Bonjour, dear Olympic Games fans,

It’s been almost 48 hours since the Games ended. I don’t want to be sad that it’s over, but rather happy that it happened. I’m handing over to Milan for the 2026 Winter Games and to Los Angeles for the 2028 Summer Games.

I’d like to take this opportunity to say goodbye. I was able to see the process of these Games, as a simple French citizen, but above all as a resident close to the Olympic Village. When the Paris 2024 bid was launched in 2015 and accepted in 2017, I was still in Marseille, my home town. It’s a city that’s mainly passionate about football, although other sports such as water sports also have their place. Little did I know that two years later, in order to continue my studies, I would have to move to the Parisian region, to Saint-Denis to be precise. The name isn’t unfamiliar to you, because that’s where the Games ended, in that wonderful stadium, the Stade de France.

Over the past 5 years, I have seen this former industrial area being transformed year after year into an Olympic village, ready to welcome athletes from all over the world in the summer of 2024, and then into housing for ordinary citizens in 2025. The preparations for the Games have not been without their hitches, with a number of people protesting against it. One aspect that is close to my heart and that I hope will be achieved is the sustainability of the Games. Only three permanent complexes have been built for these Olympics:

• the Olympic Village
• the Adidas Arena, home to Paris Basketball
• the aquatic centre, which should be open to Dionysians from this autumn. It’s this facility that worries me most, but I hope I’ll be wrong.

As for the rest, they’re either already there or are temporary facilities. Which also explains why the Olympic venues are so scattered and why we don’t have an Olympic Park like London 2012 or Munich 1972.

Protests

As with every Olympiads, Paris was no exception. Especially as we are the undisputed champions of protests. Voices were heard quite early on, but more and more as the deadline approached. Many people even wanted to see the Games fail in order to ridicule President Emmanuel Macron and Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris. She’s liked enough in Paris to be elected twice but in the suburbs, who don’t vote for the mayor of Paris as they have their own mayors, she has a lot of haters.

Opening ceremony.

Even though the Games technically began on Wednesday 24th July, we’ve all ticked off 26th July to see the opening ceremony, either on site or on TV. Once again, there were a few concerns:

• The Seine. Traditionally, the ceremony is held in a stadium, but the choice was made to do it in the heart of Paris in 2016. Initially, it was supposed to be held at the Stade de France. It was a bold choice that raised questions about safety, the weather, how the athletes could parade along the Seine, and whether the show was feasible in this context.
• Safety. It’s easy to protect even 100,000 people in a stadium. It’s harder to protect three times that number in such an open space. In fact, for a long time, they have considered to have two million people. But in consultation with the police, the figure was revised to 300,000.
• Choice of singers. When Aya Nakamura’s name was mentioned, there was a wave of criticism. As much as I can understand the singing aspect, because people can dislike it. But to say that she doesn’t represent France when she’s the most listened-to artist in the world is dishonest. There’s also a wave of racism, because it’s unfortunate but it’s true: for some people, if you’re not white, you don’t represent France to its true worth.

Finally, the ceremony took place. I got a ticket to the upper quays to see the ceremony. Basically, I couldn’t see much because I couldn’t leave early, but there were lots of giant screens, lots of people and we stayed despite the rain. Three hours of breathtaking entertainment:

• Rain. The weeks preceding the opening ceremony, it rained often, more than usual. But we all assumed it won’t happen at the heart of the summer. But it did and despite this, many stayed and we were soaking wet. However, the pictures we got during the ceremonies were memorable as the rain added something.
• Zidane: present at the beginning, then at the end. The crowd went wild, but that’s to be expected: Zidane is France, as France football national team captain Kylian Mbappé put it.
• Assassin’s Creed: even present at the closing ceremony. I’d like to know who’s behind that mask.
• Tribute to the renovation of Notre Dame de Paris: thank you for the moment. This monument means a lot to France (it was the first Christian monument I’ve ever visited), so we can’t wait to visit it again, with its new bell which was rung after every gold medal won at the Stade de France by the new gold medalist.
• Aya Nakamura: her cover of Charles Aznavour, who was also heavily criticised in his days for singing for the LGBT cause in the 1970’s and for adding too much English to his songs, accompanied by the Garde Républicaine as he left the Académie Française, is a fine way of thumbing her nose at her detractors.
• Axelle Saint-Cirel: one of the most beautiful Marseillaise I’ve ever heard in my life
• Drag queens: the most controversial sequence. Personally, I’m not a fan of this kind of show, especially fashion shows and blasphemy. But when a minister tells a religious radio station on air that threesomes and cheating are not forbidden in France, why do people act so shocked? That’s France, even if I don’t like that aspect of it, that’s just the way it is. But for many who criticised this sequence, I saw them less when it comes to defending children being raped in churches.
• Parade of athletes: I was among those who were rather sceptical, but in the end the result was satisfactory. The arrival of the American boat with LeBron James as flag bearer remains my favourite after the French boat. When we arrived, you could feel the patriotic spirit and we were all ready to cheer them on right up to the last event (which they did). As someone with Comoran origin, it was special when I saw the Comoran delegation. Bonus for whistling at Israel.
• The lighting of the cauldron. The choice of Teddy Riner, an active judo legend, and Marie-José Pérec, an athletics legend, to light the cauldron was a wise one.
• Céline Dion. Whoever didn’t cry, let them say so in the comments. It was just perfect.

