Quote:In 2024, the Games will offer a groundbreaking celebration of sport for the entire world. More events will take place away from the stadiums, at the heart of the city. The Opening Ceremonies will also follow the same approach: for the first time in history, the host country’s communities will resonate with the rhythm of the Games like never before. Thanks to a groundbreaking approach, numerous sites and venues across France and French overseas territories (including village squares, gardens, parks, stadiums, school playgrounds and exceptional sites like Trocadéro, the Hôtel de Ville square in Paris and Parc de la Villette) will become places of celebration and events during the summer of 2024.

Quote:FoxNews,

In between listing all the countries participating in the Olympic Games, there have been several performances riffing on France's history and culture, such as a headless Marie Antoinette, the last queen prior to being executed amid French Revolution, singing with her severed head in her hands sporting drag-style makeup. This was part of numerous drag queens that appeared to be a recurring theme throughout the ceremonies. Three drag queens were among the 10,000 torchbearers who relayed the Olympic flame as it started in Greece, passed through French territories and made its way to Paris.

One new display on Friday showed what appear to be numerous performers, including drag queens and a large woman in an aureole halo crown, parodying "The Last Supper," a universally recognizable painting by renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci of Christ and his apostles.

Quote:Imane Khelif and Angela Carini exchanged a few brisk punches in their 46 seconds of competition in the Paris ring. They were enough to persuade Carini that her Olympic debut was finished.

The Italy boxer abruptly walked away from her Algerian opponent and went to her corner Thursday, abandoning her bout — an extremely rare occurrence in Olympic boxing.

Carini didn’t shake Khelif’s hand after the referee formally raised it, but she cried in the ring after sinking to her knees. Minutes afterward, a still-tearful Carini said she quit because of the pain from those opening punches.

“I felt a severe pain in my nose, and with the maturity of a boxer, I said ‘enough,’ because I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to, I couldn’t finish the match,” Carini said.

Khelif was disqualified from the 2023 world championships after failing an unspecified gender eligibility test, and her presence at the Paris Olympics has become a divisive issue.

Carini, who had a spot of blood on her trunks, said she wasn’t making a political statement and was not refusing to fight Khelif. Carini further said she is not qualified to decide whether Khelif should be allowed to compete.

Quote:It was a record-breaking night at the Stade de France in the Olympic Games Paris 2024 men’s javelin throw final as Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem set a new

Olympic record throw of 92.97m, dominating the field to earn gold - his first Olympic medal. This win marks Pakistan’s first Olympic gold medal in athletics.

India’s Neeraj Chopra, the Tokyo 2020 defending gold medallist, threw a season’s best 89.45 to earn silver. Grenada’s Anderson Peters threw 88.54 to

take bronze.

Neeraj Chopra In wins silver, Nadeem Pk clinches gold in Men’s Javelin Throw | Paris 2024 Highlights



Arshad Nadeem | Paris Olympics 2024 ? Set Javelin Throw Record 92.97M❤️





On X.com

https://x.com/Olympics/status/1821641160638836967

HARD WORK PAYS OFF FOR ARSHAD NADEEMNadeem won with his second throw of 92.97m, setting a new Olympic record, the only athlete to break into the

90s, not just once, but twice, finishing with a dominant 91.79m - the top two scores of the day.

Source

Quote:From its very start on a memorable evening on the Seine River to its spectacular finish inside the iconic Stade de France, these Olympic Games Paris 2024 were like nothing we've ever seen before.
Or felt.
 
Sunday evening's (11 August) Closing Ceremony marked the end of a return to the City of Light for the first time in 100 years, a glittering farewell steeped in layers of French culture - and an official handover to LA 2028.

Newly-minted French icon Leon Marchand, who won four golds in the pool this Games, opened the ceremony under the Olympic cauldron before some 9,000 athletes paraded into the Stade de France, with a programme harkening back to the creation of the modern Games, by Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin.

IOC President Thomas Bach praised the athletes’ performances for “sparking excitement” around the world, but also nodded to a pivot in the Olympic movement – to “a new era.”

Quote: 
While the evening marked a celebration of a Paris 2024 Games that were full of raucous crowds and iconic Parisian venues, it also served as the official hand-over to LA 2028.
 
In true Hollywood style, LA took the reigns with celebrity starpower, including a surprise appearance by gymnastics superstar Simone Biles, who was handed the Olympic flag along with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
 
That happened as musical superstar H.E.R. sang the American national anthem, cueing the surprise of the night: Tom Cruise!

From X.com

https://x.com/Olympics/status/1822751551959560639

Quote: 
As is customary, the Closing Ceremony concluded with the extinguishing of the Olympic Flame.
Marchand, who had began the ceremony by carrying a lantern from the cauldron, arrived into Stade de France cheered on by the French crowd.
 
In true theatric fashion, an encore closed the programme: French recording artist Yseult bringing chills to Stade de France and around the world with her performance of My Way, an iconic hit that carries a strong link between France and the U.S.