The Paris Games began in a downpour , the extraordinary city centre architecture glittering in the sun. There are no ifs, no buts, no equivocation: . The French capital has proved the finest of settings for all that running, jumping and – in the artistic swimming – identical twins simultaneously holding their breath.
There have been sporting moments to enjoy everywhere you looked, from to Steph Curry’s mesmerising ability to chuck a ball into a basket from the most improbable of distances. And the French have been able to savour so much, sent into collective ecstasy by an unprecedented haul of gold from their team. Common consensus has it that the three finest Games of the modern era have been Barcelona in 1992, Sydney in 2000 and London in 2012.
, there can be little argument it will soon come to be seen as having outflanked Barcelona and Sydney. But what about London? How does it compare to the best of the lot? The , the bucketing rain suggesting to the world Paris was a rival to Skegness as the wettest tourist destination around. But even as the silly Smurf wobbled and athletes on their barges huddled under waterproofs, its purpose was clear.
As the stunning illumination of Celine Dion halfway up the Eiffel Tower and the Olympic flame being launched into a balloon in front of the Louvre demonstrated, these Games were going to send an Instagram posting of the city’s glories round the world. And so it continued into the events themselves. Instead of building new facilities, existing landmarks were employed.
The beach volleyball was staged under the Eiffel Tower, the triathletes competed around the ornate Pont Alexandre III, the marathon and road race ran past the most seductive urban architecture in the world. There was nimble use of the venues too. Tennis and boxing shared Roland Garros, taekwondo followed fencing at the Grand Palais, modern pentathlon and equestrian sports were staged in the extraordinary Palace at Versailles, swimming in a rugby stadium.
Every background ramped up the drama. And the pre-event entertainment was always intriguing, from the ballerinas morphing into break dancers at the gymnastics to Gala herself performing sport’s favourite terrace anthem Free From Desire ahead of the football final. Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony set the tone of warmth laced with humour and delight in Britain’s cultural legacy.
It was an attitude picked up by the volunteers, those extrovert ambassadors for their city, who oozed good cheer. The Parisians did their best, but could never match that spirit. London did not have the new urban sports on its roster that it could locate in places to match Paris’s staging of the BMX freestyle in the Place de la Concorde.
In truth the Excel Centre is no Grand Palais. Plus, while the Olympic Park was packed with visitors, its distance from the city centre meant it was generally only frequented by those going to watch sport there. And while there was plenty of London’s beauty on display to provide a theatrical setting – the triathlon in Hyde Park, the cyclists belting down Kensington High Street, the marathon finishing on the Mall – Paris had learned from 2012 how to use the city as a backcloth and took it to another level.
Some of the new sports introduced to the Olympic roster have really shone. The climbing, canoe sprint and BMX freestyle have been real positive additions (the less said about breaking the better). And when the French have been doing well, in football, swimming and basketball, the excited patriotic backing has given everything additional intensity.
There have been groundbreaking performances too: a record in the men’s marathon, the Dutch women hockey players demonstrating why they are considered the finest team in world sport and the finest of tooth combs was required to separate the winner from the last man home. Whatever Paris offered, it knew it was up against the very best. And, try as it might, nothing it delivered could compare to Usain Bolt winning three golds, Michael Phelps picking up an 18th Olympic title or Kenya’s David Radisha smashing the long standing 800m world record into small fragments.
Everywhere you went in London, history was made. Like London, every event, from dressage to trampolining, has been packed to the gunwales. There were 7,000 people at the climbing, more than 20,000 at the boxing, over 50,000 at the football: for all the grumbling negativity in the build up, this has clearly been an occasion that has captured the wider imagination.
And any time a French competitor was in action, things could get very over-excited. For a fortnight in August 2012, London changed. People spoke to each other on the tube.
The capital was electrified. Taking the lead from the Queen, apparently jumping from a helicopter, the nation wore a collective grin. Everything was fun, from the way Team GB gold medallists were serenaded with David Bowie’s Heroes to them waking up the next day to find the post box nearest their home had been painted gold.
2012 was such a delight, for many it has become a nostalgic reference point of a time when things seemed so much better than they are now. France had paid nearly $10 billion (£7.8 billion) to stage these games so it deserved its reward.
And it was a return marked in French moments: the four-time gold medallist by a chorus of “allez” every time he rose out of the water between strokes, Felix Lebrun, the bespectacled 17-year-old table tennis player giving hope to nerds everywhere, the dancing at the Rugby 7s. There has been plenty for the rest of us to enjoy too, from Cindy Ngamba winning the Refugee Team its first ever medal to Novak Djokovic adding Olympic gold to 24 grand slam titles. And for Britons, there was the sight of Keely Hodgkinson electrifying the track, Toby Roberts tearing up the climbing wall and on the mountain bike course.
For British tastes, nothing will ever top 2012. Andy Murray winning the tennis, Chris Hoy dominating the velodrome and Super Saturday: come on, there was joy and delight at every turn. Unlike Germany, where the train system collapsed under the pressure of staging the Euros earlier in the summer, the Parisian public transport has been a model of brisk efficiency.
Moreover, lessons were learned from the wretched mistakes made when the Champions League final was staged at the Stade de France in 2022. This time getting in and out of stadiums has been smooth and easy, security evident but not overwhelming. And while the signage was not always helpful and volunteers seemed initially unaware of venue layouts, any issues were quickly ironed out.
The informal Olympic Park around the closed-off, traffic-free, Champs Elysees has teamed day and night with high spirited tourists collectively gawping at the splendour all around them. Indeed, in a country which only recently banned sizable public gatherings on the street for fear they might turn into a riot, nobody minded as huge crowds lined the streets around the Tuileries Gardens at 9.45pm every evening to watch the balloon with the Olympic flame rise up.
The one caveat has been the catering: for a nation that prides itself on its cuisine, the food available at venues has been execrable. The manner in which spectators were spun away from the Olympic stadium by quick, fast, efficient trains was a marvellous riposte to the naysayers who predicted public transport would prove a national embarrassment. Amid the wild flower beds of the Olympic Park, there were bandstands and entertainers and big screens showing the action from elsewhere, turning the place into a joyous tourist destination.
But the food was rubbish. The decision not to build any new structures (apart from an aquatic centre that they didn’t use for the swimming) has meant, unlike Athens or Rio, there will be no white elephant buildings hanging around to remind everyone of the staggering cost of staging the Games. Perhaps the most significant legacy has been in France’s attitude to itself.
It is not an over-wrought theory to suggest that the past fortnight has united a nation that has been at war with itself over the past decade. Instead of yellow vests and rioting, there has been a chorus of the Marseillaise. Maybe they have finally realised, being together is more fun.
Though it should be added that the lack of any plans by dissenters of getting shirty on the streets may have had something to do with the fact there were 35,000 heavily armed police and soldiers on very visible patrol. The Olympics undoubtedly accelerated the redevelopment of the east of London. These days Hackney Wick, before the Games cleaned up its scarred past a forgotten post-industrial outpost, is the hippest place in the capital.
However, the insistence that 2012 would result in the youth of the nation getting off its sofa and playing sport has proven more fanciful. Though to be fair, nobody back then could foresee the rise of the smartphone..
