PARIS – In French, there are no goodbyes.
Instead, Olympic crowds from Paris to the surfing venue in Tahiti were saying “au revoir” — see you again — as the 2024 Games drew to a close Sunday.
After the 100-year wait since Paris’ last Games, no one can say when France’s capital and the Olympics will next embrace. But this much is certain: They’re both emerging changed — in some ways for the better — from their summer romance.
Paris’ third Games — it also hosted in 1900 — have been filled with passion. French fans surprised even themselves with their enthusiasm for two and a half weeks of sports, plunging into the party like Léon Marchand parting the waters for his four swimming golds.
Marchand, in particular, stopped time with his feats — forcing pauses in play at other Olympic venues because spectators cheered so intensely when France’s new darling won again and again. Other French medal winners like judo icon Teddy Riner and mountain biker Pauline Ferrand-Prevot also whipped up hometown joy.
Initial grumbling about barricades and other intense security measures that disrupted locals’ lives — not to mention arson attacks on France’s high-speed rail network — gave way to choruses of “Allez les bleus!” or “France, let’s go!”
There were uplifting stories galore for non-French fans, too. Quite literally in the case of Armand Duplantis, the Swedish pole vaulter who broke his own world record in winning Olympic gold.
Simone Biles shone, again. Having set the brave example of prioritizing mental health over competition at the 2021 Tokyo Games, she came back to win three gymnastics golds and a silver.
