On Sunday, August 11, the Summer Olympics in Paris ended. In the evening, the closing ceremony took place at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, with about 9,000 athletes and 270 artists participating. The artistic director of the event was the same choreographer who directed the opening ceremony, the Frenchman Tom Jolly.
The beginning of the Games proved to be resonant: many viewers were shocked by certain images – Marie Antoinette without a head, the almost naked and blue god Dionysus, men in women’s clothes, and a mise-en-scene reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. This time, too, something extraordinary was expected from the celebrations, although the closing ceremony itself was about half as long.
The event began with a short video featuring the most titled athlete of Paris 2024, swimmer Leon Marchand, who won four individual golds and a bronze in the relay. He symbolically took the Olympic flame from the Tuileries garden, where a balloon with it had been hanging in recent weeks, and carried it to the Stade de France.
Next, a giant podium in the shape of continents was set up in the Stade de France bowl, where the flag bearers of their countries stepped out. Then, the rest of the athletes – about 9,000 athletes from 205 countries – came under the spotlight.
The Stade de France hosted the final award ceremony of the Games: the best in the women’s marathon won their medals. “Sifan Hassan from the Netherlands won gold, Tigst Assefa from Ethiopia won silver, and Helen Obiri from Kenya won bronze.
After that, the show of the ceremony began: a few days before it started, there were rumors that Tom Cruise himself would descend from the roof of the Stade de France to the stage. He did so a little later. But first, another actor appeared under the dome of the arena in the form of the Golden Traveler.
The ceremony was decorated with the appearance of Swiss pianist Alan Roche, who, together with opera singer Benjamin Bernheim, performed the song “Hymn to Apollo” on a piano suspended in the air! The Swiss has already performed a similar number in different countries, but this was the first time such a wide audience saw him. And it was spectacular!
