The closing ceremony for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics at the Stade de France, on Sunday, Aug. 11.Kin Cheung/The Associated Press
Paris closed out 2½ extraordinary weeks of Olympic sports and emotion with a boisterous, star-studded show in France’s national stadium, handing over hosting duties for the Summer Games to the next city in line: Los Angeles in 2028.
With an artistic show that celebrated Olympic themes, golden fireworks and thousands of athletes partying into the night, the closing ceremony put a final flourish to Paris’s first Games in a century.
In their enthusiasm, crowds of athletes rushed the stage during a highlight video from the Games, and stadium announcements in French and English urged them to double back. Some of them stayed, surrounding Grammy-winning French pop-rock band Phoenix as they played, before security and volunteers cleared the stage.
Tom Cruise rides a motorcycle with the Olympic flag attached through the crowd of athletes during the Paris Olympics closing ceremony.JAMES HILL/The New York Times News Service
More razzmatazz came: Hollywood star Tom Cruise descended from the top of the stadium to the Mission Impossible theme song, shaking hands with athletes, before taking the Olympic flag from star gymnast Simone Biles, putting it on the back of a motorcycle and driving out of the stadium.
In a speech, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach – who sat with French President Emmanuel Macron during the show – said the Games “can create a cultural peace that inspires the world,” noting that the athletes “respected each other even if your countries are divided by conflict.”
For Los Angeles, topping Paris could be mission impossible. The French capital made spectacular use of its cityscape for its first Games in 100 years. The Eiffel Tower and other iconic monuments became Olympic stars in their own right, serving as backdrops and in some cases venues for competitions.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass hands the Olympic flag to U.S. gymnast Simone Biles during the closing ceremony at the Stade de France.Natacha Pisarenko/The Associated Press
But LA brought star power of its own: singer Billie Eilish, rapper and Paris Olympics mainstay Snoop Dogg, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed Sunday as part of the handover from the City of Light to the City of Angels – made official as LA Mayor Karen Bass received the Olympic flag from Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.
Each of the music artists is a California native, including H.E.R., who sang the U.S. national anthem live at the Stade de France, which hosted Olympic track and field and rugby sevens. The audience topped 70,000 people.
At the start of the show, the stadium crowd roared as French swimmer Leon Marchand, dressed in a suit and tie instead of the swim trunks he wore to win four golds, was shown on the giant screens collecting the Olympic flame from the Tuileries Gardens in Paris.
French swimmer Leon Marchand carries the Olympic flame from the Tuilleres Gardens to the closing ceremony at the Stade de France.Benoit Tessier/Reuters
There, the Olympic cauldron – powered by electricity instead of fossil fuels – had lit up the French capital for the duration of the Games, thrilling crowds by rising into the skies on a balloon every night.
As a delicate pink sunset gave way to night, athletes marched into the stadium waving the flags of their 205 countries and territories – a display of global unity in a world gripped by global tensions and conflicts, including those in Ukraine and Gaza. The stadium screens carried the words, “Together, united for peace.”
With the 329 medal events finished, the 9,000 athletes – many wearing their shiny medals – and team staffers filled the arena, dancing and cheering to thumping beats.
The French singer Yseult performs during the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympic games.JAMES HILL/The New York Times News Service
Unlike in Tokyo in 2021, where the Games were pushed back a year by the COVID-19 pandemic and largely stripped of fans, athletes and the more than 70,000 spectators at the Paris arena celebrated with abandon, singing together as Queen’s anthem We Are the Champions blared. Multiple French athletes crowd-surfed. U.S. team members jumped up and down in their Ralph Lauren jackets.
The national stadium, France’s largest, was one of the targets of Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers who killed 130 people in and around Paris on Nov. 13, 2015. The joy and celebrations that swept Paris during the Games as Mr. Marchand and other French athletes racked up 64 medals – 16 of them gold – marked a major watershed in the city’s recovery from that night of terror.
The closing ceremony saw the awarding of the last medals – each embedded with a chunk of the Eiffel Tower. Fittingly for the first Olympics that aimed for gender parity, they all went to women – the gold, silver and bronze medallists from the women’s marathon earlier Sunday.
Women's marathon gold medalist Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, silver medalist Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia and bronze medalist Hellen Obiri of Kenya receive their medals during the closing ceremony.Carl Recine/Getty Images
The women’s marathon took the spot of the men’s race that traditionally closed out previous Games. The switch was part of efforts in Paris to make the Olympic spotlight shine more brightly on the sporting feats of women. Paris was also where women first made their Olympic debut, at the Games of 1900.
The U.S. team again topped the medal table, with 126 in all and 40 of them gold. Three were courtesy of gymnast Simone Biles, who made a resounding return to the top of the Olympic podium after prioritizing her mental health instead of competition in Tokyo in 2021.
Unlike Paris’ rain-drenched but exuberant opening ceremony that played out along the Seine River in the heart of the city, the closing ceremony’s artistic portion took a more sober approach, with space-age and Olympic themes.
A costumed figure performs in the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games.WANG ZHAO/Getty Images
A golden-shrouded figure dropped spiderlike from the skies into a darkened world of smoke and swirling stars. Olympic symbols were celebrated, including the flag of Greece, birthplace of the ancient Games, and the five interlaced Olympic rings, lit up in white in the arena where tens of thousands of lights glittered like fireflies.
Thomas Jolly, the artistic director of both shows, had faced blowback for portions of the opening ceremony, which were assailed by former U.S. president Donald Trump, French bishops and others who felt they poked fun at Christianity.
Mr. Jolly and other members of his creative team filed police complaints over death threats and online vitriol targeting them and some of the opening show’s performers.
Critics jumped to the conclusion that a segment featuring drag queens and a DJ who is also an LGBTQ+ icon had parodied The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci’s painting showing Jesus Christ.
Mr. Jolly and his team repeatedly insisted that was never their intention and got backing from Mr. Macron, who described himself as “outraged and sad” by the backlash against them.
Fireworks signal the end of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics closing ceremony at the Stade de France.Alessandra Tarantino/The Associated Press
Follow the latest news and highlights from the Paris Olympic Games