The Champs-Élysées were transformed into a huge party on Saturday, September 14, 2024, to celebrate the athletes of the French team after the unforgettable success of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris. The athletes began their parade in the middle of the afternoon and went up the Parisian avenue in front of a large audience that once again came to extend the party, before a giant concert organized in front of the Arc de Triomphe.
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There were no fewer than 300 Olympians and Paralympians, joined by nearly 10,000 volunteers, artisans and public agents of the JO 2024present on September 14 on the Champs-Élysées to celebrate the Paris Games and commune one last time with the French public during a grand parade.
Standing behind the barriers, under heavy police surveillance, 70,000 spectators came to cheer once again the athletes of the French team, blue-white-red makeup on their cheeks, flags in their hands and, for some, Phryges – the mascot of the Paris Games – on the head. We want to experience the Games one last time “, explained to AFP Sarah Lacampagne, a 31-year-old teacher who volunteered during the event. In the middle of the afternoon, the parade started under the sun with a blue-white-and-red fireworks display around the Arc de Triomphe, like the one that marked the start of the spectacle of the opening ceremony on the Seine on July 26.
Athletes decorated on the Place de l’Étoile
” Tony, Tony ! ” chanted the crowd as the president of the Olympic organizing committee and three-time Olympic champion marched past Tony Estanguet. The same thunder of applause accompanied the passages of the artistic director of the Games ceremonies, Thomas Jolly, or of Marie-José Perectriple Olympic champion in 1992 and 1996 and who lit the Olympic cauldron for these 2024 Olympic Games.
It’s something that will stay with us and bind us for life.
Volunteers and spectators unanimous on the success of the Paris Games
The rugby sevens team with Antoine Dupont, the fencer Manon Apithy-Brunetthe triathlete Cassandre Beaugrandthe swimmer Leon Marchand or even the French blind football team : many stars of these Paris Games were present on the famous Parisian avenue. As a highlight of the parade, 118 athletes were then decorated by the hands of the President of the Republic by receiving the order of the Legion of Honor or Merit on the Place de l’Étoile. With his third individual gold medal, the judoka Teddy Riner was elevated to the rank of Commander of the National Order of Merit.
Since the Innsbruck Winter Games in 1964, it has been a tradition for medallists to be decorated according to very specific criteria. After these Paris Games, 170 were eligible, compared to around 150 in Tokyo in 2021. A record number, just like the fifth place reached by France in the nations ranking, which had the best Olympics in its history on home soil with 16 titles and 64 medals in total.
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” Living up to the spirit of the Games »
While the Games offered respite and moments of joy to the French, in the midst of upheavals and political uncertainty, the President of the Republic explained on Friday, in an interview with the newspaper The Parisianhis desire to organize every year, on September 14, a national sports festival, on the model of the Fête de la Musique festival every June 21. We must live up to this spirit of the Games, to this national harmony which was expressed ” he stressed.
The Games were a success, with 12.1 million tickets sold for the Olympic and Paralympic Games combined, and an incredible fervour from the French public. The previous record was 11 million tickets sold, the organisers said. In Paris, 2.5 million were sold for the Paralympics, a little less than in London in 2012.
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After the award ceremony, a giant concert then began at 9 p.m. on the Place de l’Étoile, with some of the artists who marked the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, such as Marc Cerrone, the singers Chris (Christine and the Queens) and Lucky Love, the Malian duo Amadou and Mariam, and the mezzo-soprano Axelle Saint-Cirel who sang the Marseillaise once again this Saturday, as she had done on July 26 during the opening ceremony. Enough to prolong the immense pleasure that ran through these Paris Games and thrilled an entire nation for the duration of a summer.