With the blaring music of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the proverbial torch was passed to Los Angeles at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris as the 2024 Olympic Games came to a dramatic conclusion.
Famous actor Tom Cruise received the Olympic flag on Sunday and rode it around the world on a motorcycle to Los Angeles.
In a cinematically filmed video, Cruise drives through the streets of Paris into a jet from which he parachutes into the City of Angels.
The handover ended with skateboarder Jagger Eaton arriving at a stage in Venice Beach, California, where the Red Hot Chili Peppers were performing.
Hit artists Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre also performed.
Swimming superstar Katie Ledecky had previously expressed her hope during the ceremony of being able to compete in the USA in four years.
“I would love to swim in 2028. I think swimming in front of a home crowd would be incredible. I’ll take it year by year,” she told NBC during the ceremony broadcast.
But before the book was closed in Paris, Ledecky and American rower Nick Mead served as flag bearers at the closing ceremony as the American delegation celebrated its successful run at the Summer Games.
The United States, along with China, won the most gold medals (40) and won the most medals overall (126) during the two weeks in the French capital.
Ledecky helped the United States finish on the medal table by winning two gold medals – one in the women’s 1500m freestyle and one in the women’s 800m freestyle – as well as a bronze and a silver medal.
Mead played his part in this year’s success, helping the U.S. rowing team win the gold medal in men’s rowing.
“It was incredible. The French… incredibly generous,” he said during the NBC broadcast. “It’s really cool to meet all these other athletes after not being able to be in Tokyo with all the other great athletes from around the world. It was incredible.”
He added that it was “a great honor and humility” for him to serve as flag bearer alongside Ledecky as the two were the last to enter the stadium.
“In all the countries around us, we are the last to get in. This is very special because next we go to LA,” Ledecky said.
The closing ceremony was marked by the same splendour and pomp as the opening ceremony, which took place on the Seine just over two weeks ago in July.
A figure known as the “Golden Voyager” rappelled from the roof of the Stade de France and walked across the stage in gold as part of the artistic vision of Thomas Jolly, the closing ceremony’s artistic director and stage director.
A musical performance by the band Phoenix turned the closing ceremony into a huge party for the Olympians and those in attendance as the well-known band opened with their popular song “Lisztomania”.
Despite attempts by organizers and security to remove the Olympians from the stage, many remained when the popular French indie rock band played their first song.
Musicians Angele, Justice, Kavinsky and Ezra Koenig also took the stage.
