to September 8—of spectacular sporting performances, surprises and emotion-packed moments, the global sporting extravaganza encompassing both summer Olympic Games and Paralympics came to a spectacular conclusion on Sept 8.

After taking the Opening Ceremony out of the precincts of a stadium  to a canal – Seine -  in the heart of Paris, the athletes from nearly 200 nationalities first gathered for the 2024 summer Olympic Games before making room for the para athletes from more than 160 nations to rub shoulders with each other for supremacy in different sporting events at an opening ceremony that was held in the heart of Paris.

The only common thing between the summer Olympic Games and the Paralympics has been the holding of closing ceremonies at the same venue at the  Stade de France which were cheered by the public one last time.

The evenings of both the closing ceremonies turned out to be the high points of a historic, festive and unifying summer, and were marked by the handover to Los Angeles 2028 before the Flame was extinguished.

The extinguishing of the Flame kicked off the grand finale: a spectacular electronic  music concert that had the thousands of spectators on their feet dancing. Festivities marked the farewell to make the participants put behind the fierce rivalries that engaged them in the playfields for ultimate supremacy in their respective events.

Now it's your turn @LA28
We trust that you will make great Games and make us dream in four years!

#Paris2024 / @muvergraphics pic.twitter.com/cPq5VmHJVe

— Paris 2024 (@Paris2024) September 8, 2024

Celebrating the success of France becoming the second city after London to hold summer Olympic games thrice and Paralympics for the first time, the closing ceremonies  were the days for every Parisian to see the biggest sports feast culminating into a memorable event to fill the historic annals.

Paris 2024 had invited  almost the whole world (except for Russia and Belarus) to  join, participate and celebrate the first mask free summer Olympic Games and Paralympics.

While China and USA shared the top spot with 40 gold medals each in the 2024 summer Paris Olympic Games, it was China that finished far ahead of second placed Great Britain in Paralympics. China won almost 220 medals while the second placed Great Britain had 120.

USA, placed third in Paralympics, managed to cross the three-figure mark.

Paris made sure that both the events—the Olympics and Paralympics—were held incident free by making sure that the armed conflicts happening in the immediate neighbourhood do not impact the games. Security forces, not only from France but also from friendly nations, including India and the USA, were requisitioned to keep the troublemakers away.

After the Covid Pandemic shook the sporting world and even impacted the previous editions of both summer Olympic Games and Paralympics in Tokyo, the curtains were finally rung down to mark the  end of the Paralympic Games Paris 2024 in a glittering Stade de France. In this temple of sporting performance, which has shone so brightly over the course of this unforgettable summer, the public were able to relive the success of the first Summer Paralympic Games to be held in France. 

Over the course of the 11 days of competition, spectators from all over the world marvelled at some extraordinary sporting feats: the first Paralympic title for the Refugee Team won by Zakia Khudadadi in Para taekwondo; multi-medalled stars such as China’s Jiang Yuyan (the most decorated athlete of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games with 7 golds) the Brazilian Gabrielzinho in Para swimming (three gold medals), Switzerland's Catherine Debrunner in Para athletics (five gold medals) and the American Oksana Masters in Para cycling (two gold medals); as well as the triumph of Matt Stutzman in the Para archery competition.  

For India, Paris turned out to be the happiest ever hunting ground for its para athletes. From 1968 to 2020, in 12 Paralympics, India aggregated 31 medals, including nine gold. Of these, five gold were won in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.

In Paris, India almost equalled the aggregated performance of its previous 12 Paralympics by winning 29 medals, including seven gold.

In summer Olympic Games too, India almost equalled its previous best performance of seven medals with its first ever gold in athletics Neeraj Chopra in Tokyo 2020, by returning home with six medals, including a silver and five bronze medals.

It was not only the number or colour of medals, but it was coming of an age for India. For the first time, a woman shooter won an Olympic medal. Not only that she—Manu Bhaker—scripted history by winning two bronze medals in the same edition of the games. Men’s hockey team warmed the cockles of hearts of fans, not only back home but of strong Indian Diaspora worldwide, with back-to-back bronze medals.

With stadiums packed full—over 2.5 million tickets were sold for Paralympics—and overjoyed crowds, the French team shone in front of its home crowd, beating the record for most titles won at the Paralympic Games set in Tokyo, with 19 gold medals (compared with 11 in 2020)  and a total of 75 medals. And the champions Alexis Hanquinquant (Para triathlon), Aurélie Aubert (Boccia), Lucas Mazur (Para badminton), Emeline Pierre (Para swimming) and the brilliant French Para cycling team (28 medals), with its stars Marie Patouillet and Alexandre Léauté, won the hearts of the French by winning gold on home soil.  

The many celebration venues across France also gave people the chance to experience the excitement of the Paralympic Games and extend the party: one million people came to one of the 70 Clubs 2024 and the Club France to enjoy the feats of the French team and celebrate the medallists, while more than 600 mini clubs brought the new school year to life in French schools.  