All in all, the ceremony was exactly what was needed to kick off the Olympic Games. Let the competitions begin.

Competitions

Above all, we are here to see sports, athletes who surpass themselves after years of sacrifice to finally win a (gold) medal or cement their names even further in the legend. There were so many events I wanted to see that, for the first time in my life, I took out a subscription to a streaming service, HBO Max, to get Eurosport and the chance to see almost everything. I’ve been a fan of Eurosport for as long as I can remember as their website is my go-to-website for sports news and the channel has always broadcast winter sports, obscure sports and football. So, between my TV to show the feeds of the main events and my computer to have all the events, I couldn’t miss a thing and I could go out and watch the events, either in the stadium or in the fan zones.

I’d like to mention that Macron announced his desire for 80 medals the day after the Tokyo Games. That was impossible because we’re too bad at athletics and, to achieve that, from 2015, in addition to presenting the Paris 2024 bid, we should have put in place a system to detect all possible talent in as many sports as possible and expand the INSEP to make it more efficient. For my part, if we had 45 medals, I would have signed up straight away.

Among the athletes, teams and/or events that have made an impression on me, and I’m likely to miss some:

• Sunisa Lee. Certainly the athlete I was looking forward to the most. After dazzling Tokyo, she fell ill and only qualified at the last minute. Despite this, and a drop on the balance beam (like many others, I think there was oil in it), she once again shone with her grace and the precision of her movements to win a gold medal and two bronze medals. Special mention to Biles, but many others did it better than me.
• Kaylia Nemour. A complex case, but symbolic of the problems in France with sport. How we let our egos take precedence over the health of an athlete who ended up choosing her country of origin and winning gold… in France no less. When she finished her performance and I saw the score, I shouted with joy.
• Imène Khelif: like Simone Biles, others will talk about it better than I can, but as with the opening ceremony, there’s a lot of talk, but never about the real issues. I hope she wins her case.
• Cindy Mgamba: the first medal winner for the refugee team. Even though she beat a Frenchwoman in the quarter final to secure a medal, this goes beyond any patriotic considerations and I hope it will inspire others.
• Mijaín López Núñez: what a champion and what a class ! I think I’ll be following wrestling more closely. Seeing him put his shoes down in all modesty to announce the end of his legendary career will remain a powerful image. 5 gold medals when you know that in wrestling, you can only do one event per Olympic Games.
• French judo team: beat Japan again, after trailing 1-3. Gaba’s crazy match, Agbegnenou’s equaliser and, like in a great film, the hero of an entire country, Teddy Riner, who completed this masterpiece. Immense respect to Japan, who remain for me the masters of judo.
• Manon Brunet vs Sara Balzer: a final between two French fencers at the Grand Palais and a crazy scenario. They fought without any indication from their coach, a real “street fight”, and were carried off in triumph at the end. I’m not going to lie: even as I write this moment, the emotions come flooding back.
• Armand Duplantis. His world record is one of the Top 10 best moments the Stade de France has ever seen. A delirious crowd, united in a record that will continue to fall for a long time to come.
• French rugby VII team: like many others, I watched closely when Antoine Dupont got involved. Good performances in the HSBC SVNS allowed us to dream big. We went on to win gold and I was in a fan zone near my home where we had a great time in the final.
• Novak Djokovic: I know he’s already a household name and doesn’t need the Olympics to prove he’s one of the greatest. But when you see his joy at the end of an unforgettable final, you know he’s worked hard to win and he could even retire straight away.
• Remco Evenepoel: the first cyclist to win the gold medal in both the time trial and the road race in the same Olympiad. His finish near the Eiffel Tower is sure to live long in the memory.
• Friday 2nd August 2024: On this day, I decided to go to the Club France, the main fan zone for the French (the others were also welcome). It was a pretty cool place with lots of activities, two areas with giant screens and food. That evening, Riner won the judo, Marchand took gold in the 200m individual medley and in BMX, we had a French podium. To top it all off, France beat Argentina in the men’s football quarter final after a tense match.
• Wedding proposals: Even among tourists, there must have been a huge number, and I hope that all those who got engaged during the Games in Paris (or elsewhere in the world) will have long AND happy marriages.
• Léon Marchand: how can we end this list without mentioning our new national hero? It’s going to take some steady work to overtake Fourcade to become the absolute icon, but he’s off to a great start. I haven’t shouted so much joy about swimming since France beat the USA in the men’s 4*100 metre freestyle relay in 2012, even though the USA were leading the race from start to finish. In the butterfly, he put in a titanic last line to snatch the title.
• The entire French delegation. 64 medals, including 16 gold. Our best record since the start of the professional era. Thank you all for these moments. It’s a shame we didn’t win more finals, because some of them came down to nothing. In fact, even some of our victories came down to nothing.

