Paris Olympic fortnight sets high standard for future Games
Sports
The 16 medal-winning summer days and nights for French athletes brought a new vision of success
PARIS (AFP) - It might be time to get existential. The Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which ended on Sunday night in a lavish closing ceremony, screamed chronicle of a stress foretold. But 16 medal-winning summer days and nights for French athletes brought a new vision of success, both at home and abroad.
Paris and its monumental treasures were the stars as local organisers had asserted during the prelude to the official start of the the Games on 26 July while dealing with the gripes.
Complaints about the €4.4bn cost, restricted access and road closures near the river Seine projected inflexibility and lack of dynamism from sections of a country whose calling card to the world was insouciance and an embrace of the unknown.
There was a glee extraordinaire to shuffle off the Olympic coil.
Voided of such lugubrious souls, the city was flooded with shiny, happy people who were around for Paris - one of the most beautiful places in the world - and for the Olympic Games. A double whammy of wonderfulness.
The city venues - part of the organisers' sustainability drive - and the outliers in places such as Colombes to the west - became areas of outstanding sporting action and party central.
Dutch fans celebrating the gold medal of the men's hockey team at Yves du Manoir Stadium annexed a couple of corner shops and bars near the train station to dance and drink the night away. It was not orange juice.
A Mexican couple celebrated their betrothal smiling in the sunshine at the women's team archery on the Esplanade des Invalides.
The overwhelming reaction to the doomsayers? International equivalents of a Gallic shrug. If the Parisians and the French don't get this, they need help.
And the cavalry came. French athletes contributed to the delegation's best performance at an Olympics for 30 years and the narrative could do nothing other than turn.
The rugby sevens squad started the reset. Antoine Dupont, the skipper of the full-sized national team, inspired the seven's side to glory over Fiji in the final at the Stade de France.
A veteran of many a vibrant international at the venue, the 27-year-old marvelled at the atmosphere created by the 70;000 fans.
Following the ceremony to fete France's first gold of the Games, the rugby sevens squad went into the centre of the pitch and showed off some of the dance moves they had learned to turbo charge their preternaturally fleet feet.
The connection was as electrifying as the interdependence was instructive. Here were champions responding humbly to the people who had ennobled them.
Teddy Riner added another couple of lines to his legend with two more gold medals to take his collection up to five.
The 35-year-old operates now at a point in the national consciousness that his surname should become a verb denoting determination to maintain high standards and success.
HAUL
And the 16th gold - to beat the haul of 15 at Atlanta in 1996 - came on the penultimate day of competition in the taekwondo courtesy of Althéa Laurin who, as a young girl, was supposed to have signed up for karate lessons.
A Mexican wave rolled around the Grand Palais as she contested the last seconds of her final against Svetlana Osipova from Uzbekistan. An explosion of cheers greeted her triumph as the first French gold medallist in taekwondo.
"Winning has brought a lot of joy and gratitude to the people who supported me during the day of competition and the people I have worked with for so many years," said Laurin.
In her two visits to the Olympics, she has brought bronze and gold. And at 22, there is the prospect of more hardware - as its called in the trade.
"We wanted to be in fifth place in the medals table in Paris," said David Lappartient, head of the French National Olympic Committee.
"These were the goals we set ourselves and we got there. Congratulations to the French athletes, who made us live out these dreams."
FACTOR
Léon Marchand's four gold medals, including two in the same evening, in the swimming pool during the first week dynamised the fervour.
Of the 64 prizes that France has garnered, there have been medals in judo, cycling, fencing - the sports where the French have traditionally been strong - but also in table tennis.
Félix Lebrun won an individual bronze and then linked up with brother Alexis and Simon Gauzy to claim bronze in the team event at the expense of the Japanese. Still some way to go though to topple the Chinese who dominated the men's and women's events.
PRAISE
Sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castera was at pains on Sunday to stress the idea of the teams behind the athletes.
She paid tribute to the transport workers, volunteers, security services who have looked after the 1.6 million visitors to events. There was especial praise for the organising committee led by the former Olympic canoeing champion Tony Estanguet.
"I felt that during this whole Olympic adventure that we've been on the top of a gold mine," said Oudéa-Castéra.
"Firstly with the ideas of having the opening ceremony along the river Seine, swimming events in the river and surfing in Tahiti.
"From the beginning it was visionary, bold and ambitious," she addded.
"But to get gold you have to have a gold mine and we had this and we've delivered it to the world. It's a great achievement."
The self-basting follows some dry analysis. French organisational skills were under the microscope following the debacle at the Champions League final in May 2022 when Liverpool fans were wrongly accused of trying to storm the ticket barriers, doused in pepper spray by police and also assaulted by gangs of local thugs.
REVIEW
The nadir brought several inquiries led by senior politicians who said there had to be better coordination between the security services and managers of venues to allow the flow of crowds.
Two years after the Champions League final, organisation has had no serious glitches. Public relations have also stepped in. Scenes of police officers dancing with fans have gone viral.
"These Olympic Games involve both great French medals and a great gold medal for the ministry of the interior and the security forces," said Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin during a visit to officers in Marseille in southern France.
Yet the afterglow will go. And awaiting in the icy hinterland? Political discord and dodgy dictums from politicians of all hues.
President Emmanuel Macron, who attended several of the gold medal-winning performances, must oversee the appointment of new prime minister following the parliamentary elections in July that left none of the three main blocs with a majority.
At a reception in Paris on Monday, Macron thanked all those who helped make the Olympics a "success", saying that members of law enforcement had kept athletes and spectators safe.
He insisted that the Olympic Games showed the world "the true face of France".
SOLUTION
The looming political conundrum may well be solved in the interregnum between the Olympic and Paralympic Games which begin on 28 August.
His political clout waning, Macron's vision for future French performances might also be in jeopardy if subsequent administrations refuse to invest the hundreds of millions of euros that have been spent in the push to fifth place in the medals table.
But while she is in the hot seat, Oudéa-Castéra says the president's plan, which has clearly been successful in 2024, will prevail.
"We're going to continue to support research and create the right conditions for our athletes to give their all," she added.
"It's not just about sport in the strict sense of the word. It's about supporting the athletes materially and in terms of support and socio-professional follow-up, so that they can build up their portfolios, so that they can plan their school and university careers, and open the doors to tomorrow's business and public services.
"They need to have peace of mind when it comes to retraining after they've finished their high level careers. That's what enables athletes to express the best of themselves in the field of play."
The usual array of thanks and formalities wrapped up the Paris swing of the Olympic bandwagon.
It's next port of call will be the glamour and glitz of Los Angeles in 2028. Organisers operating in a city that houses the Hollywood film industry should be able to serve up a mega-blockbuster or at the very least a gripping action adventure.
And if they don't, we'll always have Paris.
