Sumptuous, seductive and laced with scandal, these Olympic Games were, until the very end, truly, unashamedly Parisian. From dancing horses at the Palace of Versailles to martial arts beneath the glorious glass ceiling of the Grand Palais, they provided the most picture-perfect sporting backdrops ever seen. And for one last night, a shimmering Stade de France, lit up by the colours of 206 nations and a 62-year-old Tom Cruise descending from the roof by wire, brought down the curtain in style.
Nobody present will forget the settings in a hurry: the sunsets behind the Eiffel Tower, the illuminations over the Arc de Triomphe, the glittering St Denis light show for the 100 metres final. Even the surfing in Tahiti, 10,000 miles away in the Pacific paradise of French Polynesia, seemed designed to elevate the lavish aesthetic. On the surface, these Olympics were a carefully-choreographed masterpiece, awash with stirring feats in the most photogenic city on earth.
Just as France had its hero in Leon Marchand, the four-time champion swimmer chosen here to extinguish the flame, Britain unearthed its own luminous superstar in Keely Hodgkinson, the country’s first winner of the women’s 800 metres for 20 years. And yet the spectacle was also scarred by far less honourable episodes, not least the International Olympic Committee’s failure of leadership in allowing two biologically male fighters to win gold medals in women’s boxing. The final evening should have been an occasion to i.