Merci, Paris: We needed these Olympic Games

PARIS — Saturday night, outside a café on a small street running through the Vaugirard district of southern Paris, a frantic waiter dropped a beer bottle. The bottle smashed on the pavement, shattering into a million tiny pieces and sending streams of foam streaming through cracks in the concrete.

The server made a guttural sound Bah and, with heavy eyes and an ironic smile, he said, “I didn’t expect you all to do the same.”

This poor man was trying to serve a growing crowd that filled the 20 or so small round tables outside Crêperie Ty Fanch. A large television had been positioned to face the street, showing the gold medal game between France and the United States in men’s basketball. At Bercy Arena, about 7 miles away, the game was tense, and the home crowd was letting loose an explosion of pride for the other red, white and blue. In Vaugirard, cheers could be heard from outside the crêperie, and from every other brasserie and bistro on the street, and from the open windows of every apartment above. One big love song. When the game ended in a 98-87 victory for the Americans, something so wonderful happened that even the worst cynic or the most pessimistic would have to smile.

The sound of clapping. From everywhere. Throughout the neighborhood. Clapping for the French team. Clapping for themselves.

The writer stumbled upon Crêperie Ty Fanch on Saturday night, before the crowd outgrew the sidewalk seating. (Brendan Quinn / The Athletics)

It was a shocking reinterpretation of what we were told these Olympics would be. All that talk of dysfunction, disinterest. Two days before the opening ceremony, a poll conducted by ElabeAn independent French research and consultancy firm, found that only 25 percent of the French population was enthusiastic about the Olympics. The rest were indifferent (47%) or skeptical (25%). The same poll found that 74 percent did not believe the Games would improve French morale. There was concern, both nationally and internationally, that Paris 2024 could degenerate into a total and complete cluster.

But then the spectacle broke loose and the Games began.

Every location, every day, every event. Full, alive, loud and proud. From the opening ceremony, the French filled the cup to overflowing, delivering an Olympic Games that blended art with sport, history with future, and national flag-waving with a global welcome.

For those watching, and especially those who were there, these were the Games we needed. The Pandemic Olympics were still so alive at the start of Paris 2024. The 2020 Games were played in 2021, and though they were broadcast around the world, almost no one saw them live. They were the anti-Olympics. As American rower Nick Mead put it, “Part of the Olympic experience is meeting all these people from all over the world who are doing what you’re doing, maybe in a different sport or a different country, living the same lifestyle.” The Games bring them all together and introduce them to the world.

Everything in Paris would always be viewed through the keyhole of sadness that remained from Tokyo. There was a feeling, a longing for the Olympics to mean more, to perhaps return to what you remembered as a child. With that as a shared mood, everything felt like a complete embrace.

More athletes than ever were on hand to watch other athletes. Katie Ledecky rang a cowbell in the crowd as Bobby Finke won the 1,500-meter freestyle in a world-record time. When she heard that Simone Biles had witnessed her gold-medal-winning performance in the long jump, 25-year-old Tara Davis-Woodhall exploded, sounding like a hyperventilating teenager. “Man, she was watching, for fuck’s sake,” Davis-Woodhall said. “I can’t believe it.”

Biles told NBC investigative reporter Snoop Dogg that Thursday’s track meet was the first non-gymnastics Olympic event she had ever attended. She wanted to see Davis-Woodhall, Noah Lyles, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and others.

Stars love stars, and one of the great rewards of Paris was that the Games’ most marketable characters usually delivered. Biles did what Biles does, winning three golds and one silver. Katie Ledecky did her thing, swimming in one direction while a school of fish tried to catch her from the other. Sha’Carri Richardson came from behind in the final leg of the 4×100-meter relay, turning her head a full 90 degrees, not to check if she was ahead but to stare, to enjoy the view. Teddy Riner, the French judo god and one of the country’s most popular athletes, won a third career gold medal at age 35, moving some fans to tears. Steph Curry made a 3-pointer over human Eiffel Tower Victor Wembanyama, then placed his hands together in a solemn prayer, rested his cheek on them and told the French it was time to go to sleep. Novak Djokovic not only won his first gold medal during his fifth Olympic appearance, but also stepped into a time machine along the way for a match against Rafael Nadal.

Fans watched the women’s handball final at Paris City Hall on Saturday. Watching parties and fan gatherings were a common sight during the Olympics. (Antoine Gyori – Corbis / Corbis via Getty Images)

The list goes on, but no one stood out above Léon Marchand. The French swimmer started the Games with the pretense of being a potential face of these Olympics. He ended the Games in a black designer suit and lowered the Olympic torch. He was the only one to produce four of France’s 16 gold medals.

Then all those other stories. The stories that can’t be planned, but instead come to life. Monet never intended to paint his water lilies when he planted them.

American gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik showed what it means to be so good at a single discipline that devoting your life to perfecting one skill is the ultimate dedication. In Nedoroscik’s case, it was pommel horse. Now he’s a hero. Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade won the individual gold on the floor exercise and was greeted by a bow from Biles and Jordan Chiles as she stepped onto the podium, a moment that will stand the test of time. Swedish pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis followed a gold-winning jump with a world-record leap and made a mad dash to kiss his girlfriend. The introduction of a new sport, breaking new ground, drew a line of thousands that snaked through the Jardin des Tuileries, next to the Musée de l’Orangerie, where Monet’s lilies cover the walls.

Yes, there was the inevitable stuff. Like clockwork, another doping scandal erupted, this time involving Chinese swimmers. There was a manufactured culture war and outrage over the gender identity of female boxers that was shameful and cruel. There was COVID-19, to remind us that the pandemic never really went away. There was the IOC, an organization that has always been open to criticism. Sending top athletes to swim in the polluted Seine was unthinkably stupid. The judging error that likely stripped Chiles, the American gymnast, of a bronze medal was appalling. And just because the visitors had fun doesn’t mean the citizens whose lives were affected will change their survey answers.

But in the end, contrary to what many thought Paris 2024 would be or not, these Olympics delivered on the grandest scale. The Games were a return to what everyone was looking for.

The light.

People sit beneath the Eiffel Tower and its light-up Olympic Rings in June, a month before the Games begin. (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

(Top photo of the beach volleyball scene at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris: Christian Petersen/Getty Images)