Negative and positive points

Not everything has been perfect and I need to mention the bad and good parts :

• Bad:
  • The Seine. For me, the greatest drawback of these Games. I don’t understand the political will to make the Seine swimmable by 2024. It’s an unconscionable risk for the athletes and far too big an investment.
  • Working conditions: we liked talking about Qatar and its treatment of its employees for the construction of the stadiums. But in France, even if we don’t have Kafala, we’re not immune to this.
  • Marseille. As a native of this sublime city, it hurts me to say it. Many of you pointed out the lack of wind and it saddens me that the events have been postponed time and time again.
  • Israel. If Russia is banned, why not Israel? Especially since its flag-bearer, Peter Paltchik, had signed a bombshell aimed at the Palestinians.
  • Envy of failure. In France, some people wanted the Games to fail so badly that on the day of the opening ceremony, when there was sabotage of the railway system, some people were happy to see it happen and were waiting for what would happen next. I think, but I have no proof, that some people would have liked to pay people to sabotage the events.
  • Controversial athletes. Steven van de Velde and Wilfried Happio took part in the Olympic Games despite controversial court cases.
• Good:
  • Proposals. I’ve said it before, but I like to say it again. They were so cute
  • Fair play: again and again, we see gestures of fair play between players who are supposed to be opponents (but not enemies).
  • Competition venues: good luck getting past these venues. Only legendary, postcard-worthy venues, with a preference for Versailles, even if many prefer the beach volleyball stadium near the Eiffel Tower.
  • Tourism on the rise. But, of course, that’s just for this year. Even if Paris remains one of the most visited cities in the world, the Olympics are always a bonus.
  • Passion. I sometimes forget how much my country loves sports. I can’t remember ever hearing an atmosphere as crazy and exciting as Paris. The fact that Tokyo 2021 was without an audience reinforces this feeling.
  • Security: no major hitches here. Security from all over the world provided a level of security worthy of the event.
  • Fanzones: something I hadn’t seen outside of football and rugby on a daily basis. Getting together to watch different sports. Even tourists were present. Particularly for the men’s basketball final, where I found myself in a bar with a majority of Americans and we competed in patriotism between each of our countries, from anthems to the end of the match (plus an Argentinian who got lost).

A quick word about the Stade de France: it’s not very popular because it doesn’t look enough like a football stadium with its athletics track, which is not visible outside athletics events. But as time goes by and it hosts more and more large-scale events (Football and Rugby World Cups, the Euro Football Championship, the Olympic Games, concerts, etc.), its standing has improved.

Final words

First of all, thank you to France for these Games. It wasn’t easy, but we all managed, in one way or another, to make them wonderful.

Thank you to everyone who worked on it, from the simple janitor to the big bosses (we will settle your accounts one day).

Thanks to r/olympics for all the discussions each day, which enabled me to find out a bit more about certain countries. We’ve debated, sometimes passionately, on various subjects but we know how to be united on what really matters, like being against cyber-bullying or the presence of certain countries.

Now we’re going to get back to our daily lives, and I’m going to return to my main passion of football, but with the addition of other Olympic sports.

Unlike you, I’m still an Olympian because I’m a fan of Olympique de Marseille, a French club whose town was founded by Phocaea, an ancient city, and one of the nicknames of the fans is Olympians. Myself included. However, the arrival of a wife-beater is making me very cold and while he’s here I might just follow another football team.