Paris closes out 2024 Olympics with final star-studded show
Setting out to prove that topping Paris isn't mission impossible, Los Angeles rolled out a skydiving Tom Cruise, Grammy winner Billie Eilish and other stars on Sunday as it took over Olympic hosting duties from the French capital, which closed out its 2024 Games just as they started -- with joy and panache. Capping more than two extraordinary weeks of Olympic sports and emotion, Paris' boisterous, star-studded closing ceremony in France's national stadium mixed unbridled celebration with a somber call for peace from International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.
Following in Paris' footsteps in 2028 promises to be a challenge: It made spectacular use of its cityscape for its first Games in 100 years, with the Eiffel Tower and other iconic monuments becoming Olympic stars in their own right as they served as backdrops and venues for medal-winning feats. But the City of Angels, like the City of Light, showed that it, too, holds some aces.
Back in France, 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 a terrorist attack in and around the city nearly nine years ago. The national stadium, France's largest, was one of the targets of Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers who killed 130 people on Nov. 13, 2015 Paris became a party again and France found itself. Now, the lights are out. But the memories of Paris' special summer won't dim anytime soon.
Next stop: Los Angeles in 2028.