The Cauldron lit for the last time to the tune of Vivre pour le meilleur [Living for the Best] 

This Sunday evening at the Stade de France, singer Santa opened the Closing Ceremony of the Paralympic Games with a rendition of “Vivre pour le Meilleur”, an iconic song by French rock legend Johnny Hallyday. Accompanied by her band of musicians, the singer lit up the Stade de France, powerfully uniting the hearts and generations that had shared the same passion throughout the summer.  

At the same time, thousands of people watched the final moments of the Cauldron, designed by Mathieu Lehanneur. The Cauldron will go down as one of the most powerful symbols of these Games, bringing together hundreds of thousands of people day and night, and adding to the magic of the Games of Paris 2024. 

A final lap for the flag-bearers of the 169 Paralympic delegations  

After the raising of the French flag to the sound of “The Marseillaise” played by a French trumpeter with a disability, André Feydy, the public gave a final cheer to the flag-bearers of the 169 Paralympic delegations present in Paris - a record in the history of the Paralympic Games.  

In a party atmosphere, to the rhythm of the songs performed by the Republican Guard, the public at the Stade de France was able to express its admiration one last time for the 4,400 athletes who took part in the Paralympic Games Paris 2024. 

On the stage, Presidents Tony Estanguet of Paris 2024 and Andrew Parsons of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) celebrated “an historic summer that will remain with us” for a long time, and paid a passionate tribute to the Paralympic athletes for their achievements as well as to the French public for the magnificent atmosphere in the venues. 

Paralympic tributes were paid to the six newly elected members of the IPC Athletes' Council (four women and two men: Martina Caironi (Para athletics) and Vladyslava Kravchenko (Para swimming) were re-elected, as were Yujiao Tan (Para powerlifting), Denise Schindler (Para cycling), Yoomin Won (wheelchair basketball) and Lenine Cunha (Para athletics), the first athlete with an intellectual disability to be elected) before the 15,000 volunteers received a tribute of their own for having made a remarkable contribution to the success of the event through their energy, commitment and good humour. 

A demonstration of breaking by a group of artist-athletes including people with disabilities.  

Dance, inclusion and celebration once again took centre stage with a group performance of breaking, interpreted by eight artist-athletes, three of whom have disabilities and some of whom had already taken part in the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games.  

The Director of Ceremonies for Paris 2024, Thomas Jolly, wanted this nod to one of the four additional sports offered by Paris 2024 as part of the Olympic Games programme. The demonstration was an opportunity to showcase this discipline and its inclusive power one last time, with solo and group performances, to the sound of a set by DJ Cut Killer. 

Je suis venu te dire que je m’en vais [I've come to tell you that I'm leaving]: a moving extinction of the Paralympic Flame    

After the handover from Paris 2024 to Los Angeles 2028, from the Tuileries Gardens, the duo Amadou et Mariam, accompanied by a string quartet in an intimate and poignant setting, sang Serge Gainsbourg's poetically elegant “Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais” to mark the end of the Games.  

In the Stade de France, a group of 6 French Paralympic athletes, all medallists at the Games, then led the final torch relay: Ugo Didier (Para swimming) and Frédéric Villeroux (Blind football), the first and last gold medallists of the French delegation, brought the Paralympic flame into the Stade de France before handing it over to another iconic duo of the Games: Charles Noakes, gold medallist in Para badminton, and Gloria Agblemagnon, silver medallist in Para athletics.

To close this relay showcasing the diversity of Para sports, the precious Flame was extinguished by a final golden duo: Aurélie Aubert, France's first Paralympic champion in Boccia and flag bearer for the Paralympic delegation at the Closing Ceremony, blew out the Flame with Mathieu Bosrgdon, the most successful French athlete at these Paralympic Games, with three titles in Para cycling. At the same time, the Cauldron, was also extinguished. 

A climactic finale with 24 artists from the French electro scene transforming the Stade de France into a giant disco 

To bring the Paralympic Games to a close, Thomas Jolly and his artistic team, in particular Victor Le Masne as Musical Director and Romain Pissenem as Show Director, created a huge celebration entitled “Le Voyage de l'onde” [The Journey of the Wave]. 

A real tribute to Parisian nights, from the hectic cabaret evenings of the Belle Epoque to the buzz of the first discotheques, via the frenzied rhythms of jazz clubs, Paris has established itself as one of the nerve centres of party life.  

With a back-to-back set of legendary hits, the French reminded the world that they know how to party! With Jean-Michel Jarre as the master of ceremonies, the Stade de France became France's biggest nightclub for one night, to the rhythm of the DJ set by the crème de la crème of the French electronic music scene.

It was on this joyous, danceable and unifying note that Paris 2024 wanted to invite all the athletes to take to the stage to close the adventure of the Games. : Double Paralympic cycling champion Alexandre Léauté joined Martin Solveig to launch the final track, with several French Olympic athletes also invited to symbolise the strong links between Olympism and Paralympism.