Paris closed its Olympiad on Sunday night with a stunt-filled ceremony that illustrated the importance of protecting the spirit of the Games.
"Humanity is beautiful when it comes together," said theater and opera director Thomas Jolly of his stadium show about celebrating "respect and tolerance" in a fragile world.
He described the Games and the closing performance as "a unique opportunity to share, reconcile and repair."
The opening ceremony, which featured Celine Dion singing Piaf from the Eiffel Tower, was overwhelmingly adored in France (one poll showed 86% of French people consider it a success).
However, some of the organizers' creative team, including the director Jolly, were under special protection because of online death threats that followed it.
That's partly because Paris had sought to reinvent the Games, aiming to breathe new life into the world’s biggest sporting event and attract a younger audience.
With the motto "Games Wide Open," the City of Light brought sport out of the stadium and into the streets. It was aimed at drawing a line under the last Games in Tokyo, which were held largely without spectators during the Covid pandemic.
In the end, however, things went smoothly. Appearing on the Paris stage with the US gold-medallist gymnast Simone Biles, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was the first black female mayor to receive the Olympic flag.
She had acknowledged before the closing ceremony that the French capital had set a high bar but reassured her city was a worthy successor.
About thirty minutes after the closing ceremony ended, the Olympic rings were lowered, marking the final moments of the Games. Confetti still covered the floor, while the once-crowded stands became completely empty.
The stadium stood silent, disturbed only by the clings and clangs of stage workers dismantling the set.
