PARIS — As Paris prepares to say au revoir to the 2024 Summer Games, it leaves a legacy of some of the most iconic venues in modern Olympic history. From fencing in the Grand Palais to cycling along the Champs-Elysees , it incorporated the city’s grandeur as well as any host city ever has and created a standard that the 2028 Games in Los Angeles will find difficult to surpass. As expected, the crown jewel — both among the city’s landmarks and the venues — has been the Eiffel Tower, which provided dramatic backdrops for beach volleyball, race walking, road races and the marathon.
With the Olympic rings mounted between its first and second floors, it has become the enduring symbol of the Paris Games. “Oh my gosh, it was so magical, especially when all the lights went down ..
. it was unbelievable,” American beach volleyball player Taryn Kloth said. “This is our first (Olympic Games) but I would have to say that it is the best ever venue.
” For 16 days the athletes would speak of these Games with similar wonder, with one race walker describing “goosebumps” when she hurried past the Eiffel Tower and a cyclist declaring the final sprint through the heart of Paris as “epic.” USA’s Filip Dolegiewicz, left, faces Italy’s Luca Curatoli during a men’s team saber fencing classification match on July 31, 2024, at the Grand Palais during the Paris Olympics. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune) At the Grand Palais, the fencers competed under the glass barrel-vault.