Tom Cruise came down from the roof of the Stade de France on a rope, to the sound of electric guitar riffs from “Mission Impossible.” On the ground he shook hands with the athletes, took the Olympic flag from gymnast Simone Biles, fixed it to the back of a motorcycle and rode out of the arena. That was how Paris handed the Games to Los Angeles on Sunday.
A prerecorded film picked up from there. Cruise rode his bike past the Eiffel Tower, onto a plane, and then skydived over the Hollywood Hills, where three circles were added to the O’s of the Hollywood sign to make five Olympic rings. Los Angeles will host in 2028. Billie Eilish, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre played on Venice Beach, many time zones away. H.E.R., a California native like the others, sang the US national anthem live in Paris to a stadium holding more than 70,000 people.
A night for Paris first
Still, the night belonged to the host. “These were sensational Olympic Games from start to finish,” IOC President Thomas Bach said. Bach, who has said he will leave office next year, also asked for “a culture of peace.” “We know that the Olympic Games cannot create peace, but the Olympic Games can create a culture of peace that inspires the world,” he said. Then he turned to the future: “I call upon the youth of the world to assemble four years from now in Los Angeles.”
Athletes from 205 countries and territories marched in under the words “Together, united for peace,” with wars in Ukraine and Gaza in the background. After the 329 medal events, about 9,000 athletes filled the arena. At one point crowds of them rushed the stage, and announcements in French and English asked them to go back. Some stayed and formed an impromptu mosh pit around the French band Phoenix until security and volunteers cleared the stage.
French swimmer Léon Marchand, who won four golds, opened the show on the giant screens in a suit and tie, collecting the flame from the Tuileries Gardens. He returned at the end, to chants of “Léon, Léon,” to blow it out.
Medals and a milestone
The last medals of the Games, each set with a piece of the Eiffel Tower, went to women: the gold, silver and bronze winners of the women’s marathon, run earlier that day. It replaced the men’s race as the closing event, part of Paris’s push to give women’s sport more of the spotlight.
The US topped the medal table with 126 medals, 40 of them gold. Biles won three. Host France collected 64, 16 of them gold.
The stadium itself carries history. Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers targeted it on Nov. 13, 2015, in attacks that killed 130 people in and around Paris. The celebrations during these Games, the report said, marked a major step in the city’s recovery.
