At the closing ceremony, Latvian flags were carried by BMX freestyle athlete Ernests Sēbolds and sprinter Gunta Vaičule at the Paris stadium “Stade de France”. The French flag was carried by rugby player Antoine Dupont and the USA by swimmer Katie Ledecky.
After the speech of the head of the organizing committee of the Olympic Games, Tony Estangue, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, noted that more than half of the population of the planet followed the Olympic Games in Paris, and called the games “sensational”.
Since the 1920 games, the Olympic flag has been handed over to the organizers of the next games, and when the Olympic anthem was played, the Olympic flag was lowered, and it was handed over by the head of the city of Paris, Anna Hidalgo, to the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, and then to the American actor Tom Cruise.
The Olympic flag will be raised again at the opening of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.
After the end of the artistic events of the organizers of the Games and the future host of the US city of Los Angeles, Bach announced the closing of the Olympic Games and extinguished the Olympic flame with the participation of famous athletes from all the continents that participated in the Games, as well as the French swimmer Leon Marchand, who brought the Olympic flame to the stadium.
The music group “Red Hot Chili Peppers”, American singer Billie Eilish and American rapper “Snoop Dogg” also took part in the ceremony.
At the closing ceremony, the last set of medals of the Olympic Games was also presented, the winners of the marathon competition – the winner Sifana Hassan from the Netherlands, the second place winner Tigsta Assef from Ethiopia and Helen Obiri from Kenya – went to the podium.
The Olympic Games took place in the French capital from July 26 to August 11, and not only in the French capital, but also in 16 other locations, including the French overseas territory of French Polynesia. The Games program included 32 sports and 329 sets of medals were distributed.
Paris was entrusted with hosting the Olympic Games on September 13, 2017. Paris, along with London, are the only cities to have hosted the Olympic Games three times. The games were also held in Paris in 1900 and 1924.
In 2028, the athletes will gather in Los Angeles, and in 2032 – in Brisbane. The next Winter Olympic Games will be held in February 2026 in the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.
After the Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games will be held in Paris from August 28 to September 8.
At the Paris Games, Latvia was represented by 29 athletes in 14 sports: 3×3 basketball, BMX supercross and freestyle, show jumping, equestrian sports, mountain biking, shooting, modern pentathlon, swimming, beach volleyball, weightlifting, road cycling, tennis and athletics.
The Paris Games are the second summer games since the restoration of independence, in which Latvian athletes have not managed to win medals. The first time was in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.
The fourth place was taken by the men’s 3×3 basketball team, road cyclist Toms Skujins won fifth place in the group race, while Tīna Graudiņa and Anastasija Samoilova won shared fifth place in the beach volleyball competition.
2024-08-13 01:56:48