Does the Paris sky bring good luck to sports lovers? The answer seems to be a big yes for both the French athletes and the organizers of the Olympic Games 2024. With 64 medals, including 16 gold, France, the host country of Paris 2024 is fulfilling its objective an unprecedented event and beyond to spread its culture beyond the stadium alone.
80,000 spectators, 10,700 athletes: On August 11, Paris once again made history with an unforgettable closing ceremony at the Stade de France, a lively moment of jubilation and emotion.
Although France was not among the top 3 national delegations to have won the most medals, a position occupied by the United States (122 medals), China (90 medals) and Australia, it did manage to secure a place in the Top 10, regaining its fifth place in the world, ahead of Great Britain (14 gold medals).
More than the medal count, the Paris 2024 organizing committee succeeded in offering games in its own way reflecting a certain cultural exception, more urban, more inclusive, more sustainable, more popular and more parity.
“Nineteen days gone by so fast and already engraved for life,” said Tony Estanguet, Olympic slalom canoe champion and President of the Paris 2024 Games Organizing Committee. And he continued in superlatives Paris 2024 being able to boast a “record audience, attendance as well as another record… that of the largest number of wedding proposals during an Olympic Games.”
A declaration of love to the world and to sport, in the image of “Sous le ciel de Paris”, sung and revisited by Zaho de Sagazan.
Atlanta record shattered
As if to exorcise the slow build-up to London 2012 and the empty stands at Tokyo 2020 (Covid obliged), the French national delegation delivered an exceptional harvest of titles and medals.
Proof that there’s no substitute for a packed and festive arena, especially at home. For the French team, the Summer Olympics were an opportunity to win 64 medals, including 16 golds, putting the French nation in fifth place in the final table of scores. A position worthy of its place in the history of the modern Olympic Games.
The French delegation beat its previous record of medals won, which dated back to the1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
Among the great figures to have brought French fighting spirit to the firmament was swimmer Léon Marchand, who won four gold medals (men’s 200 m individual medley, men’s 200 m breaststroke, men’s 200 m butterfly, men’s 400 m individual medley), becoming the most successful French athlete to date.
He is not, however, the most successful athlete of this Olympic fortnight. Internationally, only 26-year-old Chinese swimmer Zhang Yufei has done better, with 6 medals… bronze!
Meanwhile, Teddy Riner, the greatest judoka of all time, won two further gold medals (individual in the +100kg category and mixed), becoming triple Olympic champion.
The two emblematic athletes of these Paris 2024 Games were responsible for extinguishing the Olympic cauldron.
Also among the great French names of the fortnight were Nicolas Gestin, gold medallist in slalom canoeing, and the men’s volleyball team led by Andrea Giani against Poland.
For the first time in a hundred years, France managed to win a hat-trick, in this case in BMX, with Joris Daudet beating his compatriots Sylvain André and Romain Mahieu.
France’s16th and final gold medallist, Althéa Laurin , secured her first ever Olympic Taekwondo title.
Other notable names this season include silver medal-winning triathlete Cassandre Beaugrand and Dany Dan, Olympic runner-up in Breaking to Canada’s Phil Wizard.
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Featured Photo: © Paris 2024
