Kinzang Lhamo finished her Paris 2024 Olympic Games marathon 90 minutes after gold medallist Sifan Hassan, but she finished it. The athlete from Bhutan walked towards the finish at Les Invalides as fans walked beside her, ensuring she completed the most iconic event of any Olympiad. While she encapsulated what it means to reach the Olympic Games, the fans – in a setting where Napoleon’s tomb is situated – summed up the 33rd Olympiad, the first in the French capital for a century.
Three years ago athletes cried alone in empty stadiums due to the Covid-19 outbreak, residents of Tokyo had a Games forced upon them during a major pandemic and fans were denied the greatest show on earth. There was a risk, should Paris have fallen flat, that our global love of the Olympics could fade as interest in the ancient ancestor across the Peloponnese did thousands of years ago. And it nearly did with the opening ceremony which, while ambitious, was underwhelming in its majority.
But Paris has been a triumph. It has been a Games of celebration where nations are winning their first gold medals and established athletes are being beaten by lesser known challengers. It’s shown off one of the world’s most beautiful cities, using it – and its admittedly dirty river Seine – perfectly to integrate culture, sport and spectacle.
The Games have used the Palace of Versailles, Champs-Élysées and Grand Palais for Equestrian, triathlon and taekwondo, captivating onlookers who have been abs.