No, it’s not over, not quite yet. While several Olympic venues are being dismantled in Paris, the athletes of the French team will parade on the Champs-Élysées this Saturday, September 14, to truly close the joyful chapter of this unforgettable summer.
“I think it’s really over, it’s just a little hard for us to realize it”“Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris 2024 Games, told reporters at the headquarters of the organizing committee in Saint-Denis on Friday. To rediscover a bit of Olympic fervour, ” appointment “ For “a highlight in the Fields” AND “Celebrating the athletes of the French national team”said.
The start of this parade of athletes was announced by Emmanuel Macron during the Olympic Games. Some 300 of them, Olympic and Paralympic athletes, will parade along the top of this legendary avenue in Paris. In total, between 8,000 and 10,000 people will join the athletes, artisans and volunteers of the Olympic Games, members of the organizing committee (Cojo), and civil servants.
170 athletes eligible for a decoration
On the Place de l’Etoile, they will receive their insignia from the President of the Republic or from peers already decorated with the Order of the Legion of Honour or Merit. With his third individual gold medal, judoka Teddy Riner will be elevated to the rank of Commander of the National Order of Merit. Since the Innsbruck Winter Games in 1964, it has been a tradition to award medallists, and this meets very specific criteria.
After the Paris Games, 170 will be eligible (compared to around 150 in Tokyo in 2021). When welcoming the Tokyo medallists three years ago at the Elysée, Emmanuel Macron urged them to “do much more” in Paris. This time, the goal was to reach the top five of the national rankings. This was achieved: with sixteen titles and 64 medals, France achieved its best Olympic Games ever on home soil.
Among the French stars of the Paris Olympics, we expect the man who started the gold medal count for France with rugby sevens: Antoine Dupont. Also present will be the four-time gold medallist swimmer Léon Marchand, the fencer Manon Apithy-Brunet and the triathlete Cassandre Beaugrand.
“National harmony”
While the Games offered a respite and joy to the French after a month of astonishment in June following the surprise dissolution of the National Assembly and the elections that followed, the President of the Republic explained in an interview with Parisian Posted on Friday: “We must live up to the spirit of the Games and the national harmony that has been expressed.” He hopes that September 14 will become a national sports holiday every year.
Following the presentation of the decorations, a giant concert will take place on the Place de l’Etoile, featuring some of the artists who have punctuated 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 duo Amadou and Mariam, or even the mezzo-soprano Axelle Saint-Cirel, who sang the Marseillaise during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on 26 July. France Télévisions will broadcast the parade and the concert.
More than 4,000 police officers and gendarmes will be mobilised to ensure this last Olympic celebration, according to the resigned Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. “Traffic in the West Paris area” will be “very complicated”Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez warned, asking people to avoid the area. Shops will remain closed on the Champs-Élysées, he said.
Once the soundtrack has died down, it will be time for the organisers to pore over the latest invoices and accounts for several weeks. El Cojo also specified that the cost of this parade of concerts would be shared between the various actors of the Games and the partners.
