France Celebrates Triumphant Olympics With Record Medal Count, Millions of Fans and Spotlight

Welcoming the summer Olympics in Paris for the first time in 100 years, organizers have set the bar high for the Los Angeles Games that will take place in 2028. Along with beating the odds by hosting the opening ceremony entirely outdoors along the Seine in spite of the country being on high security alert and wrangling over chaotic politics, the Paris Olympics have outshined even the flashiest episode of “Emily in Paris” with selfie-friendly competitions held at iconic Parisian landmarks.

While Parisians deserted the city en masse before the start of the Olympics to go on vacations and avoid disruptions caused by the beefed-up security, a massive contingent of stars have hit the City of Light following the opening ceremony which drew Tom Cruise (who’s also due to perform a stunt on closing night), Steven Spielberg and Ariana Grande and a roster of performers including Lady Gaga and Celine Dion. Nicole Kidman showed up at Place de la Concorde for skateboarding, Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes went to Versailles for the equestrian competition, while Baz Luhrmann, Judd Apatow, Elizabeth Banks and Leslie Mann watched beach volleyball by the Eiffel tower.

Fencing at the Grand Palais has also been a huge hit, while cycling on Saturday drew around 500,000 people lining streets of Paris, from the “Amelie” neighborhood in Montmartre all the way to the Eiffel Tower. The indoors competitions have also seen plenty of stars, especially the Bercy stadium which saw Simone Biles becoming the most decorated American gymnast with three golds and one silver.

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French athletes are basking in the joyful atmosphere while Parisians’ shrugs and business owners’ complaints have faded. With six more days to go, Team France has already broken its historic record, with 44 medals, including 12 golds. The total is twice as many than the country netted in Tokyo and places France in the third slot behind the U.S. and China. Breakout swimming champion Leon Marchand and megastar judoka Teddy Riner are leading the contingent of French gold medals with four and two, respectively. Medals aside, the one sportsman who triggered the biggest viral moment of these Olympics is also a French native, 21-year-old pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati, who knocked down the pole with his bulge on Saturday and quickly went viral.

The unexpected Olympics frenzy has also been apparent at crowded fan zones, such as Club France at La Villette, where thousands gather each day to watch the competitions together on a giant screen and welcome each French athlete like a proper rock star.

“It’s like a waking dream. We came a really long way (…). I was convinced we could pull it off but this is beyond our hopes. It’s formidable to see French people together, happy, united. There’s such fervor. We give a great image of France and our athletes can feel it,” said Tony Estanguet, the gold medal-winning French slalom canoeist who presides over the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee for the Olympics and Paralympics, during an interview on Sunday evening on pubcaster France Televisions’ France 2 channel. Estanguet, who predicts the French team could clinch up to 60 medals, said more than 5 million people have visited competition sites while fan zones across France have attracted over 3 million visitors.

Locals’ enthusiasm for the Olympics has also been measured through record ratings on the French broadcaster which pulled more than 24.4 million viewers, its biggest audience ever for an event with the opening ceremony.

But even beyond France, Estanguet said he’s received upbeat feedback from “TV (execs) in the whole world, telling (us) that they are breaking records.”

These Paris Olympics have also introduced new sports that have gone viral, such as the kayak-cross, which has been compared with Mario Kart, and combines kayak racing with strategic challenges; and breaking, a form of breakdancing that includes footwork and athletic moves. The debut sports are meant to make the Olympics “more gender-balanced, more youthful and more urban,” said IOC president Thomas Bach in a briefing ahead of the kick off. On top of new sports, the Paris Olympics have also innovated with a three-strike ritual ahead of each game in a tradition inspired by French theater. At each competition, a personality comes onstage and bangs the ground three times with a stick of wood called a brigadier to get everyone’s attention.

But the Olympics hype isn’t catching on everywhere, and although cafés are filling up in popular areas, some business owners in quieter areas have felt disappointed and are hoping to get compensated by the government.

Melbourne native Jess Jeacle, who runs a bike touring company in Paris, tells Variety bookings were down 50% right before the Olympics and it “picked up only slightly since the start” of the event. “Blockages in the city change every day – after the opening ceremony and the torch race there has been the cycling, the triathlon, the marathon… The tricky part is we can’t rely on the maps provided by the city,” says Jeacle, adding that, “Some guests love it because they are in the thick of the Olympic atmosphere, but others are put out by the unpredictability.”

Over at the Bistrot Paul Bert, a usually popular destination for foodies and tourists, manager Chloé Colin sums up the current mood of Parisians, saying, “We’re not really working, but the ambiance is great with the few people who come!”

These Olympics have also been packed with drama fueled by social media, kicking off with the opening ceremony which was meant to celebrate diversity and inclusion. Featuring drag performers in an tableau that seemed to mock “The Last Supper” and a decapitated Marie-Antoinette, the event unleashed a torrent of online hate along with vitriolic criticism from the Catholic Church and conservatives against organizers and artists, including the artistic director Thomas Jolly, DJ Barbara Butch and famed drag performer Nicky Doll who have filed police complaints. But neither Jolly nor the rest of the organizers are willing to let the haters take over. The closing ceremony will take place at the Stade de France with more Greek gods, world-famous singers and Tom Cruise passing the flag to Los Angeles for the 2028 Games.

Ben Croll contributed to this report.

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Update: 2024-07-04

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