This time, it truly is au revoir. A summer season sporting bonanza that began below pouring rain on July 26 with a exceptional opening ceremony on the Seine River ended with the Paralympics closing ceremony at a rain-soaked Stade de France.
It lowers the curtain on profitable back-to-back occasions that captivated followers and raised the bar excessive for others to comply with. Good luck Los Angeles in 2028.
Because the stadium was lit up within the blue, white and purple colors of the French nationwide flag on Sunday (native time), a trumpet participant performed the nationwide anthem La Marseillaise and Paralympic flag-bearers made their approach into the stadium carrying nationwide flags to the sound of Chariots of Hearth by Vangelis.
“Everybody can see what an inclusive world is like,” Tony Estanguet, the pinnacle of the Paris Olympics in 2024, stated in his closing speech. “Now there isn’t any turning again.”
Worldwide Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons stated France excelled as a bunch in each Video games.
“Paris 2024 has set a benchmark for all future Paralympic Video games,” Parsons stated. “For a rustic well-known for its trend and its meals, France is now well-known for its followers.”
The gang clapped alongside to a breakdancing set, earlier than Tony Award winner Ali Stroker carried out the American nationwide anthem as part of the handover to Los Angeles.
Stroker made historical past in 2019 as the primary one who makes use of a wheelchair to win a Tony Award for her flip as Ado Annie within the Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!
In one other portion of the screened handover to LA, Venice Seashore Skate Park reworked right into a 360-degree-stage that includes skate boarders and wheelchair motocross riders.
Then, the gang roared as famed French digital music composer Jean-Michel Jarre started closing out the ceremony, which was once more led by inventive director Thomas Jolly.
The 76-year-old Jarre was seemingly oblivious to the rain lashing down on him.
Jolly wished to show the stadium into a large open-air dance occasion. Greater than 20 DJs adopted the trailblazing Jarre in a tribute to French electro music to the theme Journey of the Wave.
Or the wave goodbye from the 64,000 followers, and the town itself, to the greater than 4000 Paralympic athletes.
After the profitable Olympics there have been doubts that the power would hold going. These doubts have been dispelled, with athletes having fun with sturdy help. Not all venues have been bought out, however this was additionally as a result of the summer season vacation interval was ending and kids have been returning to highschool.
A surge of enthusiasm noticed 2.4 million tickets of the two.8 million tickets bought – second solely to the two.7 million bought on the 2012 London Video games.
Locals who stayed or French followers coming in from different cities and cities gave their athletes big help over each Video games.
“With the Video games we rediscovered our creativity,” stated Estanguet, a former Olympic canoeing champion. “The France which smiles, which loves itself.”
The Video games themselves have been a hit for French President Emmanuel Macron. Transport ran effectively, there have been only a few organisational glitches and safety points have been appeased, with police even partaking in pleasant banter or posing for images with followers – a rarity in France.
For a way lengthy the feel-good issue stays stays to be seen. There have been some boos for Macron when he was launched initially of the ceremony.
